ately on the rising of the Court, commences that cessation from legal
business emphatically denominated the 'long vacation,' or that space which
our ancestors have wisely left undisturbed by law concerns, that the people
may be the better able to attend to the different harvests throughout the
kingdom. Thus the activity and bustle of the Inns of Court suddenly subside
into a want of occupation, not unaptly displayed in the following anonymous
parody:--"

"My lord now quits his venerable seat,
The six clerk on his padlock turns the key,
From business hurries to his snug retreat,
And leaves vacation and the town to me."

"Now all is hush'd--asleep the eye of care--
And Lincoln's Inn a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the porter whistles o'er the square,
Or our dog barks, or basket-woman scolds:"

"Save that from yonder pump and dusty stair
The moping shoe-black and the laundrymaid
Complain of such as from the town repair,
And leave their little quarterage unpaid."

H. B. A.

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.

THE RIVER NIGER.

A Second Edition of the _Literary Gazette_ of Saturday last enables us to
lay before our readers the following important discovery:--

"We have the gratification to state, that the great question respecting the
course of the Niger, which has puzzled geography and literature for many
centuries, has at last been determined by British courage and perseverance.
We have just received the annexed letter from our esteemed and intelligent
friend, Mr. Fisher, surgeon of the Atholl, well known to the world for his
own interesting voyages and travels; and we lose no time in communicating
the important information to the public, through the pages of the _Literary
Gazette_."

"His Majesty's Ship Atholl, at Sea, Bight of Biafra, Feb. 2, 1831."

"Dear Sir,--I take the opportunity of writing you a few lines, by a vessel
that we have just now met on her way to England. My object in writing in
this hasty manner is to acquaint you that the grand geographical problem
respecting the termination of the Niger is at length solved."

"The Landers, after having reached Youri, embarked in a canoe on the Niger,
or, as it is called there, the Quarra, and came down the stream until they
reached the sea, in the Bight of Biafra. The branch by which they came to
the coast is called the Nun, or Brasse River, being the first river to th