immensely fidgety, "I see you are a good deal
occupied at first coming home. It's natural
enough that you should be. Dear me, there's
Sir John Cashbox! Will you excuse me for
one moment? I shall see you in a day or two,
and then we'll appoint a meeting when you're
not so busy. Good-by, good-by, I'm so delighted
to have seen you." And then he runs off after
the eminent banker, and you see no more of him
for a good six months. And so it is with his
offers of service. "If I had seen you two days
ago-only two days-I could have got the
thing as easily as possible, but now I am afraid
it's just too late. However, I'll see what can
be done; you know there's no one in the world
I am under greater obligations to than yourself,
my dear boy; and no one, I may safely say,
whom I should be so anxious to serve.'
"Of
course, after a few of these little displays of
friendly feeling, you are perfectly ready to give
a vote of "want of confidence" in Mr. Hearty,
and you say with the rest of the world, "he's a
Humbug."

Intimately allied with Cordial Humbug is what we may call Polite Humbug. Cordial Humbug is on the decline, and I am not sure but the same may be affirmed of Polite Humbug too. It was a very harmless development of the vice, and for the most part leniently regarded by mankind.

and left the mark he has left on the history of the world. He was a Humbug-a highly suc cessful Humbug of the Rough School. As the first and the greatest of the Rough Humbugs we own his greatness; otherwise it would certainly be high time for some historical Quixote to have a drive at him full tilt, causing that eternal tub to collapse once for all, shivering the lantern into an everlasting smash, and scattering the fragments to the four winds.

As to the acknowledged Humbugs of history, such as Richard the Third, or Henry the Eighth, or Louis the Eleventh of France, they stand confessed as arrant Humbugs. They would form good landmarks in the history of this vice, supposing any one should undertake to write it, and the Historian might make a great deal of the remarkable power of humbugging the ladies of his acquaintance possessed by the hump-back, and the singular capability shown by the more recent Humbug for humbugging himself.

much damage. But even supposing it did, could not Sir Walter wear it after all, saying that that stain was the garment's proudest decoration, and should never be effaced?

Sir Walter Raleigh, and that business of the cloak and the puddle. What are we to say about that affair? May we claim Sir Walter for a Humbug? Surely he knew what he was about, when he made that celebrated artful move of his. He knew that it would pay-pay for a new cloak, pay for the refurbishing of the old one. I shouldn't be the least surprised if the cloak was an old one. Or perhaps it was a What an interesting thing it would be to go garment to which the owner had taken a dislike. back into the annals of the past, with a view of Such things happen. I have myself a coat making researches into the History of Humbug. which never did, and never will, behave well To do this thoroughly, it would be needful to dig about the collar which I would cheerfully cast out the burial records of all historical characters, into a puddle if I could get a reasonable opporapply to each of them in turn the Great Ilum-tunity. Then one would like to know about the bug Test, and see how he stood it. When exact nature of that historical puddle. If it was Diogenes took up his residence in that tub of not a very wet puddle, it would not do so very his-which I fear was not often used for ablutionary purposes, and in which I have no doubt he made himself excessively comfortable-he knew that Alexander would come and see him, that the interview would be reported faithfully It is lamentable to think what vile suspicions in the Court Circular of the period, and, in short, will sometimes creep into the human mind, and that the circumstance would make a great sen-how hard, when once lodged there, they are to sation, and bring the philosopher into notice- get rid of. Do what I will, and fight against it or, as we say now, before the public. And then as I may, I cannot shake off a sort of dim imthat lantern business! Did it or did it not pression, by which I am perpetually haunted: show a considerable amount of cool self-confi--to wit, that dear old Izaak Walton was a dence that he was to constitute himself the only little wee bit touched with the discase whose judge of honesty-implying, of course, how very characteristics we are considering. This is a honest he was-and going peering about to look horrible confession. The man's memory is worfor others who should be good enough to keep shipped by a large circle of adorers, and to say him company? And a lantern too! What a disparaging word concerning him is to be guilty possible use was there for that lantern? Do of an act next door to church-burglary; yet people not show their honesty by broad day-somehow there is a slight impression of Humlight? Does it require lamp-light to develop it? It is a blessed thing to think how in these days Diogenes would be harassed by the British policeman, and how he would be directed to "move on," and to take "them things," meaning the tub and the lantern, and the rest of his theatrical properties, along with him.

