the agent was announced and entered the room where they sat. Catherine turned away her face: she could not look at him.

"Possession of every thing in the house, too?" asked the trembling Squire Every thing, you say?"-" Every thing," answered the agent; who was no man's agent, but his own, after all. Catherine started at his voice" Yes, every thing; even of the angel that makes this house a heaven."-He advanced to her side. She turned to himshrieked laughed and lay insensible in his arms. It was the Squire's puppy officer" in the first place; Catherine's faithful adorer, in the second place; the plaintiff in the late action, in the third place; and the triumphant hunter for his mistress's hand, in the fourth place. Surely, dear fair readers, he had a claim on her. "Yes-if he account for his neglect, since she left Dublin." Very good. That's easily done. He had vainly applied for leave of absence; and his letter advising her of the fact, as also of his intention to take the field for her, dressed in the costume of a picture of his then unknown father, (which, in the Squire's town-house, Catherine had often pronounced very like him,) that letter had miscarried.

"( So your daughter is mine, good sir, on your own terms," added the four-fold hero.

"Capital, by Jove!-Capital! a glorious hoax, by Cork! capital!" laughed the ex-Squire.

"I am delighted, you think so; and I assure you, my dear sir, that I dressed myself up like the picture, merely at the time to endeavour to recommend myself to your good opinion, by the oddity of the conceit; for I knew you liked a hoax in your very heart."

"Give me your hand, my dear boy !-Like a hoax!-Ah, don't I? -and it is such a prime one! choice! capital! capital, by the beard of the good old Jove !"-and, wringing his own hands, and transported by his feelings, the worthy man left the room, to describe and praise to his very servants, what so much gladdened his soul.

"You were ignorant of your parentage upon the day of the hunt?" asked Catherine, after they had conversed some time together.

"I was. Upon the spot where the huntsman fell, I encountered the woman, returned from half a life of wandering, who exposed me in my infancy she had been seeking me, in Dublin, to unburden her conscience, and do me a tardy justice. I was on the road for the hunt; thither she followed me rapidly, and outstripped me some days; assuming the garb of the former witch of the cave, to conceal her identity. I need scarce say, that from her I then received the information which enabled me to prosecute my claim. My beloved. Catherine's sense of delicacy will readily suggest to her, why I kept out of her view, from that day, until I could prove the truth or falsehood of her story. And now, here I sit, able, thank heaven! to show to the woman of my heart, that she did not quite misplace her generous love, when she gave it to a poor and friendless ensign, and with it the prospect of wealth, and of rank in the world."

It is recorded that, from this hour, Squire Hogan never wore, except perhaps when asleep, a serious face. Having resigned "with a hearty good will," his commission of justice of the peace, there remained nothing on earth to compel him to "seem wise," as Bacon says; and he had full leisure to pursue, uninterruptedly, his practical hoaxes; which he, himself, if nobody else did it for him, called " capital! choice, by Cork's own town!"

TAIT'S COMMONPLACE BOOK.

COBBETT IN EDINBURGH.

PASTA and Paganini, Miss Fanny Kemble, and Mademoiselle D'Jeck, created not half the sensation which the arrival of Cobbett did among us of the Athens. The advent of these luminaries affected only the "thrones and dominions," with their few tributaries and dependencies; but Cobbett's visit was even more powerfully felt in the depths of the Cowgate, and chasms and labyrinths of the closes, than in the club-houses and booksellers' shops. Edinburgh was in universal commotion; and Whig, Tory, and Radical elbowed and jostled each other at the doors of the theatre, which, for the first time, looked like the grave, where all sorts of people must meet at last. The ill-judged attempts of one or two of the ministerial newspapers to stir up the popular feeling against Mr Cobbett, if it had any effect, awakened a generous feeling in behalf of the stranger, and piqued the national honour into a more scrupulous observance of politeness, and a warmer welcome than might otherwise have been given. He presented himself before an impatient house, filled from floor to ceiling, which rose to greet him in a tumultous rapture. His appearance is highly favourable; his ease, tact, and self-possession, are unrivalled. He was neither overpowered nor taken by surprise with these demonstrations of the Modern Athenians, but received them all as matter of course, which came a little in the way of proceeding to business. Mr. Cobbett is still of stately stature, and must, in youth, have been tall. He must then in physiognomy, person, and bearing, have been a fine specimen of the true Saxon breed,

The eyes of azure, and the locks of brown,

And the blunt speech, that bursts without a pause,

And free-born thoughts, which league the soldier with the laws.

