little known or understood, that they were taken up by the magistrates as Captain Rock's men, and committed to prison with as vigorous an activity as if they had been in reality a useful innovation.

This is much perhaps to be lamented. "Springes to catch woodcocks" was ever a favourite device with the partisans of legitimacy. "The Popes," says Selden, "in sending relics to princes, do as wenches do by their wassels on new year's tide. They present you with a cup, and you must drink of a slabby stuff; but the meaning is, you must give them money ten times more than it is worth." All this (mutatis mutandis) might be said in favour of the revival of Christmas: the people would gain a fortnight's frolic, and pay for it with a twelvemonth's subjection. It may, however, be some consolation to the parties affected, to know that there is no use without its abuse, and to learn that these convenient mystifications were sometimes turned against their authors. In Fabian's Chronicle we learn that in Henry the Fourth's time, upon such an occasion, "the Dukys of Aumarle, of Surrey, and of Exetyr, with the Earlys of Salesbury and of Gloucetyr, with other of their affynytie, made provysyon for a disguysynge, or a mummynge, to be shewyd to the kynge, upon twelfethe nyght; and the tyme was nere at hande and all thynge redy for the same. Upon the sayd twelfethe day, came secretlye unto the kynge the Duke of Aumarle, and shewyd him, that he with the other lordys aforenamed were appointed to sle him in the tyme of the foresayde disguysynge, &c." This, it must be confessed, was no joke: and nothing can be harder than if the Emperor of Austria, escaping from the revolutionary propensities to science of his own subjects, and the Carbonari invasions of British tourists, political and literary, should some day fall a victim to an aristocratical disguysynge! Only conceive an Esterhazy and a Metternich engaged, not in the ordinary mummery of their calling, but going up and down the country concealing themselves, as Punch and Pantaloon. Fancy the "durchlauchtigste Fürst," that most transparent Prince Schwartzenburgh, obscured beneath the garb of Pailiasse, in a conspiracy to quicken the succession of the House of Hapsburg, or levying arms against his master under the semblance of Harlequin's sword. Such things, we have seen, in time past, and such things may be again; and if so, God give his imperial extinguishership "a good deliverance!" In the mean time, let the consideration have its weight and temper the repinings of all lovers of legitimacy after "mummynges and disguysynges." For my own part at least, I would not give a pin to choose, whether I fell by the arm of a Jacobin, or was pinked through the lungs by an aristocratic conspirator; and if I was a king, much as I might regret the good old times, I should very readily dispense with the Dukys and Earlys who have disappeared with them.

M.

* M. Pons, the astronomer, in Lucca, has been turned adrift in the Emperor's zeal for the suppression of science. He quitted Marseilles only at the urgent entreaties of Maria Louisa, to be astronomical professor at Lucca. He is well known in England. No charge of any kind has been made against this clever man: his removal is part of the Austrian system for preventing the progress of knowledge.

STEAM.

Magno veluti cum flamma sonore
Virgea suggeritur costis undantis aheni,
Exultantque æstu latices; furit intus aquæ vis,
Fumidus atque altè spumis exuberat amnis:

Nec jam se capit unda: volat vapor ater ad auras.

A Sors Virgiliana, drawn on board a Steam-boat, in the passage from Dover to Boulogne, in 1823.

NEVER did wight, in ancient days,

Of such sublime discoveries dream

As Watt-be his, then, all the praise
Who taught us first the power of Steam.

The hundred-hand Briareus' power
To us no power at all would seem;
Watt's hundred-horse one, in an hour,
Can do the work of years with Steam.

Would Archimedes, or Alphonso*

(Whose science led him to blaspheme,) So long with levers have gone on so,

If they had guess'd the strength of Steam?

Up comes a river from the mine,

Exhausted its obstructing stream,

And metals glow, and diamonds shine-
The rich and rare results of Steam.

On Delia's arm, on Chloe's breast,

Gems, cheap as Bristol stones, will beam;
O'erflowing be the miser's chest,

With gold produced, and coin'd by Steam.

