subscription ticket to the Modern
Midnight Conversation.

I have seen a small political print on Sir Robert Walpole's
administration, entitled, "Excise, a new Ballad Opera," of which this
was unquestionably the basis. Beneath it is the following learned and
poetical motto:

"_Experto crede Roberto._"

"Mind how each hireling songster tunes his throat,
And the vile knight beats time to every note:
So Nero sung while Rome was all in flames,
But time shall brand with infamy their names."

FOOTNOTE:

[2] He was a respectable performer on the violin, some years
chapel-master at Antwerp, and several seasons leader of the band at
Marybone Gardens. He published a collection of musical compositions, to
which was annexed a portrait of himself, characterised by three lines
from Milton:

"Thou honour'dst verse, and verse must lend her wing
To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire,
That tun'st her happiest lines in hymn or song."

He died in 1750, aged seventy years, and gives one additional name to a
catalogue I have somewhere seen of very old professors of music, who,
saith my author, "generally live unto a greater age than persons in any
other way of life, from their souls being so attuned unto harmony, that
they enjoy a perpetual peace of mind." It has been observed, and I
believe justly, that thinking is a great enemy to longevity, and that,
consequently, they who think least will be likely to live longest. The
quantity of thought necessary to make an adept in this divine science,
must be determined by those who have studied it.--It would seem by this
remark, that Mr. Ireland was not aware that to acquire proficiency in
the divine science to which he so pleasantly alludes, requires great
application and study.

[Illustration: THE CHORUS.]

COLUMBUS BREAKING THE EGG.

By the success of Columbus's first voyage, doubt had been changed into
admiration; from the honours with which he was rewarded, admiration
degenerated into envy. To deny that his discovery carried in its train
consequences infinitely more important than had resulted from any made
since the creation, was impossible. His enemies had recourse to another
expedient, and boldly asserted that there was neither wisdom in the
plan, nor hazard in the enterprise.

When he was once at a Spanish supper, the company took this ground, and
being by his narrative furnished with the reflections which had induced