some of them looking flushed and indig nant, some of them looking bewildered, some of them rather merry. Two servants, in the convulsions of smothered laughter, were keeping them off from the bed of death, whereon, by the dim light of the half-closed shutters, might be seen lying the outstretched form and pale face of the Honourable Henry Frederick Augustus Fitzurse, with two copious streams of a red colour distaining his brow and cheeks from a small dark spot on his forehead. On the other side of the bed was beheld, by the aid of a spirit lamp which threw a ghastly blue glare over the whole apartment, a tall, portly gentleman with a rosy countenance, a powdered wig, with two rows of curls on each side of his head, and a stout powdered queue be hind. He was dressed in a close cut coat of black, well powdered on the collar, a thick white neckcloth, long flapped black waistcoat, black silk breeches and stockings, and silver buckles, a gold snuff-box in his hand, a cane hung at his wrist, and although he was certainly a very good-looking elderly gentleman, no one would have taken him for rollicking Tom Hamilton, unless they were much better informed upon the subject than any of the jurors there present. At the moment of the coroner's approach that most respectable personage was bending over the corpse of Mr. Fitzurse, affecting busily to smooth down some of the bed clothes, which one of the too zealous jurymen had deranged in an effort actually to sit upon the body. It was evident, however, that the surgeon-for the coroner concluded at once that such must be the eharacter of the personage before himit was very evident, I say, that the surgeon must have been a dear friend to Mr. Fitzurse, for as he bent down his head he was clearly affected by a spasmodic motion, and warm tears continued to fall upon the countenance of the corpse, over whom also he seemed to be muttering some prayer or ejaculation, as his lips parted and a low mur. muring was heard in the room.

"In front, however, was a much more important person, in the eyes of the coroner, being no other than the peer himself. Most unfortunately, indeed, it happened that the viscount had been seized at that particular moment with another violent fit of coughing, which interrupted him sadly.

Take them away, coroner,' he cried, take them away (cough, cough, cough, cough), we've had quite enough of them (cough, cough, cough); they've viewed the body (cough, cough, cough), and, by jingo, now they want to sit upon it!' (cough, cough, cough.)

666

Well, warn't I toald that I were to sit upon 'um,' said Mr. Dickens. "I want nothing more nor

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Silence!' cried the coroner. Have you viewed the body, gentlemen?' "Oh ay, we've viewed 'un,' said Stubbs; but you see, Mr. Coroner' "Well, if you have viewed it,' said the coroner, who bore his drink dis creetly, walk down stairs.'

"Right shoulders forward,' cried the ex-volunteer sergeant, single file, march!' and away they trooped at the word of command, nearly tumbling over each other in the rapidity of the descent.

"The coroner brought up the rearthe door of the deceased gentleman's room was shut and up started the corpse, holding both his sides and roaring with laughter!

Hurra!' cried the disconsolate father, sinking into an arm chair, with his heels beating the ground, and his fat stomach heaving up and down like a soufflet.

"Driven them from the field, by Jupiter!' cried the surgeon, handing a glass of punch out of the spirit lamp to the corpse; but d-n it, my lord, we must keep serious; our part isn't played out yet, and they have very nearly beaten us already. Why, if that fellow who would sit upon the body had been a little nearer, he'd have heard the chuckles in the dead man's stomach.'

“Lord have mercy upon us!' cried the peer, it's capital. But come, Tom, as you say, we must get back our long faces. Give me a glass of cold water; if any thing will make me serious, that will. There now, that's sad enough! Come now, Tom, let us go and give evidence. See that your wig's right, old fellow.'

"Tom went to a glass, adjusted his curls; and while the Honourable Henry Frederick Augustus took another ladle full of the revivifying fluid, the peer and his companion proceeded to the diningroom, where the servants who had brought Mr. Fitzurse home from the scene of the fatal affray, as the coroner termed it, were giving unconsciously a false impression by their true evidence in regard to the death of their respectable young master.

"A little bustle ensued upon the entrance of the viscount and Tom Hamilton, all the jurors rising, and pulling at the hair upon their foreheads, while the two gentlemen took seats beside the coroner. The evidence of the servants was

soon concluded, and the crown officer then turned to the peer, who took the opportunity of presenting Mr. Heavitree, the famous surgeon. The coroner and Mr. Heavitree bowed, and then

"Halloo!' cried Dickens. slaughter! I think it's summut wuss than that.'

"Why how can that be?' cried Stubbs. If it had been a woman it would have been murder, but as it's a man it's manslaughter!'

6

"I vote for feely-de-se!' said a small tailor from the end of the table; and every man now put forth his opinion, each being different from the other. Some insisted upon homicide, some upon murder, some upon petty larceny.

"The coroner then rose and obtained silence, in order to explain to the gentlemen the real meaning of the various terms they had picked up like children gathering pebbles on the sea shore without knowing what they really were. Being also primed and loaded by the worthy viscount, he gave them very broadly to understand that their verdict must be one of murder, and was going on to mark clearly the distinctions between that crime and any other, when a gentleman of a very thoughtful and considerate look, rose solemnly, scratched his head, and said—

"Well, Mr. Crowner, I don't know but I can't make out that hole in his head!'

