The author evidently desires to interest by the light, but surely pleasing charm of playful humour; but there are scenes that prove him able, when he chooses, to touch the higher feelings. His hero is a rogue, it is true, like the majority of his countrymen, but he is not officiously held up to the reader in a rogue's most disgusting attitudes; and it is no mean praise to say, that there is not in the whole book a single passage to shock the most scrupulous virtue. The following passage is in a strain which proves that the author possesses powers of description far beyond what the lightness of his style in general would lead his readers to expect. "The Shah had returned from Sultanieh, and still remembering the beauty of Zeenab, the Cûrdish slave and Hajji's mistress, he commands her to appear, along with the other dancing women, to welcome his arrival: her condition incapacitates her, her frailty is discovered, and her death instantly determined on. Hajjî is in a state of the greatest alarm, when a messenger from the Shah's harem comes up to tell him that he is desired to repair to the foot of the high tower at the entrance of that place, with five men, to bear away a corpse for interment; he is horror struck, but forced, as he conceives, by destiny, nerves himself up for his dreadful task. "With these feelings, oppressed as if the mountain of Demawend and all its sulphurs were on my head, I went about my work doggedly, collecting the several men who were to be my colleagues in this bloody tragedy; who, heedless and unconcerned at an event of no unfrequent occurrence, were indifferent whether they were to be the bearers of a murdered corpse, or themselves the instruments of murder. "The night was dark and lowering, and well suited to the horrid scene about to be acted. The sun, unusual in these climates, had set, surrounded by clouds of the colour of blood, and, as the night advanced, they rolled on in unceasing thunders over the summits of the adjacent Albors*. At sudden intervals the moon was seen through the dense vapour, which covered her again as suddenly, and restored the night to its darkness and solemnity. I was seated lonely in the guard-room of the palace, when I heard the cries of the sentinels on the watch-towers, announcing midnight, and the voices of the Muezzins from the Mosques, the wild notes of whose chant, floating on the wind, ran through my veins with the chilling creep of death, and announced to me that the hour of murder was at hand! They were the harbingers of death to the helpless woman. I started up, I could not bear to hear them more,-I rushed on in desperate haste, and, as I came to the appointed spot, I found my five companions already arrived sitting unconcerned on and about the coffin that was to carry my Zeenab to her eternal mansion. The only word I had power to say to them was, Shoud,'-' Is it done'? to which they answered, Ne shoud,'-' It is not done;' to which ensued an awful silence. I had hoped that all was over, and that I should have been spared every other horror excepting that of conducting the melancholy procession to the place of burial; but no, the deed was still to be done, and I could not retreat. Or Elburz, the range of mountains behind Tehran, that separate the Province Mazemderan from that of Isak. "On the confines of the apartments allotted to the women in the Shah's palace, stands a high octagonal tower some thirty gez in height, seen conspicuous from all parts of the city, at the summit of which is a chamber in which he frequently reposes and takes the air. It is surrounded by unappropriated ground, and the principal gate of the harem is close at its base. On the top of all is a terrace, (a spot ah! by me never to be forgotten!) and it was to this that our whole attention was now riveted. I had scarcely arrived when, looking up, we saw three figures, two men and a female, whose forms were lighted up by an occasional gleam of moonshine, that shone in a wild and uncertain manner upon them. They seemed to drag their victim between them with much violence, whilst she was seen in attitudes of supplication on her knees, with her hands extended, and in all the agony of the deepest desperation. When they were at the brink of the tower, her shrieks were audible, but so wild, so varied by the blasts of wind that blew round the building, that they appeared to me like the sounds of laughing madness. We all kept a dead silence: even my five ruffians seemed moved: I was transfixed like a lump of lifeless