disposed to consider him. He was clearly the most
extraordinary man I ever saw, and I believe the most extraordinary man
that has lived in our age, or for many ages."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 27: From a volume of Foreign Reminiscences, by Henry Richard
Lord Holland, edited by his son, Henry Edward Lord Holland,--in the
press of Messrs. Harper and Brothers, and soon to be published.]

[Footnote 28: Denon, Mechin, and others.]

[Footnote 29: Mechin.]

[Footnote 30: He was not so, however, either in deliberation or
discussion, at least when the matter was invited by himself. He allowed
his ministers to comment upon, and even to object to measures in
contemplation (provided they acquiesced in them when adopted) in free
and even strong terms, and he liked those he questioned on facts or
opinions to answer without compliment or reserve.]

[Footnote 31: Some attributed this repugnance to conform, to his fear of
the army, others to a secret and conscientious aversion to what he
deemed in his heart a profanation.]

A CRISIS IN THE AFFAIRS OF MR. JOHN BULL.

AS RELATED BY MRS. BULL TO THE CHILDREN

Mrs. Bull and her rising family were seated round the fire, one November
evening at dusk, when all was mud, mist, and darkness, out of doors, and
a good deal of fog had even got into the family parlor. To say the
truth, the parlor was on no occasion fog-proof, and had, at divers
notable times, been so misty as to cause the whole Bull family to grope
about, in a most confused manner, and make the strangest mistakes. But,
there was an excellent ventilator over the family fire-place (not one of
Dr. Arnott's, though it was of the same class, being an excellent
invention, called Common Sense), and hence, though the fog was apt to
get into the parlor through a variety of chinks, it soon got out again,
and left the Bulls at liberty to see what o'clock it was, by the solid,
steady-going, family time-piece: which went remarkably well in the long
run, though it was apt, at times, to be a trifle too slow.

Mr. Bull was dozing in his easy chair, with his pocket-handkerchief
drawn over his head. Mrs. Bull, always industrious, was hard at work,
knitting. The children were grouped in various attitudes around the
blazing fire. Master C. J. London (called after his God-father), who had
been rather late at his exercise, sat with his chin resting, in
something of a thoughtful and penitential manner, on his slate resting
on his knees. Yo