served. A profound blue-stocking once teased him with enquiries whether they did not worship the sun in Persia. "O yes, madam," said Mirza, with perfect coolness," and so would you in England too-if you ever saw him.” Mirza, while residing in Britain, made a progress, on which occasion he showed that he completely understood the duty of tourists who would act in character, to ask a certain number of questions, with a becoming degree of indifference as to the manner in which they may be answered. For example, when he visited a large public library at one of the universities, he looked round the room, "Fine roomgreat many pillar-are they stone pillar?-wood pillar?" His cicerone, who had a slight impediment in his speech, not answering immediately, Mirza went on, "You do not know?-very well-very many book here are they printed book or written book?" There was a similar hesitation; " You do not know? very well." In Edinburgh he visited the old palace of Holyrood, whose gallery is garnished with a most fearful and wonderful collection of pictures, said to be portraits of the hundred and six ancestors of gentle King Jamie, which we believe were originally painted to grace the entrance of his unhappy son Charles into his Scottish metropolis in 1633. Mirza no sooner beheld this collection of scarecrows than, being a critic as well as a wag, he turned to the old lady who showed the apartments :-" You paint all these yourself!" Me, sir-no, no— -I canna paint any thing, please your honour." To which Mirza answered, " You

not know, ma'am-you try, ma'am-you do a greater deal better, ma'am." Such was, in his actual reality, Mirza Abou Taleb, the prototype of Hajji's patron whose character, therefore, is not overcoloured by our tell-tale secretary.

Additional interest is given to the narrative by the contrasted lights in which the same incidents are seen by the envoy and Hajji (both of whom are somewhat indifferent, or, at least, very liberal in matters of religious belief), and the master of ceremonies, Mahomed Khan,-a rigid Mussulman, and others of the suite who are zealous followers of the Arabian prophet. The Circassian, too, though a late convert to Islamism, became, as is the nature of her sex, to say nothing of the nature of renegades a violent assertor of the creed which she had so recently adopted. There was a dinner accepted by the envoy at the house of some wealthy Jew merchant, or banker, which liberality on Mirza's part drew on him reproaches from his mistress, his master of the ceremonies, and even from Hajji Baba himself. The Mirza is provoked beyond patience.

"Oh, you dog without a saint!' said he to Mohamed Beg; are you a Mussulman to lie after this manner? why am I to bear all this want of respect? I am the shah's representative, and if the shah himself was here he would cut your head off; but as I am a good man I will only punish you with a few blows. Give him the shoe,' he cried out to several of us; and having named me as the principal agent, I was obliged to take off my slipper, and inflict on the mouth of my friend as many blows as I could. I went to work as quietly as possible; but with all my ingenuity I could not avoid knocking out a certain old and solitary tooth, which had stood sentry at the door of his mouth ever since the last reign.

"The poor sufferer left the ambassador in pain and anger. I heard him vow eternal vengeance; and to me he said, 'Oh you of little fortune! why would you hit my tooth! You did better things when you were a ferash, and beat men's toes.'

"I swore upon the sacred book that I was without help, that I was ordered to strike; and I only begged that if he were ever obliged to do the same to me that he would not spare me.' Vol. ii. p. 271.

But it is an amourette of our adventurous friend Hajji Baba which chiefly interested us. The gallant secretary had made an acquaintance at Astley's (which place of amusement he calls the horse-opera) with a father, mother, and three daughters, the first of whom was a devotee, who converted Jews, and made stockings for the poor; the second, beautiful and fashionable; the third was not come out yet, but had a tendency to blue, in the garter at least. All this was made known to our Hajji by the loquacity of the mother, who expatiated upon the wealth and generosity of her husband.

"Mashallah! praises to Allah!' said I, he is also very fat;' and I added, what may his fortunate name be?'—' Hogg, at your excellency's service,' said she. It is an old Scotch family, and we flatter ourselves that we come from some of the oldest of the stock.'- - Penah be khoda! refuge in Allah!' exclaimed I to myself; a family of the unclean beast! and old hogs into the bargain! My luck is on the rise to have fallen into such a set. And pray what may yours and the young ladies' names be?' said I. 'We're all Hoggs too,' said the mother."

6

This leads to a visiting acquaintance, which the secretary keeps private from the ambassador, the ambitious Ispahani having in secret nourished hopes of securing the affections and property of the beautiful Miss Bessy Hogg. The ladies, on their

part, had adopted some idea that their Eastern friend was a mirza, or prince, which Hajji Baba failed not to confirm, gaining thus an amazing step in their favour.

"This being established, it was quite amusing to observe the rate at which they started with the word 'Prince,' as if it had never crossed their lips before. Whatever they addressed to me was prefaced with that monosyllable, until at length, in my own defence, I was obliged myself to ask a few questions. 'Where is your papa?' said I to the beautiful Bessy. The mamma answered, He is gone into the city; he attends to his business every day, and returns in the evening.'-' Ah! then,' said I, ' he is merchant-same in my country :—merchant sit in bazar all day, at night shut up shop, and come home-What he sell, ma'am?'' Mr Hogg,' said the lady, with some dignity, 'does not keep a shop, he is an East India merchant.'—' Then perhaps he sell ham,' said I, thinking that his name might be a designation of his trade, as it frequently is in Persia. • Sells hams!' exclaimed the lady, whilst her daughters tittered. should he sell hams, prince ?'-' Because he one Hogg, ma'am. In our country, merchant sometime called after the thing he sells.'-' La, prince!' exclaimed the lady, 'what an odd custom. Hogg is an old family name, and has nothing to do with the animal. There are Hoggs both in England and Scotland.'— You might as well say, prince,' remarked the young Jessy, 'that Sir Francis Bacon, the famous Lord Verulam, was a pork butcher.' And that all our Smiths,' Taylors, Coopers, Bakers, Cooks, and a thousand others, were representatives of their professions,' added Bessy. Well, I never heard any thing like it,' summed up the mamma. 'Mr Hogg a ham-seller indeed! La, prince! what could you be thinking of?'"-Vol. ii. p. 93.

Why

This false step is soon repaired; and, by dint of his supposed quality, our friend Hajji, whom no scruple or fear of consequences ever deters from

The prince did not know Verstegan's couplet, or he might have found an answer

"Whence cometh Smith, be he lord, knight, or squire,

But from the clown that forged in the fire?"

prosecuting an immediate advantage, is invited to a splendid dinner by the family of Hoggs, and treated with such distinction, that he conceives himself to be on the point of making a conquest of the moon-faced object of his affections; whilst, on the other hand, he has no small reason to be apprehensive of the envoy's displeasure, should he be detected in the act of taking upon himself the character of a prince. This fact transpires, like most others, through the medium of the newspapers, which announce the grand entertainment given by those distinguished fashionables, Mr and Mrs Hogg, of No. Portland Place, to his Highness the Persian Prince Mirza Hajji Baba. Great is the displeasure of the ambassador; and great above measure is the embarrassment of his worthy secretary, justly suspected of being the illustrious prince who has shared the banquet of the unclean beasts, as the cousins of the Ettrick Shepherd are unceremoniously denominated; and as he endeavours to vindicate himself, with some warmth, against the charge of having eaten a good dinner, he draws on himself the discipline of the shoe-heel, applied repeatedly to his teeth by the envoy himself, while his hands are held by two of the assistants.

This mis-adventure does not prevent the enterprising secretary from persevering in his scheme on the heart and fortune of the lively Bessy. He is even able to extract some countenance from the ambassador, who, understanding that the damsel