the Continent, it is generally understood that the English government, in order to divert the envy and jealousy of the world at the power, wealth, and ingenuity of your nation, makes a point, as a ruse de guerre, of sending out none but fools of gentlemanly birth and connections as diplomatists to the courts abroad. An exception is, perhaps, sometimes made for a clever fellow, if sufficiently libertine and unprincipled." Is the case much altered now, do you know?

What dull coxcombs your diplomatists at home generally are. I remember dining at Mr. Frere's once in company with Canning and a few other interesting men. Just before dinner Lord called on Frere, and asked himself to dinner. From the moment of his entry he began to talk to the whole party, and in French-all of us being genuine English and I was told his French was execrable. He had followed the Russian army into France, and seen a good deal of the great men concerned in the war: of none

⚫ of those things did he say a word, but went on, sometimes in English and sometimes in French, gabbling about cookery and dress and the like. At last he paused for a little -and I said a few words remarking how a great image may be reduced to the ridiculous and contemptible by bringing the constituent parts into prominent detail, and mentioned the grandeur of the deluge and the preservation of life in Genesis and the Paradise Lost*, and the ludicrous effect produced by Drayton's description in his Noah's Flood:

"And now the beasts are walking from the wood,
As well of ravine, as that chew the cud.
The king of beasts his fury doth suppress,
And to the Ark leads down the lioness;
The bull for his beloved mate doth low,

And to the Ark brings on the fair-eyed cow," &c. Hereupon Lord resumed, and spoke in raptures of a picture which he had lately seen of Noah's Ark, and said the animals were all marching two and two, the little ones first, and that the elephants came last in great ma

* Genesis, c. vi, vii. Par. Lost, book xi. v. 728, &c.

jesty and filled up the fore-ground. "Ah! no doubt, my lord," said Canning; "your elephants, wise fellows! staid behind to pack up their trunks!" This floored the am

bassador for half an hour.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries almost all our ambassadors were distinguished men.* Read Lloyd's State Worthies. The third-rate men of those days possessed an infinity of knowledge, and were intimately versed not only in the history, but even in the

* Yet Diego de Mendoza, the author of Lazarillo de Tormes, himself a veteran diplomatist, describes his brethren of the craft, and their duties, in the reigns of Charles the Emperor and Philip the Second, in the following terms : —

O embajadores, puros majaderos,

Que si los reyes quieren engañar,
Comienzan por nosotros los primeros.
Nuestro mayor negocio es, no dañar,
Y jamas hacer cosa, ni dezilla,

Que no corramos riesgo de enseñar.

What a pity it is that modern diplomatists, who, for the most part, very carefully observe the precept contained in the last two lines of this passage, should not equally bear in mind the importance of the preceding remark that their principal business is just to do no mischief.-ED.

heraldry, of the countries in which they were resident. Men were almost always, except for mere compliments, chosen for their dexterity and experience- not, as now, by Parliamentary interest.

The sure way to make a foolish ambassador is to bring him up to it. What can an English minister abroad really want but an honest and bold heart, a love for his country and the ten commandments? Your art diplomatic is stuff: — no truly great man now would negotiate upon any such shallow principles.

August 30. 1833.

MAN CANNOT BE STATIONARY. FA

TALISM AND PROVIDENCE.

Ir a man is not rising upwards to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downwards to be a devil. He cannot stop at the

beast. The most savage of men are not beasts; they are worse, a great deal worse.

The conduct of the Mohammedan and Western nations on the subject of contagious plague illustrates the two extremes of error on the nature of God's moral government of the world. The Turk changes Providence into fatalism; the Christian relies upon it — when he has nothing else to rely on. He does not practically rely upon it at all.

THE English affect stimulant nourishment— beef and beer. The French, excitants, irritants-nitrous oxide, alcohol, champagne. The Austrians, sedatives-hyoscyamus. The