The Wit's Nunchian.

RETORT COURTEOUS.-The first American vessel that anchored in the Thames after the separation of the Colonies from the mother country, naturally attracted a multitude of spectators, one of whom exclaimed in a contemptuous tone, Whence come ye, brother Jonathen ?"- "Straight from BUNKER'S HILL, d-n you!"

retorted the boatswain.

་

TALLEYRAND.-Madame de Stael's daughter, the Baroness de Broglie, was extremely beautiful, and her charms made so deep an impression on Talleyrand, that in contemplating them, he was often deficient in his attentions to her highly-gifted mother, who, to confound him, put this question to him one day, during an aquatic excursion:-"If our vessel were wrecked, which of us would you first strive to save, me or my daughter ? "Madam," replied Talleyrand, "blessed as you are with talents and acquirements, it would be an insult to sup pose you cannot swim; I should' therefore deem it my duty to save the Baroness first."

C. S..

NEGRO SHREWDNESS.---During the American war an avaricious planter in Jamaica frequently curtailed his negros weekly allowance of red herrings and Indian meal. The slaves more than once went in a body, and demanded the reason, but the constant reply from the overseer was, "The provision-vessels havebeen taken by Amperican privateers This satisfied them for some time; but at length being exhausted with long fasting, and tired of a repetition of the same story, one of the principal negros, in the name of the rest, proposed the following question :---"Massa, de provisions taken ebry day by de 'Merican priva teer; vy dey not take de vessels wid de grubbin-hoe and de pick-axe?"

DR. WILSON, the venerable Bishop of Sodor and Man, with an income of

APT TITLE.---A Hampstead coach

man, who drove two miserable hacks, styled his vehicle the Regulator A brother whip called out the other day, while passing him. I say Tom, don't you call your coach the Regulator?".

Yes, I do," replied the other.---"Ay, and a devilish proper name it is," resumed Jehu." Why so?"-- Why, because all the other coaches Go By it." WHOLESOME ADVICE-A forward young lady was walking one morning on the Steyne, at Brighton, when she encountered a facetious friend. You see,, Mr. said she, "I am come out to get a little sun and better get a little husband first," was air."--"I think, madam, you had reply. MATRIMONIAL SERVICE-A friend of mine, a cosey old bachelor, who has been looking into a prayer book, says that the Matrimonial Service.exàctly resembles Matrimony itself, since they both begin with "Dearly Beloved," and both end with Amazement."

the

of Douglas, held port wine in abhorCLARET V. PORT.---Home, the author rence. In his younger days claret was the only wine drank by gentlemen in Scotland. He wrote these four lines on the enforcement of the high duty on French wine in this country: "Firm and erect the Caledonian stood:

Old was his mutton, and his claret good:

Let him drink port," an English statesman cried-.. He drank the poison, and his spirit died.”

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

RECEIVED. T. A., B., Julio, J. W. Grange,& Senior. "Lines on my Infant Boy" next week.

NEW ROYAL WITH the name and recollection of England's trade must ever be connected its principal scene of activity, the Royal Exchange, a brief detail of the ancient state of which building will not, we presume, be an unacceptable

TUN; and the citizens met to transact business under the canopy of heaven, in Lombard-street, till the year 1556, when the public-spirited Sir Thomas Gresham built a structure for the purpose, after the model of that of Antwerp. This was_destroyed in the great Fire of London, when precisely a century had elapsed from its completion, and a M. Jorevin de Rocheford, an account of whose tour in England was published_at Paris, in 1672, says, "it is remarkable that there remained entire only the statue of him who caused the edifice to be built, which received no kind of injury. When first opened, it was called Britain's Bourse, a title subsequently altered to that of the Royal Exchange, which circumstance is thus noticed in Heywood's Play of "Queen Elizabeth's Troubles," 1609, Part 2,

strange,

Be it for ever call'd the Royal Exchange,"

After the fire, it was rebuilt, under the direction of the trustees of Sir T. Gresham, by Nicholas Hawkes, a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren, and was opened for public business in 1669. The tower, on the south side, was of wood, 178 feet high, in three compartments, and was surmounted with a vane, in the form of a grasshopper, (the Gresham crest) but, having become dilapidated and ruinous, was taken down in 1819, and a new one of stone erected, under the superintendance of Mr. George Smith of Bread Street, which was completed in 1822, as shewn in our print. It consists of a square story, in the front of which is a niche, occupied by a full-length figure of Sir T. Gresham; and on the top, at each corner, is a griffin, sustaining in its forc-paw the Arms of the City of Lon

don.

In the centre, on each side are placed busts of Queen Elizabeth. Above is an octagon (in which is the clock) having four faces to

the cardinal points, and over the octagon is a circular story, containing the chimes, surrounded by a colonnade of the Corinthian order. The whole is surmounted by a dome, and finished with a pedestal and vane, displaying the ancient symbol of a grasshopper. On each side of the square story are façade walls, containing emblematic representations of England's power, &c.; and over the four principal columns in front are placed figures of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.

The measurement of the interior area is 144 feet long, and 117 broad, round which are noble piazzas. Above the arches of this quadrangle are niches containing statues of many of the Kings and Queens of England, with their names inscribed beneath them. In the walls of the piazza also are numerous niches, but they are all vacant but two, which are filled with statues of the founder and Sir John Barnard, formerly M. P. for Loudon. The exterior of the building is at present undergoing a thorough cleansing, of which the interior also stands greatly in need.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NIC-NAC.

