they retire from the business of the world. Their old occupations cling to them, even when they hope that they have emancipated themselves. Go to any seaport town, and you will see that the sea-captain, who has retired upon his well-earned savings, sets up a weather-cock in full view from his windows, and watches the variations of the wind as duly as when he was at sea, though no longer with the same anxiety. A tallow-chandler, having amassed a fortune, disposed of his business, and took a house in the country, not far from London, that he might enjoy himself; and, after a few months' trial of a holiday life, requested permission of his successor to come into town and assist him on melting days. The keeper of a retail spirit-shop, having in like manner retired from trade, used to employ himself by having one puncheon filled with water, and measuring it off by pints into another. A butcher in a small town, for some little time after he had left off business, informed his old customers, that he meant to kill a lamb once a week, just for amusement.-The Doctor.

LICENSED JESTER.

If it were possible to restore dead fashions to life, we would revive the office of jester. It is by the squandering glances of the fool, that the wise man's folly is anatomized with least discomfort. From the professed fool he may receive the reproof without feeling the humiliation of it, and the medicine will not work the worse, but the better, for being admin

istered under the disguise of indulgence or recreation. It would be well, indeed, if every man who, whether in thought or in action, has too much his own way, would keep a licensed jester. All coteries, literary, political, or fashionable, which enjoy the dangerous privilege of leading the tastes and opinions of the little circle which is their world, ought certainly to keep one as part of their establishment. The House of Commons, being at once the most powerful body on the earth, and the most intolerant of criticism, stands especially in need of an officer who may speak out at random, without fear of Newgate. Every philosopher who has a system, every theologian who heads a sect, every projector who gathers a company, every interest that can command a party, would do wisely to retain a privileged jester.- Edinburgh Review.

NATURAL CURIOSITIES OF CEYLON.

The usual stories are repeated here, of the immense size and voracious appetite of a certain species of serpent. The best history of this kind we ever remember to have read, was of a serpent killed near one of our settlements, in the East Indies; in whose body they found the chaplain of the garrison, all in black, the Rev. Mr. (somebody or other, whose name we have forgotten,) and who, after having been missing for above a week, was discovered in this very inconvenient situation. The dominions of the king of Candia are partly defended by leeches, which

abound in the woods, and from which our soldiers suffered in the most dreadful manner. The Ceylonese, in compensation for their animated plagues, are endowed with two vegetable blessings, the cocoanut-tree and the talipot-tree. The latter affords a prodigious leaf, impenetrable to sun or rain, and large enough to shelter ten men. It is a natural umbrella, and is of as eminent service in that country as a greatcoat-tree would be in this.-Sydney Smith.

TENDERNESS OF WIT.

Swift says,-"Nothing is so tender as a piece of wit, and which is apt to suffer so much in the carriage. Some things are extremely witty to-day, or fasting, or in this place, or over a bottle; any of which, by the smallest transposal, is utterly annihilated. Thus, wit has its walks and purlieus, out of which it may not stray the breadth of a hair upon peril of being lost."

The old Earl of Norwich, who was esteemed the greatest wit in Charles the First's reign, when Charles the Second came to the throne was thought nothing of.

THE TURKISH LANGUAGE.

The Turks, notwithstanding the conscientious moods of their language, are not more remarkable for veracity than their neighbours, who, in ancient times, made so much use of the indefinite tenses, and were said to be always liars.-The Doctor.

LORD THURLOW.

Charles Butler, in his "Reminiscences," thus mentions a speech of Lord Thurlow's in reply to an attack of the duke of Grafton, during the inquiry into Lord Sandwich's administration of Greenwich Hospital. "His grace's action and delivery, when he addressed the house, were singularly dignified and graceful; but his matter was not equal to his manner. He reproached Lord Thurlow with his plebeian extraction, and his recent admission into the peerage. Particular circumstances caused Lord Thurlow's reply to make a deep impression on the reminiscent. His lordship had spoken too often, and began to be heard with a civil but visible impatience. Under these circumstances, he was attacked in the manner we have mentioned. He rose from the woolsack, and advanced slowly to the place, from which the chancellor generally addresses the house; then, fixing on the duke the look of Jove, when he has grasped the thunder;-'I am amazed,' he said, in a level tone of voice, 'at the attack which the noble duke has made upon me. Yes, my lords,' considerably raising his voice, ‘I am amazed at his grace's speech. The noble duke cannot look before him, behind him, or on either side of him, without seeing some noble peer, who owes his seat in this house to his successful exertions in this profession to which I belong. Does he not feel that it is as honourable to owe it to these, as to being the accident of an accident? To all these

noble lords the language of the noble duke is as applicable and as insulting as it is to myself. But I do not fear to meet it single and alone. No one venerates the peerage more than I do,-but, my lords, I must say that the peerage solicited me, not I the peerage. Nay more,-I can say and will say, that as a peer of parliament,-as speaker of this right honourable house, as keeper of the great seal,-as guardian of his majesty's conscience, as Lord High Chancellor of England,-nay, even in that character alone, in which the noble duke would think it an affront to be considered,--but which character none can deny me,—as a MAN, I am at this moment as respectable,-I beg leave to add,-I am at this time as much respected as the proudest peer I now look down upon.' The effect of this speech, both within the walls of parliament and out of them, was prodigious. It gave Lord Thurlow an ascendency in the house, which no chancellor had ever possessed; it invested him, in public opinion, with a character of independence and honour; and this, although he was ever upon the unpopular side of politics, made him always popular with the people."

PICKPOCKET.

A gentleman, who saw Wilkes's carriage drawn by men, (the horses being taken off,) complained to the lord mayor that he had lost his handkerchief in the crowd. "Very possibly," said his lordship, "I fancy one of Wilkes's coach-horses has picked your pocket."