his country from fancied wrongs, cares for the incarceration of one or two followers, or the failure of a trivial circumstance? No; they look and care only for the main. They have but one beacon to steer to; and to attain their ends, they will sacrifice every other earthly consideration."

"Children?" asked the Marquis.

"Children! yes to be sure," answered the Duke. "Look at the Morning Post; scarce a week passes but we read in its columns that some penniless lord has given up his coronet for the wealth of some Miss Nobody-knows-who-a rich Nabob's or West-Riding cottonspinner's daughter; why not reverse the order of things, and give a duke's daughter for a millionaire? Gold, you know, covers a multiplicity of faults."

"In the first place, allow me to inquire, as you have not the pleasure of the acquaintance of this lump of brown sugar, how do you purpose bringing about the match ?" asked the Marquis.

6

"As I have achieved a thousand other difficulties, like Cardinal Wolsey, I have scratched impossible' out of my dictionary, and agree with the famous Fouché, who said that word in his language was bad French."

"Oh!" exclaimed the Marquis, not quite feeling his way. "But

"But what, my lord?"

"I was going to say that perhaps Mr. Treacle may not be matrimonially inclined, and surely Sarah is not to make the first advances; or he may have a better half; with a pledge or two. don't want him to commit bigamy ?"

You

"No, Frederick, no. You may perhaps have read that once Socrates made such an eloquent speech on the subject of matrimony, that he sent all his hearers (mostly composed of unsusceptible bachelors) back to their homes with the firm determination of enter ing, forthwith, into connubial bliss. I will enact a second Socrates." "Tomkins, my lord," said the fussy Butler, as he came in big with importance, "says, Clear-the-way is taken bad in an inflammation, and wishes you would just come and look at him."

"By" exclaimed the Marquis, "Clear-the-way! Oh, he was to have won me four thousand clear at the next York Meeting! Confound it, how unlucky! That will do, Hemans; tell Tomkins I will be with him in a moment. Now promise me, my dear father, that you will not COMPEL Sarah to marry this fellow against her inclination."

"Certainly," said the Duke; and the Marquis left the room to see his favourite, Clear-the-way.

Lady Sarah Donkeythorne was a weak-minded woman; she had a body, but no soul to guide it, and used to float along the paths of this world as a ship deprived of its rudder would along the sea; she was like a piece of mechanism which, although it propels hugh masses, or heaves immense rocks, nevertheless is still under the guidance and command of its atom of an artificer. A child with wisdom equal to its years might have led Lady Sarah; she never troubled her mind as to the manners, intellect, or birth of her intended, and

held him in the same light as she would a set of diamonds or a new dress; she considered both (diamonds and husband) as conducive to her happiness-as inanimate things, to be boasted of to her female acquaintances, or shown off in a ball room. So it did not require much persuasion on the part of the Duchess to lure her daughter into the scheme of her marriage with Treacle.

The Duke of Donkeythorne's barouche drove up to the Cock and Bottle, where was domiciled our friend and hero, Thomas Treacle, little thinking what plans for his future welfare or harm had been concocted. He was seated in the only private room the house possessed, endeavouring to masticate a tough chicken, around which a fat and capricious stream of what was denominated "GRAVY," with mushrooms, danced in mazy gambols, while the table was shadowed by a pint of inn-sherry. At the Duke's request, he was shown into this room by a dirty, shuffling, unwholesome-looking waiter, with a dirty napkin under his arm.

"His Grace the Duke of Donkeythorne!" exclaimed the officious functionary, as he widely threw open the door.

"Mr. Treacle, I presume," said the Duke, bowing.

A piece of the breast of the capon remained poised midway in the air, t'wixt the M. P's. mouth and paralyzed hand; his mouth became spheric, his nose dilated, and his eyes settled down into a stare; surprise and curiosity were depicted in every part of his countenance at this unlooked for, uncalled for visit.

"Mr. Treacle, I presume," again said his Grace.

"Yes, sir-my lord Duke, I mean."

"Sir, I most humbly apologize" (Treacle being humbly apologized to by a Duke!) "for interrupting you; but as I had a little business in town, I came to congratulate you upon your newly acquired honours, as I consider the best qualities a man can possess is brotherly affection and Christian charity. I have therefore come, although your political opponent, to offer you my best wishes that the career you have selected may prove a felicitous one.'

