, in a remote way, to introduce them, as you suggest,
into _Old Mortality_, but we should think you would be nearer the mark
with that other item of your programme, that associates _Jem Baggs_ with
_The Lay of the Last Minstrel_. Your idea of accepting and utilising the
offer of the GIRALFI family to introduce their Drawing-room
Entertainment into your programme seems excellent, and has certainly as
much in common with the Birthday of Sir WALTER SCOTT as the "_Death of
Nelson_," on the trombone, has with that of the distinguished Novelist's
great brother Poet. There is no reason, as you further point out, why
you should not organise a whole Series of Commemorative Birthday
Entertainments, as you think of doing, on the same plan, and with
BEETHOVEN, MACAULAY, Dr. JOHNSON, and WARREN HASTINGS, the celebrities
you mention, to begin upon, you ought to have no difficulty in working
in the solo on the big drum, the performance of the Learned Hyaena, the
Japanese Twenty-feet Bayonet-jump, and the other equally appropriate
attractions with which you are already in communication. Anyhow, begin
with Sir WALTER SCOTT, following the St. James's Hall lead, and let us
hear how you get on.

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STRIKING WEDDING PRESENTS.--As you seem to think that a list of the
presents made to your young friends who are about to be married will in
all probability be published in some of the Society papers, "with the
names of the donors," we think, on the whole, we would advise you _not_
to give them, as you seem rather inclined to do, those three hundred
weight of cheap sardines of which you became possessed through a seizure
of your agents for arrears of rent. You might certainly present them
with the disabled omnibus horse that came into your hands on the same
occasion. Horses are sometimes given as wedding presents. There were
four down in a list of gifts at a fashionable marriage only last week.
But, of course, it would not suit your purpose to appear as the donor of
a "damaged" creature. We think, perhaps, it would be wiser to accept the
five pounds offered you through the veterinary surgeon you mention, and
lay out the money, as you suggest, in sixteen hundred Japanese fans. If
it falls through, and you find the horse still on your hands, there is
no need to mention its association with the omnibus. "Mr. JOHN
JOHNSON--a riding horse," doesn't read badly. We almost think this is
better than the fans. Think it over.

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