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" I know it—l know it," replied Anne; " and !know
how he has duped me, too. But no more of this, if you

love me, Bolingbroke."
" Oh that your majesty would exert your spirit for one
moment," said Lady Masham," and drive him from your
presence with the contempt he deserves."
" If your majesty will only authorise me, it shall be
done," said Bolingbroke.
" Peace ! peace ! my lord, I implore of you," said
Anne. " You all seem to disregard me."
" Your majesty perceives the esteem in which you are
held by your friends I" said Oxford, sarcastically.
" You are all alke," cried the queen, faintly.
" What crime am I charged with ?" demanded Oxford,
addressing himself to the queen.
" I will tell you," replied Bolingbroke. " I charge you
with double-dealing, with chicanery, with treachery, with
falsehood to the queen, to me, and to the whole cabinet.
I charge you with holding out hopes, on the one hand, to
the Elector of Hanover, and to Prince James, on the
ether. I charge you with caballing with Marlborough—
with appropriating the public monies—"
" These charges must be substantiated—must be an-
swered, my lord," interrupted Oxford, approaching him,
and touching his sword.
" They shall be substantiated, my lord," replied Bo-
lingbroke, haughtily and contemptuously.
" Bolingbroke, you are a villain—a dastardly villain!"
cried Oxford, losing all patience, and striking him in the
face with his glove.
" Ha !" exclaimed Bolingbroke, transported with fury,
and partly drawing his sword.
`• My lord !" exclaimed the queen, rising with dignity,
" I command you to forbear. This scene will kill me—
oh !" And she sank back exhausted.
" Your pardon, gracious madam," cried Bolingbroke,
running up to her, and falling on his knees. " I have in-
deed forgotten myself."
" Oh! my head! my head !" cried Anne, pressing
her hand to her temples. " My senses are deserting me."
" You have much to answer for, Bolingbroke,' whis-
pered Lady Masham ; " she will not survive this shock."
" It was not my fault, but his," replied Bolingbroke,
pointing to Oxford, who stood sullenly aloof in the mid-
dle of the room. _ _ _ _

"Let Sir Richard Blackmore and Dr. Mead be sum-
moned instantly," gasped the queen ; " and bid the Duke
of Shrewsbury and the lord chancellor instantly attend
me—they are in the palace. The post of treasurer must
be filled without delay. Lose not a moment."
And Lady Masham ran out to give the necessary instruc-
tions to the usher.
" Shrewsbury and the chancellor—what can she want
with them ?" muttered Bolingbroke, with a look of
dismay.
Oxford, who had hea-d the order, and instantly divined
what it portended, softly approached him, and touched
his arm. . _

---
" You have lost the stake you have been playing for,"
he said, with a look of triumphant malice. "I am now
content."
Ere Bolingbroke could reply, Lady Masham returned
with Sir Richard Biackmnre, who chanced to be in the
ante-room, and who instantly flew to the queen, over
whose countenance a fearful change had come.
" Your majesty must be taken instantly to bed," said
Blackmore.
" Not till I have seen the Dukes of Shrewsbury and
Ormond," replied the queen, faintly. " Where are
they ?"

i will go and bring them instantly," replied Black-
more ; " not a moment is to be lost."
And as he was about to rush out of the room, Boling-
broke stopped him, and hastily asked, " Is there danger ?"
"Imminent danger !" replied Blackmore.
" The case is desperate. The queen cannot survive
three days."
And he hurried away.
" Then all is lost !" cried Bolingbroke, striking his
forehead.
And looking up, he saw Harley watching him with a
malignant smile.
" Lady Masham was assiduous in her attentions to her
royal mistress; but the latter became momentarily worse.
and continued to inquire anxiously for the Duke of
Shrewsbury.
" Has your majesty no commands for Lord Boling-
broke ?" inquired Lady Masham.
" None whatever," replied the queen, firmly.
At this juncture, Sir Richard Blackmore returned with
the Duke of Shrewsbury, the lord chance.lor, and some
other attendants.