bug left on the mind by the perusal of the celebrated work which has made "old Izaak's" reputation. There is an intense consciousness of superior virtue in the tone of the writer-as it comes out in the talk of the character who plays first fiddle in the dialogue-which is aggravating. Then there is a little too much I suppose it is not the most wonderful thing combining of religion and angling: "Indeed, in the world, but it certainly is one of the most my friend," says Piscator, 'you will find wonderful things, that this tremendous old im-angling to be like the virtue of humility, postor should have made the sensation he did, which has a calmness of spirit, and a world of

66

if you loved him," which almost makes one's flesh creep.

one whom we have just denounced as an especial and Arch-Humbug: "Let me tell you, scholar," says our author, "that Diogenes walked, one day, with a friend to see a country fair; where he saw ribbons, and looking-glasses, and nutcrackers, and fiddles and hobby-horses, and many other gimcracks; and having observed them, and all the other finnimbrums that make a complete country fair, he said to his friend, Lord! how many things are there in this world of which Diogenes hath no need."" Walton was a Humbug of the Simple and Amiable sort.

other blessings, attending upon it." In another place, the same speaker defends the pastime of angling by the example of the apostles, who, But, as if to complete the evidence against be it remembered, were fishermen by trade, himself, and to prove that we have not misand fished, not for pleasure, but to get a judged our old friend Izaak, we find him further living. Here is some wondrous special plead-on in his celebrated treatise allying himself with ing: "Concerning which last-namely, the Prophet Amos-I shall make but this observation, that he that shall read the humble, lowly, plain style of that prophet, and compare it with the high, glorious, eloquent style of the Prophet Isaiah, may easily believe Amos to be, not only a shepherd, but a good-natured, plain fisherman. Which I do rather believe by comparing the affectionate, loving, lowly, humble Epistles of St. Peter, St. James, and St. John, whom we know were all fishers, with the glorious language nad high metaphors of St. Paul, who we may believe was not. And for the lawfulness of fishing it may very well be maintained by our Saviour's bidding St. Peter cast his hook into the water and catch a fish, for money to pay tribute to Cæsar." Here, again, is a verse from the angler's song, in which the writer represents himself to be a follower of the apostles-in angling a pursuit, by-the-by, in which they probably did not engage.

The first men that our Saviour dear
Did choose to wait upon here
Blest fishers were, and fish the last
Food was, that he on earth did taste.
I therefore strive to follow those
Whom he to follow him hath chose.

Is not his portrait against him? No doubt it was the fashion of the age in which he lived to wear the hair long, and in curls; but this does not excuse Izaak's style of coiffure, much less a certain combination of intense amiability with cunning and stinginess, which seems to me to pervade his countenance: the latter qualities being especially developed about the corners of the mouth and among the crow's-feet which lie near the eyes. As a general rule, I have observed that men stricken in years, who wear grey hair very long, put behind their ears, and curling on the shoulders, are invariably Humbugs, and are not uncommonly tremendous Bores into the bargain.

When Burke in the middle of one of his most

A man may as well say that, because Sir splendid orations, suddenly plucked a dagger Humphry Davy was fond of fishing as a re-from his bosom, and flinging it upon the floor laxation from scientific pursuits, he (the reasoner) was a follower of Sir Humphry Davy, because he was an angler. Here is a cruel bit of Humbug from the same song:

And when the timorous trout I wait
To take, and he devours my bait,
How poor a thing sometimes I find
Will captivate a greedy mind.

