A DISTINGUISHED wag about town says, the head coverings the ladies wear
now-a-days, are barefaced false hoods. The perpetrator of this is still
at large.

A MARSHAL HUMBLED.

A FRENCH Field Marshal who had attained that rank by court favour, not
by valour, received from a lady the present of a drum, with this
inscription--"_made to be beaten_."

The same _hero_, going one evening to the Opera, forcibly took
possession of the box of a respectable Abbe, who for this outrage
brought a suit in a court of honour, established for such cases under
the old government. The Abbe thus addressed the court: "I come not here
to complain of Admiral Suffrein, who took so many ships in the East
Indies. I come not to complain of Count de Grasse, who fought so nobly
in the West; I come not to complain of the Duke de Crebillon, who took
Minorca; but I come to complain of the Marshal B----, who _took my box_
at the Opera, and _never took any thing else_." The court paid him the
high compliment of refusing his suit, declaring that he had himself
inflicted sufficient punishment.

A COURTLY COMPLIMENT.

A FRENCH officer, just arrived, and introduced to the Court at Vienna,
the Empress told him she heard he had in his travels visited a lady
renowned for her beauty; and asked if it was true that she was the most
handsome princess of her time. The courtier answered, "_I thought so
yesterday._"

A CONGRATULATION.

AT a circuit dinner, a counsellor observed to another, "I shall
certainly hang your client." His friend answered, "I give you joy of
your new office."

ALGERINE WIT.

A FRENCHMAN, taken into slavery by an Algerine, was asked what he could
do. His answer was, that he had been used to a _sedentary_ employment.
"Well, then," said the pirate, "you shall have a pair of feather
breeches, to sit and hatch chickens."

A ROYAL DECISION.

THE Princess of Prussia, having ordered some silks from Lyons, they were
stopped for duties by an excise officer, whom she ordered to attend her
with the silks, and receive his demand. On his entrance into her
apartment, the princess flew at the officer, and seizing the
merchandise, gave him two or three hearty cuffs on the face. The
mortified exciseman complained to the king in a memorial, to which his
majesty returned the following answer:

"The loss of the duties belonging to my account, the silks are to remain
in the possession of the princess, and the