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and throughout the islands. I can perfectly well dispense, sir, with your testimony in my favour, being known not only in Spain but in other countries; I therefore do not complain of your proclamation; nevertheless, if you think proper to retract it, you may, as it cannot fail to excite just resentment and hostility, and to expose you to the censure of the public, and of all the European officers. They did not stand in need of applauses for their conduct on the 3d of June to immortalize their names, since there was not a single officer, nor even the lowest corporal in the whole army, who had not covered himself with laurels in the famous war against France, in which they snatched victory a thousand times from the hands of the tyrant, and restored their country to freedom.

God preserve you many years. Manilla, September 11th, 1823.

JUAN ANTONIO MARTINEZ.

After this proclamation nothing more was said on either side. I cannot, however, conclude this narrative without mentioning that the Spanish government, two months ago, recognized the innocence of the twenty-two merchants whom General Martinez threw into prison, and afterwards sent to Spain to be tried. They are set at liberty, and will probably pass through London on their way home. The Spanish government having come to a knowledge of the intrigues and disgraceful conduct of General Martinez, has, moreover, sentenced him to pay a fine of fifty thousand crowns, current money, and to repair to Spain to give an account of his actions.

DIARY

FOR THE MONTH OF MARCH.

THE discovery of a new plant, under the name of the Trichomanes Elegans, was about twenty years ago announced to the botanical world by Mr. Fudge, and his description of it has been copied into all the botanical systems at home and abroad. About six months ago the Duke of Marlborough received a communication from a French naturalist, stating that he had spent the twenty best years of his life in an unwearied and vain search after the Trichomanes Elegans, and earnestly requesting the duke to institute some enquiry about it; his Grace on this attended the Linnæan Society, and expressed a wish that a committee might be appointed to examine into the nature of this said Trichomanes, in the search of which a good gentleman had wasted a life. At the investigation, in the very face of its parent and godfather, the several parts of which the specimen was composed were separated by the application of a little warm water, and the whole plant was found to be artificially made up, like some of our reputed mermaids, composed of odds and ends, incongruous joints, fleshy heads, and fishy tails. The astonishment of the disappointed botanists could only be equal to the surprise of the Noble Trustees, who found petit-or when they expected gold plate.

Set a

; but perhaps the adage might scarcely be deemed civil. What a case was that of the poor naturalist, who had, for twenty years, run over the world in quest of this non-existing Trichomanes ! February 25th.-If we are to believe the newspaper report, Mr. Peter Moore made a strangely ingenuous speech last night in the

debate on the silk trade, in the House of Commons.

a morning paper:

I copy from

He

In

"Mr. P. MOORE said, he rose without any calculation. wished to advocate public right, public principle, and popular interest, without any principle. The Hon. Member went on to describe the state of distress existing at Coventry, and implored both the House and his Majesty's Ministers to grant the committee. a case so urgent he cared not for protecting duties or prohibitionshe would throw all overboard-[not thyself, my Peter!]-but he would save the people. [good man!] Let the smugglers on and go maraud as they might, and let them be hung as fast as they could be taken." [kind gentleman!]

The assertion, in the first clause, that Mr. Peter Moore rose without any calculation, wants only a single qualification, as the speech was evidently calculated for Coventry; but the avowal in the second sentence, that he would advocate public right, &c. without any principle, is of a rare ingenuousness. Nothing could be more natural than Mr. P. Moore's wish for the committee. On the same principle that the tanner recommended leather as the best of fortifications for a besieged city, Mr. P. Moore recommends a committee. He has found committees extremely good things, and naturally, though quackishly, recommends in every case, that from which he has derived such signal benefit. As for throwing duties overboard, that is the first thing which is done in parliamentary committees; I mean such committees as cause certain members of the most honourable of all houses to love the very name of committee as synonymous with the acquisition of all good things. The exhortation to hang all the smugglers is at present premature, as no law to that end is in effect; and whenever any addition is made to our criminal code, parliament, in its justice, will see the superior claims to hanging of some gentlemen who have carried on an illicit traffic in certain numbered rooms in a great house in Westminster. Till these offenders on a grand scale are handed over to Jack Ketch, we cannot hear of hanging for the smaller fry of

rogues.

Canning commenced a just and spirited attack on the Eldon party last night, by speaking of a faction small in numbers, when the Opposition ridiculously enough taking this description to themselves, cried, " No, No."

If you mention vice or bribe,
'Tis so pat to all the tribe,

Each cries that was levell'd at me.

