FROM EXCLUSIVE SOURCES OF INFORMATION. No. 1.-To THE ELECTORS OF HERTFORDSHIRE. GENTLEMEN,-In again soliciting the honour of re-election at your hands, permit me to remind you that the Truthful and the Beautiful are One.

In distant ons the Attic Philosophers of the Garden and the Porch worshipped, under Melodious Types, the Graceful and the Strong.

I am, therefore, distinctly in favour of a large reduction of the Malt Tax.

Beautiful Tusculum! There CICERO mused as he wandered through the Shady Grove or listened to the murmur of the Classic Stream. Yes, there is a spell in its very name for the Scholar and the Poet! Accordingly, I would support any well-considered measure for the extension of Reform in a Lateral Direction.

Oh, Eros, young God of Love! Oh, Aphrodite, Fairest of the Celestials! Oh, Hebe and Others! Ye still rule, ye Olympians, in the hearts of Men!

I shall, therefore, not attempt to interfere with SIR J. P. WILDE's administration of Justice in the Divorce Court.

Genius, thou art Immortal and Supreme!

Matters it whether thy Votary finds Expression for his Dream of the Ideal in the Chisel of the Sculptor or the Gillott of the Bard? Again reminding you that the Truthful and the Beautiful are One, I have only to state in conclusion that I would give a consistent support to the policy of the EARL OF DERBY; and I am, gentlemen, Your faithful servant,

E. G. E. LYTTON BULWER LYTTON.

L'AMOUR A LA MODE.

I COULD love you, dearest creature,
Had you but a better rental;
You are fair of form and feature,
And so sweetly sentimental.

I could love you, fairest lady,

You should take my heart in keeping,

But my income's rather shady,

And your dress is very sweeping.

And love within a cottage

Pleasant is, but prudence "axes," Will Cupid make the pottage,

And will Amor pay the taxes?

I love you very dearly,

And Love says "no longer tarry;"

But I really don't see clearly

How on earth we are to marry.

Life can't be always Maying

May-flowers fade, and so does pleasure And you doubtless know the saying, "Wed in haste, repent at leisure."

To get married and be happy,
Would most certainly be jolly;
But when you get old and "cappy,"
We'd be rather melancholy.

The parson he would "jine us,"

But my small account at Cox's Would soon be on the minus

Side, with balls and opera boxes.

Come, let's get the parting over,

We'll be friends still, true and steady,

And you'll wed this other lover,

Who has far more of the "ready."

At many another meeting,

We shall flirt and laugh together; Yet no more tender greeting,

Than a chat about the weather.

And he'll never know, dear, will he,
Of our walks in woodlands shady?
We'll forget we've been so silly,

When I greet you as "My lady!"

P.S.-Do not forget the identity of the Truthful and the Beautiful. It is an unstatesmanlike falsehood to say that they are not The Same Concern.

No. 2.-TO THE ELECTORS OF PETERBOROUGH. GENTLEMEN,-My principles have long been well-known to you; and in again requesting the distinguished honour of your suffrages İ have nothing to retract.

Positive information has reached me that the Superior of the Jesuits, disguised as a milkman, is at present lurking about the lowest purlieus of your ancient cathedral city, seeking whom he may devour. With a view to the prevention of railway accidents I am prepared to bring in a bill prohibiting the employment of any Roman Catholic as a plate-layer, stoker, engine-driver, or guard.

The condition of our workhouses has deservedly attracted much attention. It is my determination to move that every Papistical pauper shall be put on low diet (except on Fridays, when he shall be compelled to eat two pounds of beef-steak), flogged twice a week, and refused all medical aid.

I am not at present prepared to sing, unless my constituency should really desire it. Even in that case my conscience would forbid my attempting the well-known ditty, "The Pope he leads a happy life!" I am, gentlemen, Your faithful servant,

THEATRICAL NOTE.

G. H. WHALLEY.

MISS ADAH ISAACS MENKEN cannot consent to end her performance yet. She is advertised to appear again. It is curious how she objects to close.

VOL. I.

FROM OUR STALL.

