to insult me? A beneficed clergyman,
an orthodox clergyman, a nobleman's chaplain, to be no more than
compensation for a Brahmin; and a heretic Brahmin too, a fellow who has
lost his own religion and can't find another; a vile heterodox dog, who,
as I am credibly informed eats beef-steaks in private! A man who has
lost his caste! who ought to have melted lead poured down his nostrils,
if the good old Vedas were in force as they ought to be."

These are some Boswelliana of Sydney; not very clerical, you will say,
but indescribably amusing to the hearers, whatever the readers may think
of them. Nothing can present a more striking contrast to his rapid,
loud, laughing utterance, and his rector-like amplitude and rubicundity,
than the low, slow, emphatic tone, and the corpse-like face of Rogers.
There is as great a difference in what they say as in the voice and
look with which they say it. The conversation of Rogers is remarkably
polished and artificial. What he says seems to have been long meditated,
and might be published with little correction. Sydney talks from the
impulse of the moment, and his fun is quite inexhaustible.

Ever yours

T. B. M.

To Hannah M Macaulay.

London: June 8, 1831.

My dear Sister,--Yesterday night I went to the Jew's. I had indeed no
excuse for forgetting the invitation; for, about a week after I had
received the green varnished billet, and answered it, came another in
the self-same words, and addressed to Mr. Macaulay, Junior. I thought
that my answer had miscarried; so down I sate, and composed a second
epistle to the Hebrews. I afterwards found that the second invitation
was meant for Charles.

I set off a little after ten, having attired myself simply as for a
dinner-party. The house is a very fine one. The door was guarded by
peace-officers, and besieged by starers. My host met me in a
superb court-dress, with his sword at his side. There was a most
sumptuous-looking Persian, covered with gold lace. Then there was an
Italian bravo with a long beard. Two old gentlemen, who ought to have
been wiser, were fools enough to come in splendid Turkish costumes at
which everybody laughed. The fancy-dresses were worn almost exclusively
by the young people. The ladies for the most part contented themselves
with a few flowers and ribands oddly disposed. There was, however,
a beautiful Mary Queen of Scots, who looked as well as dressed the
character perfectly; an angel of a Jewess in a Highla