Who used the stolen sweets to cram ; And swore, while all believed the flam, 'Twas I who prigged the raspberry jam?— MY BROTHER! Who used my father's pet to be, And always sat upon his knee, While e'en the lap-dog snarled at me?— MY BROTHER! Who always was the girls' delight, And reckoned an Adonis-quite While I was snubbed, and called a fright ?— MY BROTHER! Who flirted like Don Juan, while If any maid on me did smile, "Twas sure to rouse her mother's bile?— MY BROTHER! Who came of age 'mid feast and fun, MY BROTHER! Who married Lady Anne with bliss, MY BROTHER! Who sacked the diamonds and the plate, As I was born a year too late?— MY BROTHER! Who's living now 'mid rich and gay, ?— MY BROTHER! CHAPTER VIII. ON HUMBUG GENERALLY, AND THAT HUMBUG IN PARTICULAR, WHICH PREVAILS IN ALL TRANSACTIONS AND DEALINGS BETWEEN YOUNGER SONS AND THEIR DUNS. Ir must be confessed by all who have had any experience in the world and "the world's ways," that the one great ruling principle of life, the one primum mobile of high and low, rich and poor, poor, the one pervading object of existence, is comprised in that vulgar but expressive word -Humbug! It matters not how fair may be the outward seeming, how plausible the cloak we wear, how disinterested the demeanour we adopt, the beginning and the end of all things areHumbug. We may start in life with our feelings fresh and warm, gazing upon every flower with gladness, and listening to every bird with delight; music may enchant us for a time with its melody, or beauty with its fascinations, but depend upon it, there is Humbug at the bottom of each and all. I own this to be a somewhat uncomfortable doctrine, but it is a true one; and though we should agree with Doctor Pangloss, in "Candide," that "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds," still, if we impartially consider the matter under its various phases, we must equally acknowledge, that this "best of all possible worlds” is in itself a globular mass of unmitigated Humbug! The lawyer who defends a murderer, the clergyman who consigns his brother clergyman to perdition, because he himself wears a surplice in the pulpit, and the other a gown; the friend who tests your friendship by requesting you to accept a bill for his accommodation and your inconvenience; the mistress who smothers you with kisses while another young gentleman has just made his exit from the house before your arrival; the Mawworm who assigns heaven to himself and a warmer climate to "publicans and sinners;" the bishop who clutches the mitre while "nolo episcopari" proceeds from his lips; the philanthropist who votes "baths and washhouses" for the poor who have no clothes to wash, and no food to eat; the good Samaritan who gets up a fancy ball for distressed Poles, while myriads of his fellow-Englishmen arè starving in the streets; the monarch who in one paragraph of a speech rejoices in the friendly assurances of foreign Powers, and in |