clay, and if I am asked what my sensations were at the time, I should be at a loss to describe them. I was totally inanimate, and still I knew what was going on. At length one loud shrill and searching scream of the bitterest woe was heard, which was suddenly lost in an interval of the most frightful silence. A heavy fall, which immediately succeeded, told us that all was over. I was then roused, and with my head confused, half crazed, and half conscious, I immediately rushed to the spot, where my Zeenab and her burthen lay struggling, a mangled mutilated corpse. She still breathed, but the convulsions of death were on her, and her lips moved as if she would speak although the blood was fast flowing from her mouth. I could not catch a word, although she uttered sounds that seemed like words. I thought she said, 'My child! my child!' but perhaps it was an illusion of my brain." CANZONETTA FROM THE ITALIAN. LADY, thy hand ere yet we part Think'st thou another maid can share A Gez is somewhat less than a yard. D. THE CIVIC DINNER. THE guests assembled in Budge-row, Like gluttons playing at cross-questions. What has she got?—a roasted pig. A rein-deer tongue-begins to chatter.How's little Tommy?-boil'd to rags ;And Miss Augusta ?-fried in batter.How well he carves !-he 's named by will My joint executor-the papers Say NOBLET'S Coming to fulfil— Some mint-sauce, and a few more capers- But BIRCH is surely best for whips.- A tender heart-but toughish gizzard— Do stick your fork in-little Harry Knows all his letters down to Izzard.Ex-sheriff PARKINS-fine calves head What's your gown made of?-currant jelly : Fat Mrs. Fubbs they say is dead A famous buttock-vermicelli Black puddings-pepper'd-dish'd-Belzoni ;- Yes, Miss She's a most loving wife-mock-turtle.- I eat for lunch-a handkerchief- I seiz'd the rascal-collared beef And we both roll'd in-lobster-sauce. The Princess Olive-mushroom ketchup- Poor Miss-red-herring-we must give her So Fanny Flirt is going to marry— A nice Welsh-rabbit-muffins-mummery Grimaldi-ices-Captain Parry Crimp'd cod---crim-con---Crim Tartars---flummery. ·H. GRIMM'S GHOST.-ALMACK'S ON FRIDAY. LETTER XVI. "THE peculiar beauty of the British constitution, Sir, consists in this," said an Opposition member to M. Cottu: "every man, however humble his origin, may aspire to the highest honours of the state. Thus it is that industry and talents are excited: all men feel an interest in the fabric, and therefore no men league to overthrow it." The Senator might have extended his eulogium. This aptitude for high places is not confined in England to the Senate, the Pulpit, and the Bar. The posts of fashion are as open to attack as the office of Lord High Chancellor; and it is not a little amusing to observe the straits to which people of ton are driven to avoid a contact with les Bourgeois. Bath, in the days of Beau Nash, was a resort for the great: so was Tunbridge Wells:-the North Parade and the Pantiles are now deserted. "The Moor is at the gate," and no Christian can be seen there. Ranelagh, the ci-devant "third heaven" of beauties of high life, is levelled with the dust. In vain did the Court make it unfashionable to be seen there before eleven. The East outbid the West, and would not enter till half-after that hour. Fashion withdrew in disgust, and Ranelagh perished. A very few years ago, an Autumn at Brighton was by no means an unfashionable affair. But, alas! in rushed all Cheapside, with the addition of Duke's-place. Coy Fashion took flight, and, when the coast was clear, resettled upon the Steine at Christmas. This had all the appearance of a decisive victory. But not so hardly were her tents pitched, when the populous East "poured from her frozen loins" an army of brokers, brewers, and broad-cloth venders, to shiver for a month upon the East Cliff. Old Dixon, of Savage-gardens, was destined to be added to the frost-bitten fraternity. His neighbour Culpepper, who must likewise follow the fashion, called upon the worthy citizen, and found him in a sorry nankeen kind of tenement, on the Marine Parade, gazing upon vacancy from out a bow-window which let in the winds from three points of the compass, until they inflated his carpet into the shape of a demi-balloon. "Well," said the visitor to his host, "I never thought you, of all people, would have chosen to put in to Brighton at this time of the year.' "I did not choose to put in," answered Dixon, "I was driven in by stress of wife." I really do not know what people of distinction are