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would not like you to be engaged in one of these popular riots."

"I shouldn't wellish it," said Johnstone.

"Pull away, Dick!" said Murphy; "let them kill the blackguard if they like."

"But will they kill him weally ?" inquired Johnstone, somewhat horrified.

"Faith, it's just as the whim takes them," said Murphy; "but as we wish to be popular on the hustings, we must let them kill as many as they please."

Andy still shouted loud enough to be heard. Dick, they're goin' to murdher me!"

"Misther

"Poor wetch!" said Johnstone with a very uneasy shudder. "Maybe you'd think it right for us to land and rescue him," said Murphy.

"Oh, by no means," said Johnstone. "You're better acquainted with the customs of the countwy than I am."

"Then we'll row back to dinner as fast as we can," said Murphy.

"OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND."

WHEN I parted my love,

I gave him a dove,

And another he gave unto me;
And he said that my dove
Should bear back his love,

When he was far-far o'er the sea!

I waited in vain

With sorrow and pain

HOPE lingered through many a day;

Till her spirit was dead,

And she said, as she fled,

"Out of sight, out of mind," is the way.

At length a bird came,

And I thought 'twas the same

Old Proverb.

That he promised his message should bring;

I search'd the poor dove,

But no letter of love

Or token was under his wing!

Another flew o'er,

And a letter he bore

'Twas my own bird, but, ah! well-a-day!

To some rival it came,

And I could but exclaim,

"Out of sight, out of mind,” is the way.

J. AUGUSTINE WADE,

INSCRIPTION FOR A GIN PALACE.

CORNELIUS AGRIPPA, Old Nick to subdue

When rebellious, would threaten to cut off his queue.
Had the Fiend dealt with us, such a menace had fail'd:
'Tis an easy thing here to get Spirits retail'd.

VINCENT EDEN; *

OR, THE OXONIAN.

CHAPTER I.

THE FRESHMAN.

THE last day of the Oxford Easter Vacation had arrived — and a brighter or more beautiful one never poured its full tide of sunlight over that queen-like and majestic city. The grey college wall, and the solemn church spire, seemed alike to have laid aside their wonted air of gloomy grandeur-and each old tower, as it imaged back the glow of heaven from its features of deep repose, resembled the furrowed countenance of some veteran warrior, illumined by the momentary smile which the tale of bygone glory has awakened. A noble sight, in truth, at any time, and to any eye, is that proud City of Science, as with its crown of countless towers it breaks upon the gaze of the traveller-but mostly does it come home to his heart, who, after long years of wandering, revisits the scenes which smiled. on his feelings in their freshness-on his youth in all its gay inexperience. Yes, Oxford! though the times and ties which once bound me to thee have passed away and perished—though from the dim womb of departed years a still small voice oft whispers of wasted hours and misdirected energies—yet do I love thee-yet does memory bear me back to moments when, wild and wayward as I was, I have stood beneath the face of night, and gazed on those solemn walls with a chastened heart and higher aspirations-with dreams of days, perchance even yet to come, of happiness and honour. But I grow egotistical already—let me resume my tale.

The clocks and bells once more rang out the college dinnerhour of five, as the Blenheim, with its neat team of greys, rolled rapidly across the Magdalen bridge-dashed up the High Street, where a few straggling caps and gowns were seen hurrying home to dinner-turned sharply down the Corn-market, nearly upsetting the Master of Balliol, and his unconscious pad nag, in the manœuvre--and finally deposited its freight at the door of the Star Hotel. The descent of the man-mountain of a coachman from his perch was speedily followed by a flight of eight or ten Mackintoshes and pea-jackets, which, on farther developement, were discovered to contain a corresponding number of members of the University. There was a temporary interest,

• The Author begs to premise that the circumstances of the following Tale are fictitious-that the characters are intended as representatives of classes, and that if their attributes have been appropriated by any individuals, and have wounded such persons' feelings in consequence, the effect thus produced cannot but be a source of deep regret.

VOL. V.

Y

and consequent suspension of motion, produced among the contents of the aforesaid garments by the descending ankles of a solitary female-and then came a still further delay, caused by the Dean of Oriel and an All Souls' Fellow; the former of whom always travelled with his money in his hat-box, and had to unpack it to pay the coachman; and the latter, insisting on being shown into a private room to comb the dust out of his whiskers, before he could think of paying anybody at all.

These preliminary matters arranged, there followed a series of universal portmanteau hugging, with screaming to correspond, such as one sees bestowed by London mothers upon their children in a crowd; and finally, each and all, with a solitary exception, turned furiously upon the single porter, to insist that their luggage should be the first transported to their respective colleges. That respectable functionary having only stopped just long enough to assure everybody all round that they should be the first served, and so to confuse the remaining luggage as to make it impossible for any one to be put in possession of his own that night, forthwith proceeded to display an unparalleled union of activity and intelligence, by walking off to Magdalen Hall with the unhappy Dean of Oriel's paper at-box-a saddle and bridle belonging to a gentleman comm aer of Christ Church—and the gigantic book-box of a Balliol scholar, who had been reading for his degree during the vacation.