" Ah! you are come, my lords," cried Anne, greatly
relieved. " I feared you would be too late. Sir Richard
will have told yoo of my danger—nay, it is vain to hide
it from me. My lords, the office of treasurer is at this
moment vacant; and if anything should happen to me,
the safety of the kingdom may be endangered. My lord
of Shrewsbury, you are already lord chamberlain and
lord-lieutenant of Ireland ; I have another post for you.
Take this staff," she added, giving him the treasurer's
wand, which lay upon the table, " and use it for the good
of my people."
"As the duke knelt to kiss her hand, he felt it grow
cold in his touch. Anne bad fainted, and was instantly
removed by htx attendants.
" So," cried Oxford, " if the queen's fears are realized,
Lady Masharn's reign is over; while your fate, Boling-
broke, is sealed. You have to choose between exile and
the block."
" If I fly, you must fly with me;" cried Bolingbroke.
" No, I shall wait, replied Oxford; " I have nothing
to fear."
" So end the hopes of these ambitious men !" observed
the Duke of Shrewsbury to the chancellor ; " the queen
has found they were not to be trusted. Her people's
welfare influenced the last exercise of the power of GOOD
QUEEN ANNE."

The Nature and Treatment of D--afness, and Diseases of
the Ear; and the Treatment of the Deaf and Dumb.
By Wm. Dutton, Surgeon. Illustrated with Frontis-
piece of Instruments. Churchill, Soho. 1844. Bvo.
This is a neatly-got-out work of 118 pages. The style
is correct arid simple, disburthen2d of that tedious quo-
tation everlastingly from authorities often no longer such,
though paraded like men of straw, to be knocked down
cleverly by the author. Both legal and medical lore are
so burthened with precedents and references, that the
task of selection constitutes one of the most difficult of
literary labours nowadays. However, in this particular,
we congratulate the members of physic in their rapidly
attaining this selecting tact ; whilst their twin brother,
the law, is still busied collecting cases and precedents—
ever and anon working their hbyrinthical way from misty
folds into the broad glare of truth and justice. Law dare
not yet enunciate a proposition of right in the abstract,
apart from some decision on a case in point by the Lord
Chancellor Woolsack it is a cripple still leaning on the
crutches provided for it by its foster parent, the middle
ages ;—whilst medicine has dared to be free. Its fetters
of traditional error and wrong-directed judgment broken,
it can discuss a question on its simple merits alone, com-
prehend it in all its relations to other questions, and state
a fact or a principle in nature without deference to any
authority, human or canonised ; and appeal to no tribunal,
even on writ of error, but simply leaving it to be test d
by the mirror of truth itself held up in everyihurnan breast
--can go on from the station of experiment to that of
sound Baconian induction, and thence to the terminus,
where truth, arrived at, is to be put in practice—and
then, like the last function of animated being, transmit
the possession of such power to others, and close its la-
bours in the didactics of the schoolmaster, happy in the
attainment of a portion of valuable truth, and rejoicing
in the self-satisfaction of philanthropic effort of doing
good. Law is at present stopping at the halfway station
of harm's tvay, if Irish Courts of Queen's Bench and
.English law lords are to be taken in evidence. Let her
alone a bit : she is bruised herself with the awkward
handling of her own weapon; self-interest will be ballast
enough, we trust, to right her, and bring her on safely at
last to the terminus of Good-end, close by the village of
Good-Will.
In contrast with the useless tediousness of law, how
pleasant to take up a book without much pretension,
written in earnest simplicity, unsophisticated in its state-
ments, and whose pleasant purport is to amend some of
the ills, or soothe some of the trials, to which our won-
drously-compounded being is obnoxious! And amongst
these infirmities, that of deafness occupies no insignificant
corner in Pandora's box ; and if the modesty of the pre-
sent production, along with its scientific claims, adds but
an hour's instructive reading to the devoted student of
the divine art, or is the means, directly or indirectly, of
procuring benefit to any " who having ears cannot hear,"
so that even one chord of nature's ever-varying and all-
musical sounds, or one dulcet cadence of the human
voice, shall be caught up by the ear beforetime deaf as
the adder (though the adder is not deaf), yet will it have
accomplished more good than many an act of parliament!