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COURT SQUABBLES.

Mr. Crawfurd, in his Embassy, describes the following ludicrous scene arising from a misunderstanding between the sovereign of Birmah and his ministers:—­“The ministers last night reported to the king the progress of the negotiation.  His majesty was highly indignant, said his confidence had been abused, and that now, for the first time, he was made acquainted with the real state of affairs.  He accused the ministers of falsehoods, malversations, and all kinds of offences.  His displeasure did not end in mere words; he drew his Da, or sword, and sallied forth in pursuit of the offending courtiers.  These took to immediate flight, some leaping over the balustrades which rail in the front of the Hall of Audience, but the greater number escaping by the stair which leads to it; and in the confusion which attended their endeavours, (tumbling head over heels,) one on top of another.  Such royal paroxysms are pretty frequent, and, although attended with considerable sacrifices of the kingly dignity, are always bloodless.  The late king was less subject to these fits of anger than his present majesty, but he also occasionally forgot himself.  Towards the close of his reign, and when on a pilgrimage to the great temple of Mengwan, a circumstance of this description took place, which was described by an European gentleman, himself present, and one of the courtiers.  The king had detected something flagitious, which would not have been very difficult.  His anger rose; he seized his spear, and attacked the false ministers.  These, with the exception of the European, who was not a party to the offence, fled tumultuously.  One hapless courtier had his heels tripped up in his flight; the king overtook him, and wounded him slightly in the calf of the leg with his spear, but took no farther vengeance.”

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LULLABY.

SHAKSPEARE, in Titus Andronicus, says,

  “Be unto us, as is a nurse’s song
  Of Lullaby to bring her babe to sleep.”

A learned commentator gives us what he facetiously calls a lullaby note on this.

“The verb to lull, means to sing Gently, and it is connected with the Greek [Greek:  laleo], loquor, or [Greek:  lala], the sound made by the beach of the sea.  The Roman nurses used the word lalla, to quiet their children, and they feigned a deity called Lullus, whom they invoked on that occasion; the lullaby, or tune itself was called by the same name.”—­ Douce.

Lullaby is supposed a contraction for Lull-a-baby.  The Welsh are celebrated for their Lullaby songs, and a good Welsh nurse, with a pleasing voice, has been sometimes found more soporific in the nursery, than the midwife’s anodyne.  The contrary effects of Swift’s song, “Here we go up, up, up,” and the smile-provoking melody of “Hey diddle, diddle,” cum multis aliis, are too well known to be enumerated or disputed.  “The Good Nurse” give us a chapter on the advantage of employing music in certain stages of protracted illness.