and scandalous, but not malicious. So that it should seem to have been really the opinion of the Common Hall, that some deception had been practised, and that Merryman's wit cut more keenly and closely than Sheers's. Upon this second triumph, Merryman privately laughed in his sleeves, and publicly talked largely about the grossness of this attack upon his honour!

Again; - What is honour? We have already explained our sense of it in our second volume; but other writers have given very

different definitions of it. One asserts, that

"Honour's a fine imaginary notion !"

Another says, that—

"Honour's but an itch of youthful blood!"

And a third terms it.

"A very word, an empty name !"

. It wa

-Merryman must have spoken of it in their sense of the word, and not in ours. incontestably proved, before the committee appointed to enquire into the election, that the leading persons of the household had actually clubbed together under fictitious names to sup

port Merryman, and biass the freedom of elec tions. So much for the abuse of the pub

-

lic money, the honour of Mr. Merryman, and the integrity of the Brushites!

CHAPTER V.

THE AUTHOR PROCEEDS WITH HIS STORY.-HE RE

COUNTS

THE FEATS OF THE PHYSICAL POLITI

CIAN. SINK!

THE BRUSHITES ARROGATE ΤΟ THEM

SELVES, WITH MORE IMPUDENCE THAN EVER AUTHOR WAS POSSESSED OF, ALL THE TALENTS OF THE MANOR. THE AUTHOR BEGINS TO MAKE A

DELICATE ENQUIRY INTO THEIR PRETENSIONS, WHICH HE CAN BY NO MEANS ALLOW.

FREELAND resembled a ship.

Reader. Why, Author, you have given us that simile before.

Author. We know it: but when a horse's paces please us, we do not check him, because they are the same as before; and when our pen happens to be in a flowing vein, we will not stop it to look out for new similies, though they were, as Jack Falstaff says of reasons, 'as plenty as blackberries!"

Reader. Proceed then in your own way. Author. You are extremely condescending, and so can we be, when it does not take us too much out of our way. Freeland, then, was like a ship of war at sea-well manned by public spirit, and well stored by public industry. Whenever she encountered her enemies, she cleared the ocean from them; but, owing to the unskilfulness of her pilots, she was so yawed about, that it was quite uncertain when she would be moored in a safe port.

It was not to be wondered at, that her political pilots were so ignorant, as they mostly set up for masters, before they had served an apprenticeship, and many of them, without having even worked for the shortest time, as journeymen. Billy Vortex, indeed, was bred to the Machiavelian art, from his earliest youth, by his father, who was as able a statesman as ever Freeland, or, perhaps, any other country, could boast of. His pupil exhibited the strange phenomenon of entering upon his political career in the full vigour of mental manhood and judge ment, without any preceding state of childhood; and, by his indefatigable attention to

the public business, we have seen that he died before his genius had felt the least symptom of decay.

During his short political resignation, his place was filled-no, not filled-but attempted to be supplied, by Addleton; who had only superintended the political batch,-never baked himself. It was no matter of astonishment, then, that the public were over-reached in the . very first bargain that he made for them, as he knew scarcely any other rule of Arithmetic than Avoirdupois, or Apothecaries' weight,— grains, scruples, drachms, ounces and pounds; and their reference to hellebore, ipecacuanha, assa-foetida, and opium. He endeavoured to gild over the pill of want of practice with moderation and good faith, as many of his brethren of the faculty seek to disguise their ignorance under technical phrases. His whole administration was weak, inergetic, and uninvigorating; probably because, in his medical capacity, he had been accustomed to prefer the use of emollients, to that of strong stimulants. He also brought another rule of his physical practice in to his political one, venienti occurrite morbo;"