The very arcana of the respectable profession of which Lord Sidmouth is so distinguished an ornament, are here so nicely bodied forth by the poet, that one can hardly avoid surmising that he must have had medical assistance in the composition of it. The learned conjecture of the critic in more remote times, will weary itself in attempts to find out who this coadjutor may have been. Perhaps it will aid such inquiries if we, who have the advantage of being the Bard's contemporaries, suggest freely what occurs. It should be borne in mind, then, that the Canning party, though small "in point of numerical force (as my Lord Castlereagh hath it), and even able to travel commodiously in a single hackney-coach, has nevertheless its Medical Department, or Staff, consisting of the worthy President of the Woods and Forests. At least we conceive it must be this Gentleman who is alluded to in the following advertisement, just sent to us for insertion, but which we declined to print in its place, from the duty not being paid. It serves, however, to elucidate a point of literary history, and as such we here insert it: "PHLEBOTOMY. "If the person who was blooded by the Right Hon. W. Huskisson, somewhere about the year 1790, and who is credibly reported to be still living, will apply at this Office, he will hear of something to his advantage." Availing himself of the same accurate sources of scientific information, Mr. Canning, soon after the date of the former splendid Ode, produced the following light piece, entitled, A SONG SUNG AT APOTHECARIES' HALL, APRIL 1. Praise to placeless, proud ability, He no random projects urging, With moderate measures gently purging CHORUS. Gently purging, Gently purging, Gently purging Britain's weal. Addington, with measur'd motion, Splendid talents are deceiving, GRAND CHORUS. All that glisters, All that glisters, All that glisters is not gold. This, we believe, is the song which Mister Hiley once or twice sung in company, under a slight mistake as to its import; when a friend of the family (said to be Mr. Hatsell) kindly suggested to him the propriety of adopting another strain, when in his convivial moments he might be pleased to warble. No. V. June 18, 1816. SINCE the publication of our last number many of our learned readers are anxious to be informed what the strain was which Mister Hiley adopted when his friend expounded to him the true meaning of Mr. Canning's Glister or Glyster Song, and begged him to give up singing it after dinner. We cannot gratify them with any very accurate answer to their inquiries. There are various accounts of the matter. Some assert that it was the same warm, but not very proper composition, which his noble brother, the very Doctor himself, when elevated with wine, sang one day to the astonishment of his colleagues, in the presence of an exalted character. We have heard other and very different accounts of this so much sought for song. Nay, there are those who, running into an opposite extreme, deem the worthy Under Secretary to have had recourse to psalmody, and thus the difficulty is only removed a step, for the question recurs, "What psalm was it?" But we cannot detain our readers upon this subject, how important soever, being called to pursue our Reminiscences. We must however premise, that many persons in consequence of the advertisement have applied at this office, pretending that they had been patients of Mr. (or, as they with due respect styled him, Doctor) Huskisson. They do not in 2 deed exactly fall in with the description; for though they have evidently been under his bands, and about the period in question, yet no one who has yet appeared to claim the reward seems to have been actually blooded. An elderly Gentleman, for instance, of a goodly appearance, and who now wears a flaxen wig, with a drab-coloured suit and a long amber-headed cane, mentions that the President of the Woods and Crown Lands once administered to him, when labouring under obstruction, a remedy of a peculiar kind, from which he derived immediate relief; but upon being pressed to say whether he had actually bled him, he candidly admitted that he had not. Upon another person, an ancient officer of marines, he had operated as a Chiropodist (or, as the worthy Lieutenant-General called it in vulgar speech, a Corn-cutter); and he rather ingeniously contended, that this having occasioned some loss of blood, brought him within the description of the advertisement. But our readers will at once see the propriety of our rejecting this claim, as well as that of a certain elderly maiden Lady, who indeed came nearest the mark; for the sylvan Doctor had officiated as a Dentist in this case. From |