Little Britain.

has been unusually eloquent . There has been a saying current among the ancient Sybils , who treasure up these things , that when the grasshopper on the top of the Exchange shook hands ivith the dragon on the top of Bow Church steeple , fearful events would take place . This strange conjunction , it seems , has as strangely come to pass . The same architect has been engaged lately on the repairs of the cupola of the Exchangeancl the steeple of Bow

, Church , and , fearful to relate , the dragon and the grasshopper actuall y lie , cheek by jole , in the yard of his workshop . " Others " as Mr . Skryme is accustomed to say , " may go star-gazing , and look for conjunctions in the heavens , but here is a conjunction on the earth , near at home , and under our OAVII eyes , Avhich surpasses all the signs ancl calculations of astrologers . " Since these portentous weathercocks have thus

laid their heads together , wonderful events had alread y occurred . The good old king , notwithstanding that he had lived eighty-two years , had all at once given up the ghost ; another king had mounted the throne ; a royal duke had died suddenly—another , in France , bad been murdered ; there had been radical meetings in all parts of the kingdom ; the bloody scenes at Manchester—the great plot in Cato Street ; and , aboi'eall , the Queen had returned to England !

AH these sinister events are recounted b y Mr . Skryme with a mysterious look , and a dismal shake of the head ; and being taken with his drugs , and associated in the minds of his auditors Avith stuffed sea-monsters , bottled serpents , ancl his ' own visage , which is a title-page of tribulation , they have spread great gloom through the minds of the people in Little Britain . They shake their heads whenever they go by Bow Church , and observe that they never expected any good to come of taking down that steeple , which , in old times , told nothing but glad tidings , as the history of Whittington and his cat bears witness .

The rival oracle of Little Britain is a substantial cheesemonger , who lives in a fragment of one of the old famil y mansions , and is as magnificently lodged as a round-bellied mite in the midst of one of his own Cheshires . Indeed , he is a man of no little standing and importance , and his renown extends through Hug-gin Lane , aud Lad Lane , and even unto Aldermanbury . His opinion is very much taken in the affairs of State , having read the Sunday papers for the last half centurytogether with the " Gentleman ' s Magazine" "Rapin ' s

, , History of England , " and the " Naval Chronicle . " His head is stored with invaluable maxims , which have borne the test of time and use for centuries . It is his firm opinion that " it is a moral impossible , " so long as England is true to herself , that anything can shake her ; and he has much to say on the subject of the national debt , which , some how or other , he proves to be a great national bulwark and blessing . He passed the greater part of his life in the

purlieus of Little Britain , until of late years , ivhen , having become rich , ancl grown into the dignity of a Sunday cane , he begins to take his pleasure and see the world . He has therefore made several excursions to Hampstead , Highgate , ancl other nei ghbouring toivns , where he has passed whole afternoons in looking back upon the metropolis through a telescope , ancl endeavouring to descry the steeple of St . Bartholomew ' s . Not a stage-coachman

of Bull-and-Mouth Street but touches his hat as he passes ; and he is considered quite a patron at the coach-office of the Goose aud Gridiron , St . Paul ' s Churchyard . His famil y have been very urgent for him to make an expedition to Margate , but he has great doubts of these new gimcracks the steam-boats , and indeed thinks himself too advanced in life to undertake sea voyages . Little Britain has occasionallits factions and divisionsand part irit

y , y sp ran very high at one time , in consequence of two rival " Burial Societies " being set up in the place . One held its meeting at the Swan and Horse-Shoe , and was patronised b y the cheesemonger - . the other at tbe Cook ancl Crown , under the auspices of the apothecary : it is needless to say that the latter was the most flourishing . I have passed an evening or two at each , and have