“I am but a Gatherer and disposer of other men’s stuff.”—­Wotton

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TWELVE GOLDEN RULES OF CHARLES I.

1.  Profane no divine ordinances. 2.  Touch no state matters. 3.  Urge no healths. 4.  Pick no quarrels. 5.  Maintain no ill opinions. 6.  Encourage no vice. 7.  Repeat no grievances. 8.  Reveal no secrets. 9.  Make no comparisons. 10.  Keep no bad company. 11.  Make no long meals. 12.  Lay no wagers.

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EPIGRAMS,

Written on the Union, 1801, by a celebrated Barrister of Dublin.

Adapted to the Commercial Failures, 1800.

  Why should we exclaim, that the times are so bad,
    Pursuing a querulous strain? 
  When Erin gives up all the rights that she had,
    What right has she left to complain?

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  The Cit complains to all he meets,
  That grass will grow in Dublin streets,
    And swears that all is over! 
  Short-sighted mortals, can’t you see,
  Your mourning will be chang’d to glee—­
    For then you’ll live in clover.

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Necessitas non habet legem.

ON SIR JOHN ANSTRUTHER.

By the Honourable Thomas Erskine.

  Necessity and Law are alike each other: 
  Necessity has no Law—­nor has Anstruther.

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EPITAPH ON A CONTROVERSIALIST.

On the death of that turbulent and refractory enthusiast, John Lilburne, alias Free-born John, alias Lilburne the Trouble-world, there appeared the following epigrammatic epitaph:—­

  Is John departed, and is Lilburne gone? 
  Farewell to both, to Lilburne and to John! 
  Yet being gone, take this advice from me,
  Let them not both in one grave buried be.

  Here lay ye John; lay Lilburne thereabout,
  For if they both should meet, they would fall out.

This alluded to a saying, that John Lilburne was so quarrelsome, that if he were the only man in the world, John would quarrel with Lilburne, and Lilburne with John.  Lilburne, it will be remembered, was a sad thorn in Cromwell’s sore side, for which the protector amply repaid him.

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HOSPITAL OF SURGERY.

A new surgical hospital is to be forthwith erected in the neighbourhood of Charing Cross, where the King, with his usual and characteristic munificence, has given a spot of ground on which it is to be erected.  A benevolent individual has given, within these few days, 1,500 l. towards a fund for the building.