"The matter had well nigh begun all over again. The coroner, however, stopped imperiously this system of trying back, and having so explained the matter that he thought there was no possibility of the men coming to any but one conclusion, he left it, like other high officers, in the hands of the jury. After a moment's consultation, however, to his horror and astonishment the personage who acted as foreman returned a verdict of wilful murder against the Honourable Henry Frederick Augustus Fitzurse, and other persons unknown,' and to this they stuck in spite of all the coroner could say."

We have now, somewhat in slovenly fashion, we own it, introduced our readers to the opening chapters of this amusing story. We have briefly told them something of the author's intentions, and still more passingly, produced one or two of his leading characters. Yet enough have we quoted to show that his powers as a writer

are no less remarkable than they are varied bearing evidence of one whose style passes by an easy transition to pictures of grave and gay, of lively and severe; eminently gifted with humour, he sees those little traits of human nature, which need but the cunning finger to point them out to our laughter, to make us enjoy them richly he is no less successful in scenes of stronger and more passionate interest. The fire is pictured forth with a masterly hand-the falling timbers crash, and the red sparks fall in showers around you as you read; and yet amid all, a few words draw you from the material interest of the scene, to the living actors, and carry you away with the current of the story.

Neither does our space nor our inclination permit of our tracing out the details of the story. Independent of its artful construction, which would render such a task, in narrow limits, impossible, we would not mar the interest of our readers by a meagre sketch, nor injure the author's conceptions by the sudden and abrupt transitions from incident to incident, which such a summary must convey. Far rather would we impart some impression of his habit of thought, and his power of expression, both singularly clear and vivid. The following picture of an early morning in London, admirably serves to illustrate both our own meaning, and one of those many peculiarities in which his writing reminds us of a most favoured describer of the life and habits of the great city:

"The Chevalier de Lunatico was an early man, and although the Golden Cross, Charing Cross, is one of those houses in which one can practise early habits with greater impunity than any where else, yet even there he scared a dull housemaid on the stairs, who was listening to something that Boots was saying with their faces very close together. They both concluded that he must be the gentleman who was going by the five o'clock heavy Bristol, and Boots began to inquire concerning his luggage.

The chevalier, however, set him right; and issued forth into the streets of London, gazing round him with the curiosity which the scenes of the great metropolis might naturally produce. He had the fairest opportunity in the world of studying proper names

THE

THERE is something in the conflict now at issue between the repealers and their antagonists so singularly and deeply exciting, that we have more than once surprised ourselves absorbed in the interest of the game to a degree which has caused us to forget our personal concern in it. So, we have heard, it fares with unhappy mariners drawn within the influence of some dread whirlpool, in which, if they cannot break the fatal fascination it exerts over them, they will be engulphed and lost. So, we are reminded, perished Pliny, in the contemplation of a phenomenon less appalling than the moral Maelstrom which now seems to expect Great Britain as its prey. All we can

say to excuse our own temporary unconsciousness of danger is, that we have not, like the great naturalist, courted it; and that we have not neglected anything in our poor power to give warning that it was at hand.

And yet, when we consider the character of the conflict upon which it is our allotted part to be inactive gazers, we feel that a partial forgetfulness of self scarcely needs excuse or explanation. We are deeply persuaded, that, in the ample range of history, there is no example of a struggle like this by which Ireland is now agitated, and the British empire threatened with convulsion and ruin—a struggle in which the ends were so vast and the agencies so extraordinary. On the one hand, the dismemberment and destruction of the greatest empire in this world is aimed at, through a process of peaceful agitation for which the free spirit of our constitution provides facilities. On the other hand, it is hoped to baffle these daring aims by affording the freest scope to the devices for their accomplishment; and it is hoped that the integrity of the British empire can be ensured, by affording such latitude of indulgence to its enemies, as shall permit hostility to evaporate and exhaust itself in the throes of a menacing but peaceful agitation.

Such seem to be the aims and expectations of two parties on which the attention of thinking men throughout Europe is fixed; on the issue of

whose contest the fate of Great Britain, humanly speaking, is dependent. If Mr. O'Connell prevail, even for a brief season, England will, in all probability, lose her high place above nations. If the policy of Sir Robert Peel succeed, we are taught to hope, the anti-Anglican spirit in Ireland will be laid, and for ever. How earnestly, in the presence of such an alternative, we take the spirits of the passing moment to task, and question them respecting the future how earnestly do we scrutinize the policy of those who direct the movements in favour of repeal, and of those to whose wisdom and good faith the safety of the empire has been confided; and with what "miser care" do we hoard every incident or circumstance that seems to promise an issue favourable to the best interests of the empire!!

The avowed policy of each of these opposing parties may be briefly stated. Mr. O'Connell declares his purpose and his hope to be, that he will obtain from Great Britain, by peaceful agitation, a repeal of the legislative union. Sir Robert Peel is said to expect, that, by giving the amplest latitude to this peaceful agitation, and merely taking precautions to prevent its freshening into war, it will subside of itself, and with it will die away the hopes which have sustained for so long a lapse of time a spirit of disaffection and disorder. Such is, in its principle, the policy of each of the two parties. In comparing their respective merits, and presaging their prospects of success, perhaps the first distinction which strikes us is one favourable to Mr. O'Connell. It is this: the repealers' policy has had the effect of cementing the closest union between all who approve of its object; the policy of Sir Robert Peel has had the effect of dividing among themselves, or of estranging from their leader, Conservatives devotedly attached to the interests of British connection. This must be regarded as, at the least, an unhappy accident.

There are some, we are aware, who impute the discontent of Irish Conservatives to motives unworthy of