At forty-five he marries the daughter of a powerful Peer, and, shortly afterwards, insures so much of the favour of Royalty as to be spoken of as a persona grata at Court.  Henceforward his services are often employed in delicate negotiations, which may necessitate the climbing of many back-stairs.  On such occasions, and after it has been announced in the papers that “Mr. So-and-so was the bearer of an important communication” from one great person to another, it is his custom to show himself in his Clubs and in crowded haunts, so that he may enjoy the pleasure of being pointed out, digita praetereuntium, and of catching the whispers of those who nudge one another as they mention his name.

Finally, it will be rumoured that he has been collecting materials for the Memoirs which he proposes shortly to publish.  But though he never disclaims the intention, and is even understood, on more than one occasion, to allude in conversation to the precise period of his life to which his writing has then brought him, it is quite certain that he will never carry out the intention, or bring out the book.  At the age of sixty he will still be a young man, with a gay style of banter peculiarly his own.  Towards the end of his life he will often talk darkly of great events in which he has played a part, and of extraordinary services which only he could have performed; and when he dies, the country will be called upon to mourn for one who has saved it from social degradation, and from political disaster.

* * * * *

A Pig in A Poke.

[Illustration]

[According to the Standard, by the new Meat Inspection Law, just come into force in the United States, American cattle and pigs for export to England, France, or Germany, are to be inspected before leaving America, with a view to removing the grounds of objection on the part of those Governments to the unrestricted reception of these important American exports.  Should any foreign Government, fearful of pleuro-pneumonia or trichinosis, refuse to trust to the infallibility of the American inspectors, the President of the United States is authorised to retaliate by directing that such products of such foreign State as he may deem proper shall be excluded from importation to the United States.]

O senator Edmonds, of verdant Vermont,
Of wisdom you may be a marvellous font;
But you’ll hardly get John,—­’tis too much of a joke!—­
To buy in your fashion a Pig in a Poke;

                                                Which nobody can expect!

To slaughter your Cattle when reaching our shore,
You probably think is no end of a bore;
But even your valiant Vermonters to please,
We cannot afford to spread Cattle-disease,

                                                Which nobody can desire.