In the month of May, last year, my respected employers, Messrs Haldane and Smart, retired from business in favour of the present firm; and as I could not come to terms with their successors, I found myself without employment. I waited some time in expectation of an offer, but so many applications are always made for any office, however small, that it is very difficult to procure a situation so comfortable and well paid as my former one had been. I have often thought that the gentlemen of our profession labour under many disadvantages to which others are not exposed. If an army officer's services are no longer required, he retires on the gentlemanly independence of his half-pay, and lives quite at his ease on his seven or eight shillings a-day. A navy commander in the same way is amply provided for by a liberal country, which allows him, while enjoying complete relaxation, a very handsome income; for I have known officers who have not been more than thirty years afloat in the enjoyment of nearly ninety pounds a-year. But, in our profession, there is no such comfortable provision for our idle time; and in addition to that, we have many expenses to which neither the navy nor army is liable. There is constantly a great loss in selling our gigs; and generally-unless you are fortunate enough to meet with a gentleman of no practical experience of the road a still greater in disposing of our horses. For it would be very bad policy to keep either the one or the other, at a great expense, while out of employment, and therefore you feel obliged to accept the first offer. I was on the very point of disposing of my iron-grey, having advertised him as a well-known hunter, up to any hounds, when I heard that there was an opening in the extensive establishment of Messrs Millar and Hoggin buck, general merchants in the Mileend road, London. The chance of a metropolitan engagement, which had for many years been the object of my ambition, excited me to the greatest. efforts. I procured the highest testi

monials from my late employers in payment of a portion of my salary still unsettled; and after a correspondence, in which all minor points were settled, I was invited to wait on the principals in person; I was fortunate enough to please the respected Mr Hogginbuck, who concluded an engagement with me for three years on very liberal terms, and I here beg to express my gratitude for his kindness. He is a gent of the greatest urbanity, and an honour to his profession. The gentleman who had filled my situation was Mr Hogginbuck's only son, and I felt it a great responsibility to undertake the duties that had formerly devolved on so near a connexion of one of the principal partners. I got my iron-grey into condition very soon, and after some additional plates had been put to the springs of my gig, I proceeded along the Birmingham road -for I belonged fortunately to the Northern Circuit-to complete the journey which had been commenced by my predecessor. He had broken off from his employment at the town of Daventry, and I had a great deal to do to make up for his unexpected departure. At last, by dint of some additional labour, I got all the customers satisfied, and proceeded further north with my order-book remarkably well filled, considering the circum stances of the case. On arriving in Birmingham, I was kindly introduced by one of the most esteemed correspondents of our firm, to the representatives of many other first-rate Lon-. don-houses in the travellers' room of the Hen and Chickens. The manner in which my professional brethren received me shall ever remain indelibly engraved on the tablets of my heart, as I told them in a speech I made when I was drunk-my health I mean -the very first day after dinner. Their kindness nothing could exceed ; and after the first awkwardness of an introduction to so many strangers was past, I will boldly say that "I felt that I was surrounded"-as I mentioned to them in the same speech"not by new acquaintance; not by people I had never met with before;

very little man, draw in his horns; but Mr Mullins, in his usual good. natured and gentlemanly style, settled the dispute in a most satisfactory

manner at once.

"Browne," he said, "glasses all round; and if you insult any gentleman in that 'ere way again, I bets three to one in grogs, you're kicked out o' this here room in less than no time; for what does it signify to us whether Smith writes books for twopence or not? I think, for my part, it would be rare good fun; and if he would just trim them up a bit, and not publish 'em except among ourselves, the adventures of our predecessors would make very good entertainment."

A universal clapping of hands followed this proposition, and Mr Williams, who is representative of a great crockery house in the East, insisted that the proposal should be regularly made and seconded. Whereupon we immediately formed ourselves into a meeting. Mr Mullins was voted into the chair, I was appointed secretary, and the business was commenced in due form.

At a large and influential meeting, held this ninth day of June 1841, within the commercial travellers' room, at the Hen and Chickens, in Birmingham, Mr Mullins in the chair, Mr Williams rose and said :

position. "It would be a most everlasting shame, gentlemen, if ours was the only society that allowed the memory of its members to perish from off the face of the earth, without ever a moniment of any kind whatever. Hasn't the lives of the physicians been written? and the lives of the admirals? and the lives of the great commanders? and hasn't even the statesmen had their lives written by Lord Brougham? or, to come nearer to ourselves, hasn't the lives of the highwaymen -?"