As, with the "Ciceronian suavity" he had promised to assume, he presented himself before the "critical audience of Edinburgh," he looked like an old English gentleman

Of the good olden time

a hearty Essex or Hampshire squire, of the fourth magnitude, whose woods are flourishing, and his paternal acres unmortgaged, dressed for a dinner of some ceremony, in a coat of the best Saxon blue broad-cloth, with its full complement of gilt buttons, and an ample white waistcoat, with flowing skirts. His thin, white hairs, and high forehead-the humour lurking in the eye, and playing about the lips, betokened something more than the squire in his gala suit; still the altogether was of this respectable and responsible kind. His voice is low-toned, clear, and flexible; and so skilfully modulated, that not an aspiration was lost of his nervous, fluent, unhesitating, and perfectly correct discourse. There was no embarrassment, no flutter, no picking of words; nor was the speaker once at fault, or in the smallest degree disturbed by those petty accidents and annoyances which must have moved almost any other man so oddly situated.-Put down Cobbett! It will be as impossible for the "Collective Wisdom" to overbear him, as for that more overwhelming power, the Collective Taste, to put him down. He would, in ten minutes, either laugh or shame the House out of its insolence of ill-breeding, sometimes its only defence against dulness and twaddle, but as frequently the weapon with which impudent knavery assails honest, plain, and modest men, when such have stumbled into Parliament, and endeavoured to serve the people. The corporation had best keep him out, for assuredly it will never keep him down, once he gets in. To those acquainted with the writings of Cobbett there was little in the matter of his lectures absolutely new: the facts were familiar or thread-bare; the arguments, such as we have heard from him a hundred times before, in the Register. But then the old family jewels, the Cobbett heir-looms, were all newly and most exquisitely set. He is indeed a first-rate comic actor, possessed of that flexible penetrative power of imitation which extends to

mind and character, as well as to their outward signs. His genius is, besides essentially dramatic. We have often read his lively characteristic dialogues with pleasure and amusement; but to see him act them, and personate Lord Althorp pommelled and pozed by the future member for Oldham, was a degree beyond this. He was in nothing vehement or obstreperous, though every body had anticipated something of this kind; and his subdued tone, and excellent discretion, gave double point to his best hits. Instead of the sledgehammer, like that which poor Cook employed to knock down Bingham Baring, Cobbett used a poignard as polished as keen. The humour of his solemn irony, his blistering sarcasm, but especially his sly hits and unexpected or random strokes and pokes on the sore or weak sides of the Whigs, told with full effect on two parts of the audience. The high Tories, at such passages, screamed and crowed with delight; and the hearty applause of the Radicals testified their extreme satisfaction at hearing bold, honest truths spoken in Edinburgh by William Cobbett. To oratory, in the highest sense of the term, Mr Cobbett never once rises; but he is ever a wily, clear, and most effective speaker. What a mystifier of an ordinary Jury he might have been, with his readiness, dramatic power, and skill in presenting homely objects under the most lively and picturesque forms. There, indeed, his strength lies. His protestant miracle of the two thousand half-pay officers, his lady pensioners, and the Right Reverends the Fathers, &c. can never be forgotten by his Scottish auditors. - Mr Cobbett expressed himself highly gratified with his reception in Edinburgh. In Glasgow and other parts of the country, he has been, if that were possible, still more popular. And at this we rejoice, as evidence of affection for the cause to which, whatever fastidious persons may think, Cobbett has been a useful, rough pioneer, and most powerful auxiliary. Such of our Readers as wish to become acquainted with Mr Cobbett's remarkable career, and to attain a just notion of his character as a writer, are referred to "THE SCHOOLMASTER," Nos. 7 and 11. Having met with Mr Cobbett in private society during his sojourn in Edinburgh, our impression of him was, that, besides being a very clever man, (which all the world knows,) he is a very pleasant man; more disposed to be good-humoured and droll than satirical or severe; not impatient of contradiction, except when he thinks the speaker insincere; and a zealous friend of the poor.

PUBLIC MEETING FOR ORIGINATING A MONUMENT TO SIR

WALTER SCOTT.

