LAST FOND LOOK, AND
A--A--LEAN UPON MY WHAT DY'E CALL IT, AS THE SONG SAYS, AND A--WIPE AWAY
A TE--AR!"]

* * * * *

THE BOUNCE OF A PISTOL.

SIR J. V. SHELLEY reads a circular in the House of Commons summoning
certain members to attend on a certain occasion for a certain party
purpose. The document bears the signature of C. H. FREWEN. It is couched
in a spirit of low cunning, and tends to reflect great discredit on its
author.

MR. C. H. FREWEN writes to SIR J. V. SHELLEY, demanding to know from
whom he had received this circular; a private letter presumably given to
him in breach of confidence.

SIR J. V. SHELLEY replies that the circular was a printed document, and
therefore not entitled to be considered private. Whereupon MR. C. H.
FREWEN (who dates his letters from Cold Overton Hall) replies that, no
matter for that, or in whatever way he got possessed of it, the man who
would read such a letter in such a way

"Can have no pretensions to call himself a gentleman."

But stay. We do not say that all this is true. We only say that it has
appeared in the _Times_. For aught we know, the _Times_ may be a
facetious contemporary, cracking jokes on the head of MR. FREWEN, as if
it were a thick one. We do not mean to say that MR. FREWEN made such an
ass of himself, as he did make, if his correspondence, as printed in the
_Times_, is genuine. But, however, SIR J. V. SHELLEY--always according
to the _Times_, mind--rejoins by desiring of MR. FREWEN that the whole
of the correspondence should be published, as the first letter had been,
and declining to answer any more letters. And then:--

"MR. FREWEN returns this letter unopened. SIR J. SHELLY ought to be
aware that MR. FREWEN cannot receive any more communications from
him except through another person."

What does MR. FREWEN mean by this?--if the nonsense is his really?
Surely not the old bluster, the obsolete bullying trick; Chalk Farm,
pistols and coffee for two, with cock pheasant also if required for the
satisfaction of a gentleman desiring a bellyfull for breakfast. Not an
invitation to fight a duel; that ridiculous anachronism; the necessary
consequence of which in these days, to the principal fools concerned in
it, each of them, must be getting either shot, or imprisoned, or laughed
at; most probably the latter. Shot by the other fool; imprisoned--if not
hanged--for shooting him; or laughed at for neither havin