for this country until six heads of the principal
persons in administration were laid upon the table. Eleven days after,
this same gentleman accepted a place of lord of trade under those very
ministers, and has acted with them ever since!" Such was the avidity of
bidders for the most trifling production of Fox's genius, that, by the
addition of this little record, the book sold for three guineas.

* * * * *

DR. JOHNSON'S PRIDE.

Sir Joshua Reynolds used to relate the following characteristic anecdote
of Johnson:--About the time of their early acquaintance, they met one
evening at the Misses Cotterell's, when the Duchess of Argyll and another
lady of rank came in. Johnson, thinking that the Misses Cotterell were
too much engrossed by them, and that he and his friend were neglected
as low company, of whom they were somewhat ashamed, grew angry, and,
resolving to shock their suspected pride, by making the great visitors
imagine they were low indeed, Johnson addressed himself in a loud tone
to Reynolds, saying, "How much do you think you and I could get in a
week if we were to work as hard as we could?" just as though they were
ordinary mechanics.

* * * * *

LORD BYRON'S "CORSAIR."

The Earl of Dudley, in his _Letters_, (1814) says:--"To me Byron's
_Corsair_ appears the best of all his works. Rapidity of execution is
no sort of apology for doing a thing ill, but when it is done well,
the wonder is so much the greater. I am told he wrote this poem at ten
sittings--certainly it did not take him more than three weeks. He is a
most extraordinary person, and yet there is G. Ellis, who don't feel his
merit. His creed in modern poetry (I should have said _contemporary_) is
Walter Scott, all Walter Scott, and nothing but Walter Scott. I cannot
say how I hate this petty, factious spirit in literature--it is so
unworthy of a man so clever and so accomplished as Ellis undoubtedly
is."

* * * * *

BOOKSELLERS IN LITTLE BRITAIN.

Little Britain, anciently Breton-street, from the mansion of the Duke of
Bretagne on that spot, in more modern times became the "Paternoster-row"
of the booksellers; and a newspaper of 1664 states them to have published
here within four years, 464 pamphlets. One Chiswell, resident here in
1711, was the metropolitan bookseller, "the Longman" of his time: and
here lived Rawlinson ("Tom Folio" of _The T