eased
me; and, as a slight token of my regard and good wishes, I beg your
acceptance of a small _piece of plate_." It was, beyond all question, a
_very_ small piece, for it was a silver toothpick!

DXXVIII.--EPISCOPAL SAUCE.

AT a dinner-party Archbishop Whately called out suddenly to the host,
"Mr. ----!" There was silence. "Mr. ----, what is the proper female
companion of this John Dory?" After the usual number of guesses an
answer came, "_Anne Chovy_."

DXXIX.--A GOOD CRITIC.

A FRIEND of an artist was endeavoring to persuade him not to bestow so
much time upon his works. "You do not know, then," said he, "that I have
a master very difficult to please?"--"Who?"--"_Myself_."

DXXX.--WILKES'S TERGIVERSATION.

WILKES, one day in his later life, went to Court, when George III. asked
him, in a good-natured tone of banter, how his friend Serjeant Glynn
was. Glynn had been one of his most furious partisans. Wilkes replied,
with affected gravity, "Nay, sire, don't call Serjeant Glynn a friend of
mine; the fellow was a _Wilkite_, which your Majesty knows _I never
was_."

DXXXI.--A SLIGHT ERUPTION.

A PERSON came almost breathless to Lord Thurlow, and exclaimed, "My
lord, I bring tidings of calamity to the nation!"--"What has happened,
man?" said the astonished Chancellor. "My lord, a rebellion has broken
out."--"Where? where?"--"In the _Isle of Man_."--"In the Isle of Man,"
repeated the enraged Chancellor. "A tempest in a teapot!"

DXXXII.--SMOKING AN M.P.

AN honorable member, speaking about the tax on _tobacco_, somewhat
ludicrously called for certain _returns_.

DXXXIII.--A TIMELY REPROOF.

A YOUNG chaplain had preached a sermon of great length. "Sir," said Lord
Mulgrave, bowing to him, "there were some things in your sermon of
to-day I never heard before."--"O, my lord!" said the flattered
chaplain, "it is a common text, and I could not have hoped to have said
anything new on the subject."--"I heard the clock _strike twice_," said
Lord Mulgrave.

DXXXIV.--REPROOF.

"I CAN'T find bread for my family," said a lazy fellow in company. "Nor
I," replied an industrious miller; "I am obliged to _work_ for it."

DXXXV.--A SATISFACTORY REASON.

MR. ALEXANDER, the architect of several fine buildings in the county of
Kent, was under cross-examination at Maidstone, by Serjeant (afterwards
Baron) Garrow, who wished to detract from the w