put it quite out of the power of any government, I fear, effectually to help them. In fact, if they cannot be persuaded to help themselves in the way pointed out, they must remain the “slaves of poverty," and the servants therefore of a grievous "tyrant:" but suspecting as I do, that many of lute years, have been unwarily drawn into the vortex of pauperism by an injudicious recourse to the poor-book on the part of their employers, and from a great disturbance in the value of money, not perhaps fully understood by the employed or the employers in country places, I cannot conclude without giving a hint to the latter, that "the labourer is worthy of his full hire," for his free services; and that to send him without urgent necessity, to the poor-book, for any portion of his lawful and just earnings, (extravagant wages being quite out of the question) is to give him a sort of claim upon the fund, by no means in the contemplation of the original law, and highly pernicious to all parties, in its effects and consequences. Happy be the man, who shall ever by any means, assist us to put things upon a better footing, and relieve us from the many difficulties which press severely at present both upon the rich and the poor!

ODD ARRANGEMENTS,

&c. &c.

PERSONS of the highest consequence have been put to their shifts in marshalling companies, and arranging guests. We read that Henry Duke of Normandy, son of Henry II. of England, gave an entertainment once, to which so many of the French Noblesse resorted, that he could hit upon no better expedient for their arrangement than that of grouping them according to their Christian names, sending all the William's to one table, the Charles's to another, and so on. It is even recorded that in doing so, he found no less. than a hundred and ten of the former name, independent of simple gentlemen, ushers, and

servants.

I remember being told when I was a boy, that one of the Speakers of our House of Commons, in inviting his company to his parliamentary dinners, took no farther pains than to go strait through the alphabetical list of the members, so

that in the course of the parliament, no wonder that the Mr. A.'s should get tired of meeting none but the Mr. B.'s and C.'s, and vice versa. Had the late worthy Speaker, Mr. Abbot (now Lord Colchester) adopted this plan, his own place at the top of the table, would have been in exact alphabetical order.

Every body knows the scrape Mr. Timothy Treatall got into, by desiring the ladies whom he had invited to supper to take their places according to their age and seniority, (see Tatler, No.262) what a dreadful confusion arose amongst his guests, when the arrangement was first announced, and how immediately all the ladies who had before pressed for a place at the upper end of the table, crowded with the same disorder and eagerness to the opposite end.

The Emperor Geta used to arrange his dinners so, as to have on the table at one time, such dishes only as began with the same letter; as (to exemplify it in English) Mutton, Mushrooms, Macaroni, Mince-pies, Marmalade, &c. Pork, Pigeons, Patties, Pies, Pan-cakes, and Plum-pudding, &c. Lamb, Leveret, Larks, Lobsters, Laver, and stewed Lampreys! Perhaps the very Latin of Julius Capitolinus, from whom we have the story,

may amuse some of my readers. "Habebat consuetudinem, ut convivia, et maxima prandia per singulas literas juberat, scientibus servis, velut in quo erat anser, aprugna, anas; item pullus, perdix, pavo, porcellus, piscis, perna, et quæ in eam literam genera edulium caderent-facianus, færta, ficus, &c. &c."

Heliogabalus took a fancy to the number eight, or rather to the Greek proverb aпavтonтw : whence he chose to invite to his supper eight bald persons, eight blind ones, eight gouty ones, eight deaf ones, eight hoarse ones, eight very black ones, eight very tall ones, eight very fat ones, and eight hooked-nose ones.

A very old gentleman told me that he was once invited to dine with a lady of some distinction at Bath, about his own age, and where he met a party of intimates to the number of eight, the lady herself making one. On sitting down to the table, the seven guests looked at the dinner with some surprise, there being nothing solid to be seen in any one of the dishes; no joint of any sort, but soups, minced meats, stewed vegetables, jellies, syllabubs, creams, &c. This old lady amused herself a short time with witnessing the strange looks of her company, before

she explained to them the mystery. She then told them, that having an exact knowledge of their circumstances, and a sympathetic feeling towards them, she had resolved to make a feast, for the whole party, suitable to their condition. That she had reason to know, that though eight in number, they had not one tooth amongst them all, and she had therefore ordered a dinner, upon which they need not bestow a thought upon the lost power of mastication. Such an odd piece of kindness, as the old gentleman told me, kept them laughing so all dinner time, that they found the toothless meal almost as difficult to swallow as if it had consisted of bones.

The following instance of curious arrangement fell under my own knowledge. To avoid offence I shall not adopt the real letters of the names alluded to, but the story will lose nothing of its effect by substituting others. A very obnoxious sermon happened to be preached in a certain Archdeaconry, at a Visitation, by a gentleman (let me say) of the name of PRO**. At the next Visitation, the Clergyman appointed to preach thought it incumbent on him, (indispensably so indeed,) to advert to the former sermon, and combat its arguments. This he did to the best