r getting himself and his party into a
mess, earned from the most intellectually powerful of his political
opponents the enduring title of "Lord Meddle and Muddle." He has not
been dead very long, yet what reputation has he left behind him as a
dramatist--novelist--historian--biographer--editor--pamphleteer, all of
which _roles_ he essayed at some time or other of his long and eventful
career? His _Nun of Arronca_ (1822) fetches it is true an exceedingly
high price, because having been rigidly suppressed by its author it is
now exceedingly rare. The best that can be said of Lord John--and that
is saying a great deal--is, that he was a consistent Liberal according
to his lights, and that to him belongs the honour and glory of bringing
about the great measure of Reform, which, as we have seen, was, mainly
through his instrumentality, accomplished in 1832.

Lord John, as might have been expected, frequently appears in the
"political sketches" of HB. He cuts an amusing figure in one where
_Jonah_ (Lord Minto) is about to be thrown overboard by Lords Lansdowne,
Palmerston, and Duncannon, by order of the captain (Lord Melbourne), to
appease the storm raised by Lords Brougham and Lyndhurst in reference to
a rumour that Lord Minto (First Lord of the Admiralty), had instructed
British cruisers to stop all Sardinian vessels carrying warlike stores
for Don Carlos. Lord John, while clinging to the mast behind, and
viewing with terror the impending fate of his colleague, evidently
solaces himself with the conviction that his own weight is too
insignificant to have any material effect upon the safety of the ship.
Minto owed his safety to the Duke of Wellington, who therefore figures
in the sketch as the whale; for, although convinced that his lordship
had been imprudent, he successfully resisted Brougham's motion for a
copy of the instructions, and thereby succeeded in lodging poor Jonah on
dry land.

STAMP DUTY ON NEWSPAPERS.

One of the "sketches" in which Lord John Russell figures reminds us of a
remarkable discussion which possesses considerable interest for every
reader of the cheap newspapers of to-day. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer (the Right Hon. Thomas Spring Rice) in opening his budget on
the 6th of May, 1836, showed a disposable surplus of L662,000 only,
which he proposed (in the usual way) to apply towards the reduction of
taxation. He proposed, in the first place, to consolidate the paper
duties and to reduce th