ressive tone, "Oh, sir, don't
interrupt Mr Wilberforce, he could not be better employed."

Again: 'The very first time I went to Boodle's I won twenty-five guineas
of the Duke of Norfolk. I belonged at this time to five clubs--Miles'
and Evans', Brookes', Boodle's, White's, and Goosetree's.'

SIR PHILIP FRANCIS.

Sir Philip Francis, the eminent politician and supposed author of
the celebrated 'Letters of Junius,' was a gambler, and the convivial
companion of Fox. During the short administration of that statesman he
was made a Knight of the Bath. One evening, Roger Wilbraham came up to
the Whist table, at Brookes', where Sir Philip, who for the first time
wore the ribbon of the Order, was engaged in a rubber, and thus accosted
him. Laying hold of the ribbon, and examining it for some time, he
said:--'So, this is the way they have rewarded you at last; they have
given you a little bit of red ribbon for your services, Sir Philip,
have they? A pretty bit of red ribbon to hang about your neck; and that
satisfies you, does it? Now, I wonder what I shall have. What do you
think they will give me, Sir Philip?' The newly-made knight, who had
twenty-five guineas depending on the rubber, and who was not very well
pleased at the interruption, suddenly turned round, and looking at him
fiercely, exclaimed, 'A halter, and be,' &c.

THE REV. CALEB C. COLTON.

Unquestionably this reverend gentleman was one of the most lucky of
gamesters--having died in full possession of the gifts vouchsafed to him
by the goddess of fortune.

He was educated at Eton, graduated at King's College, Cambridge, as
Bachelor of Arts in 1801, and Master of Arts in 1804, and obtained a
fellowship, having also a curacy at Tiverton, held conjointly. Some six
years after he appeared in print as a denouncer of a 'ghost story,' and
in 1812, as the author of 'Hypocrisy,' a satirical poem, and 'Napoleon,'
a poem. In 1818 he was presented by his college to the vicarage of Kew
with Petersham, in Surrey. Two years after he established a literary
reputation--lasting to the present time--by the publication of a volume
of aphorisms or maxims, under the title of 'LACON; or, Many Things in
Few Words.' This work is very far from original, being founded mainly on
Lord Bacon's celebrated Essays, and Burdon's 'Materials for Thinking,'
La Bruyiere, and De la Rochefoucault; still it is highly creditable to
the abilities of the writer. It has passed through several edit