e had resolved on a
total reformation of her mode of life. The other replied, that her
habits had been always chaste and virtuous, and that her character had
been invariably above reproach. "Ah, in that case," rejoined the lady,
"we can't admit you; this institution is expressly for the reception
of penitents. If you could only qualify for a week or so, there is no
objection to your admission."

Is not this exactly Mr. Buller's proposition? "Let us have the Whigs
back for a few years longer; let us return to our admirable foreign
policy; and when we have successfully embroiled ourselves with
America, lost Canada, been beaten in China, driven out of our Eastern
possessions, and provoked a war with France, then I'm your man for an
Income Tax; lay it on only heavily; let the nation, already bowed down
under the heavy burden of its calamities, receive in addition the
gracious boon of enormous taxation." Homoeopathy teaches us that
nothing is so curative in its agency, as the very cause of our present
suffering, or something as analogous to it as possible; and, like
Hahnemann, Mr. Buller administers what the vulgar call "a hair of the
dog that bit us," as the most sovereign remedy for all our evils.

The country is like a sick man with a whitlow, for the cure of which
his physician prescribes a slight, but clearly necessary, operation.
Another medical Dr. Buller is, however, standing by. He at once
insinuates his veto; remarks upon the trivial nature of the
disease--the unpainful character of the remedy; "but wait," adds
he--"wait till the inflammation extends higher; have patience till the
hand becomes swollen and the arm affected; and then, when your agony
is beyond endurance, and your life endangered, then we'll amputate the
limb high up, and mayhap you may recover, after all."

As for me, it is the only occasion I'm aware of, where a successful
comparison can be instituted between honour and the Whigs; for
assuredly neither have "any skill in surgery."

A NUT FOR THE "BELGES."

[Illustration]

Every one knows that men in masses, whether the same be called boards,
committees, aggregate, or repeal meetings, will be capable of
atrocities and iniquities, to which, as individuals, their natures
would be firmly repugnant. The irresponsibility of a number is felt by
every member, and Curran was not far wrong when he said, a
"corporation was a thing that had neither a body to be kicked, nor a
soul to be damned."