"Hookey Walker!" inwardly ejaculated Mr. Treacle; "all gammon and spinach; I'm not to be done out of my M. P.'ship by the blarney of all the dukes in Christendom. An election is none so cheap.'

"Oh! ah! my lord your grace the Duke," said he, aloud.

"I shall not interrupt you any further, but hope you will give us the pleasure of your company for a couple of days at Donkeythorn." "Perhaps I may" answered Treacle." Have a glass of sherry, my lord Duke?-cost eight-and-tenpence a bottle." (His Grace shuddered at the idea of his future son-in-law; but ambition arose before his gaze).

"No, thank ye, sir. Good morning, good morning. On Monday next we shall see you then."

"Ye'es," faltered Treacle, bolting the leg of a chicken, and taking a good pull at the sherry, and finishing by wiping his mouth with his pocket handkerchief in lieu of a napkin.

We will cursorily pass over the next two months of Mr. Treacle's existence; the strict injunctions of Lawyer Hookem, not to be talked

over from his party by the Duke, not to indulge too freely in his Grace's generous port, as, in an unguarded moment, he might make a promise that he would hereafter repent of, as, of all despicable men, a turncoat was the worst; how he was prevailed on to stay week after week at the Castle; the quiet rides with the Duke over his farm; the doweraging drives with her Grace, and the happy walks with Lady Sarah. Our hero was not a very enterprizing young gentleman, nor could he be compelled to rush headlong into the speculations of Cupid. His early adherence to commercial pursuits had deadened this fine perception of sentiment. In vain Lady Sarah quoted Byron: he only thought she had read a great deal. In vain she sighed he only presumed her maid had laced her corset too tight. Affairs seemed in a deplorable state; Lady Sarah could not very well, according to our established rules of decorum, ask our hero point blank to marry her; and the Duke thought it would be very awkward to offer his daughter to Treacle, as he would a horse or a gun, when the Duchess conceived the happy idea of a picnic. A picnic! what a pleasant little affair! You partake of a bad inn dinner, which, while you are admiring the scenery, and the servants are unpacking the knives and forks, the snail and worm continue their zigzag course. Your table is a bare stone; your seat the wet grass; your canopy the trees, on whose verdant leaves the last shower has left some of its drops, which they eject about every minute, either between your cravat and your neck, or on the summer bonnet of your fair companion; and, most likely, just as you are pouring the frothy champagne into her glass, down comes the beating rains and heaven's artillery thunders in the sky, and the fun (?) comes to a rather premature and unpleasant termination by a rush to the carriages.

The Duchess gave one of these picnics to see a neighbouring waterfall, at which of course our hero and Lady Sarah were to play the prominent parts. Treacle had imbibed rather too much of that liquor, which an Etonian in a copy of Alcais, punning, called Falsi doloris; so the repast being over, and the company breaking into couples to explore the surrounding beauties, Treacle found himself attached to Lady Sarah, with not very clear notions what she said and did. They walked onwards to a beautiful part of the grove, and here our hero uttered, or, more properly speaking, muttered something, what it was he never could exactly remember: the cataract came roaring down, and all he heard was "Ye'es" so softly lisped. YES: that horrid word!-how it haunted him all the way home. How most of the party stared at him just as if he had "Yes" branded on his forehead! It troubled him in bed; he dreamed of yes; and when he awoke, how he puzzled to discover to what Lady Sarah Donkeythorne had acquiesced. What that "yes" meant he was rather unpleasantly made acquainted with the next morning, as he descended to the breakfast room, by everhearing the Marquis say—

"Well, so you have succeeded. I am off to-morrow to Scotland. What an idiot my sister is! Poor thing! she little knows what is in store for her."

"Ah! ah!" answered the Duke, rubbing his hands; "did I not tell you I would succeed? Ah! ah! he may be a dolt, or little better

than a block; but it is easier to drag a piece of wood along the road, than drive a donkey. He will be a Tory before a year."

In every novel that has lately been written, we verily believe it concludes with a marriage which the author (more especially should the writer be one of the fair sex) is almost certain to describe most minutely.

