arine de' Medici and the Duke of Anjou
now looked coldly on him, and expressed their dislike of his successful
mission. "The mother of kings," as Choisnin designates Catharine de'
Medici, to whom he addresses his memoirs, with the hope of awakening her
recollections of the zeal, the genius, and the success of his old
master, had no longer any use for her favourite; and Montluc found, as
the commentator of Choisnin expresses in a few words, an important
truth in political morality, that "at court the interest of the moment
is the measure of its affections and its hatreds."[237]

FOOTNOTES:

[236] Our honest secretary reminds me of a passage in Geoffrey of
Monmouth, who says, "At this place an _eagle spoke_ while the wall
of the town was building; and indeed I should not have failed
_transmitting the speech to posterity_ had I thought it _true_ as
the rest of the history."

[237] I have drawn up this article, for the curiosity of its subject
and its details, from the "Discours au vray de tout ce qui s'est
fait et passe pour l'entiere Negociation de l'Election du Roi de
Pologne, divises en trois livres, par Jehan Choisnin du
Chatelleraud, nagueres Secretaire de M. l'Evesque de Valence," 1574.

BUILDINGS IN THE METROPOLIS, AND RESIDENCE IN THE COUNTRY.

Recently more than one of our learned judges from the bench have perhaps
astonished their auditors by impressing them with an old-fashioned
notion of residing more on their estates than the fashionable modes of
life and the _esprit de societe_, now overpowering all other _esprit_,
will ever admit. These opinions excited my attention to a curious
circumstance in the history of our manners--the great anxiety of our
government, from the days of Elizabeth till much later than those of
Charles the Second, to preserve the kingdom from the evils of an
overgrown metropolis. The people themselves indeed participated in the
same alarm at the growth of the city; while, however, they themselves
were perpetuating the grievance which they complained of.

It is amusing to observe, that although the government was frequently
employing even their most forcible acts to restrict the limits of the
metropolis, the suburbs were gradually incorporating with the city, and
Westminster at length united itself to London. Since that happy
marriage, their fertile progenies have so blended together, that little
Londons are no longer distinguishable from