“Sir,—­Doubtless you do not often get a letter from a working man on the subject of clerical appointments, but as I here you have got to find a minister for to fill Mr. Boyd Carpenter’s place, allow me to ask you to just go some Sunday afternoon and here our little curate, Mr. ——­, at St. Matthew’s Church—­he is a good, Earnest little man, and a genuine little Fellow; got no humbug about him, but a sound Churchman, is an Extempor Preacher, and deserves promotion.  Nobody knows I am writing to you, and it is not a matter of kiss and go by favour, but simply asking you to take a run over and here him, and then put him a stept higher—­he deserves it.  I know Mr. Sullivan will give him a good character, and so will Mr. Alcroft, the Patron.  Now do go over and here him before you make a choice.  We working men will be sorry to loose him, but we think he ought not to be missed promotion, as he is a good fellow.—­Your obediently servant.”

Ladies, as might naturally be expected, are even more enthusiastic in advocating the claims of their favourite divines.  Writing lately on the Agreeableness of Clergymen, I described some of the Canons of St. Paul’s and Westminster, and casually referred to the handsome presence of Dr. Duckworth.  I immediately received the following effusion, which, wishing to oblige the writer, and having no access to the Church Family Newspaper, I now make public:—­

“A member of the Rev. Canon Duckworth’s congregation for more than 25 years has been much pained by the scant and curious manner in which he is mentioned by you, and begs to say that his Gospel teaching, his scholarly and yet simple and charitable discourses (and teaching), his courteous and sympathetic and prompt answers to his people’s requests and inquiries, his energetic and constant work in his parish, are beyond praise.  Added to all is his clear and sonorous voice in his rendering of the prayer and praise amongst us.  A grateful parishioner hopes and asks for some further recognition of his position in the Church of Christ, in the Church Family Newspaper, June 12.”  So far the Church.  I now turn to the world.

In the second volume of Lord Beaconsfield’s Endymion will be found a description, by a hand which was never excelled at such business, of that grotesque revival of medievalism, the Tournament at Eglinton Castle in 1839.  But the writer, conceding something to the requirements of art, ignores the fact that the splendid pageant was spoilt by rain.  Two years’ preparation and enormous expense were thrown away.  A grand cavalcade, in which Prince Louis Napoleon rode as one of the knights, left Eglinton Castle on the 28th of August at two in the afternoon, with heralds, banners, pursuivants, the knight-marshal, the jester, the King of the Tournament, the Queen of Beauty, and a glowing assemblage of knights and ladies, seneschals, chamberlains, esquires, pages, and men-at-arms, and took their way in procession