principle alone we can account for what seems so often, extraordinary to the eye of the rational. This active or restless spirit (my good reader) is the very groom that mounts the man upon his hobby, that teaches him to amble, to curvet, and sometimes leads him to the very starting-post of his pleasures, a delineation of which, as we promised our readers in a former number, we shall present for the amusement of such as can assimilate with harmless folly, and, beguile the vicissitudes of life with propensities that tho' they may wrinkle the brow of the philosopher, shall not engender one spark of evil to keep the mind awake, then to its own gratifications, we now lead out another gentle palfrey and call it The Beverrian, or Chapeau Hobby. ; Sir Benjamin Beaver, a most respectable city knight, had just retired from business with an ample fortune acquired by industry and other honorable attachments, in a manufactory of those coverings for the human head called HATS he had built him a mansion but a small distance from the - capital, and fitted it up in the most fashionable style of elegance, but being hobby-horsically inclined, had reserved a prime apartment therein for the free ebullitions of his eccentric fancy, over the entrance to which Sir Benjamin had caused to be painted in letters of gold The Beverrian Chapeauary. Within, the knight had arranged in historical order, all the Caput-Coustume of our grandfathers from William the Norman to the present anno-domini. To this hobby-horsical banquet it was our friend's constant practice to repair, to adjust, keep decent, and add when occasion offered to his unique collection, to which any one might be introduced likely to benefit from so whimsical an exhibition: the poet, the painter, the dramatist, and the player always found it open to their enquiries, the wardrobe tailors of the theatre had free admission, as had all the perriwig attendants on the sock and the buskin: here the visitors might discriminate the preponderating head-dress, disposed according to the taste of the times or the changes of fashion, and at the same time the bent of politics which governed the mind of the whimsical owner, who openly professed to be of the godolphin school, when honesty went hand in hand with the love of country. To give a catalogue of all the subjects within this Beverrian Chapeauary is not conformable to the powers of my recollection, but such as present themselves shall be faithfully recorded. The most conspicuous was the Mitred-Chapeau worn by Stygand the Archbishop when he presented the Magna Charta to King John, urging the sovereign to fix his signa ture to that instrument for the public good: this was in the highest preservation and on the glass case that covered the relict, inscribed Libertas! At the very extremity of the room and greatly in the shade, the Chapeau Mr. Pitt had in wear, when that minister suspended the friendly powers of the habeas-corpus-act. The brim had been perforated by a pistol-ball supposed to be that fired by Mr. Tierney, his antagonist, in a bloodless battle on Putney-Common, on Whitsunday, May 27, 1798. This was inscr.bed at the top Malemateriatus, and at the bottom Curse on the trembling hand and blinking eye The sad disaster every evil spread Where peace could smile and cheerful plenty fed, And more in front, the magnificent Tiara which adorned the brow of the Seventh Henry on the day that prince united the Two-Roses, this our knight esteemed an invaluable treasure, because the union gave a lasting peace to the troubled realm, and put an end to the effusion of kindred blood. On this case was inscribed Beatifico. At a small distance was the high crowned hat of Mother Shipton, the reputed Witch of Yorkshire, it had been cast by some wanton school boys into the dripping-well at Knarsborough, and become a transparent petrifaction. Inscribed Deridiculum. And next, the broad-brim Chapeau turned up and jewelled in the front, which King Charles appeared in before the gates of Hull, when on horseback he summoned the town to surrender, and was boldly refused by that honest patriot Sir John Hotham. This was wreathed with withered laurel mingled with sprigs of cypress, and inscribed Vox Populi. Adjoining, and under a canopy of state, the very beaver surmounted with a lilly-like plume, worn by King William the Third, when that prince majestically rode through the Boyne-waters attended by Schombourg and victory. On a scroll at the bottom was written This once covered the sacred head of him who timely came to deliver us from popish tyranny and superstition, and all such yokes as rational men, acquainted with the worth of liberty must always think intolerable, which was indeed Vendicia secundum libertatem. Opposite to this, the brown-broad-brim covered with a crimson feather, worn by Oliver Cromwell when he entered the house of commons, and dissolved the long parliament that disgraced the nation, when he drove Lenthall the speaker from the chair, and exclaimed to one of his soldiers "take up that shining bauble, (the mace) lock up the doors of this augean stable, and give me the keys. This was inscribed Pro Bono. Close to this, was the Hat that Wolfe fell in before Quebec, wreathed with an evergreen. Granby's had been there, but he always appeared in battle like Cæsar, bald headed, leaving no obstruction where Fame delighted to fix her cir cle of glory. Inscribed Pro Patria. Near to the entrance, fitted up with great splendour, the Chapeau in which our Nelson fought when he received his last wound for England. "E'en in his ashes honor'd. " As Shakespeare has it, and on the crown was laid this friendly stanza : O'er dauntless Nelson's cold sepulchral urn Where weeping victory wreaths th' inverted spear, Or ere neglect her sleeping fav'rite's bier? The case was inscribed The Nile! and Trafalgar ! Over and above the objects already enumerated, were many others of equal celebrity, which the narrow confines of this paper will not permit me to describe. Such was Sir Benjamin Beaver's hobby, and I have sometimes heard the knight declare, that he found more felicity and amusement in the indulgence of this fancy, than in gluttonously feasting with the corporation, swan-hopping, or the Easter revels, and more room for rational reflection, than in mingling in a long procession with a petition to the crown for a redress of grievances; for while he bestrode his harmless favorite, the pleasures that followed were quiet and content, while too often the rewards for his civic attachments ended in disappointment, chagrin and contempt. 'Tis thus the inoffensive amusements of the mind keep the faculties awake, and contribute to the health of the body, keep the wicked out of mischief, and furnish employment for the independent idle, who are too much inclined to yield to an inglorious indulgence, and thereby deserve those maladies which open the way to an untimely dissolution, and at once shew us unprofitable to the state we live in, which, as good subjects we are bound to support and dignify, T. N. PS. I shall now lead off my Beverrian hobby-horse and make way for one engendered by the Pegasus of Apollo on the Diacoustics of the Muses, named THE AEOLUSSIAN HOBBY, and he who is not moved by the concord of sweet sounds, let him be diverted by the beating of a leaden spoon on a milestone, or the windy bagpipes of an itinerant highlander. 'Bout modes of pastime let fools disagree, Where vice is banish'd, there, no crime can be, } REMARKS on the "SLAVE." (Concluded from our last.) An inverse ratio to that of their popularity, and of late they have arrived at such a pitch of inanity and stupidity, that were any thing capable of weaning the public mind from its love of shew, it would certainly be the heavy tax which is laid upon the enjoyment of this darling passion, in the intolerable fatigue of listening to the "bald disjointed chat" called dialogue, with which the intervals between the shiftings of the scenes are filled up. It must nevertheless be evident that Melo-drame, which includes, together with the attributes both of Tragedy and Comedy, the combined attractions of dialogue, action, music, and scenery, is susceptible of the highest stage effect, and in skilful hands might be rendered intensely interesting. It is not indeed with the species that we quarrel, but with individuals of that species. The barbarous treatment which Melo-drame has received from certain paltry scribblers is no proof of its innate worthlessness; on the contrary, one or two splendid exceptions from the stupidity which characterises the common run of these things, have shewn that a composition of this nature may excite in the strongest degree emotions of laughter and of sadness; may at one moment wind up our attention to a feverish pitch of anxiety and interest, and at another fextend an influence equally irresistable over our risible faculties. From the Melo-drame have sprung the Musical Drama, the Serio-comic Spectacle, et it genus omne, which are all |