advice
had been too literally accepted.

Every morning, for a week after, I called on M. THIERS. At the end
of the sixth day he said, "You must go to Riga. I do not quite know
where it is, but it sounds remote. You shall be Consul at Riga." I was
delighted. Like the President, I was not sure where Riga was; but the
salary was certain, and there was fine old Roman flavour about the
title Consul.

But it was not to be. I was predestined to be a great Newspaper
Correspondent. How that came about cannot be told in this chapter. I
will only say that early in my new career I secured the approbation of
Mr. DELANE, who, I need scarcely say, was the most competent judge the
world ever saw of the merits of a journalist.

At the risk of being dry and bald, I have confined myself to telling
accurately what has happened, my greatest ambition being to leave no
one the chance of misrepresenting, as his whim, fancy, or passion may
dictate, facts in which I am so deeply interested. Let those note
them who, after my time, have to defend my memory should it ever be
attacked.

* * * * *

[Illustration: "The Shinner Quartette;" or, Musical Football.]

* * * * *

"MORE HONOURED IN THE BREACH THAN THE OBSERVANCE."--Breach of Promise
cases--as a rule.

* * * * *

A GENERAL VIEW OF "PRIVATE INQUIRY."

[Illustration]

I am sufficiently old-fashioned, when I go to the play, to wish to
be amused. I frankly admit I do not care to be taught a lesson, or to
have my mind harrowed by the presentation of some psychological study.
I can remember WRIGHT, and even HARLEY, and the days when a good
piece of fun was the last item of the programme at the Adelphi and
the Olympic--the chief attraction of the Pittites, who patronised
"half-price." This being so, I am glad to find at the Strand--a
theatre recalling memories of JIMMY ROGERS and JOHNNY CLARKE, PATTY
OLIVER and CHARLOTTE SAUNDERS, to say nothing of a lady who was not
only Queen of Comedy but Empress of Burlesque--"_Private Inquiry_," a
thoroughly well acted and rattling farce in three Acts. It is from the
French, but as the task of adaptation has been entrusted to the Author
who turned _Bebe_ the Frisky into _Betsy_ the Wholesome, any scruples
of conscience that the LORD CHAMBERLAIN may possibly have entertained
on reading the original have been successfully removed, and the play,
consequentl