Star.
London, England, 1828-01-08 00:00:00

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41.
tenets, as he has well shown, vrinsiets in intellectual
enjoyments, and in the good fellowship and mirth.
tempered by gentlemanly feeling, which prevails at . its
mtetings. The follentiageeitittcts are selected froib
the account ofthis Club, as specimens of the authot's
styltin tel anecdotes and sketching characters:-4, Ferguson of Aberdeen has been already mentioned.
Be was a singular character, and endued with a peculiar
species of dry humour. In the House of Commons he
was noted fora faculty somewhat akin to that of yen-
-triloquisrn. If a prosing speaker got on his legs about
the expected hour of division, and the ordinary means,
such as coughing, yawning, banging the peen door,
proved ineffectual; Ferguson retired to a side gallery,
matted himself on a side bench, so as to be out
al the speaker's eye, and sent forth such unearthly
elsoceds that, while they completely silenced the bore,
no one could divine whence they proceeded. Of
elk Ferguson, they used to tell a characteristic
;
*No&te. During a debate in the beginning of the
adcb War, he had retired to dine at Bellamy's
•
with two or three other members. As they were sitting
• over theii wine, a messenger announced that Mr. Pitt
was up. Instantly ere ry one hurried down stairs to
hear him. Ferguson, unwilling to quit his bottle.
pressed tie party to stay. Why. Pitt is up, was the
answer. • That's nothing to me,' said Ferguson. 4 Let
• 'as hive some more wine ; for I am sure that it is the
stair thing that Pitt himself would do, if he were here,
and tbey.wete to tell him that I was speaking.
° The memory of this agreeable evening,• so much
out of the ;itch of common conviviality, sank deep
within n.e. Ever and arrow it risked me, amid the
prosaic, dull festivities, we are doomed to undergo in
the common routine of life—those stale, vulgar com-
munions,iii which we herd rather than associate—where
the mirth is without images, the jest without fancy, and
the wine inebriates rather than gladdens. In the year
1812. however. I was honoured with the rare and en-
viable distinction-of becoming a member of the Sublime
Society. It was then donlicled, for a short time, at
the Bedford, under the P.azaa, the beautiful apart-
ments at Arnold's 'newt., where it ngw holds its
e ieneetings, not, being quite finished. During this in.
terral I Tema ked some change of faces, but the" heart.
the spirit of the Club, is unchanged and the same. I
was, of course, not unmindful rit the ordeal 1.11441 to
undergo; hut one thing comforted and ',assisted me.
Two or three had found their way there, who were far
from being prodigies; one, in particular, put me quite
at my ease. I said to myself, under this fellow's gabar-
dine,will I crawl when the storm hisses around me. When
we are diffident of ourselves, how delightful it is to find
somebody whom, in the most benighted state of our facul-
ties, we are sure to surpass ! Yet this very animal, so
providentially coming to my aid, and making me a sort
• of luminary in the comparison, was the personification of
self complacency. It ea: his felicity to be convinced that
Lis excellency lay in the very point where he was the
most disqualified. For instance, his voice was bad, nay
it was distressing. and resembled, in all but vivacity,
that of a male pig while they are qualifying him to be-
come a singer. Yet Ire left off his dismal quavers with the
conscious satisfaction of a first-rate performer. To satire,
ridicule, sarcasm. he was quite inaccessible. How I en-
-,tiried the dog's beatitude! Nay, he had brought himself to
$ .believe that he was the most ample contributor- to the
• wit and fancy of the Club, and that the happiest hits
of the evening were his; like the idiot of Hierocles,who,
p. Is he walked along the Pilaus, trok every vessel that
• entered the harbour for his own. And herein I could
not choose but admire the kind provisions of Nature,in
whose benevolent scheme, qualities ate so nicely dis-
tributed, and so evenly poised. Here was a creature,
liming in the 'dreams of his own superiority, who,
had he been aware how niggardly he bad been
dealt by in the distribution of human endowments,
must have hanged himself in pule vexatirn. He
. was worse than useless lumber at. the Beef-Steaks;
he laid on it like m rrl encumbering the soil,
it could rot fertilize.' Of course the artillery of the
table played profusely upon him ; but this armed thi-
nocet vs could feel nothing.—' M is dead,' said
somebody to him, giving him a tap of the shoulder,
finding him stones hat silent. Dead.' replied tire
other, 4I am not dead, thar.k Goo.' ' Yes, Pl—,
you are dead,' exclaimed Cobb. will prove it:—
first, you are a dead weight to the Society ; secondly,
'flu are not alive to your own deficiencies.' From this
time, he was called the late Mr. M—, and, not
relishing the title, be withdrew in •disguit. The spirit
of tl.e Club seemed to breathe mote freely when this
acubus was annoyed frem it."

