ounsel argued on, and insisted on its
authority; after listening to which for a good hour, his lordship drily
remarked, "I do believe all the teeth of this act have been drawn, for
there is nothing left but the jaw."--_Literary Gazette_.

_Criticism_.--A print of a wounded leopard is described by a
contemporary as "a powerful exhibition of animal agony." Did our critic
ever hear of vegetable agony?

_Humbug_.--A correspondent of the _Times_ says "Every body is not
acquainted with the etymology of the word Humbug. It is a corruption
of Hamburgh, and originated in the following manner: During a period
when war prevailed on the Continent, so many false reports and lying
bulletins were fabricated at Hamburgh, that, at length, when any one
would signify his disbelief of a statement, he would say, 'You had
that from Hamburgh;' and thus, 'That is Hamburgh,' or 'Humbug,' became
a common expression of incredulity."

_A Clincher_.--An American paper says, this is the method of catching
tigers in India:--"A man carries a board, on which a human figure is
painted; as soon as he arrives at the den, he knocks behind the board
with a hammer; the noise rouses the tiger, when he flies in a direct
line at the board, and grasps it, and the man behind clinches his claws
in the wood, and so secures him."

_Franking Letters_.--The Princess Augusta asked Lord Walsingham for
a frank; he wrote one for her in such detestable characters that, at the
end of a week, after having wandered half over England, it was opened,
and returned to her as illegible. The Princess complained to Lord
Walsingham, and he then wrote the frank for her so _legibly_, that at
the end of a couple of days, it was returned to her, marked
"FORGERY."--_The Town_.

_Epigram from Scarron_.

A Confessor was caugh t'other day rather jolly,
Who observed, "When a man has committed a folly,
If he has any sense left, hastens straightway to me,
When, confessing his guilt, I can soon set him free;
But how hard is my fate! for when wrong I have done,
Absolution's denied me by every one;
In which case, that I may from conscience escape,
Take refuge from thought in the juice of the grape."

M.T.

_Signs_.--To trace the origin of signs would be an amusing relaxation
for the Society of Antiquaries. Who could have imagined that "bag o'
nails," was a corruption of the Bacchanals, which it evidently is from
the rude epigraph still subjoined to the fract