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is Mr. Poole, one of the best punsters as well as one of the cleverest comic writers and finest satirists of the day. It has also been attributed to Charles Lamb.

Formerly, it was customary, on emergencies, for the judges to swear affidavits at their dwelling-houses. Smith was desired by his father to attend a judge's chambers for that purpose, but being engaged to dine in Russell-square, at the next house to Mr. Justice Holroyd's, he thought he might as well save himself the disagreeable necessity of leaving the party at eight by dispatching his business at once: so, a few minutes before six, he boldly knocked at the judge's, and requested to speak to him on particular business. The judge was at dinner, but came down without delay, swore the affidavit, and then gravely asked what was the pressing necessity that induced our friend to disturb him at that hour. As Smith told the story, he raked his invention for a lie, but finding none fit for the purpose, he blurted out the truth :

"The fact is, my lord, I am engaged to dine at the next house -and-and

"And, sir, you thought you might as well save your own dinner by spoiling mine?'

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Exactly so, my lord, but"Sir, I wish you a good evening."

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Smith was rather fond of a joke on his own branch of the profession; he always gave a peculiar emphasis to the line in his song on the contradiction of names :

"Mr. Makepeace was bred an attorney;"

and would frequently quote Goldsmith's lines on

Hickey, the associate of Burke and other distinguished cotemporaries :

"He cherished his friend, and he relished a bumper;

Yet one fault he had, and that was a thumper,

Then, what was his failing? come, tell it, and burn ye:
He was, could he help it? a special attorney."

The following playful colloquy in verse took place at a dinner-table between Sir George Rose and himself, in allusion to Craven-street, Strand, where he resided:

"J. S. At the top of my street the attorneys abound, And down at the bottom the barges are found:

Fly, Honesty, fly to some safer retreat,

For there's craft in the river, and craft in the street." "Sir G. R.— Why should Honesty fly to some safer retreat, From attorneys and barges, od rot 'em?

For the lawyers are just at the top of the street,
And the barges are just at the bottom.'"

CONTEMPORARY COPYRIGHTS.

THE late Mr. Tegg, the publisher in Cheapside, gave the following list of remunerative payments to distinguished authors in his time; and he is believed to have taken considerable pains to verify the items:

Fragments of History, by Charles Fox, sold by Lord Holland, for 5000 guineas. Fragments of History, by Sir James Mackintosh, 500l. Lingard's History of England, 46837. Sir Walter Scott's Bonaparte was sold, with the printed books, for 18,000l.; the net receipts of copyright on the first two editions only must have been 10,000l. Life of Wilberforce, by his

sons, 4000 guineas. Life of Byron, by Moore, 40007. Life of Sheridan, by Moore, 20007. Life of Hannah More, 2000. Life of Cowper, by Southey, 10007. Life and Times of George IV., by Lady C. Bury, 1000l. Byron's Works, 20,000l. Lord of the Isles, half share, 1500l. Lalla Rookh, by Moore, 3000%. Rejected Addresses, by Smith, 1000l. Crabbe's Works, republication of, by Mr. Murray, 3000l. Wordsworth's Works, republication of, by Mr. Moxon, 1050l. Bulwer's Rienzi, 16007. Marryat's Novels, 5007. to 15007. each. Trollope's Factory Boy, 18007. Hannah More derived 30,000l. per annum for her copyrights, during the latter years of her life. Rundell's Domestic Cookery, 2000. Nicholas Nickleby, 3000l. Eustace's Classical Tour, 21007. Sir Robert Inglis obtained for the beautiful and interesting widow of Bishop Heber, by the sale of his journal, 5000l.

MISS BURNEY'S "EVELINA.”

THE story of Evelina being printed when the authoress was but seventeen years old is proved to have been sheer invention, to trumpet the work into notoriety; since it has no more truth in it than a paid-for newspaper puff. The year of Miss Burney's birth was long involved in studied obscurity, and thus the deception lasted, until one fine day it was ascertained, by reference to the register of the authoress' birth, that she was a woman of six or seven-and-twenty, instead of a "Miss in her teens," when she wrote Evelina. The

story of her father's utter ignorance of the work being written by her, and recommending her to read it, as an exception to the novel class, has also been essentially modified. Miss Burney, (then Madame D'Arblay,) is said to have taken the characters in her novel of Camilla from the family of Mr. Lock, of Norbury Park, who built for Gen. D'Arblay the villa in which the work was written, and which to this day is called "Camilla Lacy." By this novel, Madame D'Arblay is said to have realized 3000 guineas,

EPITAPH ON CHARLES LAMB.

LAMB lies buried in Edmonton churchyard, and the stone bears the following lines to his memory, written by his friend, the Rev. H. F. Cary, the erudite translator of Dante and Pindar :

"Farewell, dear friend!-that smile, that harmless mirth,
No more shall gladden our domestic hearth;
That rising tear, with pain forbid to flow-
Better than words-no more assuage our woe.

That hand outstretch'd from small but well-earned store
Yield succour to the destitute no more.

Yet art thou not all lost: through many an age,
With sterling sense and humour, shall thy page
Win many an English bosom, pleased to see
That old and happier vein revived in thee.
This for our earth; and if with friends we share
Our joys in heaven, we hope to meet thee there.".

Lamb survived his earliest friend and school-fellow, Coleridge, only a few months. One morning he showed to a friend the mourning ring which the author of Christabelle had left him. "Poor fellow!" exclaimed

Lamb, "I have never ceased to think of him from the day I first heard of his death." Lamb died in five days after-December 27, 1834, in his fifty-ninth year.

"TOM CRINGLE'S LOG."

THE author of this very successful work, (originally published in Blackwood's Magazine,) was a Mr. Mick Scott, born in Edinburgh in 1789, and educated at the High School. Several years of his life were spent in the West Indies. He ultimately married, returned to his native country, and there embarked in commercial speculations, in the leisure between which he wrote the Log. Notwithstanding its popularity in Europe and America, the author preserved his incognito to the last. He survived his publisher for some years, and it was not till Mr. Scott's death that the sons of Mr. Blackwood were aware of his name.

CHANCES FOR THE DRAMA.

THE royal patent, by which the performance of the regular drama was restricted to certain theatres, does not appear to have fostered this class of writing. Dr. Johnson forced Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer into the theatre. Tobin died regretting that he could not succeed in hearing the Honeymoon performed. Lillo produced George Barnwell (an admirably written play) at an irregular theatre, after it had been rejected by the holders of the patents. Douglas was cast on Home's hands. Fielding was introduced as a dramatist

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