Here Mr Piper was interrupted by lond cries of order,' which were stilled by the president, who rang the bell and said, "glasses all round to Mr Piper" and added-" keep a civil tongue in your head, Piper, or blowed if you won't be kicked."

Mr Piper bowed to the chair, and proceeded-" I was going to say, gentlemen, that almost all classes of men have found their biographers and historians, I instanced the highwaymen, and was about to go still lower in my illustrations, for I was on the point of alluding to the attorneyseven they, gentlemen, have their deeds written and their actions recorded(hear, hear, and great laughter,)—and shall we allow the great doings of our honourable fraternity to sink into oblivion? No. I therefore feel proud in giving the resolution all the support in my power."

"Gentle

Mr Pidsey then rose. men, I beg to relate a anicdut. There was once on a time a gal as was always twitted by her mother that she wasn't married, but stood a very good chance of being a hold maid. Ho! said the gal, I'm very agreeable, and the parson's agreeable, and ve're all agreeable together, only there's never a man I can get to ask me; do all as ever I can.' Now, gents, that anicdut came very pat into my head, when I was asked to propose the second resolution, for, thinks I, ve're all mighty agreeable to have the biographies written, there's a plenty of biographies to write and luckily ve're more fortunate than the gal, for we have also a man that, I dare say, will be very agreeable to write them. I mean our new acquaintance, Mr Smith; a gentleman, I must say, whose astonishing tal

and therefore I propose that Mr

Smith be appointed histriographer of the northern circuit."

This proposal was seconded in a very eloquent speech by Mr Pawky, a Scottish gentleman, representing a great tea-house in Cheapside, but whose oratory was of a very peculiar kiud, which I confess myself incompetent to the task of reporting. I may mention, that the principal advantage he saw in the arrangement was, that the duties were to be performed without a salary-adding, at the same time, that if at any future period any pay were attached to the office, he would make a point, out of pure love of literature and respect for his professional brethren, of becoming a candidate for it himself.

Mr Smith rose amid great demonstrations of applause. "If I was not aware, gentlemen, of your exceeding good nature, and the truly elevated and honourable feelings which actuate all your actions, I should at once refuse the high offer you have made me, as one much above my abilities, (no, no!) and which might make me liable to misconstruction in quarters where it is my duty and my inclina. tion to establish as good a character for myself as I can. But emboldened by my knowledge of your high sentiments, and relying on your cordial cooperation in the task you have assigned me, I at once accept the duties you impose, and beg you to believe that my heart is thrilled with the deepest feelings of gratitude for your kindness. Yes! gents, I am devoted to literature and the fine arts; and many times in my gig have weaved fantastic tales which I have never hitherto had time or encouragement to reduce to writing. In passing along where gibbets still wave their scraggy arms above the blasted heath, I have peopled the scene with the brave, but guilty; the young, the beautiful! and hanging from the dismal drop, I have fancied to myself a hero such as limners love to paint and ladies to look upon. Or, in passing through a country town, and observing the brassplate on the door, and other demonstrations of high life, on the principal attorney's dwelling, I have conjured to myself a scene of elegant aristo

cracy, within its yellow-curtained drawing-room, with the blooming daughters panting for the honours of Almack's, and the mother sighing for the society of congenial countesses in Grosvenor Square. But if such the dreams of fancy, think how enchanted I am with my new situation, which gives me access to the best authenticated anecdotes of actual living men; gentlemen from position and education(hear, hear!)-with introductions to the first families in the country, and with talents to avail themselves of whatever may offer, either in the way of interest or amusement. On your kind assistance I rely in furnishing me with all the incidents you can remember; and as method tends to make every effort easier, I propose, if it be agreeable to this meeting, that each member should furnish me with materials for the history of his predecessor, so that we shall carry on the chain unbroken to our descendants. My fancy pictures to me the enquiring student of future days poring over the lines of the commercial travellers on the northern circuit, as he now looks on the uninterrupted succession of the Cæsars, in the pages of Gibbon. Here he will see by what train of events Williams succeeded Tomkins, and was himself succeeded by Higgins; and even modesty itself will not prevent me from indulging in the elevating dream, that future ages will know the minutest particulars of the substitution of the dynasty of Smith for that of Hogginbuck, and alsowhen years have had their usual effect on me-the causes which have led to the elevation of some other gentleman to the proud situation which I now unworthily hold. At our next meeting, gents, I shall be prepared with a memoir of my worthy predecessor, Mr Samuel Hogginbuck, and rely on your assistance to enable me to complete the series; applying, in the next instance, to Mr Mullins for the particulars of his predecessor's fate."