HAT is life without Anastasia?" asks the hero in one of MR. JOHN MADDISON MORTON'S best farces. He answers himself "Nothing," and then goes on, "What is Anastasia without life? Nothinger still?" Let us say, what is MRS. FRANK MATTHEWS without a farce by MR. MADDISON MORTON? Some

custody, at least no one did the night that we were present. But all apprehensions are soon allayed. Ere the remorseless COLONEL has time to wipe his blood-stained sword, the live young lady, apparently more alive than ever, smiles on us and kisses her hands from a private box. She has not been killed; and the gallant COLONEL may again face his comrades-as he has faced his foes-without a blush, may gaze upon a metropolitan policeman without a qualm. It is a capital trick, and well worth seeing. no-the thought is too terrible for expression!

PICCADILLY.

If some night-but

MATTHEWS? Nothing at all: at least such a farce as Pouter's Wedding at the St. James's. With a writer of MR. MORTON's breadth, humour, and antecedents, there is no occasion to mince matters. The piece is a bad piece, and some of the dialogue is very objectionable. In the nineteenth century some

regard must be paid to the convenances. For a minute we thought we were listening to the dialogue of FARQUHAR, and not of MORTON, though the next moment convinced us that we were listening to MORTON and not to FARQUHAR. At the theatre it is always considered a good joke that a man should be a man and a woman a woman, but fun of this sort may be too strongly insisted on. One of our especial aversions is a great he-man dressed up in women's clothes. It is a desecration of that garment of "mystical sublimity"-the petticoat, though for this the authors of the original French piece, Les Noces de Merluchet, are accountable.

MR. ROBSON, in whom the audience naturally take a great interest, acted the part of a young countryman excellently. We dare to prophesy good things of this young gentleman. His powers are, as yet, far from maturity, but at some not very distant day, he will learn to "hold" his audience like those charming artists, the FRANK MATTHEWSES. A propos of these, it is only necessary to say that they appeared as Alderman and Mrs. Marrowfat; MR. MONTAGUE played a Captain Somebody, and while he wore his own proper masculine habiliments, was as agreeable and unstagey as ever. The minor parts in the farce were also very well acted.

The Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, the abiding place of our much-loved Mrs. Brown, whose sentiments on things in general are so admirably interpreted by MR. ARTHUR SKETCHLEY, has now to boast of another attraction. Please to understand that Paris is still pourtrayed, and Mrs. Brown still trotted out by MR. SKETCHLEY, but in another room far from Paris and Mrs. Brown, COLONEL STODARE gives a magical and ventriloquial entertainment. We need not describe the ventriloquy, which is very good, nor the magic, which is also very good; we shall confine ourselves to complimenting the gallant Colonel on one trick-the Indian Basket trick, of which we have all read in our youth (alas that word!) but which has been hitherto unattempted in any part of her Majesty's dominions, the Eastern Ind excepted. COLONEL STODARE first exhibits to the audience COLONEL STODARE, then a large basket, and then a young lady-that is, a real, live young lady. He puts the real live young lady into the basket and shuts her up. When we say shuts her up we mean shuts her down, but that the intelligent and well-informed will, of course, understand. The lid closed, COLONEL STODARE draws a sword, doubtless the very weapon which he has waved over his head when galloping before his regiment and bidding his bugler sound the charge; doubtless the very same weapon with which he smote the foes hip and thigh in the various campaigns in which he has served. This sword the COLONEL plunges to the very hilt into the basket, and, as the live young lady is inside the basket, necessarily into her heart. A shriek is heard; the COLONEL withdraws the sword, reeking with the blood of his victim, plunges it to the very hilt, &c., again-another shriek thrills the gas-lamps, another plunge, another shriek, and all is over. The audience look on uneasily, and chivalric and noble hearts feel tempted to say, "Fie, COLONEL, fie! Is this an act worthy of a soldier and a STODARE? The man who would take advantage of a weak and unoffending woman in a basket is a wretch whom it would be gross flattery to call a coward!" Nevertheless, no one flies at the COLONEL'S throat, no one rends him limb from limb or gives him into

House).

AIR-"The Power of Love."

THERE's a bower whose whey-ey

Female souls adore,

And the cost to pay-ay

I'm prepared, I'm sure!
Pursy female sweetly
Ushers in my dove,

Turns away discreetly

Su-uch the bow-wow-wow-er of lo-o-o-uve!

SOLO-LORD ARTHUR O'BOGTROT.

AIR-"The Harp that once in Tara's Halls."

The heart that once of SARA SAULS thought with a proud disdain,
Now thinks of SARA SAULS as a pe-cu-ni-ary gain.

