which signifies that it is better to prevent a disease than to remedy it.

After he had broken the patched-up peace which he had concluded, the Bantam collected a vast flotilla in one of his creeks, with a professed design of transporting troops across the moat to invade Freeland: and, because he made no secret of its pretended destination, the wisest heads concluded that he never intended to attempt it. The medical politician, however, determined to block them up where they lay; and, accordingly, several barges were laden with stones, whence the public termed it the stone-boat expedition, for the purpose of being sunk at the mouth of the creek to prevent the Bantam's flotilla from coming out.

Not to be behindhand with the Bantam, in moderation and good faith, Addleton as frankly confessed the design of the stone-boat expedition, as the Bantam had boasted of the destination of his flotilla.

Notwithstanding the seeming magnanimity of this open kind of warfare, there were many persons who laughed at both the Bantam and. Addleton, and remarked that they were mutually

afraid, and only wanted to hector each other

into another peace.

Whether the scheme was feasible or not, the Bantam did not fail to take every precaution to render it abortive. The stone-boats sailed across the moat but there was no such thing as sinking them, and they were brought back again; which reminds us of the following old

stanza :

The King of France march'd up the hill,

With thirty thousand men :

Oh did he so?--What happened? - Why!'
He marched them down again.

As this scheme was suggested to the steward by a bookseller, it was a pity that the latter had not accompanied it with Pope's Bathos, or Art of Sinking.

Thus an ineffectual peace, and an inefficient war, were the distinguishing traits of this stewardship of moderation and good faith. Even the old Opposition, the Brushites, taxed the household with want of energy, and declared, on every occasion, that Freeland was on the very verge of ruin, unless a new household was form

ed upon such a broad bottom, as to include all the talents of the manor; meaning THEMSELVES!!! They so incessantly and unblushingly made this modest and disinterested application, that they were at length nicknamedAll the talents. Finding, at length, that Addleton would not, or could not, understand them, they instantly whirled about, and joined with Vortex to turn him out. Still they could not get in; and they relapsed into their old animosity against Vortex, to which they gave vent as usual, by an unqualified abuse of himself, and all, even the best of his measures. With Vortex, energy returned, and the flotilla of the Gulls were totally destroyed by Neptune's darling son, the never-enough-to-belamented Keelson. Owing, however, to the disasters of the Gormands, Vortex had lost his popularity with numbers of the tenantry, who either blindly attributed the failure of his measures to the measures themselves, without recollecting that there is an over-ruling Power; . or who foolishly hoped, that a change of men would have turned the tide of fortune. But, after his death, all disinterested men of judge.

ment and experience were aware of the public loss, and wished to show their respect and gratitude towards the memory of so able and upright a guardian. Interested men thought only of their own private ends. Upon the news of Vortex's danger, the gloomy faces of the Opposition brightened; the unshaven were shaved; their vacant, unemployed countenances assumed an unusual air of business and importance; the stockings were gartered, the breeches-knees buttoned, and the shoes cleaned; which was not usual. They carried their heads erect, which before hung down for fear of meeting the eyes of a creditor, and seemed like vultures snuffing up the air to catch the scent of a departing sigh. On his death, they could not contain themselves any longer within the bounds of common decency; they seized every place, either of honour or profit; and when it was proposed in the Common-Hall to erect a grateful monument to the memory of the late Pali nurus, the motion was opposed by ALL the Talents,-in his life-time the tail of the household. We do not believe, in this instance, that Brush acted from the impulse of his heart; but, un

fortunately, he could not, with the least appearance of consistency, acquiesce in erecting a monument to the memory of a man whom, as well as his measures, he had incessantly pelted and reprobated in his life-time.

This act of gratitude and justice was therefore-left to the people to perform; and, we trust that could not have been left in better hands.

If the Brushites had been well read in the Scriptures, they would have gathered from the parable of the talents, the immense responsibility with which they had loaded themselves, and they would have dreaded lest their lord should have found them deficient in the use of them, and have passed upon them the judgement on the man, who had hid his one talent in the earth;- "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."- But they had been so long in outer darkness; that is, out of place, that they were ready to have run every risk for present relief.

Brush began a negociation for peace, which, whatever might have been the end of it if he had