"Bis dat qui cito dat,"

is an old Roman saying, which might very well be translated for the country gentleman thus

We shall not, therefore, bore our readers with plagiarisms, but merely state there were the bridemaids, the trousseau, the usual presents, and the déjeuné. There was a little dispute between Lady Sarah and the Duchess, as to who was to tie the golden knot, which was decided by the Duchess inviting the Bishop of X-over, and requesting Mr. Gowl Thunderer to take himself and his lucubrations elsewhere on that day. The church was tastefully decorated with flowers, large concourses of people came, bands struck up" See the conquering hero comes," and reiterated huzzas greeted them as they stepped into their carriage. Grantham, Eaton, London, Tunbridge, are quickly passed; Dover is attained, whence the happy pair embarked, to taste the genial clime of Italy.

(To be continued.)

A FRAGMENT FROM A CREEL LEDGER.

With a fair stock of health and a reasonable competence it is a man's own fault if the storms of life assail him too rudely; with these he can defy the shocks of nature, and though the winds blow and "crack their cheeks," still, like a vigorous sapling, when the blast. has passed over, he rises erect and unscathed, from the danger that has blackened around him. To define competence would be as difficult as to answer that philosophical question of the ancients"What is truth?" Every man entertains an opinion on the subject distinct from that of his neighbour, and were "tenders" for the purchase required from all, the discrepancy of the estimates would render it well nigh impossible to fix the standard amount of competence. "The Man of Ross" possessed "neither poverty nor riches," but had what Pope held to be a sufficiency, £500 a year; the village preacher on the other hand was "passing rich on

K

forty pounds a year;" each, however, is represented as having the werewithal to make life's road run smoothly, and each may be fairly said to have had his competence.

By the death of a dear old aunt I became possessed of a competence that rendered me independent of the world; for having evinced an "out-of-door" disposition and a love of rambling, she concluded with judgment that my star of literature was not in the ascendant, and, consequently, that professions and myself would be paradoxical; her liberality has enabled me to become a citizen of the world, and I live to enjoy life in every form and variety: my season has no cessation, I hunt, shoot, fish, yacht, and take all "the good the gods provide" the year round; "hodiè vivamus" is my motto, and by doing my duty in that state of life unto which I have been called, both cheerfully and contentedly, I humbly aspire to an accomplishment of the second great commandmant-"To do unto others as I would be done by." I hereby warn and recommend no brother of the craft to throw a line upon the river Otter: if any be found guilty of doing so after this warning, his fate will be as follows:-If he be privileged by a card to catch fish, he will hammer the stream the livelong day, and catch none; he will meet, however, many brethren in the like predicament, who will talk of doing wonders on these streams; but talking and doing he well knows are not synonymous: if on the other hand he be unprivilged, he will soon discover that he is fishing in troubled waters, for ten to one he's hooked himself by a cut-throat keeper, who takes him before the nearest justicea justice Slender; and he being delicately alive to the virtues of Lady Dribble's French cook, imposes a penalty for wilful trespass -so much for the river Otter. Whilst on a fishing excursion in that country, I became acquainted with a gentleman who was formerly master of a sharp pack of fox-hounds, and proprietor of a noble demesne. Conversing with him one day on the subject of poaching, he favoured me with the following anecdote, the facts of which came under his own notice.

"There is a spirit of adventure attached to poaching," said he, "which renders it to some men the most exciting of all pursuits. In the year 1830 Capt. A., of the Regiment, came into this county, and being well equipped with a brace of good dogs, a dogcart, and the et ceteras required for shooting, it was his particular delight to make unexpected calls upon the preserves of the county gentlemen, and being an extraordinary good fag, he was never so well pleased as when pursued by half-a-dozen keepers, and in the utmost jeopardy of being taken by them. Certain covers hard by the Otter, that held a good head of game, received his frequent attentions; and my Lord Dribble one day actually pounced upon his dog-cart, as it awaited his arrival on a high road adjoining his lordship's covers. John Flunky was too wide awake, however, to give his master's name; his master could do that his-self if he'd got a mind,' and shoving his horse into a long trot, he looked over his shoulder, and told his lordship to inquire at the Horse Guards for Col. Clearall, and that pr'aps he might hear of him there.' Lord Dribble would have given the best steed in his stable to have secured