9d. a yard, usual price 48. 6d. ; 400 pieces undressed Scotch Holland, finest quality made, 28. 9d. a yard, worth 5s. 6d.; 12 boxes, or 700 pieces, at 1s. a yard, suitable for gentlemen's wear, worth 2s. 6d. ; 300 pieces, about 9d. a yard, worth double the money; 120 pieces of Russia sheeting, requiring no seam, 1s. 4d. a yard, finest quality, 28. 8d. a yard, trade price 4s. 6d. ; 200 pieces of Russia sheeting, 8d. a yard, worth 18. 4d.; 37 pieces at 1s. a yard, actually worth 28. 3d.; 2000 damask table cloths, 1s. 6d. each; large size, at 3s. Gd.; the best quality, 3 yards square, 10s. 6d., usual price one guinea; 4 yards long, 138. 6d.; worth 31s. 6d. ; and 6 yards long, 18s. 6d. ; worth 45s.; 300 dozens damask napkins, 48. 9d. per dozen; those at 78. 6d. and 10s. 6d. are very rich; the largest and best quality, 168. 6d.; worth 258.; 200 pieces of Irish and Holland sheeting, 6-4th wide, at ls. 4d. a yard; best quality, 18. 9d.; trade price, 38. 6d.; 900 pair of blankets, 1s. 6d.; those at 3s. are very large; excellent at 78.; the very best lamb's wool, 3 yards square, 14s. 6d.; cost the bankrupt 30s.; large counterpanes, 2s. 6d. to 48.; those at 38. are 4 yards square; Marseilles quilts, 88. each; 3 yards square, 128.; the largest and best, 188.; worth 3 guineas; 200 'pieces of Welch flannel, very fine, 1s. a yard; the finest quality, 1s. 9d.; worth 48.; 13,000 yards rich sars nets and gros de Naples, at 2s. 6d. a yard; trade price, 3s. 9d. to 48. 6d.; 300 dozen gentlemen's silk handkerchiefs, 18. 6d. and 28, 6d. each; real India, best quality, 38. 6d. each; retail price, 6s. 6d.; 4000 rich silk shawls, at a reduction of 40 per cent. off the factor's price; 80 pieces rich damask for table cloths, at ls. and 2s. a yard; 3000 green and blue table-covers, large size, 2s. 6d. each; 180 pieces Russia toweling, 34d. a yard; worth 9d.; strong huckaback, 4d.— All to be sold at the manufacturers' general warehouse, 86, east corner of New Bond-street, Oxford-street.-Alderson and Thorpe, managers."

Imagine Mrs. Batem returning with muff and pockets stuffed from this sale, and communicating her joy at the cheapness of her purchases, mingled with her horror at the cause. "Oh! my dear Mrs. Tattle, dreadful doings,-nineteen wholesale linen-drapers bankrupts, and seven absconded! Terrible times! Think of their poor families! Things went shockingly cheap. Look at this beautiful flannel for my under petticoats, would ye believe it, it stands me only in a shilling a yard! And this sarsnet, ma'am,-two and sixpence! Lovely, is not it? But to think of seven bankrupts absconded! I'm sure it breaks my heart [sheds a flood of tears]. You see this handkerchief; if you'll take my word for it, I bought it for three and sixpence, real India." Well, as dear Mr. Squintem says, it's wonderful how things accommodate themselves to our necessities in this vile sinful world. If seven bankrupt linen drapers abscond, and we weep for the DREADFUL DISTRESS IN TRADE advertised in the newspapers, why their handkerchiefs, you see, go the cheaper, and serve to wipe our eyes. Providence tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, and bandanas fall with tears! Mind you go to the sale to-morrow, Mrs. Tattle. Such an opportunity, you know, may never occur again. Nineteen bankrupts Horrible times indeed; and such beautiful gros de Naples at two and sixpence a yard;-the distress is dreadful to think. of-it will make up into lovely spencers.

TENDER REQUEST AND ROMANTIC EXPEDIENT.

"GUILDHALL.-John Dixon, a young man, was charged with stealing a pair of trowsers from the shop of Mr. Oram, in Newgate-street. The prisoner, it was stated, rushed into the shop, and tore down the trowsers from the place where they hung, and ran off with them in the most daring manner. On searching him, some letters were found on him, from a female convict at Woolwich, assuring him of her never dying affection, and imploring him to do something that would enable him to come after her to Botany Bay."