I want a wife with gold and jools to pay a sporting bet,
And SARA wants a Corin who has got a corinet!

DUET-LORD ARTHUR O'BOGTROT and SARA SAULS.
AIR-" Ha! ha! the Wooing o't!"

LORD ARTHUR (chucking her under the chin).-
SARA, will you marry me?
What are you doing of?
(wheedlingly).-

SARA (coyly).LORD ARTHUR

SARA (coyly).

LORD ARTHUR.

SARA (dazzled at

LORD ARTHUR.

Come, each other's let us be!

Whom are you cooing of ?

Bishops score will marry we!

the prospect, notwithstanding her persuasion).-
Well, I don't know, but I'll see!
If you don't, LORD A. O'B.
You'll be the ruing of!

SARA (with an eye to the main chance).

Debts, I'm told, you, wicked lud,
Have been accruing of.

LORD ARTHUR (a changed man).—.

But Remorse's bitter cud

(With appropriate action)

I've been a chewing of! SARA (relenting). If you won't do so no moreLORD ARTHUR (embracing her).

Oh, of that be very sureUs together bishops score Soon shall be glueing of!

(Comic dance off.)

CHORUS OF CROWD. AIR-"Here's to the Maiden of Bashful Fifteen." Here is lady of bashful nineteen,

Who's obliged, more's the shame, to be thrifty; I am told that her mother-in-law is a queen, Who is just within four years of fifty; And it's now very long since abroad she did show, And it's long since she did any duty, But it's some consolation that all of us know That her daughter-in-law is a beauty! If I were that lass,

I'm sure I should pass

All the morning in watching myself in the glass! SIR HENRY ALADDIN (in reference to his afflicted love).(AIR-" Gaily the Troubadour.") Gaily BADROULBADOUR bears her catarrh Sniffling and whiffling I hear from afar,

All influenzaly over the globe.

"How le loo? How le loo? How'th all a-dobe ?"

very healthy, near Regent's-park.

CHILDREN (Nurse); could take a family, low; commencing 3s. 6d. per week; This may be proposed to ingenious readers as a riddle. The want of the advertiser is evidently "children." It is clear that a nurse "could take a family," but why that family should be low passes our comprehension. We presume that she would object to a family that was respectable, turn up her nose at a family that was genteel, and mock at and scorn one that was aristocratic. Then how can a low family" commence at 3s. 6d. per week?" and why should 3s. 6d. per week be considered "very healthy, near Regent's-park?" The health of the sum of 3s. 6d. does not vary with locality. Let us hope that the wishes of the advertiser may be speedily crowned with success, and that she may meet with the lowest of families and the healthiest of three and sixpences in the immediate vicinity of Regent's-park. Astley's Theatre announces the return of "that public favourite, the daring and graceful actress, MISS ADAH ISAACS MENKEN," in terms that compel us to say of the eccentric and dazzling concoctor of the advertisement, "again he urges on his wild career." The gifted writer says:-"The happy termination of the war recals her (MIss MENKEN) to America, but before leaving England MR. E. T. SMITH has secured her services for Astley's for only a few nights!" Happy America, where the war is terminated! Wretched England, about to be deserted of its MENKEN! And thrice happy E. T. SMITH to have secured her services for only a few nights!

But to continue:

"This graceful and classic actress is the first of all those who have appeared in the character of Mazeppa who has dared actually to ride on the bare-backed steed up the rakes of the theatre."

We trust our million readers will not misunderstand this. The distinguished paragraphist has only forgotten in his enthusiasm that the general public are unacquainted with hippodrome technicalities. He does not mean to say that MISS ADAH ISAACS MENKEN actually rides the bare-backed steed over those padded, scented, wigged, patentleathered, eye-glassed old (and young) roues who are supposed by some worthy but mistaken people to be found constantly behind the scenes of a playhouse. No! MISS ADAH ISAACS MENKEN, graceful, classic, and daring though she be, would shrink from such a cruel task. The word "rakes" signifies those raised and inclined platforms up and down which the bare-backed steed walks, or rather stumbles, with his fair burden on his back. The old fogies with the false teeth"ghastly grinners in the booth of Vanity Fair," as THACKERAY Would have called them, are still safe-Mazeppa would not touch them with a horse-shoe, though he might, perhaps, with a horse-whip. But to

continue the advertisement:

TOWN TALK.

