We are promised by an esteemed friend some interesting extracts from the original American correspondence of Mrs. Grant of Laggan, whose ‘Memoir and Correspondence,’ edited by her son, has recently attracted so much attention and remark in Great-Britain. Mrs. Grant appears to have been a woman of very remarkable powers, and of the most admirable common sense. Her observations upon the ‘amusive talents’ of Theodore Hook, and his entire devotion to their cultivation, are replete with the soundest wisdom. The distinction between living to amuse the public merely, and the exertion of one’s intellectual powers for one’s own benefit, and with an eye to the claims of riper years, is admirably discriminated and set forth. There is not perhaps a more instructive lesson than that conveyed by professional wits, who are ‘first applauded and then endured, when people see that it is all they have.’ As auxiliaries, as contrasts, with reflection and thoughtful exercitations of the mind, wit and humor are felicitous matters; as an intellectual main-stay, however, they have been weighed in the balance by a hundred brilliant examples, and have always been ‘found wanting.’ ••• Punch, at this present writing, save three or four numbers, in February, is among the missing. Late issues however, furnish some valuable contributions to academical statistics; as for example, Mr. Boys, who in his report upon the metropolitan school-visitation, writes as follows:
‘The use of sponge for cleaning slates he found confined to 17¼ per cent.; of whom 5½ used the sponge wet with water, and 11¾ with saliva; the remaining 82¾ made use of the latter liquid and the cuffs of their jackets instead of sponges, with an occasional recourse to the pocket-handkerchief. The author found, in schools in which the Latin language was not taught, a lamentable deficiency in the knowledge of the meaning of ‘meum’ and ‘tuum;’ he pointed out how the great extent of juvenile crime might thus be accounted for, as being caused by the absence of all instruction in the Latin language, and hoped that teaching it would soon be made obligatory upon all school-masters.’
There is a humorous sketch of an examination of law-students, from which we select an ‘exercise’ or two:
‘Ques: Have you attended any and what law lectures? Ans: I have attended to many legal lectures, when I have been admonished by police magistrates for kicking up rows in the streets, pulling off knockers, etc.
Ques: What is a real action? Ans: An action brought in earnest, and not by way of a joke.
Ques: What are a bill and answer? Ans: Ask my tailor.
Ques: How would you file a bill? Ans: I don’t know, but would lay the case before a blacksmith.
Ques: What steps would you take to dissolve an injunction? Ans: I should put it into some very hot water, and let it remain there until it was melted.
Ques: What are post-nuptial articles? Ans: Children.
Ques: What is simple larceny? Ans: Picking a pocket of a handkerchief, and leaving a purse of money behind.’