The trout is not "greedy," but hungry, be it observed, and this is a cruel and wicked perversion of terms. A trout, angling for old Izaak, about breakfast time, with a bit of that "powdered beef" of which he was so fond, might have applied the same term to this "gentle angler" when he gobbled up the morsel, and, indeed, might have spouted the whole of the

verse.

In an amiable little passage, again, directing the harmless fisherman how to bait his hook with a live frog, there occurs an expression which the reader will view with abhorrence: "Put your hook through his mouth, and out at his gills, and then, with a fine needle and silk, sew the upper part of his leg with only one stitch to the arming-wire of your hook, or tie the frog's leg above the upper joint to the armed wire; and, in so doing, use him as though you lored him, that is, harm him as little as you may possibly, that he may live the longer." There is a sanguinary treacherousness about this,

as

of the House of Commons, exclaimed, "This is what you will gain by an alliance with France"

when our illustrious statesman was guilty of this performance, he perpetrated one of the most complete and finished acts of Humbug on record. Consider the preparation that must have been made to carry this affair into effect. Consider how the performer must have gone to the drawer of his cabinet of curiosities to search for that dagger, how he must have made sure of its fitting easily in the sheath-for his effect would have been ruined if it had stuck at the last moment, or come out of his waistcoat sheath and all-how he must have rehearsed in his study the best way of flinging it down, how he must have secreted it inside his waistcoat, perhaps dined with it there, felt that it was all right from time to time while chatting freely with friends in the lobbies of the House, given it a last loosening touch just before it was wanted, and then-flourished it out with a gleam and a twinkle before that august assembly!

Humbug is losing its hold upon the people of the newer generation. It still has its votaries, however, who cling to it-its votaries, its priesthood, and its Temple-a certain mighty Hall not a hundred miles from the Strand. I have heard that in that same Hall the song of Sally in our Alley may not be sung, because Sally's lover asserts that of all the days in the week he dearly loves but one day,

And that's the day that comes betwixt
The Saturday and Sunday,

For then oh! drest all in my best,
I walk abroad with Sally :
She's the darling of my heart,
And she lives in our alley."

The Hall is of opinion that, although it is not here openly avowed, that the lovers do not go to church, there is yet a certain vagueness about this "walking abroad," which renders the song unfit to be sung within that Temple of Humility. It is also on record that the national song of "Rule Britannia" is forbidden within its walls: not because it is a somewhat stupid and boastful piece of poetry, but because in the chorus to the song are to be found the words "Britannia rules the waves." Now it is aot Britannia, says Exeter Hall, that rules the

Wares.

stands presented to mayors, and engravings of other deeply-interesting trophies. He knew that architects and builders, booksellers and publishers, had periodicals specially devoted to their interests, and well conducted; and he once saw The Grocer, and learnt from its pages that there were groceries called manna-croup and melado, and cheeses known as Gouda, Kauter, and Edam, new milk. But it is only within the last few days that he has become acquainted with the existence of two publications of very peculiar qualities-organs steeped from the title to the imprint in matter relating to poverty and crime. They are both worth glancing through.

After this, we may drop the subject of Hum-« bug, dreading anti-climax.

GAZETTING EXTRAORDINARY.

The first is owned by, edited by, and bought by, our-your-everybody's-uncle. Here it is (London edition), price threepence, or ten shillings per annum, eight large quarto pages, The Pawnbroker's Gazette. Not "News," or Journal," or Herald," but "Gazette," as if to pleasantly remind its readers, of bankruptcies, and unredeemed pledges, and forced sales consequent thereupon. Printed and published in the highly legal and erst Insolvent Court locality of Serle's-place, Lincoln's Inn, this valuable organ has pursued the pawning tenor of its way for the last twenty-five years, gladdening the hearts of its subscribers by appearing with unfailing regularity once in every week. It bloomed into existence, therefore, concurrently with chartism and other national benefits; perhaps dilated on the eternal fitness of pawnbrokers, on the occasion of the Queen's marriage, the Duke of Wellington's funeral, and other great celebrations wherein portable property changed hands, and is now ably deprecating "the restrictions upon trade which are contained in the twenty-first section of the Pawnbrokers Act." We learn from the number before us that "recent events naturally attract attention" to these restrictions, and

