hich
The reveller reclines,--puzzles me much,
And makes me rather tipple ginger beer,
Than fly to brandy, or to--
[Illustration: --HODGE'S SIN?]
Thus poverty doth make us Temp'rance men.

* * * * *

"TRY OUR BEST SYMPATHY."

It is a fact, when the deputation of the distressed manufacturers waited
upon Sir Robert Peel to represent to him their destitute condition, that
the Right Honourable Baronet declared he felt the deepest sympathy for
them. This is all very fine--but we fear greatly, if Sir Robert should be
inclined to make a commercial speculation of his _sympathy_, that he would
go into the market with

[Illustration: A VERY SMALL STOCK-IN(G) TRADE.]

* * * * *

THE MAN OF HABIT.

I meet with men of this character very frequently, and though I believe
that the stiff formality of the past age was more congenial than the
present to the formation and growth of these peculiar beings, there are
still a sufficient number of the species in existence for the
philosophical cosmopolite to study and comment upon.

A true specimen of a _man of habit_ should be an old bachelor,--for
matrimony deranges the whole clock-work system upon which he piques
himself. He could never endure to have his breakfast delayed for one
second to indulge "his soul's far dearer part" with a prolonged morning
dream; and he dislikes children, because the noisy urchins make a point of
tormenting him wherever he goes. The Man of Habit has a certain hour for
all the occupations of his life; he allows himself twenty minutes for
shaving and dressing; fifteen for breakfasting, in which time he eats two
slices of toast, drinks two cups of coffee, and swallows two eggs boiled
for two and a half minutes by an infallible chronometer. After breakfast
he reads the newspaper, but lays it down in the very heart and pith of a
clever article on his own side of the question, the moment his time is up.
He has even been known to leave the theatre at the very moment of the
_denouement_ of a deeply-interesting play rather than exceed his limited
hour by five minutes. He will be out of temper all day, if he does not
find his hat on its proper nail and his cane in its allotted corner. He
chooses a particular walk, where he may take his prescribed number of
turns without interruption, for he would prefer suffering a serious
inconvenience rather than be obliged to quicken or slacken his pa