Odds And Ends Of Wit And Humour.

ences at penny readings , and I daresay "Mr . Giles" will become a platform favourite , as he has already in our Suffolk homes . And noAv , to conclude , I have to thank you my readers for your kind attention to

my very discursive remarks ; I can scarcely dignify them with the title of lecture . A clerical friend said to me the other day , when he heard I was going to lecture on this subject— " Your aim will be under the cloak of recreation to instruct and

improve ? " Well , I solemnly confess that my object was the ignoble one of seeking to amuse only ; I don't set up for a teacher . But remembering that ridicule has often made mean people generous ; that satire

and sarcasm have overthrown bad systems , and abolished stupid customs ; that Cervantes in Don Quixote laughed away the chivalry of Spain ; that poets like Decameron and Boccaccio ridiculed the Roman Catholic religion and prepared the way for Luther ; that much good service

has been done by the wits in exposing enormities , and correcting or doing away Avith foolish fashions , removing bigotry and intolerance , and lashing all that is base and unworthy ; I say that Avit and humour deserve to be appreciated and set

store by ; and that our Wits and Humourists have deserved well of England .

Contemporary Letters On The French Revolution.

CONTEMPORARY LETTERS ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION .

Paris , February 19 , 171 ) 0 . [ This letter ought to have preceded the one in the April number , but owing to a confusion of dates it has to appear out of its proper place . ] THE letter I wrote you Tuesday , contains

all the neAvs I have to send you , my information in regard to Montauban was false as to the place , altho' unfortunately true as to the cruelties Avhich have been perpetrated . That city has hitherto escaped , and Beziers was the scene of slaughter . I

send you the letter Avritten by the King ' s order to the National Assembly , important not only from the manner in which it is written , but from the effects it is likely to have on the minds of those who are not

blindly devoted to the system of the Democratic Party . You will perceive with how much art the King ' s Ministers strive to throw on the National Assembly the odium of the cruelties already committed , and to expose their want of feeling or of powerif they do not adopt some measures

, to restore force to the Executive Power . They have done by that , as by every other motion on which they are afraid to decide , where their decision might offend the people if it suppressed their disorders , or might alienate the minds of the well

intentioned if they appeared to countenance those troubles they in their hearts approve . They have referred to a committee the consideration of the means to repress the tumults , but the measures to be taken are likely to be clogged with too many

difficulties to be of any effect . The Municipalities are afraid of having recourse to the military , because when the latter shall return to its station they will remain exposed to the fury of the people . The Empire of the Democrates is ior the present firmly established , at least in Paris , but I cannot help thinking they are fast approaching to the moment of their ruin .

Their indifference to the horrors that lay Avaste the Provinces , their total neglect of the Finances , their absolute determination not to dissolve till their work is finished , ancl Avhich they have renewed in the course of the week , have indisposed many of their warmest advocates against them . It would

be difficult to describe the alarm and uproar which reigned in the Assembly amongst the Democrates when it was proposed , " that the Assembly should name a period for their dissolution , and that the next Assembly should be held at the

distance of 30 leagues from the capital . " The Impartiaux on this occasion joined the Aristocrates , but noise and numbers obtained the victory . I suspect that their majorities are by no means so much in their favour as formerly , from the great

pains they take to conceal the numbers b y which they carry their decrees . The Impartiaux are certainly inclined to join the Aristocrates , but they have not yet acquired force enough to make the scale preponderate , Avhen ever that arrives a dissolution of the Assembly vvill be the immediate consequence . There seems little doubt that if ever that moment