4 horse, as if he were at leisure. He is as bulky as mea of his size commonly are, and, should he ever lose his flesh, will probably fall away somewhat. By the singular accident of having been born in the year 1769, he is now more than forty; his length of life will depend upon the number of years he may survive: he is, it is reported, occasionally indisposed by slight fits of illness; his health would otherwise be uninterrupted. With regard to temperance, he might safely be upbraided for the want of that virtue, were he to drink as many cups of brandy as he does of coffee, which, however, it is not his custom to do. Among the caprices and absurdities of his disposition may be ranked, a droll method he has of speaking to every one with whom he converses, and very often waiting for an answer after he has asked a ques tion; add to these, his practice of sitting on chairs, lolling on sofas, writing with an ordinary pen and ink, and being cheerful when he is in good spirits; and you may be said to have a tolerably exact picture of the present French Emperor, of whom, if you like this sketch, you shall hear something more at a future period, From, Sir, yours, M. Swan Tavern, near St. Martin's Lane, Oct. 11. THE DISTRESSED TRAVELLERS; on, LABOUR IN VAIN. BY WILLIAM cowper, ESQ. (An excellent New Song to a Tune never sung before.) THE [From the same, Oct. 18.] HE following Jeu d'Esprit, by Mr. Cowper, author of The Task, descriptive of one of his rural excursions, is not in his published Poems, or in his posthumous Works: Mesine' of a journey to Clifton We would have perforin'd if we cou'd, 3. Without cart or barrow to lift on t Poor Mary †, and me, through the mud. Stuck in the mud; O it is pretty to wade through a flood! So away we went slipping, and sliding, Hop, hop, à la mode de deux frogs, "T is near as good walking as riding, 390 When the ladies are dress'd in their clogs. peskoa, tu es Wheels, no doubt, ebGo briskly about, But they clatter, and rattle, and make such a rout. edio e lo end me be DIALOGUE.' SHE. Well! now, I protest it is charming; That cloud is rather alarming, How slowly and stately it moves!'! HE. Pshaw! never mind, "T is not in the wind, We are travelling south, and shall leave it behind." SHE. "I am glad we are come for an airing, HE. The longer we stay,' The longer we may; It's a folly to think about weather or way." SHE. "But now I begin to be frighted, * A village near Olney. 1 D3 † Mrs. Unwin. HE. "Nay, never care, "Tis a common affair; You'll not be the last, that will set a foot there.” SHE. "Let me breathe now a little, and ponder On what it were better to do: That terrible lane, I see yonder, I think we shall never get through." НЕ. "So think I : But, by the by, We never shall know, if we never should try." SHE. "But, should we get there, how shall we get home? Now it is plain, That struggling and striving is labour in vain." HE. "Stick fast there, while I go and look.” SHE. "Don't go away, for fear I should fall." HE. “I've examin'd it every nook, And what you have here is a sample of all. The dirt we have found Would be an estate at a farthing a pound." Which critics won't blame, ว For the sense and the sound, they say, should be the same. *The late Lady Austin, ON ON THE PROMOTER AND VICE-PRESIDENT' OF THE INTENDRD BRITISH HERRING FISHERY COMPANY. [From the same, Oct. 19.] THAT HAT pains-taking body, Has of late touch'd the pelf of curmudgeons:- Of nice herrings a batch But as yet has caught nothing but gudgeons. BUONAPARTE BECOME SHOPKEEPER. 66 OF all the passions that rage in the human breast, there is none more active or rancorous than Envy; it poisons and corrodes every pleasure; while to its jaundiced eye the fairest prospects take the sickly hue of yellow. As Necessity is the mother of Invention, so may Envy be called the parent of Hatred; and from this hateful source spring Slander, Abuse, Injustice, and Falsehood. When Napoleon Buonaparte first, in derision, denominated us "A Nation of Shopkeepers," we imputed the taunt to his anti-commercial habits, who made all his bargains at the point of the bayonet, and paid in lead what gold could not purchase: we, therefore, contented ourselves with the repartee that if we were Shopkeepers, he would find us, in spite of all his efforts, determined to keep our Shops. Here the matter rested. We, though only Shopkeepers, continued to deal with our adversary in his own wares; and Trafalgar, Maida, the Nile, and Vimiera, afford proof sufficient that the rate of Exchange was much in our favour. Indeed, even Napoleon himself confesses, that in war we are considerably above par; and when in battle it comes to the D 4 push, push, there has always been among the most forward of his ranks a melancholy fall of Umnium !-In the more pacific modes of trade we also continued to deal together a little; and in this, as well as in the former, the British were invariably acknowledged to be, sharp fellows, who knew how to turn the penny, and to turn the enemy. Finding that in either species of traffic the advantage was all on our side, he at length resolved to take away his custom altogether, and have no further dealings in our Colonial Produce, such as sugars, coffee, &c. or in our Home manufactures, such as fine spirited soldiers and gallant seamen. His invectives became more strong, his abuse gathered new force, his acrimony imbibed additional violence, and we found out that all his former conduct sprung from pure envy that he did not call us Shopkeepers because he disliked trade, but because he found the grapes were sour, hated the traders, and in fact longed most vehemently to turn Shopkeeper himself. On this speculation, he began in no very honourable way, by depreciating the commodities and calumniating the characters of others established before him, and particularly by slandering the good old Firm of John Bull and Co. To listen to this new Shopkeeper's dark in-sinuations, broad hints, and sometimes open accusations, one would have thought that the good Old Firm was on the very eve of bankruptcy, and that their names would appear in the next Gazette. Having by these means, as he thought, shaken the confidence heretofore had by customers in the Old Firm, his next trick was to try to set himself up in business, which was no easy task, seeing he had neither capital nor credit. No one would trust him with a farthing, and he had no property of his own to produce goods for sale. In this dilemma, which would have discouraged any common rogue, our new Shopkeeper set his wits to work, and, being a clever fellow, he soon succeeded, |