* * *

A SHOE-LANE RALEIGH!

The _Morning Herald_ has a beautiful leader upon the QUEEN'S visit to
Dublin; a very beautiful bit of work, indeed. The _Herald_ praises with
manly devotion the name of woman, and the name of mother. _But_--

"But when to both these there is added the title of our QUEEN! she
may not only as in the days of RALEIGH, step on our cloaks, but our---

What do you think? Guess. Breasts? No. Guess again. Hearts? Oh dear no--

"but our _coats_!"

If the loyalty of the _Herald_ continues--regardless of expense--to rise
in this manner, the next climax may be thus--

"Not only on our coats, _but_ our WAISTCOATS!"

There, we trust, the loyalty of the _Herald_ will, if only for the sake
of appearances, stop.

* * * * *

THE WRONGS OF SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND--it is said by Scotch patriots--is shamefully snubbed and
slighted by sister England. There are two Dukes to be made Knights of
the Thistle: and the _Edinburgh Evening Post_ very pertinently asks, Why
should they not be created at Holyrood, on the soil whereto the thistle
is indigenous? Why not? Honest SANCHO says, "Let every tub stand on its
own bottom." And in like manner, why not every Scotch knight sit on his
own Thistle?

* * * * *

REMARKABLE SELF-SACRIFICE.

[Illustration]

Now that Parliament stands prorogued, and the game of all parties
consists of partridges and grouse, the journals naturally supply the
place of political news with wonderful shots, and other marvellous items
of sporting intelligence: as, for instance, the following paragraph
which the _Morning Post_ quotes from the _North British Daily Mail_:--

"NEW MODE OF CATCHING WILD DUCK.--A farmer in Bute, some time ago,
having sown his crop, set up a couple of harrows in a field to dry,
back to back, _i.e._ with the iron spikes outward. On making a round
of his field shortly afterwards, to his astonishment he found a wild
duck spitted on one of his harrows. Whether the creature in its
flight in the dark had encountered the spike of the harrow, or been
dashed against it by a gust of wind, no one can tell; but the truth
of the story may be relied upon, as our informant, the farmer
himself, is a most respectable man, and an elder of the Church."

Both respectable men and elders of the Church are capable now and then
of indulging in a little toxo