sir, says Macklin, I knew it would do, and
where do you think I picked up this hint?--well sir, I'll tell you, I
picked it up from no less a man than James Duke of York, who you know
sir, first invented signals for the fleet. Very apropos indeed, said
Foote, and good poetical justice, as _from the fleet_ they were taken,
_so to the fleet_ both master and signals are likely to return.

Macklin afterwards failed.

Another time Macklin delivered public lectures. One night as he was
preparing to begin, he heard a buz in the room, and spied Foote in a
corner talking and laughing immoderately. This he thought a safe time to
rebuke that wicked wit, as he had begun his lecture and consequently
could not be subject to any criticism: he therefore cried out with some
authority "well sir, you seem to be very merry there, but do you know
what I am going to say now?" "No sir says Foote, pray _do_ you?" This
ready reply and the laughter it occasioned silenced Macklin, and so
embarrassed him that he could not get on, till called upon by the
general voice of the company.

Another time Macklin undertook to show the causes of duelling in
Ireland, and why it was much more the practice of that nation than any
other. In order to do this, he began with the earliest part of the Irish
history, and, getting as far as queen Elizabeth, he was proceeding when
Foote spoke to order. "Well sir, what have you to say on the subject?"
said Macklin, "only to crave a little attention sir," said Foote, with
much seeming modesty, "when I think I can settle this point in a few
words."--"Well sir, go on."--"Why then, sir," says Foote, "to begin,
what o'clock is it?"--"O'clock" said Macklin, "what has the clock to do
with a dissertation on duelling?" "Pray sir," said Foote, "be pleased to
answer my question." Macklin on this, pulled out his watch and reported
the hour to be past ten.--"Very well," said Foote, "about this time of
the night, every gentleman in Ireland that can afford it, is in his
third bottle of claret, consequently is in a fair way of getting drunk;
from drunkenness proceeds quarrelling, and from quarrelling, duelling,
and so there's an end of the chapter." The company seemed perfectly
satisfied with this abridgment, and Macklin shut up his lecture for that
evening in great dudgeon.

* * * * *

_Countess of Carlisle's opinion of the Drama, taken from her maxims to
young ladies._

When you fix your mind on t