QUIEN SABE? Who knows? is an exclamation constantly in the mouth of every Spaniard, from the hidalgo to the water-carrier. Que scais-je? What do I know? perpetually asks Michael de Montaigne in his Essays. When they prated of the universal knowledge of some one, To Archdeacon Paley, the old theologian bade them ask their friend if he knew how oval frames were turned. We are told that the cobbler should stick to his last, and that, provided he is acquainted with all the appliances of his trade, the mysteries of under and double-soling, welting, "ressing, fronting, clumping, taking up, screw pegging, and bevelling the edges, he need not bother himself about flints in the drift, or waste nis midnight oil in endeavouring to find an anti-ignorantly wonder what these "recent events" dote to disinfecting fluid. But suppose he does can possibly be. Carefully perusing this leading not know all about his own trade-suppose article, we come upon what seems the selfthe cobbler has not got the length of his last evident proposition, that "pawnbroking is a deproperly in his mind-suppose there are combi-licate operation," and are at once plunged into nations of cobbling of which he is ignorant-a a reverie on the delicacy of pawning. We, in style of boot-making of which he has never heard our utter ignorance, read "pawnbroking" from - what then? This is just where the shoe the outside point of view. Irresolute pacings pinches the writer who has now the honour to in front of the shop, mock interest in the articles address you. The desk is his lapstone, the pen for sale, affectedly careless swaggerings through his awl, the ink his thread, the paper his material. the front or purchaser's door, and furtive dartings He calls himself a skilled workman, and as such into the private entrance round the corner, are he ought to know all the branches of journalism, the only images the phrase "delicate operation" the trade to which he is affiliated. He thought conjures up. What can you expect of a man who he did know them all, in knowing the ordinary never heard of the baleful twenty-first section, daily papers, the weekly press, the "organs" of and who had no notion of pawnbrokers save as various classes, the "sporting organ," with its stern appreciative beings, mysteriously blessed singular phraseology and recondite lore; the with an unlimited supply of ready money, and illustrated papers, wherein are always to be entertaining, to a man, cynical doubts as to the found exactly the same crowds of blob-headed value of jewellery, and an unpleasant distrustaceless people staring with the same interest at fulness as to the quality of gold. But this royal processions, railway accidents, volunteer "delicate operation" refers, not to the tenderreviews, or the laying of foundation-stones, and ing, but to the acceptance of pledges, which, wherein, week after week, with singular perti- says the Gazette, "calls for great experience and acity, are presented engravings of trowels used knowledge of the world in those engaged in it." in the last-named operation, engravings of ink- We believe this so implicitly, that we find our

and advice, under the trying circumstance of an owner demanding property stolen from him, and pledged. Advice promptly given, assistance refused. Solicitor to society unfeelingly remarks there can be no doubt that the pawnbroker must give up the property, if it is identified; committee concur in his opinion. Committee return a similar answer to an application from a member for the means of defence (already refused by "the district committee") in connexion with some stolen and pledged silk; and justify their refusal by the remark that no successful resistance can possibly be made." Discussion on a felonious and absconding pawnbroker's assistant; on a pawnbroker who stopped goods, offered under suspicious circumstances; on a case wherein property had been pledged by a wife, and redeemed by a husband (on a legal declaration that the ticket was lost): whereupon husband and wife adjourn to the Divorce Court, and wife's solicitor produces ticket, and claims the pledged property on her behalf; upon "duffing" jewellery made specially to swindle the trade; and other kindred topics; prove that the sweet little cherubs who sit in committee at Radley's Hotel keep watch over the life and interests of every poor Jack whose profession is pawnbroking, and who falls among thieves, or otherwise knows trouble. These cherubs must not be confounded with the "Assistant Pawnbrokers' Benevolent Society," which is much agitated on Mr. Floodgate's case," and a report of whose meeting is on the next page.