27th. Another meeting of the Arigna Mining Company. Mr. Brogden, as before, protested his innocence, and again avowed his resolution, by no means to part with the money. Surely that is a good old proverb which says that "Brag is a good dog, but Hold-fast is a better," and Mr. Brogden is determined to be both these good dogs, he brags and holds fast too; he boasts his innocence, and pockets the price of it. He cannot think of refunding the 10477., it would look so like guilt. I wonder whether he has ever thought what pocketing it looks like. Yesterday he reprobated, in the strongest terms, the conduct of the directors in taking 15,0007. for the mines more than they r little had paid for them. "He considered it," says the report,

as

differing in its principle from a felony." But, nevertheless, Mr. Brogden is content to play the part of the receiver-a share of the stolen goods has passed into his possession, and he retains possession of it, because innocence never returns money. "He declared himself incapable of participating in such a transaction." Considered as a transaction, it was bad; but there seems to be no objection to participating in the 15,000l., the profits of it; the quarrel is with the men, not with the innocent money. The 10477. in Mr. Brogden's pocket is not to blame, and why should he fall out with his unoffending bread and butter?

A STRONG Figure of sPEECH.- "It (a bull of the Pope) is too long and stupid for insertion in our columns."-The Representative. March 3rd.-Sir Anthony Carlisle astonished the natives at the College of Surgeons by taking an oyster as the subject of the last Hunterian Oration. He edified his hearers by giving the names of the oyster in all tongues, and then proceeded to dissect its liver. For a long time people were at a loss to understand what had made the Hunterian Oration so fishy, but at last Lord Colchester was discovered among the audience, and it was immediately manifest that the oyster had been served up in compliment to his lordship, whose title is so closely associated with the fame of this fish.

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Mignet's history of the French Revolution was commenced on a very modest plan. He undertook to write a short history of the Revolution for the use of schools, but finding the work growing under his hands beyond his plan, he carried the manuscript to the bookseller, and asked him whether something more than he had projected might not be made of it. The bookseller agreed that the work was a work for men, and consented to extend the plan of it, but still limited the author to a length which has rather cramped him in some places, more especially in the second volume. To supply these deficiencies M. Mignet is about to make some addition to the work. After all that has been written on the subject, the mass of English readers are very ignorant of the history of the French Revolution; they know little or nothing of it, beyond its horrors, which they consider, as the late Lord Londonderry would have said, in a lump, without reference to the time and space over which they were spread. John Bull sees only the blood of the Revolution; let him read Mignet, and see also its brains the wisdom, the virtue, the energy of it in its earlier stages, together with the frenzy and violence of its crisis.

4th. The elephant which has just been savagely murdered, was a very Brogden in money matters, and returned nothing that came to hand. A friend of mine once witnessed a pleasant example of his proficiency in these affairs. The keeper having stated that the beast was so sagacious that he could distinguish good money from bad, a French from an English half-crown, a Frenchman present observed that he should like to try him, and threw into the cage a half-crown, which the elephant raised from the ground with his trunk, and having lifted it to his eye and seen and approved it, deposited it very soberly in a box at the top of his den. The keeper upon this highly extolled the sensible proceeding of the beast; but the Frenchman demurred, observing, that he had not signified whether it was good or bad."Oh, no fear of that, Sir," said

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the keeper, your honour may be sure that its good by his taking of it. The hanimal's as sensible as a Christian, and he would not have taken the money if it had been bad." "In that case," rejoined the foreigner, "I am satisfied, and should like to have my half-crown back again." "Oh!" said the keeper, "if your honour fancies going into the cage to get the half-crown out your honour's very welcome, and I'll open the door for your honour with all my heart; but, for my part, I would not go in to take any of his money out-no, not for a thousand pounds-for the hanimal's for all the world like a Christian, and would tear any body limb from limb that did but look at his money, much more go to take any of it

him."

away from 10th. We are the most modest people under the sun, and yet our modesty is a riddle. How is it that ladies, who would go into fits at the bare mention of breeches, or expire at the dinner-table, if you were to name the thigh of a chicken, will throng into an assize court to hear the trial of an action for seduction? See what happened at Worcester the other day:

Worcester, March 7th.

SEDUCTION.-Knott v. Crisp.-This was an action against the defendant, for the seduction of the plaintiff's daughter. As soon as the case was called on, Mr. Baron Garrow, looking towards the throng of ladies.who attended the court, said: "I do not desire the ladies to wait in court to hear any thing that may shock their modesty, unless they like it.

One or two ladies then retired, but the remainder were induced to keep their seats, by Mr. Campbell saying that he was not aware of any thing PARTICULARLY indelicate that would come out in the course of the case.-Morning Chronicle, March 10th, 1826.

I have the gratification of being treated with the following interesting report in my newspaper of to-day. It is certainly pleasant to be regaled at one's breakfast-table with the account of public-house carousals, written in the appropriate pot-house manner. The paragraph I copy is redolent of the smoke of tobacco and the effluvia of gin. The company is worshipful.