Thanks were unanimously voted to Mr Mullins for his conduct in the chair, and also to the secretary for his zeal and ability.

JOHN MULLINS, Chairman.
H. SMITH, Hon. Sec.

SAMUEL HOGGINBUCK, at eight-andtwenty, was the pride and ornament of the northern road. He had a spanking mare and a green gig, and sat with a cigar in his mouth, and his grey hat stuck knowingly on one side of his head, the whip skilfully poised across his mare's flank, and his feet stretched out till they touched the inside of the splash-board. It was impossible for any person to look more completely genteel. He himself constantly expressed his internal conviction that he was a kiddy-swell, and repeated this opinion so often, and backed it with so many oaths, that, by universal consent, it was the name he was known by. It was a beautiful sight to see the kiddy-swell trotting along the road on a bright day of June. He seemed to have a secret consciousness that he had a character to support, aud in the loneliest places was as erect and as punctilious in the set of his hat, and arrangement of his legs, as in the midst of Fleet Street. The milestones must have been astonished at seeing so well-dressed a man apparently as anxious for their approbation as if they had each been a young lady with a fortune of five thousand pounds; only mile-stones are exceed ingly unlike young ladies, whether with five thousand pounds or not, for they are very unimpressible, and, accordingly, they cared not a sixpence for all the airs and graces, the fine clothes and graceful attitudes, of the kiddy-swell. He was, indeed, a very handsome fellow. A large nose, which had at one time, apparently, determined to be an aquiline, but had altered its mind, and rolled itself round and round till it was difficult to discover to what order of figures it belonged, was, as in duty bound, the principal feature of his face. When you met him full in front, the nose assumed no particular appearance, but was lost in the umbrageous forests that extended their depth of shade upon either cheek. It was only when you got a glimpse of his profile, that you were aware of the peculiar rotundity of the feature. And the kiddy-swell took an amazing

A

pride in displaying it to the best advantage. This desire was perhaps the cause of a peculiar habit he had of turning only one side of his face towards any one he conversed with; the reason he assigned for it was, that he was a little deaf of one ear; but it was unanimously agreed by all his friends, that the excuse about the hearing was a regular sham, for that Mr Samuel Hogginbuck heard as well as his neighbours, except when he was not in the humour to hear. His whiskers, after extending to the root of the nose, and projecting a vast expanse of hair under his chin, were continued in a modified form across his upper lip by a belt of mustache. smaller clump also showed to great advantage in the hollow above his chin; so that it was evident to the most cursory observer that he had deeply studied the art of ornamental planting. His neck belonged to that order of masculine beauty called the bull; it was very thick, and rose from prodigious shoulders, and a chest to whose naturally enormous dimensions he thought it necessary to add, by stuffing his double-breasted coat with two or three handkerchiefs, leaving only a small portion of one of them, generally a red Bandana-such as used to sell for half-a-guinea, but now costs not more, wholesale, than fourand-sixpence-projecting below the third button. A frame of Herculean size, with legs more indicative, perhaps, of strength than elegance, completed the outward man of the kiddyswell-and a very awkward man to quarrel with, you may depend upon it, the kiddy-swell would have been. But fortunately his good nature was equal to his other perfections, and-his temper was kept in a perpetual glow of universal philanthropy by the sunshine of self admiration.

There are no highways so pleasant to travel on in England, as the fine, smooth levels in the neighbourhood of Towcester; and few scenes are so interesting and varied as those you meet with in driving through the crowd of villages that lie on both sides of the road. Great handsome halls in stately parks, are perhaps more numerous