f millions acting on a new scale of power, of
nations summoned to a new order of existence, that I began to melt even
the rigid prepossessions of that mass of granite, or iron, or whatever is
most intractable--the Jew. I could perceive his countenance changing from
a smile to seriousness; and, as I declaimed, I could see his hollow eye
sparkle, and his sallow lip quiver, with impressions not unlike my own.

"Whether you are fit for a politician," said he, "I cannot tell; for the
trade is of a mingled web, and has its rough side as well as its smooth
one. But, young as you are, and old as I am, there are some notions in
which we do not differ so much as in our years. I have long seen that the
world was about to undergo some extraordinary change. That it should ever
come from the rabble of Paris, I must confess, had not entered into my
mind; a rope of sand, or a mountain of feathers, would have been as fully
within my comprehension. I might have understood it, if it had come from
John Bull. But I have lived in France, and I never expected any thing from
the people; more than I should expect to see the waterworks of Versailles
turned into a canal, or irrigating the thirsty acres round the palace."

"Yes," I observed; "but their sporting and sparkling answers their purpose.
They amuse the holiday multitude for a day."

"And are dry for a week.--If France shall have a revolution, it will be as
much a matter of mechanism, of show, and of holiday, as the '_grand
jet-d'eau_.'" He was mistaken. We ended with a parting health to Mariamne,
and his promise to attend to my interests at the Horse-guards, on which I
was still strongly bent. The Jew was clearly no sentimentalist; but the
glass of wine, and the few words of civility and recollection with which I
had devoted it to his pretty daughter, evidently touched the father's
heart. He lingered on the steps of the hotel, and still held my hand. "You
shall not," said he, "be the worse for your good wishes, nor for that
glass of wine. I shall attend to your business at Whitehall when you are
gone; and you might have worse friends than Mordecai even there." He
seemed big with some disclosure of his influence, but suddenly checked
himself. "At all events," he added, "your services on the present occasion
shall not be forgotten. You have a bold, ay, and a broad career before you.
One thing I shall tell you. We shall certainly have war. The government
here are blind to it. Even the prime