to do next; for if turkey, chine, plum-pudding, galante-show, and twelfth-cake will not keep citizens in town, nothing will. To what Libyan desert, what rocky island in the watery waste, is high life now to retreat? Saint Helena may do, the distance is too great to allow of men of business frequenting it; they cannot well run down from Saturday to Tuesday: but I decidedly think that nothing short of it will be effectual. The Island of Ascension is too full of turtle: the whole court of aldermen would be there, to a dead certainty. There is a dancing-establishment in King-street, St. James's-square, called Almack's. The proprietor of the mansion is named Willis. Six lady patronesses, of the first distinction, govern the assembly. Their fiat is decisive as to admission or rejection: consequently "their nods men and gods keep in awe." The nights of meeting fall upon every Wednesday during the season. This is selection with a vengeance: the very quintessence of aristocracy. Three-fourths even of the nobility knock in vain for admission. Into this sanctum sanctorum, of course, the sons of commerce never think of intruding on the sacred Wednesday evenings and yet into this very "blue chamber," in the absence of the six necromancers, have the votaries of trade contrived to intrude themselves. I proceed to narrate the particulars. At a numerous and respectable meeting of tradesmen's ladies, held at the King's-head Tavern in the Poultry, Lady Simms in the chair, it was resolved, in order to mortify the proud flesh of the six occidental countesses above alluded to, that a rival Almack's be forthwith established, to meet on every Friday evening: that Mr. Willis be treated with as to the hiring of his rooms: that the worthy chairwoman, with the addition of Lady Brown, Lady Roberts, Mrs. Chambers, Mrs. Wells, and Miss Jones, be appointed six lady patronesses to govern the establishment that those ladies be empowered to draw a line of demarcation round the most fashionable part of the city, and that no residents beyond that circle be, on any account, entitled to subscriptions. The six lady patronesses, who originated these resolutions, dwell in the most fashionable part of the city, viz. Lady Simms, in Cornhill, Lady Brown, in Mansionhouse-street, Lady Roberts, in Birchin-lane, Mrs. Chambers, in Throgmorton-street, Mrs. Wells, in Copthall-court, and Miss Jones, in Bucklersbury. It is astonishing with what rapidity the subscriptions filled; and the governesses of the establishment have acted with great circumspection in confining the amusement to none but their upper circles. The chief members are warehousemen and wholesale linen-drapers, with, of course, their wives and daughters. The original plan was to exclude all retail trades; but, as this would have made the ball rather too select, the scheme was abandoned. Grocers dealing both wholesale and retail, silversmiths, glovers, packers, dyers, and paper-stainers, are admissible, provided their moral characters be unimpeachable and their residences be not too Eastward. Some discord has arisen in consequence of black-balling a very reputable pawnbroker in East Smithfield. West Smithfield is within the line of demarcation, but not East; and the exhibitor of three blue balls, who has been thus rejected, complains loudly that he is thrust aside to make room for a set of vulgar innholders and cattle-keepers from Smithfield in the West. But to squalls like this the best-regulated establishments are liable. The line of demarcation includes Bow-lane, Queen-street, and Bucklersbury, on the South side of Cheapside; and King-street, the Old Jewry, and Saint Martin's-le-Grand on the north; but not a step beyond. The consequence is, that in the regions of Fore-street, Cripplegate and Moorfields, northward, and in those of Watling-street, Old Fish-street and Tower-royal, southward, a great mass of disaffection has been engendered. Wardmotes have been called, select vestries have been summoned, and special meetings have been convened; but Almack's on Friday flourishes notwithstanding. In the delivering out of subscriptions, I have heard it whispered that some tokens of partiality are discernible. Undue preferences are alleged to be given, which, if done in the way of trade, would force the obliged party to refund his debt for the equal benefit of himself and the rest of the creditors. Lady Simms's husband is a lottery-office keeper in Cornhill, and "they do say" that young men have but slender prospects of admission if they |