The Press.
London, England, 1856-02-16 00:00:00

The next paragraphs seem genuine :

Bt.rke said to Mrs. Crewe: " A dull proser is more en-
durable than a dull joker."
Gibbon took very little exercise. He had been staying
some time with Lord Sheffield in the country ; and when
he was about to go away, the servants could not find his
hat. " Bless me," said Gibbon, " I certainly left it in the
hall on my arrival here." He had not stirred out of doors
during the whole of the visit.
Witticisms are often attributed to the wrong people. It
was Lord Chesterfield, not Sheridan, who said, on occasion
of a certain marriage, that " Nobody's son had married
Everybody's daughter."

Lord Ellenborough was once about to go on the circuit,
when Lady E. said that she should like to accompany him.
He replied that he had no objections, provided she did not
encumber the carriage with bandboxes, which were his
utter abhorrence. They set off. During the first (Joy's
journey, Lord Ellenborough, happening to stretch his legs,
struck his feet against something below the seat. He dis-
covered that it was a bandbox. His indignation is not to
be described. Up went the window, and out went the
bandbox. The coachman stopped • and the footmen,
thinking that the bandbox had tumbled out of the window
by some extraordinary chance, were going to pick it up:
when Lord Ellenborough furiously called out, "Daive on!
The bandbox accordingly was left by a ditch-side. Having
reached the county-town where he was to officiate as judge,
L krd Ellenbomngli proceeded to array himself for his
appearance in the court-house. " Now; said be, " where's
my wig—where is my wig ?" " 3ly lord," replied
,hi,
attendant, " it was thrown out of the carriage-window.

FEBRUARY 16, 1856.

Of Fox the notices are very slight. Strange
that any person should have treasured up in
his memory such trivial recollections of a
great man as these :
One morning at his own house, while speaking to me of
his travels, Fox could not recollect the name of a particu-
lar town in Holland, and was much vexed at the treache-
rousness of his memory. He had a dinner party that day;
and, ust as he had applied the carving knife to the sirloin,
the name of the town having suddenly occurred to him, he
roared out exultingly, to the astonishment of the company,
" Uorcutu, Ilorcum !"

He one day pronounced himself to be a bad carver, and,
when Mrs. Fox confirmed it, he said, " Yes, my dear, I
thought you'd agree with me."
The following is a little better:—

On another occasion he said that the character of
Macbeth was very striking and original—that at first he is
al object of our pity, and that he becomes gradually worse
and worse, till at last he has no virtue left except courage.
This must always be the case when, as with
Macbeth, weak men become wicked.

Rogers, however good-natured he might be,
was certainly not a large-hearted man. By
his own .a,.:count he occasionally said cruel
things of or to his friends :

Madame de Stacl one day said to me, " How sorry I am
fir Campbell! his poverty so unsettles his mind, that he
cannot write." I replied," Why does he not take the situ-
a ion of a clerk ? he could then compose verses during his
leisure hours." This answer was reckoned very cruel
both by Madame de Stael and Mackintosh : but there was
really kindness as well as truth in it. When literature is
Vie sole business of life, it becomes a drudgery: when we
are able to resort to it only at certain hours, it is a charm-
ing relaxation.

Moore has now taken to an amusement which is very
well suited to the fifth act of life—he plays cribbage every
light with Mrs. Moore.
On the resignatiNi of Baber, chief librarian at the
British Museum, I wrote a letter to the Archbishop
of Canterbury, urging Cary's claim to fill the vacant
place. The Archbishop replied that his only reason
for not giving Cary his vote was the unfortunate circum-
stance of Cary having been more than once, in consequence
of domestic calamities, afflicted with temporary alienation
of mind. I had quite forgotten this ; and I immediately
wrote again to the Archbishop, saying that I now agreed
with him concerning Cary's unfitness for the situation. I
also, as delicately as I could, touched on the subject to
Cary himself, telling him that the place was not suited for
him.

He would have shown much more feeling
by abstaining from " delicate " allusions to
Cary on the subject. He seems to have
worshipped Byron at a distance, while the
noble poet made no secret of his contempt for
his admirer :

Byron, like Sir Walter Scott, was without any feeling for
the tine arts. He accompanied me to the Pitti Palace at
Florence ; but soon growing tired of looking at the pictures
he sat down in a corner ; and when I called out to him,
What a noble Andrea del Salto ! " the only answer I
received was his muttering a passage from the " Vicar of
Wakefield ":" Upon asking how he had been taught the art
of a cognoscento so very E widen ly ," &c.
There is littleness of mind shown in the fol-
lowing :

Neither Moore nor myself had ever r een Byron when it
was settled that he should dine at my house to meet
Moore ; nor was he known by sight to Campbell, who,
happening to call upon me that morning, consented to join
the party. I thought it best that I alone should be in the
drawitw-room when Byron entered it ; and Moore and
Campbell accordingly withdrew. Soon after his arrival,
they returned ; and I introduced them to him severally,
naming them as Adam named the beasts. When we sat
down to dinner, I asked Byron if he would take soup?
"No; he never took soup."—Would he take some fish?
No; he never took fish "—Presently I asked if be would
eat some mutton ? "No; he never ate mutton."-1 then
asked if he would take a glass of wine ? " No ; he never
tasted wine."—lt was now necessary to inquire what he
did eat and drink ; and the answer was, " nothing but
hard biscuits and soda-water." Unfortunately, neither
bird biscuits nor soda-water were at hand ; and he dined
upon potatoes bruised down on his plate and drenched
with vinegar. My guests stayed till very late. discussing
the merits of Walter Scott and Joanna Willie. Some
days after, meeting Hobhnuse, I said to him, " How long
will Lord Byron persevere in his present diet?" He
replied, "Just as long as you continue to notice it." I
did not then know, what I now know to be a fact—that
Byron, after leaving my house, had gone to a club in St.
James's-street, and eaten a hearty meat supper.

- -
Of such trivial matter the book is mainly
composed It gives us a very poor idea of
Rogers's faculties; and, supposing that his
conversation was (.rdinarily us weak as these
specimens of it, we can well believe the editor's
assertion that he did not often meet with
patient listeners. The anecdotes of Porson
which conclude the volume possess greater
interest, and supply a graphic portrait of that
learned Hottentot.

THE PRESS.