Profoundest speculators puzzling,

Well might it cause surprise extreme
To learn that Hindoos wear our muslin,
Wove, and embroider'd too, by Steam.

To India in two months you'll sail,
Should not the world-contracting scheme,
For want of funds or fuel fail,
The primum mobiles of Steam.

What did the awkward ancients know
Of navigation? Their Trireme

Three knots an hour could scarcely row;
A dozen we can run with Steam.

That Frenchmen vapour well we know ;
But, in that faculty supreme,

We clearly our advantage show,

By vapouring, as we do, with Steam.

Brunel performs his tasks with ease,

Though woefully his engines scream;
Iron and blocks he cuts like cheese-
Such wonders does he work with Steam!

Five hundred balls, per minute, shot,

Our foes in fight must kick the beam;

Let Perkins only boil his pot,

And he'll destroy them all by Steam.

* Alphonso the Tenth, King of Castile and Leon, who said, "Give me matter and motion, and I'll make you a world."

But warlike arts now much less thought on,
Since those of peace we better deem,
We shall contend for silk and cotton,
And try who most can do by Steam.

Our fruits and flowers we need not owe
To sunshine; for, without a gleam,
Our fruits and flowers are made to grow
Luxuriant now by genial Steam.

All stoves and chimneys superseded,
The aspect south, and solar beam,
To warm your house there's nothing needed
But circling tubes to spread your Steam.

The newspapers your breakfast bless;
No dinner-talk unless you see 'em :
Ten thousand, says the Times, our press
Strikes off in three short hours by Steam.

M'Adam, who such feats has done,

That we a statue should decree him, Will see along our railways run

Stage coaches hissing hot with Steam.

The horse and ox we want not now
To furnish out a set or team,
For we shall travel, cart, and plough,
Faster, and cheaper far, by Steam.

Your linen you may wash and dry

In Surrey, somewhere near to Cheam :
The Washer-women's Company

Perform the process there by Steam.
Tailors, no doubt, a coat will make,
As shoes are made without a seam ;*
Five minutes hardly will it take,

If they should do the job by Steam.

Abridged will be your household cares;

You'll skim your milk, and churn your cream,

And mend, believe me, your affairs

With this your steady servant Steam.

And if a spendthrift you have been,
Your income you may soon redeem,
As, from your bills, it will be seen
How good a manager is Steam.

Instead of incubation, ovens

Th' Egyptians hold in great esteem; But why not hatch (the addled slovens!) Their chicks, as we do ours, by Steam?

You've only to put on the pot,

You'll roast your pig, and boil your bream,

And have your dinner hot and hot;
So excellent a cook is Steam!

Physicians out of date will grow,

And you will rarely have to fee 'em ;
To Mahomet at once you 'll go,
Who'll set you all to rights by Steam.

* At Battersea Bridge.

+ At Brighton.

Our debt and taxes will be paid,

(This seems indeed a case extreme,) And all you wish and want be made By the omnipotence of Steam.

Dull as a post unless you be,

As Homer blind, or Polypheme,

From what I've said, you'll clearly see
How much we owe to Watt and Steam,

No Muse have I had to invoke,

For so felicitous my theme,

That, certain as the piston's stroke,

Up comes some lucky rhyme to Steam.

My poem only fills a sheet,

Though I could spread it o'er a ream ;

But keep my secret-be discreet

'Tis manufactured all by Steam.

LONDON LETTERS TO COUNTRY COUSINS.-NO. II.

The Horse Bazaar.

