“True,” replied Vivid; “and other painters have been engravers.  But to the point:  look at the variety of the exquisite engravings in the Annuals; and having compared them with the large, coarse, mindless pictures in—­what may be called another annual—­the Exhibition of the Royal Academy, then say, whether you do not prefer the distinct delicate touches of a well-directed burin, to the broad, trowel-like splashings of an ill-directed painting-brush?”

“I do; and whilst I bow down to the excellence of such a portrait as that of Charles the First, by Vandyke, or that of Robin Goodfellow, by Sir Joshua, cum multis aliis by painters of the same pre-eminent description—­ay, and also whilst I greatly admire numerous pictures still annually exhibited by highly talented living artists, I ask, if I am not to speak my mind relative to that class of painting, which might pass muster outside the inns at Dartford, or Hounslow, or ——.  However, ‘the lion preys not upon carcasses,’ and, therefore, I will leave these canvass-spoilers to the judgment of those, who will show them in their proper light—­viz. the hanging-committee.”

The funeral being concluded, they return to town, Vivid agreeing with his odd companion in leaving the canvass-spoilers to the hanging committee.

Is it not to be hoped that a day may come when a thorough revision and amelioration of our equity laws will be deemed a matter of as great national importance as that chief occupier of the time of our grand rural Capulets and Montagues, the revision and amelioration of the game laws.

[Illustration]

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TRIAL BY BATTLE.

“Ay, leave lawyers to wrangle amongst each other—­a practice which of late years has become so much a legal fashion, that some of our Westminster Hall heroes, forgetting their clients’ quarrels in their own, suddenly convert themselves into a new plaintiff and defendant, and brawl forth such home coarse vituperations——­”

“True;—­formerly they used to brow-beat witnesses, now they brow-beat one another, and so defyingly, that ere long, who knows but the four courts may resemble, as punsters would say, the five courts?”

[Illustration]

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KICKING THE WORLD.

Every one has heard of kicking the world before them, though, comparatively, so few succeed in the task.  The wights in the cut are in an enviable condition.

[Illustration]

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A sketch of one of those inveterate story tellers which are the standing dishes of a table d’hote, introduces one of the best of the cuts, Mr. Blase Bronzely, loquitur: 

“Well, gentlemen, as I was saying, when I saw at Stratford-upon-Avon the Shakspearean procession pass in the street, it rained so violently that Caliban and Hamlet’s Ghost carried umbrellas, whilst Ophelia——­”