stubble-headed Ploughboy
No more a-field shall stride,
Smock-frocked, with whip on shoulder,
The steer or steed to guide;
At dawn, no more shall whistle
With early lark and thrush;
No longer stalk the fallows,
The clods no longer crush.

In vacant rumination,
No more shall sit on gate;
His shanks beneath him dangling
By hob-nailed highlows' weight.
That form of grace no longer
The hedgerows shall adorn,
His dab of bacon slicing
Upon his palm of horn.

The Boy--smock, boots, and bacon,
And whip,--must yield to Steam;
His whistle must be silent,
Whilst engines hiss and scream;
For MECHI has in action
A new machine e'en now,
And says his apparatus
Will supersede the Plough.

* * * * *

A BEAR SPECULATION.

The Turkish question appears to have subsided into an affair of grease.
The subjoined advertisement shows what our Imperial friend has come
to:--

BEAR FOR SALE.--A fine large RUSSIAN BEAR, very tame. To be seen on
board the Atalanta, CAPTAIN WESENBERG lying in the West India Import
Dock.

NICHOLAS has come to the West India Dock. We suppose we shall soon have
him Promoting the Growth of the Hair, in combination with essence of
rose, violet, or bergamot.

* * * * *

THE HEIGHT OF ABSURDITY.--A Vegetarian attending a Cattle Show.

* * * * *

LEADING ARTICLE FOR OLD LADIES.

(_On the proposed New Coinage._)

We are, and always were, averse to change. We do not mean to say that we
have, or ever had, any objection to those coppers which long custom has
hallowed, and which have been consecrated to charity. But when
innovation would tamper with the coin of the realm, we, in common with
all HER MAJESTY'S loyal subjects, are necessitated to rally round the
SOVEREIGN, not only as such, but as represented by monetary
subordinates. And when we observe that one of the principal features in
the contemplated revolution is the abolition of the Half-Crown, we
cannot but consider the CROWN, and with the CROWN the THRONE, and of
course the CHURCH to be placed in jeopardy. In short, we must record our
emphatic protest against the proposed Decimal Currency. It was under the
old arrangement of pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings, that the
country attained to its present pitch of glory and prosperity. That the
Decimal system has been adop