pon carcasses,' and, therefore, I will leave these
canvass-spoilers to the judgment of those, who will show them in their
proper light--viz. the hanging-committee."

The funeral being concluded, they return to town, Vivid agreeing with
his odd companion in leaving the canvass-spoilers to the _hanging
committee_.

Is it not to be hoped that a day may come when a thorough revision and
amelioration of our equity laws will be deemed a matter of as great
national importance as that chief occupier of the time of our grand
_rural Capulets_ and _Montagues_, the revision and amelioration
of the game laws.

[Illustration]

* * * * *

TRIAL BY BATTLE.

"Ay, leave lawyers to wrangle amongst each other--a practice which of
late years has become so much a legal fashion, that some of our
Westminster Hall heroes, forgetting their clients' quarrels in their
own, suddenly convert themselves into a new plaintiff and defendant, and
brawl forth such home coarse vituperations----"

"True;--formerly they used to brow-beat witnesses, now they brow-beat
one another, and so defyingly, that ere long, who knows but the
_four_ courts may resemble, as punsters would say, the _five_
courts?"

[Illustration]

* * * * *

KICKING THE WORLD.

Every one has heard of kicking the world before them, though,
comparatively, so few succeed in the task. The wights in the cut are in
an enviable condition.

[Illustration]

* * * * *

A sketch of one of those inveterate story tellers which are the standing
dishes of a _table d'hote_, introduces one of the best of the cuts,
Mr. Blase Bronzely, _loquitur_:

"Well, gentlemen, as I was saying, when I saw at Stratford-upon-Avon the
Shakspearean procession pass in the street, it rained so violently that
Caliban and Hamlet's Ghost carried umbrellas, whilst Ophelia----"

"Obvious, my dear Blase; or, as a late premier used to say, 'It can't be
missed,' 'Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia:' and, besides, your
wet ghost is a mere crib from yourself; for whenever you go hunting in
cloudy weather, don't you regularly ride with a smart silver parasol
over your dear little head?"

[Illustration]

* * * * *

Soon growing tired of lounging in the library, loitering on the pier,
and of all the rest of the usual dull sea-side routine, he literally
knew so little what to do