BY THE SAUNTERER IN SOCIETY.

THE whitebait having been eaten, the season may be accounted virtually over. Of what was said and done at The Trafalgar on the occasion, though of course present, I am too modest to speak; but I may divulge, that the delicate little fish was fried, devilled, and souchied in deference to MR. GLADSTONE'S taste for triplets, while the sherry was all Amber(ley) in delicate compliment to the paternal affection of EARL RUSSELL. A few Innocents, in no sense important, remain to be massacred, and then the Herod-itory bondsmen of St. Stephen's will be free to depart and take a blow on the moors or wheresoever else they elect, until the time comes for them to be elected. TALKING of elections, I see Liskeard, the so-called "model borough" -and no place ever deserved the title less-has been setting what I suppose we must call its wit to BERNAL OSBORNE's, and has come off a little the worse in the encounter. Until his time, since that of CHARLES BULLER, few small constituencies have been so lucky in getting little places and appointments from Government. It has in fact parted with its birthright for a good many spoonfuls of pottage, and is entirely in the hands of a few local legal luminaries, who eke out general practice with a political agency. Henceforth I suppose we shall hear nothing more of it; it has retired to the limbo of little constituencies. But the underhand way in which it has plotted against its last member is not a graceful act of retirement, and the new candidate, SIR ARTHUR BULLER, should lose no time in trying to prove non-complicity in the affair. He is not expected to possess his brother's genius, but he ought to keep the name untarnished by a suspicion of political larceny. In other respects he and his constituents are well matched, for they resemble the men who returned CHARLES BULLER as much as he resembles that clever statesman.

TRIAL by jury is no doubt a great institution, but it by no means follows that juries are what they should be. About the most flagrant act of injustice ever committed by a jury, was a decision arrived at by a special panel last week before the Chief Justice. A widow sued for damages for herself and children for the loss of her husband who was run over by an omnibus under circumstances of admitted neglect. The summing-up pointed out clearly, that though the poor fellow was crossing the road at an unexpected point; that-even though it amounted to carelessness (which I can't admit, for surely one may cross a road anywhere)- -was no reason why he should be run over. The jury after some delay returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages forty shillings, or as they subsequently apportioned it-ten shillings for the loss of a husband, and thirty shillings for the loss of a father, the latter sum to be divided among several children. As CHIEF JUSTICE COCKBURN remarked, this is "too much or too little," and it was quite plain, as he further said, that the men who had taken an oath to administer justice had "evaded the responsibility of a satisfactory decision, and some of them being for a verdict of substantial damages, and others against it they had agreed to compromise." I hope such a verdict is unparalleled in the history of juries.

THE Coroner's inquest at Staplehurst has resulted in a verdict of manslaughter against BENGE and GILLIMORE. Under the circumstances nothing else could be expected, but I think the company has been exonerated on too easy terms. The rules and regulations are obviously very faulty, and the power given to an uneducated man like BENGE, over the lives and limbs of so many helpless travellers shows a blot in the system. Curiously enough all the precautions against accident prescribed by the rules are carefully ordered to be taken when they are obviously too late to be of service. One thing is clear:-not a rail should be disturbed until notice has been given at the station preceding on the line where repairs are required. A small battery with the means of attaching it to the telegraph wires, should be carried by every gang of plate-layers; the expense would be very small compared with the saving of life, and the operation so simple that a man who "mislooked the time table," could hardly make a blunder.

I SEE TOOLE, the inimitable, takes his benefit to-morrow, and I suppose, in spite of the heat will be warmly supported by his friends and admirers-at any rate he should be stoutly backed by those corpulent people, who having nearly fallen victims to the BANTING epidemic were restored-I may say, "brought round"-by the laughter he provokes. By the way, is the manager of the Olympic so occupied in prosecuting music halls, that he can't attend to the interests of that theatre, or does the company, joint-stock, disagree with the company theatrical? Twelfth Night, as revived here, does not seem to prevail on the British public to come, and might be plaintively advertised therefore as "What, you won't!" What has become of Mr. HENRY NEVILLE, and is the stock of French dramas exhausted, that we have no new and original pieces from Mr. TOM TAYLOR?

THE LAST OF THE ENGLISH IMPROVISATORES.-Ultimus SLOMAN

orum.