THE principal, the only striking feature of this assembly, was the numerous attendance, and the deep feeling evinced by all the spectators. It was too formally got up; the struggle to preserve the balance between Whig and Tory, lay too bare to the day; the speakers, with the exception of Professor Wilson, the fourth speaker, were evidently thinking more of the figure they were themselves cutting than of him they were met to honour. The meeting was a good idea indifferently executed. It was like the Catholic service for the dead; grand and imposing, but impressing us with a feeling of hollowness and want of heart. It was a premeditated burst of uncontrollable emotion,-the white dots that are supposed to indicate tears on a burial vault. But the worst mistake of all, was placing the Duke of Buccleuch in the front of the battle. If the good citizens of Edinburgh had met to commemorate a nobleman, good cause there might have been for his Grace officiating as fugleman. Had they met to cry salt tears over the illustrious Rothschild, there might have been some sense in conceding the pas to one who is understood to be as rich as a Jew. But when homage was to be paid to genius, genius ought to have been employed to give it voice. The mean appearance and silly stammering of the first performer damned the piece. When Lord Rosebery (whose manly, sensible appearance deserves that we except him from the general censure) complimented the Duke upon his " powerful speech," a subdued titter ran through the room. It was cruel in Lord Rosebery. Strange that the Duke could not repeat his lesson with less hesitation, seeing that he had delivered the same speech, verbatim,

Kelso, a day or two before. The old idolaters of Greece lent an idealized expression even to the brute portion of their theocracy; but we worship the golden calf, even when the silliness and feebleness of the animal are caricatured.

The noble Duke, to whose rank that precedence was given on this occasion which was due to the genius of Professor Wilson, appeared in a short hunting coat and plaiden trowsers, and subscribed, out of his income of £200,000, the sum of £100, for the monument which he moved that the public should erect to his departed friend." At the funeral it does not appear that the noble Duke, although of the same clan, deigned to attend. His name is not mentioned by the newspapers among those of the men of worth or rank who followed the remains of Sir Walter Scott to the grave.

In the course of his speech at this meeting, the Lord Advocate took occasion to allude to the two great political parties, whose generous rivalry, according to his Lordship, tends to keep the Vessel of the State in equilibrium, and to prevent the rise of those extreme opinions which, he trusted, would never take root in Scotland. We differ with his Lordship as to the utility of the two political parties; and think the Vessel of the State no more benefited by their generous rivalry than would be a ship by two breezes from opposite quarters. The effect in both cases would, we fear, be the impeding of the vessel's progress; and an equilibrium, not inconvenient to either of the parties, (factions, we call them,) or the breezes; but far from being beneficial to the progress of either description of vessel, or productive of comfort to the crews.

THE COURT OF ARCHES.-Who would have dreamed of a settlement of vagrants, rivalling in wretchedness and wildness the Ellangowan hamlet in Derncleugh, established under the dry arches of that splendid monument of a prosperous city,-the new London Bridge, where, scarcely a year ago, kings, queens, and princesses, cabinet ministers and their cabinet ministers, beauties wits, and dandies,-in gorgeous array, met together to eat venison; where, as they quaffed their champagne,

They bade the kettle to the trumpet speak,

The trumpet to the cannoneer without,

The cannons to the Heavens-the Heavens to Earth-
Now the King drinks to Don Key!

where healths were dedicated to every official present, while every official present, after the established precedent of health-drinking, mingled his thanks for the honour with assurances of the universal prosperity of the kingdom, the civil dignitaries, in particular, setting forth that the city conduits ran brown stout, and the mansion was tiled with pancakes. "A saucepan was boiling under one of the arches," says the street keeper of the London Bridge district, in his examination before the Magistrates concerning the new colony "containing a ram's liver, the parings of two sheep's heads, and a considerable quantity of bow-wow (?), which an old bone-grubber was stirring up with a piece of iron hoop!" The London Bridge colony consists of 50 persons, who find nightly shelter under the arches, and luxuriate upon bow-wow soup.