SHAKSPERIAN MEETING.-The fourth meeting of this society was held on Monday, at the Garrick's Head Tavern, Bow-street, when another of these rich theatrical, musical treats was given to a large and highly respectable assemblage of gentlemen. The chairs were filled by Messrs. Isaacs and Blanchard. The cloth being removed, "Non Nobis" was finely sung by Messrs. Isaacs, Pearman, Bedford, Foster, and Gibbon. After which the chairman gave "the King, the patron of the drama." Mr. Isaacs was in fine voice, and sang the "Convent Monk" with great effect, previous to his leaving the chair to attend the theatre. Mr. Pearman was called to fill the vacancy; and, assisted by Messrs. Bedford and Blewitt, gave several Glees in the finest style; the harmony produced on the fine tones of Mr. Bedford's voice afforded great pleasure. But the principal feature of the evening, called forth on the memory of the Bard being drunk, was the production of Garrick's Monody, altered for the meeting with great judgment by Mr. Bennett, and composed by Mr. Hughes, in which the latter has evinced great taste; it was sung by Mr. Pearman, with that taste and feeling which is so peculiar to his style, and by which he made an impression that will long be remembered by the meeting. The company were delighted with the sop of the facetious Blanchard's dripping pan, and gave the meed of applause to Messrs. Hudson and Morgan, for the comic talents employed by them. It is a little remarkable, the clock in the room stood at the hour of twelve, as if Time was anxious to linger with the pleasures of the society; it was understood that Messrs. Blanchard, Pearman, and Bedford, will preside on the next occasion. A gratifying feeling appears to prevail at these meetings, both with the professors and the amateurs, the former, with the greatest urbanity (Messrs. Hudson, Morgan, Pearman, Bedford, Hughes, &c.) mingling all their talent and powers for the banquet; while the latter hail their presence with delight, as a tribute of good fellowship.

When and where do the scene-shifters and candle-snuffers hold their theatrical festival? I should like to hear whether the clock would stand at the hour of twelve with them," as if Time was anxious to linger with the pleasures of the society," or as if the landlord said, no tick.

15th. It is the fashion of our legislators to make a law for every particular evil or convenience that occurs. The Comet was run down by another steam-boat, and therefore the Lord Advocate moved the other day for leave to bring in a bill to prohibit and prevent steamboats from running their heads against each other; the folly, like all other follies, more particularly in the House of Commons, was contagious, and accordingly, yesterday, Mr. Estcourt, the new representative of Oxford, presented a petition, praying that all persons travelling in carriages by night should be compelled to carry lamps, and all pedestrians lanterns. I hope that if this suggestion passes into law, (and who shall say what may not pass into law through the channel of the collective wisdom?) the regulation will be further improved by the adoption of the aristocratical distinctions in lanterns which are observed in Guernsey. Guernsey is the very model of an island: aristocratical as we are in England, they beat us hollow in this particular in Guernsey. There are three classes in Guernsey-the Sixtys, the Fortys, and the people of no account, or the noughts, if one must describe them at all. The Sixtys are the original settlers, the nobility as it were, the ancient families, and, like these great people in most places, they are for the most part the most narrow-minded and stupid, the worst educated, and the least prosperous persons in the island. The Forty come next, they are the people of yesterday, the terræ filii, and among them may be found the most wealthy, the best informed, and the most enterprising persons in the island. But the Sixtys will not associate with them. Many of the Fortys, the children of rich men, receive the best educations (I do not say good educations, because there are none) in England, and are received in the best English society, but when they return to Guernsey they are refused admission into the assembly-rooms, and cut by the Liliputian aristocracy as an inferior cast. I now come to the distinctions. It is the proud distinction of the Sixtys to be entitled to carry two candles in the lanterns by which they see their way through their filthy streets and narrow lanes at night. The Fortys are permitted to carry but one candle in their lanterns, but as for the zeros, or nobodys, I do not know whether they are privileged to carry a light or not, they may be permitted farthing rushlights, but I can speak with no certainty on this head. Certainly on a night of a drum (a Guernsey party, of a very hum-drum character, so called) it is a great and a glorious thing to see the beacons of worshipful pedestrians blazing, the ensigns of ancient race shining about the streets and alleys, not flashing and flitting at the rapid and undignified rate of lamps borne by a rattling London carriage, but proceeding at the staid, decorous pace of a maid-of-all-work, in red cloak, marshalling her Sixty and master or mistress the way that he or she shall deign to go. These lanterns are the armorial bearings of Guernsey nobility. The dual light of their moulds are their proud blazonry. The contrast is very striking indeed between the high bearing of a lantern with two candles, and the humble go-by-the-ground carriage of one with a solitary mould, and if it were not for seeing the Sixtys in the day time

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