* * * * *

OPTIMISM.

“All’s for the best,” smirks fatuous DIVES.  He
Means, “I’m the best, and therefore all’s for me.”

* * * * *

[Illustration:  ARMING THE AMAZONS.

PRIAM (loquitur).  “ACCEPT NEW ARMS, YE MAIDEN COHORTS!  TAKE
THE WEAPON THAT SHALL MAKE ACHILLES SHAKE,
AND REINFORCE, AGAINST THE WILES OF GREECE,
THE POWERS OF PROPERTY, PRIVILEGE, AND PEACE!”]

* * * * *

ONLY FANCY!

We understand that Mr. GLADSTONE has followed, with much interest, the speeches delivered in the country last week, and was observed to be visibly affected at the touching spectacle of the final reconciliation of Lord SALISBURY and Mr. CHAMBERLAIN at Birmingham.  “They toil not, neither do they spin,” he said, furtively wiping away a tear; “nevertheless, they seem made for each other’s company.”

* * * * *

[Illustration:  “A Fantasy of Disordered Imagination.”]

The Right Hon. Gentleman will take his turn next week, and a report is current in interested quarters, that he as gone into training under the personal direction of Sir WILLIAM HARCOURT and Mr. JOHN MORLEY, who assist to support him whilst he rehearses his speech.  This is a fantasy of disordered imagination.  Mr. G. is in splendid form, spoiling for a fight.

* * * * *

A trustworthy Correspondent informs us that, owing to accidental displacement of his notes, a telling point was omitted from Lord SALISBURY’s first speech at Birmingham.  It was intended to come in at the passage where the PREMIER boldly flouted apprehension, of Ministerial disaster at the General Election.  He had meant to cite Mr. JACKSON’s appointment as conclusive proof that the Government would exist at least up to the year 1900.

“SHAKSPEARE,” he should have said, “has written, ’a tanner will last you nine year,’ and of course the duration of the Government will be co-incidental with the prolongation of the term of our Financial Secretary to the Treasury, withdrawn from commercial pursuits at Leeds.”

* * * * *

HERR VON DER BLOWITZOWN-TROMP has some interesting reminiscences of the lamented Baron MAC HINERY.  “When he was appointed Legate at the Court of the Isle of Man,” writes the great historian of our times, “he dined with me in passing through Nanterre.  It was the very day the Marquis DE MOULIN had been elected Pompier.  The other guests were, His Excellency the CON OF CRIM TARTARY, Prince ALLEZ-VOUS-EN, His Excellency the VICUNA of BRAZIL, the SANDWICH AMBASSADOR, the DOGE of VENICE, and the Baron MUNCHAUSEN, who was a kind of amateur partner of mine, in whom I had much confidence—­I always left him with my day’s correspondence ready to be committed to paper.  In the course