LADY BLESSINGTON'S REMINISCENCES.-The conversations reported by Lady B. as those of the author of "Childe Harold," bear strong marks of originality. But it was not with him as with the upright and manly Scott,-the words of his mouth were not always those of his mind; and such persons as are curious in forming a just esti mate of his character, must take into consideration the character of the party addres sed. Byron was a man to confide his real sentiments to a woman whom he loved, or a woman whom he respected. It appears from his letters addressed to a person of rank, (extracts from which will probably illustrate the next edition of his works,) that his curiosity was strongly excited by the fame of Lady Blessington's beauty and singular elevation in life; and that, foreseeing the improbability that she should ever have any communication with the Ladies Byron, Jersey, Holland, (so severely stigmatised in the reminiscences of the Countess,) he permitted himself to gratify the female appetite for detraction, by the expression of opinions almost as severe as those

with which the Countess herself was noticed in his private correspondence. It is to be hoped that Lady Blessington's friend, Madame Guiccioli, will also favour the world with the stock of her recollections; and it will be hard if, among the multitude of friends and acquaintances who have stept forward to defame him, the public is not enabled to form as black an ideal of his Lordship's character as even himself, in the wildest chimeras of his love of mystification, was induced to shadow forth. It is not one of the least advantages possessed by Sir Walter over his gifted contemporary, that his life will be pourtrayed by the hand of affection, and his actions interpreted by a cultivated and honourable mind. Moore might have done as much for Lord Byron; but he was shackled in the attempt by restrictions such as no biographer

can overcome.

DRAMATIC POLITICS.-It seems that one night, early in the month of October, John Reeve, the idol of the Gods of the Adelphi, and one of the best comic actors on the boards, chose to vary the humours of an American election introduced into the piece founded on Washington Irving's tale of "Rip Van Winkle," by a speech from the hustings in the character of the popular candidate. "If you return me to Congress," quoth he, "I promise to vote for the reduction of rent and the abolition of TITHES!" This extemporaneous sally was received by the house with around of cheering of several minutes' duration; and the thing would have been speedily forgotten, but that, at the close of the scene, the manager, Mr. Yates, rushed breathless upon the stage with the following address :-" Ladies and Gentlemen! I beg to assure you that what has fallen from Mr. Reeve was by complete accident, and shall never be repeated." This very elegant apostrophe was received by the house with a dead silence. It is, however, but just to Mr. Yates to consider that his license was probably at stake.

MENAGERIES. A daily journal has the following paragraph :-" The Princé Regent is gone Eastward to collect beasts for the Zoological Gardens."---The Prince Regent! "To what base uses may we come at last!" We remember another prince who was fond of collecting beasts, the late King of Wurtemberg, whose zoonomania all but caused a revolution in his half-starved kingdom.. At best, menageries are cruel things; cruel, that they deprive the feri naturæ of their liberty, and still more cruel that they "take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." A much larger proportion of wholesome food is daily devoured by the animals in the Zoological Gardens of the Regent's Park, than by the paupers in Marylebone workhouse. A new Society, moreover, has been recently established in London for "Promoting Rational Humanity to Animals." Among the items to which the subscriptions are applied, is one for humane carts for conveying calves to market; and the chief abuses proposed for reformation lie in the knacker's yard!-All this is very well.-Let the humane subscribe as liberally as they please for the comfort of the calves about to supply them with fillets of veal, or the sheep they intend to eat in mutton chops; but the kingdom of Great Britain is not within fifty years of that degree of national prosperity which justifies the application of its impulses of humanity to the beasts that perish. We have starving men and women:-we have infant children who require humanity-carts to convey them to the loom and the factory; we have a knacker's yard of infirm and miserable paupers, where the aged poor are suffered to die by inches, as described in the Synopsis of the Society. Let Mr. Gompertz, who is an enlightened and humane man, reflect upon this, and not lavish all his good Samaritanism on the inferior animals of the creation.

ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS.-It is asserted by those who resided at Rome during Sir Walter's visit to the Eternal City, that he was with difficulty persuaded to visit the monuments of its ancient glory. His mind was totally untouched by classical associations; and, perhaps, to this very peculiarity are we indebted for that freshness of perception, that vivid and glowing sunshine of the imagination, which was not distracted by the shadowy imagery of antiquity from the objects on which it was his pleasure it should fall. The days of chivalry were to him what the classic era was to the writers of the time of Anne; and Charlemagne was probably the Agamemnon, whose reign formed the primitive limitation of his inquiry and interest.

CROSBY HALL. It is curious enough that, while the nation, or its representatives are always prompt in resisting proposals for a benevolence towards erecting a royal residence for the sovereigns that be, they are no less ready with their purses to