is Cobb was an admirable beef strokes-, and played
off a delightful pleasantry. The friendly ?tiro and
Taillety of the Society he took with incomparable tem-
per. In the chair he sustained, and returned the fire
pith the greatest promptitude, and silenctd hi• assail.
ants, one by one, as the shepherd in Spenser brushes off
the • cloud of cumbrous gnats' that molested him. Cobb
was the author of several dramatic pieces. His farce
called the first Floor kept possession of the stage for
many years. To some of his comic operas, particularly
his Haunted Tower and Siege of 13dgrads, Storace set
some of his finest music. His Last, called Ramah Drwe,
was not successful.

- •
"Dscx (Ms. R. WILSON) stood 'the fire of the Beef-
Steaks with exemplary coolness and good humour. But
be was sometimes unnsercifully roasted. 1 remember his
dining there after his return from a short trip to Paris, to
which city he had gone immediately after the peace, to
stare and gape. and make blunders in French with nearly
all the rest of hircountrymen. Arnold coot, ived with
great dexterity, to draw him into some Parisiin de-
cals; for Dices entire innocence of the French Lan-.
guage. and his stubborn indocility to all foreign usages
and custom., rendered his descriptions quite original.—
on this occasion, he was singularly happy •in chum-
rating the dishes at a French table, and in describing
those which most pleased him, his memory was sure to
oetray its usual infelicity. He told us, for instance,
that he thoeght the boulevards that were' served up to
him at a certain table d hose, delicious: We could newt*
satisfactorily trace through the labyrinth of poor Dick's
misapprehensions, what was ti.e specific dish which
he meant to &scribe when he btu alba d on this
absurd misnomer; • but, we concluded that it was
tither a simple or • a lwuilli •bert, r•thae he
wished to specify, Cobb called out; $ Dick, it was well
they did not serve you up the Palais Royale for sauce
te your- boulevards. As for 'the ris de yeast, which
Dick thought the perfection•of the bench cookery,
e was eternally extolling it; but he took case to
yeiee it a name more • familiar to hit English ear,
Morph in seality a- French one—for lie called it a
riwnereoas. Being asked if he liked the French mode
of -GaAs% $ their partridges (these questieas were insi-
alineely pat for the sake of eliciting some amusing
kasiotier), rhe said, he coul3 not-- bear them served
-•
/$0 semis otos io %%Mouse, asednisli or Drees, in the lan_.
of ale carasitry,lariiira
sy•• "efove

up in a hues. &lett s, o were all at fault for roctie minutes,
:ill, at lengda.;on CF...lipus solved. the enigma/ foe It
was perdrix aus.thous that DICK intended ►y -that`
►tram phrase. ' It was upon- strisuecasion that a Oen
"nem*, who had dined witbVICE at VERO, assured oh
that ifk;theitourse of the dinner they tithed tip a maitad
pativiefgeywhen Dscic asked the waiter, or rather in.
tended to ask him, for a pheasant, alleging that he was
tired of partridge ; but, as usual, Dick mistook die
word (lnisan), and desired him to bring him a partnered
In short, there was no end to the slips into which his
most ungallican organ betrayed him.
is The student of hinnan nature would have but an
imperfect collection of anomalies without such a cha-
racter as Dick. For it brings, as it were, into the sante
focus of observation, the most opposite contrarieties
of mind and intellect which human nature supplies.
Would you think, giving credence to these sort:dotes,
and they are undeniably authentic, that with this
predestinated, incorrigible habit of blundering, Dick
is shrewd, correct, and intelligent' in all matters
where those qualities may be most usefully called
into play ? It is, however, not quite easy, it must
be confessed, to reconcile with any tolerable de-
gtee of accuracy of judgment, an anaccountabl
aberration which Cobb used to relate of him, and
which almost reminds one of some of the absurdities
collected by Hierocles. Dick one day called at the
Secretary's Office in the India House upon Cobb, who
happened fora few minutes to be absent; but, on retutn-
tog, who should he see but Dick, earnestly esploting a
-map of Asia that was suspended on the wall, measuring
the scale of it with a pair of compasses that he found
on the table, and then applying them to a large tiger,
which the artist bad introduced to embellish it, as one
of the animals of that country. By heavens, Coss,'
exclaimed Dick, 'I should never have believed it !
Surely, it mu t be a mistake. Observe now—here,'
pointing to Or tiger,.' here is a tiger that measures two
and twenty leagues. By 6—, it is IC I cely credible!'"