self sneering with the writer at "no person under A member of the society applies for assistance the age of sixteen being permitted to receive pledges," and saying with him that it savours of "the burlesque conditions of the oath which our fathers were presumed to take at Highgate." By this time, we have lost all sympathy with pawners, and are so imbued with the spirit of the paper as to feel every inch a Pawnee. Adopting, as is our habit, the tone and opinions of the journal we are reading, we assert boldly that "the poor and ignorant are many of them most improvident in their habits;" we regret "it is impossible to repress this kind of improvidence by Act of Parliament;" we laugh with scorn at the absurdity of the supposition that "the pawn broker has a natural bias towards the receipt of stolen goods;" and we say that it is annoying to the regular licensed trader "to see the well-in tentioned efforts of the legislature only play into the hands of the dolly-shop keeper." We read the peroration of the article with a complacent feeling that it "settles" all profane people who would cast a doubt upon the divine right of pawnbroking, and so come triumphantly to the answers to correspondents. We are gratified to learn from the first of these that "in the event of any article pledged being found on redemption to have become damaged by rats and mice," we (regarded as a pawnbroker) are not liable to make good such damage, provided (and this is all important) we "keep up such an efficient staff of cats as a prudent man would be bound to do under such circumstances." Before we have decided on the exact minimum number of those domestic animals consonant with prudence, we are plunged into another "answer," wherefrom we find that under certain circumstances (not named) "the magistrates have the power to order the delivery of the property;" and that we can do nothing but submit until the pledger returns to England;" when, if he has sworn falsely, he may be prosecuted for perjury." Turning in due course to the police intelligence, we find it has been carefully selected, with an eye to the interests of the trade. Impudent robbery of coats from a pawnbroker's; a daring fellow who has broken a pawnbroker's window; a pawnbroker charged with dealing in plate without a license; and a pawnbroker as witness against a prisoner; are the principal cases reported; they curiously serve to show the various phases of life permeated by the golden balls. The report of the monthly meeting of the committee of "The Metropolitan Pawnbrokers' Protection Society" is also very agreeable reading, though we regret to find that "the effort to have an annual dinner this year was unsuccessful," and that "out of one hundred and seventy-three invitations issued, each requesting the courtesy of a reply, only twenty-one had met with any response." This regret is soon dissipated, however, in the vast interest inspired by the subjects brought before the committee. That the world is in a conspiracy against pawnbrokers, and that the most cautious conduct and the most complete organisation, are necessary, is obvious from this record.

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Not without difficulty, for the particulars are given in former numbers of the Gazette, which we have not seen, do we make out that Mr. Floodgate is a pawnbroker's shopman, who is being prosecuted for an alleged breach of the law relating to the purchase of precious metals. The Assistants' Society has met to discuss the propriety of furnishing him with the means of defence, and though some of its members express a strong opinion that it is the duty of “a master to defend his young man," still a committee is appointed to collect subscriptions on Mr. Floodgate's behalf. The solicitor informs us that "a defence may be conducted for twenty pounds, twenty-five pounds, thirty pounds, or, in fact, for any amount, according to the talent which might be retained," and hints that, "to defend this case in a style commensurate with the prosecution, we may be put to an expense of eighty or even one hundred pounds."

We feel this to be a good round sum, but preferring it to the vague any amount" previously mentioned, we separate, determined that our fellow-assistant shall be properly represented on the day of trial. That day of trial is now past; let us hope, therefore, that our efforts were not unavailing, and that Mr. Floodgate is (if wrongfully charged) at this moment making out duplicates, and rejoicing in the friendly protection afforded him by the society. Passing by the literature of the Gazette, we come to the advertising pages. Here we have more proof of the usefulness of the paper, by finding every