“Be of our patron’s mind, whate’er he says;
  Sleep very much, think little, and talk less;
  Mind neither good nor bad, nor right nor wrong,
  But eat your pudding, fool, and hold your tongue.”

MAT.  PRIOR.

Therefore his friends, unless a special commission be given to them for that purpose, feel unwilling to break the gay circle of conviviality, and are individually shy of asking for what almost every one wishes.—­Kitchiner.

* * * * *

Though much has been done, the orthography of the Dutch language can hardly be considered as positively fixed.  A witty writer and one who has biographized the Dutch poets with some severity, but much talent, says—­

  Spell—­“Wereld “—­so sets up Siegenbeek, and then
  Comes Bilderdyk, and flings it down again. 
  He will have “Wareld”—­’Tis a pretty quarrel
  Shall I determine who shall wear the laurel: 
  Not I!—­I like them both—­and so I’ll say
  “Waereld”—­and each shall have his own dear way.

* * * * *

THE MEXICAN NAVY

Is in a most deplorable state.  The difficulty of reducing the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa led to the collection of some gun-boats, a couple of sloops of war, and two or three armed schooners.  This number has since received the addition of a line of battle ship, two frigates, and some other vessels of war.  Some English and American officers were engaged, but we believe that all the former have left the service, and that very few of the latter remain.  Commodore Porter, of vain-glorious memory, (who once wrote a book of Voyages,) was, and may be still, the marine commandant, and distinguished himself by threatening to blockade Cuba, and by being obliged to skulk at Key West, to avoid destruction by the gallant Laborde.  The Mexicans require no navy, and cannot maintain one; the sooner, therefore, they restrict it to a very few revenue cutters the better.  The nature of the country and the destructive climate of the coast, diminish greatly the necessity for keeping up a military establishment for external defence.  Foreign invasion can do little; more is to be dreaded from internal dissensions.—­Foreign Quarterly Review.

* * * * *

A prudent host, who is not in the humour to submit to an attack from “staunch topers,” “who love to keep it up” as bons vivants, whose favourite song is ever “Fly not yet,” will engage some sober friends to fight on his side, and at a certain hour to vote for “no more wine,” and bravely demand “tea,” and will select his company with as much care as a chemist composes a neutral salt, judiciously providing quite as large a proportion of alkali (tea men) as he has of acid (wine men.) To adjust the balance of power at the court of Bacchus, occasionally requires as much address as sagacious politicians say is sometimes requisite to direct the affairs of other courts.