He bought a black sucking pig in the market of Belfast for three shillings, and trained it to lie under the stool or kit on which he sat at his work.At various intervals during six or seven months he tried in vain to bring the young boar to his purpose, and despairing of every kind of success, he was on the point of giving it away, when it struck him to adopt a new mode of teaching; in consequence of which, in the course of six months, he made an animal, supposed the most obstinate and perverse in nature, to become the most tractable. In August, 1783, he again turned itenerant, and took his learned pig to Dublin, where it was shewn for two or three nights at Ranelagh. It was perfectly under command, and appeared as pliant and good natured as a spaniel. When the weather had made it necessary that Bisset should remove his animal to the city, he obtained the permission of the chief magistrate, and advertised it to be seen in Dame-street. It was exhibited two or three days to many persons of distinction, when it could spell, without any apparent direction, the name or names of those in company, cast up accounts, and point out even the words thought of by persons present. It told'exactly the hour, minutes, and seconds; pointed out the married and unmarried, kneeled, and made his obeisance to the company, &c. &c. Poor Bisset was thus in a fair way of "bringing his pig to a good market," when a fellow broke into the room without any sort of pretext, and, armed with that brutality which the idea of power gives, what Shakespeare calls "a pelting officer," he assaulted the inoffensive man, broke and destroyed every thing by which the performance was directed, and even menaced vengeance on the poor pig. In vain the injured Bisset pleaded the permission he had obtained from the chief magistrate: he was threatened to be dragged to prison, if he was found again offending in the same manner; in consequence of which he was compelled to return home, but not before the agitation of his mind had thrown him into a fit of illness, from which he never effectually recovered, and died a few days after at Chester, on his way to London. The Cabinet of Birth. "Here let the jest and mirthful tale go round." PETERS WALTERS. POPE has recorded the rapacity of Peter Wal ters, but there are some circumstances in his life not generally known. He was of low origin, but acquired an immense estate; the principal part of which arose from his knowledge of the world, and careful attention to the follies and vices of young nobleman and gentlemen of fortune, whose wants he was, on proper terms, always ready and willing to supply. He was first under steward to the great Earl of Uxbridge, whom he had the address to manage with such dexterity, that to his dying hour, no man stood so well with that nobleman as Peter Walters. The earl himself was a great usurer, and Peter was privy to all his bargains. When they were alone and disengaged, their custom was to compare notes, and then a question sometimes arose about which of them had pocketed the greatest number of peers. Pope calls Walters a person eminent in the wisdom of his profession, a dexterous attorney, and a good, if not a safe, conveyancer. It happened one night that Anthony Henley, who was as remarkable for his wit, as Peter was for his money, met together at an inn on the road and joined company. In the course of the evening's conversation, Henley heartily rallied his new companion, on his immoderate love of money, and threw out some sarcastic hints on his manner of getting it. Walters was no less severe upon Anthony for his sovereign contempt of that precious metal, and his ways of squandering it. At best, (Henley said,) every body knows, Walters, how you got your money-but do be frank for once, and tell me how the devil you came by your wit, for they very rarely go together.'" Why, as to that, (said Peter) I thank my stars I am not indebted to nature for a grain of it--but you must know I have lately bought a good many estates from men of a bright fancy and high genius, and they gave me their wit into the bargain. ANECDOTE. Foote, the comedian, sometimes threw out some pleasantries on Garrick's avaricious propensity. Being once in company with Mr. Garrick, in the lower part of his garden at Hampton, Roscius, having a guinea in his hand, said, "I think, I could throw this guinea, to the other side of the Thames." The English Aristophanes expressed his doubts;" though I believe," added he, "that you can make a guinea go as far as any man.' At another time, when Foote was in company with Mr. Sheriff Vaillant, (who was much delighted in the practice of accumulation(he told the sheriff, that he could have saved him the expence of the chain, with which his neck was decorated" "How could you have done that?” replied the sheriff. "Why," retorted the other, " I could have borrowed Garrick's jack-chain-he has no occasion for it." JUVENILE RECREATIONS. ANSWER TO ENIGMA. Enigma's, &c. for Solution. An Enigmatical List of Young Ladies under the Tuition of Mrs. Law, Weston. 1. Part of a tree, and a wrinkle. 2. Three fifths of a quinsey, and a passage. 3. The place of interment, changing one letter, and adding another. 4. Five ninths of a bad writer, and the father of Abner. 5. Three-fifths of a cardinal point, and a weight. 6. Two-fifths of a grown person, a relative, and a con sonant. 7. A small medicinal ball, and an entrance. 8. A man's christian name, and part of the great deep. 9. One of the twelve signs, spoiling the fourth letter. 10. A person who dresses victuals, and a vowel. II. A commodity that's useful to beasts, and what we are often anxious to hear, omitting two letters. 12. A term applied unto things at their first appearance, and a word of two letters. ENIGMAS. 1. Ye ladies, who by wit refin'd, Of harden'd box, whose beauteous shade, With nicest art and skill I'm made; From the dark confines of the earth, 2. Dear gents, a youth unkown to fame, Can screen me from your piercing eyes; |