ES.

STEPHEN KEMBLE (who was very fat) and Mrs. Esten, were crossing the
Frith, when a gale sprang up, which alarmed the passengers. "Suppose,
Mr. Kemble," said Mrs. Esten; "suppose we become food for fishes, which
of us two do you think they will eat first?"--"Those that are
_gluttons_," replied the comedian, "will undoubtedly fall foul of _me_,
but the _epicures_ will attack you!"

DCXCVIII.--A BAD END.

IT was told of Jekyll, that one of his friends, a brewer, had been
drowned in his own vat. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "floating in his own _watery
bier_."

DCXCIX.--ON THE NAME OF KEOPALANI (QUEEN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS),
WHICH SIGNIFIES "THE DROPPING OF THE CLOUDS FROM HEAVEN."

THIS name's the best that could be given,
As will by proof be quickly seen;
For "dropping from the clouds from Heaven,"
She was, of course, the _raining Queen_.

DCC.--ACCOMMODATING PRINCIPLES.

IN one of Sir Robert Walpole's letters, he gives a very instructive
picture of a skilful minister and a condescending Parliament. "My dear
friend," writes Sir Robert, "there is scarcely a member whose purse I do
not know to a sixpence, and whose very soul almost I could not purchase
at the offer. The reason former ministers have been deceived in this
matter is evident--they never considered the temper of the people they
had to deal with. I have known a minister so weak as to offer an
avaricious old rascal a star and garter, and attempt to bribe a young
rogue, who set no value upon money, with a lucrative employment. I
pursue methods as opposite as the poles, and therefore my
administration has been attended with a different effect."

"Patriots," says Walpole, "spring up like mushrooms. I could raise fifty
of them within four-and-twenty hours. I have raised many of them in one
night. It is but refusing to gratify an unreasonable or insolent demand,
and _up starts_ a patriot."

DCCI.--BOSWELL'S "LIFE OF JOHNSON."

WHEN Boswell's "Life of Johnson," first made its appearance, Boswell was
so full of it that he could neither think nor talk of anything else: so
much so, that meeting Lord Thurlow hurrying through Parliament Street to
get to the House of Lords, where an important debate was expected, and
for which he was already too late, Boswell had the temerity to stop and
accost him with "Have you read my book?"--"Yes, ---- you!" replied Lord
Thurlow, "every word of it; I could not _