"Ye Gods, annihilate both space and time, and make two lovers happy," was, though a moderate, a foolish request, because the disobliging nature of the Gods has in all times been notorious, and it is pretty well known that they will not unhinge the universe for the accommodation of any two persons, however amiable and enamoured. John Dixon's princess showed her superior knowledge of things, therefore, instead of asking Heaven to annihilate space and time for the accomplishment of their re-union, in simply imploring her swain to commit a felony. A youth in days of romance, so circumstanced as John Dixon, would have hied him to the sea-shore, and spent his time and wasted his breath in calling upon some dolphin to bear him after the beloved of his heart to New South Wales, and other such impossible demands, which our lovers of old ever preferred to the slightest personal exertion. John Dixon, however, lives in an essentially practical age, and is evidently a practical man. He knew that the Gods were not likely to alter the geography of the globe for the convenience of himself and his princess; but that the Judges would very probably accomplish his wish in regard to time and space, by a sentence of transportation for fourteen years, provided he took the proper measures. He therefore perceived at once that a pair of breeches would be the dolphin which would serve to speed him over the seas to the desired haven of Botany Bay; and seized them as we have seen with a lover's fervour, saying, by these shall I be re-united with my beloved. The means, it must be confessed, if not romantic, were adequate, and admirably fitted to the end.

MR. CANNING AND HIS OPPONENTS.

Our worthy colleague, in his Diary of the Month, will no doubt acquaint those who are not already informed of it, that on the 12th of April, being the day before Good Friday, seven cabinet ministers struck work simultaneously, like so many journeymen tailors, in consequence of the appointment of Mr. Canning to the Premiership. One of them, Lord Bexley, has since become (to employ the language of refractory workmen) a dung, and returned to his work, or rather to his idleness, for he enjoys a snug sinecure, which nothing but an access of extraordinary fury could have induced so pious a man to tempt Providence by relinquishing. The rest continue flints. Tantæne, as Mr. Canning would say, Tantæne animis cælestibus iræ! Musa mihi causas memora. What the devil could have tempted

seven ministers, grave reputable people, four of the seven certainly as little suspected of any exuberance of fancy or understanding as any men in the King's dominions; people far too stupid, it was supposed, even for a freak like this. What could have tempted them to throw their bread upon the waters, in the hope of seeing it again after many days? One of the newspapers called them the pillars of the state; and considering the manner in which pillars are employed in modern buildings, seldom ornamentally, never usefully, the simile was happy ; and so commonly had they been considered as fixtures of this sort, that their secession excited scarcely less surprise than would be felt if some of the real pillars we have alluded to were to march from their pedestals, and make amends for their existence by breaking the heads' of those who set them up.

As far, too, as can be judged from outward circumstances, no punctilio need have forced them to this desperate step. Mr. Canning is not a young man, or a man low in office, thrust over the heads of his elders and superiors. He has been about thirty-five or six years in public life, and has long held offices next in rank to the highest; and especially for the three last years has held the second place in the ministry in the opinion of the world, perhaps the first. If we cannot explain satisfactorily the causes of the animosity which has been displayed towards him, we shall say a few words on his character and recent policy, in which perhaps some of the causes may present themselves.

Mr. Canning deserves, without doubt, the title of a finished orator according to the oratory and the finish of this age. There is no speaker in Parliament, whose speeches are so well suited to the assembly he addresses, and so well calculated, if not to convince, to bear down those who oppose him, and to give the hearers a confidence in his power. This is what is wanted in Parliament. When the fixed opinions of the Members of the House of Commons on the main questions submitted to them are considered, the great object of speaking-heyond the effect on the country through the reports, will be found to be the confidence which is inspired on the adherents of a party, by the manifestation of intellectual ability on the part of its leaders. Though it is perfectly true that nothing is more rare than a vote gained by a speech, nothing is more erroneous than to suppose that votes are not gained by speaking. Men support strength, and desert imbecility; and a leader of a party is supported in proportion, not to the strength of his proofs of the justice of his proposition, but to the strength of the proof of his own talents, supposing those talents not to be vitiated by some extraordinary moral infirmity. Keeping this object in view, we doubt whether modern times have seen an orator better suited to the House of Commons than Mr. Canning-better calculated to give confidence to those who follow him, and to intimidate and embarrass those who annoy him. A mode of expression as nearly approaching to the poetical, as is consistent with the gravity of oratory, a mode of reasoning as nearly approaching to the formality of syllogism, as is consistent with its ease, and with the scope of political discussion,-sentences finished, faultless and harmonious within themselves, and exactly cohering

with each other as parts of a whole, playful and brilliant wit, a rich store of allusions-all these, aided by an agreeable voice aud intonation, and a fine person, form a defence for his party which, like the shield of Ancas,

Too strong to take a mark from any mortal dart,

Yet shines with gold and gems in every part,

And wonders on it graved by the learned hand of art.

A shield that gives delight,

Ev'n to the enemies' sight,

Then when they are sure to lose the combat by it.

