undistinguished at a side table." Our _Court_ guest also sat at a side
table though he pleads guilty to "foul" means--"that of displacing an
engine-turned and satine-ed card, which had been deposited therein, as the
worthy _locum tenens_ and representative of its owner."

But the contradictions circumstantial appear to (dis)advantage in the
_Literary Gazette_, as will be seen among our quotations. The health of
Burns being drunk "Both the sons of the poet standing up, the eldest
expressed their gratitude for the tribute to their father's genius." The
_Gazette_ states the Shepherd's health to have been prefaced by an "apt
and interesting address," but the _Athenaeum_ represents the chairman to
have "made sad work among the romances, &c." Upon the health of the poets
of England being drunk, Lord Porchester is stated in the Gazette to have
spoken "eloquently in reply, and pronounced a beautiful eulogium upon the
ameliorating effects produced upon individuals and communities by the
cultivation of the Muses:" a very pretty subject for a school theme, to be
sure, but unfortunate in comparison with the "titter of a hundred tongues"
by which Lord Porchester is elsewhere stated to have been silenced.

"The toast of 'Sir George Murray, and the military heroes of Scotland,'
called up that gallant officer, who addressed his applauding countrymen in
a manner which seemed to be peculiarly grateful to their feelings. While
he disclaimed it for his own humble services, he nobly awarded the laurel
to his glorious companions in arms,--a Hopetoun, an Abercrombie, a Moore,
and a Graham. He then mentioned his early recollection of Burns, whom he
considered his father's house to have been honoured by receiving within
its walls; and playfully alluded to what the chairman had stated of his
sister being the 'Phemy' of the poet,

"a bonnier lass