It is lucky for all parties, my dear Frank, that the proposed family visit to our Wen, as Cobbet calls it, is to be deferred for a year or so; for the inevitable consequence of your coming up just now could scarcely fail to be fatal to the sight-seeing propensities of all of us, since it would assuredly have the effect of restricting our daily rambles to the following routine-namely, from the hotel in the Adelphi, to King Street, Portman Square, and back again. I have always understood that you have no objection to your own way, whatever the matter may be. But in an affair of horses, I have good reason to know that you will have it. In short, where two or three horses are congregated, you must be in the middle of them; and here, on the above-named spot, we have just established a Mart for horses, and all other matters thereunto belonging, which will, I think, satisfy even your notions of the comparative claims of that noblest of animals. They say "England is the hell of horses." If I concede this proposition, it must be in return for another which shall admit that, if it is the hell of horses, it includes (like the hell of the ancients) their Elysium also for if there is no country in the world where horses (as well as every other living thing) are occasionally treated so cruelly, there is none where so many and such well-adapted means are taken to make them comfortable and happy. Sir Philip Sidney, in relating an interview he once had with an Italian professor of the art of riding on horseback, (as if, Frank, an Italian, or any but an Englishman— some would say a Yorkshireman-could by possibility know any thing about the matter!) describes this gentleman as so extremely eloquent on the merits of his and your favourite quadruped, that he (Sir Philip) "if he had not been a piece of a logician, should have wished himself a horse." Now this I will venture to predict, Frank,—that if you, not being " a piece (even the smallest) of a logician," should venture into London but one day before you arrive at years of discretion," and should once set your foot within the gates of the new Horse Bazaar,

66

you will not merely wish yourself a horse, but fancy yourself one, in effect; and I doubt whether you will not insist on instantly installing yourself within the walls of this equestrian palace accordingly.

Seriously, Frank, (for horses, I take it, are subjects on which you do not admit the propriety of joking,) you will be delighted to hear that we have at length got an establishment among us, worthy of that supreme reputation which we now so justly enjoy throughout the civilized world, as breeders, trainers, feeders, and riders of horses. In fact, this reputation is our one sole and unrivalled boast. When you hear people prate of our English liberty, you may take down the map, and shew them America and Switzerland. If they hint at our English riches, you may repeat to them the figures which make up the amount of that parallel at once to the plagues and the pyramids of Egypt, the national debt-as burthensome as the one, and as eternal as the other. If they hector of our English courage, you may venture to call in question their particular portion of it, without any danger of being obliged to tax your own. Nay, if they should even insist on the supremacy of our English beauties, you may (provided there happen to be neither examples nor antitheses of them present) ask if they ever spent a summer in Normandy. But if, baffled at all these points of national vanity, they inquire whether our English horses and riders, and all that concerns them, are equalled in the world besides, or ever were since the world began, you may fairly and joyfully give up the point. And I should be glad to know what nation ever reached perfection in more than one great point, or what two nations ever reached it in the same point? Or, to go still further, what nation ever did reach perfection in any one point, except the ancient Greeks in sculpture, and the modern English in the management of horses! Unless we are to include the French in cooking, and (according to their own account) in every thing else!

Not to keep you any longer within that pleasing atmosphere of suspense which, you know, I am so apt to cast around the outward portico of my letters, let me now penetrate through it, and proceed to my subject at once; or rather, to your subject: for such it is, truly par excellence. Fancy yourself, then-by the by, I beg you will consider the following description as being even more deeply tinged with rose colour than mine usually are; otherwise I'm afraid that instead of fancying yourself, you will actually, within a week from this present writing, feel and find yourself, in your own improper person, in presence of the scene described-to the entire discomfiture of all the prospective plans in contemplation of which these pleasant epistles have been undertaken :-for the present, therefore, pray be content to fancy yourself in front of a great upright gateway, cut through the centre of a range of buildings which forms one side of King Street, Portman Square, and consists of the common dwelling-houses of that street. This outward face of the Horse Bazaar is as plain as brick and mortar can make it, and is scarcely distinguished from the rest of the street, except by the gateway I have just mentioned. You need no direction, however, to the immediate spot; for all about it, especially on Wednesdays and Saturdays, are stanhopes, tilburies, a cabriolet or so, and some led horses, always in attendance on the parties within; and just about the wicket you may generally see two or three knowing hands,