t, the portico of
Covent Garden is overshadowed by the inelegant but massive proportions
of Drury Lane; the intervening space being occupied by various figures
and details, among which is a "patent clapping machine." An
advertisement board carried by one of the figures clearly shows that the
satire--an elaborate idea badly worked out--has reference to the period
when both actors were engaged at "old Drury."

1818. EVACUATION OF FRANCE.

Undoubtedly the most important event of the year 1818 was the congress
of the allied sovereigns at Aix-la-Chapelle, and the evacuation of
France which followed. By the second treaty of Paris, the stay of the
occupying armies had been fixed at a period of five years; but by an
official note, dated the 4th of November, 1818, the ministers of
Austria, Great Britain, Russia, and Prussia, referring to the
engagements entered into by the French Government with the subscribing
powers to that treaty, stated that such Government had fulfilled all the
clauses of the treaty, and proposed, "with respect to those clauses, the
fulfilment of which was reserved for more remote periods, arrangements
which were satisfactory" to the contracting parties. Under these
circumstances the sovereigns resolved that the military occupation of
France should forthwith be discontinued.

On the 7th of November, the Duke of Wellington, commander-in-chief of
the army of occupation, issued an order of the day, taking leave of the
troops under his command, which concluded in the following terms:--

"It is with regret that the general has seen the moment arrive when the
dissolution of this army was to put an end to his public connections and
his private relations with the commanders and other officers of the
corps of the army. The field marshal deeply feels how agreeable these
relations have been to him. He begs the generals commanding in chief to
receive and make known to the troops under their orders, the assurance
that he shall never cease to take the most lively interest in everything
that may concern them; and that the remembrance of the three years
during which he has had the honour to be at their head, will be always
dear to him."

Wellington appears to have received particular marks of distinction from
the Emperor Alexander; but what may have been the particular tittle
tattle which led up to the caricature we shall next describe, we are now
unable to fathom. That it grew out of the event which we have attem