There was, however, one young gentleman among the passengers the solitary exception to the porter-persecution just mentioned-whose indecision of manner, and evident ignorance of the place, might have given rise to some doubt, not only as to which college he was going, but even whether he had the pleasure of belonging to any college at all. First, he looked helplessly at the coachman, as if he thought he ought to do a great deal more for his half-crown, beyond the mere driving him down to Oxford and leaving him all alone in a strange place; then he cast a despairing look at the departing porter—and at last, having with some difficulty extracted from the chaos of luggage a carefully corded portmanteau, carpet-bag, hat-box, and a variety of minor articles, all of which said articles were labelled with the address of Vincent Eden, Esquire, Trinity College, Oxford, (and, like certain other labelled articles, had been "well shaken” in their journey,) he walked, as a last resource, up to the waiter. The waiter was a pale and soapy-looking gentleman, with a dirty white neckcloth, and a perfect Vesuvius of eruptions on his face, who had hitherto been trying to make doing nothing look as like active business as possible, by running two or three times round the coach, and looking very hard at everybody, and everything, without manifesting the slightest intention of doing anything further for anybody besides looking

at them.

"Waiter," said the proprietor of the shaken luggage, in the sort of tone men use to a horse they are afraid of, but to whom they wish to seem very courageous, "Waiter; I want to go to Trinity College-do you happen to know such a place ?"

66

A smile played-if waiters' smiles have any time for playupon the countenance of the individual thus interrogated. Trinity, sir?" said he, rubbing a napkin across his mouth, (under cover of which little manoeuvre he suffered the smile to slip imperceptibly from his face,) "yes, sir, certainly—perhaps you might like to rest yourself in the house, sir-hall dinner more than half over, sir-beefsteak in less than a minute, sir." Here the sixpence in prospective made him feel quite anxious; and he immediately put a proportionate quantity of respect into the look he gave his victim.

"Beefsteak !" hesitated our hero, "why, really, a-a-I am afraid I ought to report myself immediately at the College as having arrived-perhaps they might not like my being out so late of an evening, eh ?"

Here the respectful look stood no chance whatever, and the aforesaid smile broke into something extremely like a laugh; part of which the confused waiter made a desperate effort and swallowed, and blew his nose very loud to prevent the rest from being heard. He then repeated the process a second time to make sure against a return of the complaint; and-this little paroxysm over-proceeded to set our friend's mind at ease by an assurance that nobody would care whether he appeared at College an hour sooner or later; ending by leading him off in triumph into the coffee-room, already affording in his own person a practical illustration of the popular Oxford doctrine of Passive Obedience. The minute, which the beefsteak was to take in doing, having meanwhile been subjected to the arithmetical process of multiplication by thirty, and consequently having attained the fullgrown age of half an hour, the waiter at length made his appearance; and having placed the dinner on the table, and looked the young gentleman full in the face between the disposition of each dish, proceeded to show strong symptoms of a wish to know whether the said young gentleman might not have some further confidential communication, respecting something to drink, to make to him before leaving the coffee-room.

The Freshman watched him, for some little while, in an agonizing alternation of hope that he would speedily take his departure, and fear of the contrary; and at last, finding himself reduced to an extremity, ordered a pint of sherry in a fit of desperation; and as soon as it was brought, by way of a peace-offering to the waiter for his previous delay, volunteered a supposition that there was a great deal of wine drunk in the University.

The waiter, who had, no later than the night before, been pulled out of bed, and equipped gratis with a pair of cork

burnt mustachios, and an imperial to match, by a party of drunken Christ Church men staying in the house, replied, somewhat sulkily, that he "believed there was, but he wasn't at all sure." Having imparted this piece of information, he again withdrew.

Beefsteaks don't last for ever; although the constitution of the one on which our hero was occupied seemed tough enough to have gone a good way towards it, and felt none the worse in consequence. Not being, however, sufficiently at his ease in Oxford, as yet, to complain of any treatment he might receive there, he finished his meal in resignation, and then drew his chair to the window to gather some insight into the mysteries of a college life, by a minute inspection of the various faces belonging to the caps and gowns continually passing. Growing tired at length of wondering where they were all going, he rang the bell for the purpose of setting the waiter's mind at ease respecting the bill and accompanying gratuity; which little business being transacted, he carefully folded up the said document and put it in his pocket, with the intention of transcribing it into his first letter home, as an authentic specimen of Oxford men and manners. He then summoned the porter, who, having made all the mistakes he possibly could with the luggage already committed to his charge, was now ready to do the same for anybody else; and having informed the waiter that he was looking out for a fresh customer, was told that he could not have a fresher than the gentleman in the coffee-room. The luggage was accordingly huddled into the barrow, and the embryo collegian was stepping into the street with much the same fluttering about the heart that he remembered experiencing on first going to school, when a fresh source of anxiety crossed his mind.

"Waiter," said he, "you don't suppose there's any danger of meeting the Proctor on the road to Trinity, do you?" The anxiety which prompted this question arose from a somewhat enlarged and embellished tale which a boy had brought back one half-year to the private school which Eden had just left, of an unfortunate undergraduate who had been kidnapped by the Proctor lounging in the street towards twilight, and by way of imposition, was confined to the college gates by that authority, till he had written, printed, and published, full bound, with gilt edges, and copious marginal notes, a new edition of the Greek Testament, at his own expense.

To the question itself, the waiter returned a smiling negative. "Then," said Eden, with a strong determination not to be in the least afraid, now there was nothing at all to be afraid of, "all's right; lead the way, porter, I am ready. Sir," added he, perceiving that individual handling his barrow in such a manner as left no doubt in his mind of an ultimate upset, "sir I must desire you will be particularly careful of that

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