did nothing that would disgrace him among the Grecians. He thus obtained what he wanted, and

all his negociations at Persia succeeded.

Elian's Various History, p. 209.

THE celebrated Corregio had so so seldom been rewarded during his life, that the paltry payment of ten pistoles of German coin, and which he was obliged to travel as far as Parma to receive, created in his mind a joy so excessive, that it caused his death. The payment to him was made in quadrini, a species of copper coin. The joy which the mind of Corregio felt in being the bearer of so large a quantity of money to his wife, prevented him from thinking either of the length of the journey, or of the excessive heat of the day. He walked twelve miles with so much anxiety to reach home, that, immediately on his return, he was seized with a violent pleurisy, of which he died.

Zimmerman on Solitude, p. 29.

66

THE matrimonial tobacconist of Gretna Green, having bound an old lady, and a youth of unrazored lips," in the silken bonds of wedlock, observed to a friend, "I have just tied a withered stick and a green twig together with a cobweb."

Morning Chronicle, March 7, 1808.

HE that tries to recommend Shakspeare, by select quotations, will succeed like the pedant in Hierocles, who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen.

Johnson's Preface to Shakspeare.

AUGEREAU, the son of a fruit-woman at Paris, has served most of the powers of Europe as a common soldier, and has been flogged in Austria and Prussia for desertion. He was a fencing master at Neufchatel, in Switzerland, in 1789, where he robbed a watch maker, Courvoisier, of a horse and two watches, and then inlisted as a soldier in the Neapolitan service, where he gave lessons as a fencing-master; he again deserted, and became first a French spy, and afterwards a French general. At Verona and Venice, he plundered upwards of six millions of livres: he is, in private, remarkable for his presumption and vanity; his boasts deprive all other commanders of their merit, and the ostentatious decorations of his person, with rings and jewels, form a ridiculous contrast with his ignorance in conversation, and the gross vulgarity of his manners. Recueil d' Anecdotes, page 360.

Revolutionary Plutarch, p. 125.

ON the anniversary of the king's birth-day, lord Tavistock invited the few English gentlemen, who were then at Paris, to dine with him, in honour of the day. I was of the party; not one of which was known to me, except those with whom I had travelled to Paris. I sat between lord Berkeley, who was going to Turin, and the famous Sterne, author of Tristram Shandy, who was considered as the Rabelais of England. We were very jovial during dinner; and drank, in the English manner, the toasts of the day. The conversation turned upon Turin, which several of the company were on the point of visiting: upon which Mr Sterne, ad

dressing himself to me, asked me if I knew Mr D***, naming me. I replied, "Yes very intimately." The whole company began to laugh; and Sterne, who did not suppose me so near him, imagined that this Mr D*** must be a very singular character, since the mention of the name alone excited merriment. "Is not he rather a strange fellow?" added he, immediately. "Yes," replied I," an original."-" I thought so," continued he; "I have heard hin spoken of:" and then he began to draw a picture of me, the truth of which I pretended to acknowledge; while Sterne, seeing that the subject amused the company, invented from his fertile imagination many stories, which he related in his way, to the great diversion of us all. I was the first who withdrew; and I had scarcely left the house, when they told him who I was: they persuaded him that I had restrained myself at the time from respect to lord Tavistock; but that I was not to be offended with impunity, adding that he might expect to see me on the next day, to demand satisfaction for the improper language which he had used concerning me. Indeed he thought he had carried his raillery too far, for he was a little merry: he therefore came the following morning to see me, and to beg pardon for any thing that he might have said to offend me; excusing himself by that circumstance, and by the great desire he had to amuse the company, who had appeared so merrily disposed from the moment he first mentioned my name. I stopped him short at once, by assuring him that I was as much amused at his mistake as any of the party; that he

had said nothing which could offend me; and that, if he had known the man he had spoken of as well as I did, he might have said much worse things of him. He was delighted with my answer, requested my friendship, and went away highly pleased with ine. Dutens' Memoirs, v. 2, p. 5.

AN affray happened in Macao a few years ago, in which a Chinese was killed by the Portuguese. A peremptory demand was made for one of the latter, to expiate the death of the former. The government of this place, either unable or unwilling to fix on the delinquent, proposed terms of compromise, which were rejected, and force was threatened to be used. There happened to be a merchant from Manilla then residing at Macao, a man of excellent character, who had long carried on a commerce between the two ports. This unfortunate man was selected to be the innocent victim to appease the rigour of Chinese justice, and he was immediately strangled.

Barrow's Travels in China, p. 368.

IN the distracted state of Fleetwood's management at Drury Lane, in 1743, tho' he had the advantage of Garrick's powers, as an actor, bailiffs were often in possession of the theatre; and the properties, clothes, and other stage ornaments of the comedians, were sometimes seized upon by these low implements of the law. Many ridiculous contests and foolish squabbles between the actors and these licensed harpies might here be recorded for the reader's amusement; I shall content myself

with relating one of them. The hat of king Richard III., by being adorned with jewels of paste, feathers, and other ornaments, seemed to the sheriff's officers, a prey worthy of their seizure; but honest Davy, Mr Garrick's Welch servant, told them,. they did not know what they were about; "For, look you," said Davy, " that hat belongs to the king.' The fellows imagining that what was meant of Richard III. was spoken of George II., resigned their prey, though with some reluctance.

Davies' Life of Garrick. v. 1, p. 71.

BUONAPARTE: "His library is fitted up in the English taste, and rather plain than otherwise; it is decorated with marble busts of great men, among which you find those of the late regretted Mr Fox, and the immortal Nelson. The emperor had a great personal esteem for Mr Fox, and treated him, while that illustrious patriot remained in Paris, with the most conciliating attention. I am told that he has remarked that Mr Fox was to Great Britain, what Cassandra was to the Trajans, always telling truths, but, unfortunately, never believed.

I carried my curiosity so far, as to take measures to learn what books this extraordinary character was fond of perusing, and found that Ossian's Poems, (well translated into Italian,) the works of Newton and Leibnitz; Smith, on the Wealth of Nations; the works of Montesquieu; Tacitus, Guiccardini, &c. formed the leading articles with which he amused or informed himself in his leisure hours; if such an active mind can be supposed to have any leisure.