Councillors. And--as we have Orders of
Eagles and Elephants, why not the ingenuous out-speaking significance,
the Order of the Ass? As a timid beginning, we have the
Thistle--wherefore not the Ass himself?

In which case, the Order established, the _Bottom_ of Sadler's Wells
ought rightfully to be the Chancellor thereof.

* * * * *

SOMETHING IN A SIGN.

ROMEO would never have asked "What's in a name?" if he had but lived to
take a tour in England, and become acquainted with the nomenclature of
some of our inns. To us there is hardly a sign in the kingdom which is
not thoroughly sign-ificant: and any traveller, we should think, who has
his mental eyes about him, may see at a glance outside the way in which
he will be taken in. Who, for instance, would expect to enter the jaws,
or doors, of a _Lion_ without being bitten, or to get away from an
_Eagle_ without considerable bleeding? A little matured, the _Lamb_
becomes decidedly indicative of fleecing; while every _Bear_, we know,
is naturally prone to squeeze as many as he can lay his paws on. Roguery
in the _Fox_ is what everybody looks for, and plucking and roasting are,
of course, inseparable from a _Goose and Gridiron_. Nor is the _Blue
Boar_ an exception to the rule, for it most aptly symbolises your
complexion when you leave it: and no one, we should think, would enter a
_Green Man_, when reminded on the threshold of his verdancy in doing so.

Of all our signs, however, perhaps there is none more suggestive than
the _Magpie and Stump_, which any one may see is merely a contraction
for the far more significant _Magpie and Stump Up_.

* * * * *

THE HATCHET.

"Shall we never bury the hatchet?" asks MR. COBDEN. And _Punch_ asks,
"How can the hatchet be buried, when the peacemakers themselves so often
throw it?"

* * * * *

IMPROVEMENTS OF LONDON VERSUS THE IMPROVEMENTS OF PARIS.

[Illustration: S]

Some attention having been lately called to the increasing magnificence
of Paris, it is due to the national taste of this country to point out
the improvements that have been lately effected and are now in progress
in the British Metropolis.

To begin with Buckingham Palace; and indeed we may well say to "begin"
with it, for we can scarcely hope to see it finished. Standing in front
of the Palace, we look upon the enclosure of the Park, and we feel a
national pride