SIR,-I beg to hand you a thing I found in an old book, which may amuse some of your readers. I am fond of buying old books-but in addition to the Bibliomania, I have frequently a disorder which is not found to accompany many who are afflicted with that complaint-I have a remarkable inclination to read the books L buy. I am, Sir, &c. P. OF A

WICKEDE MILCH WOMANNE How shee mingled her Milch with

Watterre and what came of itte. THE oulde Womanne whomof wee arre spekinge keepit foure or five Cowes. Shee soulde Milch about thee Towne, and somme of her Coustommers suspactinge thatte herre Milch wos watterrede, toulde her honestelye thatte itte smackede of the Pumpe, Shee sayde itte was not trewe, but false ande scandelouse: and shee toke the Manne who hadde sayde

so before thee Maire, Affidavit thatte shee pompe into her Milch.

ande mayde never didde She wasse

watchette to the Pompe where bye shee lived, but neverre was she seene to tak awaye more Watterre thanne wos needfulle for her housolde Ewses.

There wasse, howsomeverre, a Brooke neere whereto shee wos accoustomede to passe, and shee was scene to putte her small Vessele or pinte Potte into the Streeme ande drawe out Watterre manie Times, the whilk shee potte into herre Milch, and set alle upon her Heide. Shee wasse accuseit concerninge thisse Thing, ande shee deniet it, sayinge, shee wisheit the Deevil moughte sende hisse Impes to saye to the whole of herre Coustommers that itte was-iffe itte wasse. Shee toke herre milch paile offe herre Heide, and begonne to deliverre itte, when beholde the Neighboures that stodde bye tellinge her of herre Wrongfulnesse, sawe that there wasse in the Milche a Shoalle of littel Fishes, callede Stickel-bagges. Ande so the bigge Deivel. hadde sente his Impes atte herre wishe, to confounde and damme herre Trade. And may alle thatte putte Wattere in theyre Milch meete withe thee like Treatemente.

BULL-BAITING.

SIR,-The sports of our ancestors, carried on in the Amphitheatres on Bankside, as described in your History of the Stage, were doubtless sufficiently barbarous, but I question whether their brutality ever equalled,-I am sure it never surpassed-that described in the following paragraph, which I cut from a newspaper of the year 1804::

BULL-BAITING.-This practice, which, in our mind, would be " more honoured in the breach than the observance," some days since involved Stamford in considerable confusion. After the mob had sated themselves with the cries and torment of the poor beast, pent up in St. George'sstreet, they set him loose for the open country, as affording a wider field to

display the zeal and intrepidity of its pursuers. The animal took to the river, when a fellow, hot with liquor and exertion, plunged after him, but, from the sudden and intense cold, he sunk and perished; and during the pause which the accident excited, the bull escaped.

The Bury paper of Tuesday gives the following account of a Bull-bait :

"The poor animal (which was perfectly gentle) had been privately baited in the morning, and goaded with sharp instruments, in order to render him furious enough for public exhibition, when he was brought to the stake, baited by dogs, and more brutal men, till, in his agony and rage, he burst his tethers, to the terror of his tormentors, and the great danger of the peaceable inhabitants of the place, some of whom were obliged to shut up their shops. He was again entangled with ropes, and, monstrous to relate, his hoofs were cut off, and in this state he was again baited, feebly sustaining himself on his mangled bleeding stumps!!!"

In

STEAM VESSELS. "IT was not till 1818, that a SteamBoat was made use of (in England) to perform regular voyages by sea. that year, the Rob Roy, of ninety tons, built by Mr. Denny of Dumbarton, and with an engine of thirtyhorse power, made by Mr. Napier of Glasgow, plied regurlarly between Greenock and Belfast, and proved the practicability of extending the use of the steam-engine to sea navigation.”— (Fifth Report Committee of the House of Commons, ou Regulations for conveying the Mail between London and Dublin, 1822.)

TRANS-ATLANTIC VARIETIES,

OR

SELECTIONS FROM AMERICAN
JOURNALS.

(Resumed from page 184.) LONGEVITY.-A respectable gentleman of Ohio gives us the following particulars respecting a poor old woman of his neighbourhood, named Ana

Baily!" She cannot tell her age exactly, but believes that she was about 12 or 13 years old when Queen Ann of England died, after whom she was named. When about 49 years old, she emigrated to the United States, and now resides with her son who is an old man.-When the state of Virginia kept up a garrison at Ranawha, to defend the western country against the Indians, frequent attempts were made to force it by the savages, and at one time it became necessary to obtain a supply of ammunition. Ann volunteered to proceed to Greenbriar county (100 miles), through an entire wilderness; she left the fort in the night, on horseback, and returned with the ammunition, amidst the acclamations of the soldiery. Being wretchedly poor, a petition was presented in her behalf to the legislature of Virginia, praying for a pension-a bill for the purpose passed the house of delegates, but the senate rejected it on general grounds as establishing a precedent that might bear hard upon the treasury; so poor Ann has had to dwindle out a long life, dependent chiefly on the bounty of her neighbours; but she sometimes attends market with a few fowls, &c, making a journey on foot of about seven miles to dispose of her articles, which she carries on her back. "When the N. W. army was at Fort Meigs, during the late war, Ann travelled on foot as far as Delaware, or Fort Stephenson, my informant could not certainly say which, to procure some situation in which she might be useful; but she could not find any employment, and returned home."

Queen Ann died in August, 1714; so Ann Baily, if the account be true, which we have reason to believe it is, must be about one hundred and twenty years old. (New York Daily Advertiser, 24th October, 1822.)

Mr. Pitt, in 1796 .25,000,000! Difference of the 2 statements 12,000,0001 Average value of the Exports

and Imports of London 60,500,0001 Annual amount of the Cus

toms

.6,000,0001 (Resumed at page 222.)

This calculation was made two or

111,000

786.000