delegates the good old adage of
'Look before you leap,' and urged them to go for 'measures, not men.' A
STAGE HORSE 'congratulated the community upon the abolition of
bearing-reins, those grievous burdens upon the necks of all free-going
horses; and he trusted the time would soon arrive when the blinkers would
also be taken off, every corn-bin thrown open, and every horse his own
leader.' Several other steeds, in the various ranks of horse-society,
addressed the meeting. 'Resolutions, drawn by two DRAY-HORSES, embodying
the supposed grievances of the community, were finally agreed upon, and a
petition, under the hoof of the president, founded upon them, having been
prepared and ordered to be presented to the House of Commons by the
members for Horsham, the meeting separated, and the delegates returned to
their respective stables.' . . . WHAT habitual theatre or opera-goer has
not been tempted a thousand times to laugh outright, and quite in the
wrong place, at the incongruities, the inconsistencies, the mental and
physical _catachreses_ of the stage, which defy illusion and destroy all
vraisemblance? A London sufferer in this kind has hit off some of the
salient points of these absurdities in a few 'Recollections of the Opera:'

'I'VE known a god on clouds of gauze
With patience hear a people's prayer,
And bending to the pit's applause,
Wait while the priest repeats the air.

I've seen a black-wig'd Jove hurl down
A thunder-bolt along a wire,
To burn some distant canvass town,
Which--how vexatious!--won't catch fire.

I've known a tyrant doom a maid
(With trills and _roulades_ many a score)
To instant death! She, sore afraid,
Sings: and the audience cries 'Encore!'

I've seen two warriors in a rage
Draw glist'ning swords and, awful sight!
Meet face to face upon the stage
To sing a song, but not to fight!

I've heard a king exclaim 'To arms!'
Some twenty times, yet still remain;
I've known his army 'midst alarms,
Help by a bass their monarch's strain.

I've known a hero wounded sore,
With well-tuned voice his foes defy;
And warbling stoutly on the floor,
With the last flourish fall and die.

I've seen a mermaid dress'd in blue;
I've seen a cupid burn a wing;
I've known a Neptune lose a shoe;
I've heard a guilty spectre sing.

I've seen, spectators of a dance,
Two Brahmins, Mahomet, the Cid,
Four Pagan kings, fo