A Story Anent the North.—According to the Dundee Advertiser, Colonel North has paid cash to the King of the Belgians, not for concessions of land near Ostend, but for similar advantages on the Congo. It has been rumoured that the purchase-money was ostensibly (or should it be Ostendsibly?) handed over for the possession of the former, and not the latter. But the rumour must be taken with reserve. Perhaps the report may have arisen from the fact that the Belgian watering-place is situated on the North Sea—a locality naturally associated with the name of the King of the Nitrates. Be this as it may, the gallant Colonel is certain to command the confidence of volunteers in the future as in the past. So far as he is concerned, shares (plough and other varieties) will be as popular as bayonets.
Stones in Sermons.
"Sermons in stones," the poet says; and when
Smelfungus scolds, and rails, and girds, and groans at us,
We feel that worst of sermonising men
Is—throwing stones at us.
Mrs. R. observes of a respectable young man among her acquaintances, that she was sorry to hear he was incremated in a recent swindling case.