water, together with a raw calf’s head, a pair of gloves, a gallon of beer or ale, and two penny loaves of white wheaten bread, which the steward receives and carries away for his own use.  The ceremony being over, the bizant is restored to the Mayor, and brought back by one of his officers with great solemnity.  This bizant is generally so richly adorned with plate and jewels, borrowed from the neighbouring gentry, as to be worth not less than L1,500.

C. D.

* * * * *

TRINITY TERM ENDS 11th JUNE.

(For the Mirror.)

“On this day,” says Brady, in his Calendaria, “Trinity Term ends; and immediately on the rising of the Court, commences that cessation from legal business emphatically denominated the ‘long vacation,’ or that space which our ancestors have wisely left undisturbed by law concerns, that the people may be the better able to attend to the different harvests throughout the kingdom.  Thus the activity and bustle of the Inns of Court suddenly subside into a want of occupation, not unaptly displayed in the following anonymous parody:—­”

  “My lord now quits his venerable seat,
    The six clerk on his padlock turns the key,
  From business hurries to his snug retreat,
    And leaves vacation and the town to me.”

  “Now all is hush’d—­asleep the eye of care—­
    And Lincoln’s Inn a solemn stillness holds,
  Save where the porter whistles o’er the square,
    Or our dog barks, or basket-woman scolds:” 

  “Save that from yonder pump and dusty stair
    The moping shoe-black and the laundrymaid
  Complain of such as from the town repair,
    And leave their little quarterage unpaid.”

H. B. A.

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.

THE RIVER NIGER.

A Second Edition of the Literary Gazette of Saturday last enables us to lay before our readers the following important discovery:—­

“We have the gratification to state, that the great question respecting the course of the Niger, which has puzzled geography and literature for many centuries, has at last been determined by British courage and perseverance.  We have just received the annexed letter from our esteemed and intelligent friend, Mr. Fisher, surgeon of the Atholl, well known to the world for his own interesting voyages and travels; and we lose no time in communicating the important information to the public, through the pages of the Literary Gazette.”

    “His Majesty’s Ship Atholl, at Sea, Bight of Biafra, Feb. 2, 1831.”

“Dear Sir,—­I take the opportunity of writing you a few lines, by a vessel that we have just now met on her way to England.  My object in writing in this hasty manner is to acquaint you that the grand geographical problem respecting the termination of the Niger is at length solved.”