ve an excess of courtesy and
benevolence towards the people, such blessings will drop upon them from
the fringed petticoats of the little sovereign. Thus curiously considered,
may we not trace a bounteous political measure to the lace veil of a
Queen, and find a great national benefit in the toe of a slipper?

Happy Spaniards! Give fine clothes to _your_ rulers, and they yearn with
benevolence towards the donors. _They_ do not walk about the streets of
Madrid, smiling in the strength of their wardrobe at the nakedness of
those who have subscribed the bravery. Oh, ye "well-dressed gentlemen,"
and oh, ye "well-to-do artisans!"--be instructed by the new petticoats of
Queen Isabella, and smile no at rags and famine.

* * * * *

PUNCH'S PENCILLINGS.--No. XII.

[Illustration: THE TORY PEACOCKS AND THE FINSBURY DAW.]

* * * * *

TRANSACTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF HOOKHAM-CUM-SNIVEY.

There is not a more interesting science than geology, which, as our
readers are aware, treats principally of mud and minerals. The association
at Hookham-cum-Snivey has been very active during the summer, and may be
said to have been up to its knees in dirt and filth, gravel and gypsum,
coal, clay and conglomerate, for a very considerable period.

It having been determined to open a sewer where the old Hookham-road meets
with the ancient Roman footpath at Snivey, the junction of which gives
name to the modern town, the Geological Association passed a strong
resolution, in which it was asserted, that the opportunity had at length
arrived for solving the great doubt that had long perplexed the minds of
the inhabitants as to whether the soil in the neighbourhood was
crustaceous or carboniferous. The _crusta_ceous party had been long
triumphing in the fact, that a mouldy piece of bread had been found at two
feet below the surface, when digging for the foundation of a swing erected
in a garden in the neighbourhood; but the _carboni_ferous enthusiasts had
been thrown into ecstacies, by the sexton having come upon a regular
_strata_ of undoubted cinders, in clearing out a piece of ground at the
back of the parson's residence. Some evil-disposed persons had the malice
to say that the spot had been formerly the site of a subsequently-filled-up
dusthole; but the _crusta_ceous party, depending as they did upon a single
piece of bread--_all crumb_ too--however genuine, could not