discover that he was no less a person than the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Philippe Egalité, and the father of the present King of the French, who was actually the child in question. He took not the least notice of the discovery he had made, but pretended to ascertain the fact from the contemplation of his cards. Having overcome this difficulty, his practised acuteness made the rest easy to him. It was publicly known that the Duchess was near her confinement, and he had heard the Duke was anxious to have a son; he therefore confidently guessed the object of his visit, and after the manner of his tribe hazarded the prediction which he thought would ensure him the most liberal pay. He did not expect the proposed alternative, which obliged him to be on his guard, and he had actually only just returned from learning the news at the palace, and was scarcely in bed, when the Duke arrived, whose faith must have been confirmed by the fortune-teller's anticipation of his intelligence.

If the story be true, it is not probable that a man like the Duke of Orleans, having experienced such an instance of fortune-telling, would be satisfied without recurring to it, and it may possibly be that such excitement of ambitious hopes contributed to his, as to Macbeth's, untimely fall.

GOOD BREEDING.

A gentleman is a Christian in spirit that will take a polish. The rest are but plated goods; and however excellent their fashion, rub them more or less, the base metal will appear through.

An Englishman making the grand tour towards the middle of the last century, when travellers were more objects of attention than at present, on arriving at Turin sauntered out to

see the place. He happened to meet a regiment of infantry returning from parade, and taking a position to see it pass, a young captain, evidently desirous to make a display before the stranger, in crossing one of the numerous water-courses with which the city is intersected, missed his footing, and in trying to save himself, lost his hat. The exhibition was truly unfortunate-the spectators laughed-and looked at the Englishman, expecting him to laugh too. On the contrary, he not only retained his composure, but promptly advanced to where the hat had rolled, and taking it up, presented it with an air of unaffected kindness to its confused owner. The officer received it with a blush of surprise and gratitude, and hurried to rejoin his company-there was a murmur of applause-and the stranger passed on. Though the scene of a moment, and without a word spoken, it touched every heart--not with admiration for a mere display of politeness, but with a warmer feeling for a proof of that true charity, "which never faileth." On the regiment being dismissed, the captain, who was a young man of consideration, in glow. ing terms related the circumstance to his colonel. The colonel immediately mentioned it to the general in command; and when the Englishman returned to his hotel, he found an aidede-camp waiting to request his company to dinner at headquarters. In the evening he was carried to court-at that time, as Lord Chesterfield tells us, the most brilliant court in Europe and was received with particular attention. Of course during his stay at Turin he was invited every where; and on his departure he was loaded with letters of introduction to the different states of Italy. Thus a private gentleman of moderate means, by a graceful impulse of christian feeling, was enabled to travel through a foreign country, then of the highest interest for its society as well as for the charms it still possesses, with more real distinction and advantage than can ever be derived from the mere circumstances of birth and fortune, even the most splendid.

I think I cannot more appropriately conclude this anecdote than by adding the excellent, and excellently expressed advice of Polonius to his son, on his departure for a foreign country. The precepts are admirably adapted to form a man of the world and a gentleman, in the best sense of the terms; and in my opinion are well worth committing to memory by those whom they concern.

Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel ;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance into quarrel; but, being in,

Bear it, that the opposer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:

For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all-to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

AN EXECUTION.

Amid the varied scenes in this vast metropolis, there is probably none so striking as an interior view of an execution at the Old Bailey. Being desirous to witness the effect of the punishment of death, I once accompanied one of the sheriffs on a cold winter's morning, to see three men executed. We

arrived between seven and eight o'clock, and were shown into the press room, a low gloomy chamber. Two of the men, having attempted to escape, were heavily ironed. Each placed his foot upon an anvil, whilst a smith with a large hammer and great force, drove the rivets out. The sound was awful. One of the criminals, who had confessed to a hundred burglaries, I had myself committed for trial. He was a finelooking man of nine-and-twenty, but so altered, that I could scarcely trace his former features; and I was informed that, even in the most hardened, nature generally gives way in the last four-and-twenty hours, and suffers dreadful wreck. When the three were pinioned, the procession set slowly forward along the dark and narrow passages, a bell dismally knolling, and the Ordinary reading portions of the burial service. A few minutes after the drop fell, we retired, as is the custom, to breakfast in what is called the Lord Mayor's parlour. The Ordinary presided in full canonicals, and kept our attention alive by anecdotes connected with the occasion. On his right sat the city marshal in military uniform. The Sheriffs wore their massive gold chains, and the two under-sheriffs were in court dresses, contrasted with whom, was a gentleman of peculiarly primitive appearance and attire-a constant attendant. The group, the time of day, the occasion, formed a combination altogether singular. After the lapse of an hour, the sheriff's were summoned to see the bodies cut down, and I was surprised to find the countenances as placid as after natural death.

Notice.-In consequence of different requests I shall in my next number begin to fulfil my promise to treat of the Art of attaining high health, from experience.

LONDON:

IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

THE

ORIGINAL

BY THOMAS WALKER, M. A. CAMBRIDGE,

BARRISTER AT LAW, AND ONE OF THE POLICE MAGISTRATES OF THE METROPOLIS.

PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AT 12 O'CLOCK, BY H. RENSHAW, 356, STRAND, NEARLY OPPOSITE WELLINGTON STREET.

No. III.] WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1835. [PRICE 3d.

PAROCHIAL GOVERNMENT.

It was my intention, in entering into the details of parish government, to have written an original article; but in looking into a sketch on the subject, which I published in January, 1834, I think it advisable to begin with that, in a corrected form, and to supply its deficiencies hereafter.

It seems to me that the first in order and most important of all reforms, is the Reform of Parochial Government—that is, the adaptation to present circumstances of the English principle of SELF-GOVERNMENT BY SMALL COMMUNITIES.

Parochial government is the very element upon which all other government in England depends, and as long as it is out of order, everything must be out of order-representationlegislation-police. Hence, instead of a House of Commons of men of practical wisdom and distinct views in matters of government, saying little and doing much, a House of Commons as it is. The choosers and the chosen are alike vague in the knowledge of their duties. They have had no proper training; they have not begun at the beginning-GOVERNMENT AT HOME. Hence also a confused mass of laws, and a flood of

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