Tip- Ala&
Mr,. WILLI*. of thil frigyptran Hall, has introduced
on ingenious ins ()tenement on the common music i ort-
folio, by unbound music may be preserved in as
great a degrees* if bound up ; before a sufficient num-
ber of pieces are vilectee tO tortria volume, it genet-
dly happens On the lienutitrii at least, air in 'Attar.
We c n therrfore recommend the 4, Bar Folio" as an
acceprole offering to the musical w0r1,4
M J. Cruickshank has just published siz illusttations!
of the popular history of John Gilpin's adventures, to-
r with the tale itself, which. we have no d übt, viii
'in this form meet with increased populasity. The ait•
ias by whom the designs have beets engraved on wood
have acquitted themselves Us the happii st manner.
These merits, together with the moderate price of the
little work, render it a suitable gilt for our juvenile
friends.

THE EVENING STAR.

LON DON.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1828.

STOCK EXCHANGE, TWELVE O'CLOCK.

Up to the present time, there is a great dearth Of Information,
which causes the Coosol Imams to remain steady, with little
doing. Consols opened this morning at 84 to g for the Account,
with no alteration up to Ibis hour, and the ex divides & at Ste I.
All the attention on 'Change is at present turned to the Russian
unties, and on the event of their crossing the Prutb.
In the Foreign market little or nothing is doing.
CITY. HALF-PAST ONE O'CLOCK.
Consols remain the whole of the morning at the °prising price.
PRICE OF STOCKS AT FOUR ()CLOCK.
Bank Stock WM India Stock
3 per Cent. Red. 831 1 I Ditto Binds 85
3 per Ct. Cons. 821 jj ea die. South Sea Stock
31 per Cent. 901 Old Annuities
3/ per Cent. Red. 901 1 j £lOOO Excite+ Bilis 58 37
4 per Ct. New wig jea die. £5OO Ditto
4 per Cent. Scrip £lOO and £2OO Ditto.
4 per Cent. 1824, 1001 j India for Acct.
Lung Atm. Consuls fur Acct. 81j 84;
FOREIGN FUNDS, TWO 0171.ett K.
Buenos Ayres lids. 6p C. 43 ales. lids, 1825, 6 p Ct 461 g
Danish lick. 3 p Ct. 591 IDo Acct. 461 A
Do. Acct. Russ. lids. 1822, 5p C. Acct
Greek 11.1 a, 1825, 5 p Ct. 171 I Do Acct 901
Do Acct. Spanish lids s:p Ct 10j I
BRITISH AND FOREIGN SHARKS. TWO O'CLOCK.
11/141111. rarer
Bolivar 50 71 6 .51
United Mexican 40 35 151
Provinciafßank of Ireland 100 IS 254

Up to the time of our going to ;mess this day noli
French Papas of a later date than tho.:e we gave the I
estracts Thum yesterday had arrived. One of the Ili
vale letters received this 'coining from Paris, of Satur-
day night's date, observes, that the new Ministry will
not have a inalwrity in the Chamber cf Deputies ; and
it was currently reported that the Es Minister Vitutt.a
would be impeached for a mal.administ,ation of the
Finances, the deficiency of which is computed at 120
millions of francs. The Russian Army on the Tut k!sh
frontiers were reported to be in motion.

-,

This morning we received the Austrian Observer
to-the 28th ult. and Frankfort Paperi 'to the 2d inst.
With the exception of an article from Zulus, sof Decem-
ber 7, in the former, the intelligence in these papers
are neither new nor of much interest. The following
are 'streets: