THE MAGIC GLOBE, OR THE BOTTLE IMP.

(Continued from page 190.)

CHAP. X.

The Statesman at a Non-plus, or Political Backing-outManufacture of Modern Antiques-An ingenious Scheme for turning the Penny.

"Look there, my friend, (said Asmodeus,) there is a politician for you in a terrible dilemma; see how he shakes his head, scratches it, bites his nails, while, with his foot, he plays what you call the Devil's Tattoo.' Do you know the poor gentleman ?”

"I do not recognise him, (said Ferdinand,) but he seems to be in a sad quandary. Who is he, I pray you, and what is the subject of the embarrassment that so perplexes him?"

"That is Peel, your Secretary of State for the Home Department. If I had as much mischief in me as some of my fraternity; if I had not more of good than evil in my nature, I should be very angry with him just now. He has hitherto been a bigot and a mischief-maker;—one of those who by their intolerance have rendered your country a reproach amongst nations. He has all his life approved of those penal laws against the free exercise of conscience, which disgrace no other spot on earth except England, par excellence, the land of liberty, the admiration of the world, and the envy of surrounding nations.' He is, you know, the representative of that seat of orthodoxy, and other sorts of doxies, the University of Oxford. He is, at this moment, racking his brains to pen a suitable letter to his constituents, announcing to them his recent conversion to liberal opinions, and, consequently, his utter unfitness to

continue any longer the representative of that learned, pious, and orthodox body."

"The letter before him (said Ferdinand) is so disfigured with erasures, alterations, and amendments, that it reminds me of the fac-simile of one of Pope's manuscript pages of his Homer, preserved in the British Museum."

"He seems very far from being satisfied with his production, (said Asmodeus,) and, pour comble de malheur, the Oxonians have this very day voted an intolerant anti-Catholic petition, with the request that their representative will present and support it. The two communications cross each other on the road, and thus the parties, without a pun, may be said to be engaged at a game of cross-purposes."

"No wonder (said Ferdinand) that this ci-derant Orange Peel should look a little foolish at this moment. The finest horse, you know, always backs out' awkwardly :-it is a retrograde manœuvre which cannot be made with a good grace. The cheers of the liberals will hardly atone for the taunts he will have to endure from the intolerants whom he has deserted; bearing in mind the bigot zeal which so long actuated him, they will say to him,

'Will you, great Sir, that glory blot

In cold blood which you gain'd in hot?'

But tell me, my good friend, to what cause we are to ascribe the extraordinary metamorphosis which has reconciled Wellington and Peel to opinions hitherto stigmatized by them and their party as absurd, unconstitutional, or impracticable?" "It is beyond my power (said Asmodeus) to answer your question satisfactorily; considerations of the danger to be apprehended from a further perseverance in the old system probably have had no small share in the change; but of that I can only form a conjecture, because, as I have already informed you, although I am acquainted with the present and the past, I cannot dive into futurity: besides, if, as I

suspect, there has been a court intrigue going forwards, my lips must be sealed; as I told your respected ancestor, Don Cleofas-my jurisdiction does not extend to court matters : such intrusion would embroil me with Leviathan, Belfegor, and Astorath, who are the only demons admitted to Court.* I cannot, therefore, satisfy your curiosity on this point; a little time will, however, reveal the secret. In the meanwhile, suppose we change the scene. If you have any taste for modern antiques, look there, (pointing to that part of the globe where the town of Hull was situated.) Do you not see a number of wood turners busily at work? Can you guess what they are about ?"

"They seem (said Ferdinand) to be turning snuff-boxes out of some kind of old logs of wood, rather the worse for wear. They must, however, have a brisk demand, or they would not be thus working in the night. I was not aware that this kind of manufacture was carried on to such extent in Yorkshire."

It is quite a new branch of business, (said Asmodeus,) a very happy thought, which makes good your adage, it is an ill wind that blows nobody good." The logs of wood you see lying about were fished up from an old Dutch vessel, lost some years ago at the entrance of Hull harbour. They were purchased by a turner, in whose cellar they remained untouched and forgotten, until the recent conflagration of York Minster suggested the idea of turning them to profitable account. The wood bears a considerable resemblance to the timbers of the ancient cathedral; and as every person in York and its neighbourhood naturally wishes to preserve some relic of the venerable pile, this patriotic turner is converting his worm-eaten Dutch logs into cathedral snuff

"Il ne m'est pas permis de m'introduire auprès des souverains: ce serait empléter sur les droits de Léviatan, de Belfegor, et d'Astorat. Je vous l'ai déja dit ces trois ésprits sont en possession d'obséder les princes. Il est défendu aux autres démons de paroitre dans les cours."-Le Diable Boiteux, c. v.

boxes, which are bought up as genuine relics at any price he has the conscience to demand."

"Faith, this is an ingenious mode of turning the penny,' (said Ferdinand ;) I suppose the fellow borrowed the hint from one of his predecessors in imposture, who had an extensive manufactory of tobacco-stoppers, all made from the original mulberry tree planted by Shakspeare, celebrated in Garrick's Jubilee, and thus alluded to in one of his songs: 'Behold this fair goblet, 'twas carv'd from the tree,

Which, oh, my dear Shakspeare, was planted by thee;
As a relic I kiss it, and bow at thy shrine,

What comes from thy hand must be ever divine.'

"The trade of making relics (said Asmodeus) is very old and very profitable, and will continue to be so as long as people are to be found who, like O'Keefe's antiquarian, Old Cockletop, love every thing that is ancient except women and guineas.' The arts of getting up old pictures, coins, manuscripts, &c. are probably known to you, if not, I can initiate you into the arcana. The predilection for antiquities has given scope to a variety of ingenious and successful impostures. I need hardly remind you of the Rowley manuscripts of Chatterton, nor of Ireland's fabrication of Vortigern, which he passed off to the critics and book-worms as a newly discovered play of Shakspeare. The means resorted to by Michael Angelo and Mignard to turn the laugh against the connoisseurs are, no doubt, familiar to you."

"I am not ignorant of the fourberies of Chatterton and of Ireland, (said Ferdinand,) and I have often laughed to think of the figure which one of the most learned men of our day cut, when he went on his knees to the Shakspeare relic; but 1 do not recollect the other instances you have mentioned, and I shall feel obliged to you for the particulars."

"To cut a long story short, (said Asmodeus,) Michael Angelo chiselled out a beautiful statue, which, after breaking off a limb and imparting to the remainder all the marks

of great antiquity, so familiar to professional connoisseurs, he buried where he knew it would soon be discovered. It turned out as he expected; the mutilated statue was dug up, and pronounced by the most eminent and acknowledged judges to be infinitely superior to any thing which could be produced by modern masters. It could only be the work of Phidias or Praxiteles. After the knowing

ones' had fairly committed themselves past revocation, Angelo declared himself to be the artist, and produced the limb he had secreted, which, when compared with the modern antique, was found to correspond exactly. The anecdote of Mignard is much the same, substituting a portrait for a statue; and the complete success of these impostures would seem to countenance the sneer of one of your satirists, who says,

'Doubtless the pleasure is as great,

Of being cheated as to cheat.'

Nor has the practice of imposture in the manufacture of antiquities been confined to literature or the arts. It is computed that the quantity of wood sold as the veritable cross, would, if calculated, be sufficient to build a hundred gun ship."

"I have read somewhere, (said Ferdinand,) that the manufacture and sale of relics is still a profitable trade in the East. Is it true?"

"Literally so, (said Asmodeus;) Volney, a great traveller, relates, in his travels in Egypt and Syria, that three hundred chests of relics are annually imported from Jerusalem. In fact, so easily are the majority of the people gulled by any plausible humbug, that Frederick of Prussia was not far out when he designated them as the mass of intellectual imbecility, made to be the dupes of those who will take the trouble to deceive them.'"

(To be continued.)