* * * * *

A PRUDENT CHANGE.

"So Lord John Russell is married," said one of the Carlton Club loungers to
Colonel Sibthorp the other morning. "Yes," replied that gallant punster;
"his Lordship is at length convinced that his talents will be better
employed in the management of the _Home_ than the _Colonial_ department."

* * * * *

THE ABOVE-BRIDGE NAVY.

AN ARTICLE INTENDED FOR THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW," BUT FALLEN INTO THE HANDS
OF "PUNCH."

I.--_Hours of the Starting of the Boats of the Iron Steam Boat Company_.
London: 1841.

II.--_Notes of a Passenger on Board the Bachelor, during a Voyage from Old
Swan Pier, London Bridge, to the Red House, Battersea_. CATNACH: 1840.

III.--_Rule Britannia, a Song_. London: 1694.

IV.--_Two Years before the Mast_. CUNNINGHAM. London.

V.--_Checks issued by the London and Westminster Steam Boat Company_.
CATTARNS AND FRY.

At a time when the glory of England stands--like a door shutting or opening
either way--entirely upon a pivot; when the hostile attitude of enemies
abroad threatens not more, nor perhaps less, than the antagonistic posture
of foes at home--at such a time there is at least a yet undug and hitherto
unexplored mine of satisfaction in the refreshing fact, that the Thames is
fostering in his bosom an entirely new navy, calculated to bid defiance to
the foe--should he ever come--in the very heart and lungs, the very bowels
and vitals, the very liver and lungs, or, in one emphatic word, the very
pluck of the metropolis. There is not a more striking instance of the
remarkable connexion between little--very little--causes, and
great--undeniably great--effects, than the extraordinary origin, rise,
progress, germ, development, and maturity, of the _above-bridge navy_, the
bringing of which prominently before the public, who may owe to that navy
at some future--we hope so incalculably distant as never to have a chance
of arriving--day, the salvation of their lives, the protection of their
hearths, the inviolability of their street-doors, and the security of their
properties. Sprung from a little knot of (we wish we could say "_jolly
young_," though truth compels us to proclaim) far from jolly, and decidedly
old, "watermen," the _above-bridge navy_, whose shattered and unfrequented
wherries were always "in want of a fare," may now boast of covering the
bosom of the Thames with its fleet of steamers; thus, a