Mr. Canning's speeches are said to be studied, his intonation artificial, and his quotations common-place; and, to a certain extent, these objections are true. Every speech in a public assembly ought to be prepared, and as far as it is possible, prepared with care. There is not a more audacious insult on an assembly of men, than to spout forth an unpremeditated harangue, as it implies the assertion that the mere froth and scum of the speaker's mind deserves the attention of listening hundreds. If it be intended to convey the charge that Mr. Canning cannot adapt his speeches for the accidental purpose of debate, and give them life and colour from the circumstances of the moment, there is no accusation less founded in fact. His speeches are not more studied in appearance than those (for instance) of Sir James Mackintosh, a speaker, who for neatness, clearness, and force, rivals him; and who, with the advantages of the same parliamentary experience in early life, might, with the exception of a good organ, have equalled him in all the requisites of an orator. The artificial or measured intonation, agrees with the highly polished character of his oratory. In regularly recurring elevations and cadences of the voice, there is a degree of pretension which makes the hearer less indulgent to blunders or negligence, and more wearied by mere triteness and common place. But when the pretension is found to be justified by the matter, we are inclined to think that this peculiarity, as far removed from the slovenliness of ordinary intonation, as the style is from the looseness of ordinary conversation, adds to the effect which is produced, and makes the hearer more completely captive of the orator. Through similar arts in conversation, though Parr grew tiresome, except to bboobies, Johnson was undoubtedly imposing, even to wise and learned men.

Under the head of quotations, it may be more difficult to defend Mr. Canning. It is scarcely allowable, under any pretence, always to quote from the first half of the Eneid, the Eton Grammar, or Gray's Elegy. Yet it has been said, with some truth, that Mr. Canning adapts his quotations to the capacity of his hearers. They are the examples by which he brings his poetical phraseology within the cognizance of great school boys, who know not, to a certainty, the good or the bad in poetry, except what they have been taught so to consider, when exemplifying the concord between vapulant and verberant. It may be said, also, with equal justice, that to a fervid and poetical mind those passages, which are in the mouths of all men, because they are beautiful, do not lose their beauty by reason of their repetition. It is a great proof of Mr. Canning's talents, that his common-places

do not appear common place; but derive freshness from the manner in which they are introduced, and the unpalled sense of their beauties which the orator evidently retains.

The claims of Mr. Canning and his friends, grounded on his recent policy, are somewhat misplaced. The great feat of Mr. Canning ist the recognition of the independence of the New American States. Of the propriety of it there can be no doubt-of its importance a great deal. İf, indeed, it were correct to say, as Mr. Canning said in his speech on the affairs of Portugal, that he had called into existence these states, all the credit which he assumes, as the author of a great political change, would be due to him; but he professedly and carefully waited till the states in question had established their independence before he recognized it, nor has he since given them the slightest assistance in maintaining it. No doubt the new states owe much to the assistance of individual Englishmen; but this aid was given long before Mr. Canning's recognition. If Mr. Canning called a coach in the street, it would be too much for him to boast that his recognition called into existence a vehicle, which he would probably find to have been built in the time of Queen Anne. All that was really called into existence, by the recognition, was a crowd of consuls and ambassadors.

The affair of Portugal has been also a little magnified. We do not see that any minister could have refused to do what Mr. Canning did-could have refused to afford an ally the protection which a treaty guaranteed to her. Another minister might, perhaps, have done it more quietly.

It is the pretension of Mr. Canning, the con strepito of his policy, which appears in part to have annoyed the old Tories. They would have been content that he should have done what he has (and we have little doubt, in our own minds, that if Lord Londonderry had lived, he, too, would have recognized the new states and aided Portugal); but they would have him do it quietly. Their motto is Dame Quickly's, "I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater-but I do not like swaggering." Mr. Canning's demerit with them, and, perhaps, his merit with the rest of the nation, has been his swagger. He has studiously displayed his dissent from the Holy Alliance; he took an opportunity, in the discussions with Spain on the South American question, to call to mind that it had actually been debated among the Allies, whether the Bourbons should be restored, or no, to the throne of France; and in his olus speech, he reminded all the nations of the continent of the discontents of their subjects. He has thus given, rather by words than by acts, a character to his policy; a character which will be differently judged of by those who desire, and by those who dread, the alienation of the governments of the Continent from this country. The aim of Mr. Canning seems to have been to bring about this alienation, by all acts, short of hostility; or rather, by all declarations short of direct insult. The tendency of this policy has, we think, been good, whether it has been the effect of temper or of purpose.

The speeches of Mr. Canning, on the questions of foreign policy, have been condemned by the high Tories as unstatesman-like, on account of this very peculiarity. If, indeed, his tone has arisen from MAY, 1827.

G