e on such a subject, but not the most flattering
to the vanity of his client. It was that he was a blockhead, and had no
idea of the absurdity that he was committing. Among other instances of
his ignorance, he said, that when he saw the subpoena served upon him,
he thought that it was the appointment to his place. But even his
idiotism could not save him, and the affair ended in his being sentenced
to three months' imprisonment, and L100 fine.

Christie, the auctioneer, the other day, gave a happy specimen of the
eloquence of the hammer. He is at the head of his trade, and sells all
the remarkable things. On this occasion the Pigot diamond had come into
his hands. It is a very fine brilliant, but objected to by the
connoisseurs as not having sufficient depth. It was valued at L40,000.
But at this sale the auctioneer could not raise its price above L9500,
or guineas. He then appealed to his audience, a crowd of the fair and
fashionable,--

"How unfortunate," said he, "is it, for the owners of this incomparable
production, that they should have brought it into the market in a
country so famed for female beauty as England! Here the charms of the
sex require no such additions; here the eyes of the ladies sparkle with
brilliancy which outvies all the gems of the East. In other countries
this incomparable stone would be sought as a necessary aid; here it can
be valued only as a splendid superfluity." The room rang with applause.

One of the heroes of Junius has just died; the veteran Wellbore Ellis,
Lord Mendip. This man's whole life was spent in public employments. He
was the son of an Irish bishop, whose brother--such were the curious
qualities of the time--took orders in the Popish Church, followed the
Pretender, and died a Popish bishop. Young Ellis, after an education at
Westminster and Oxford, was brought into parliament under the Pelhams,
who made him a lord of the Admiralty. Under the Newcastle administration
which followed, he was appointed to the lucrative post of Irish
vice-treasurer, which he held undisturbed through all the struggles of
the Cabinet till the Grenville administration, when he was raised still
higher, and became Secretary at War.

The Grenvilles fell; the Marquis of Rockingham brought in his friends
and Ellis was superseded in his Irish office by Colonel Barre. For five
unlucky years he continued in that Limbo of patriots, exclusion from
place. At length, the Premiership of Lord North recalle