Nay, ev'n should he make still longer stay of it, The boy'll want judgment, ev'n to the day of it! Meanwhile, 'tis a serious, sad infliction ;

And, day and night, with awe I recall The late Mr. Matthews' solemn prediction, "That boy'll be the death, the death of

you

all."

LETTER

FROM LARRY O'BRANIGAN TO THE REV.
MURTAGH O'MULLIGAN,

ARRAH, where were you, Murthagh, that beautiful day?

Or, how came it your riverence was laid on the

shelf,

When that poor craythur, Bobby-as you were

away

Had to make twice as big a Tom-fool of himself.

Throth, it wasn't at all civil to lave in the lurch
A boy so desarving your tindh'rest affection ;-
Two such iligant Siamase twins of the Church,
As Bob and yourself, ne'er should cut the con-
nection.

If thus in two different directions you pull, 'Faith, they'll swear that yourself and your riverend brother

Are like those quare foxes, in Gregory's Bull, Whose tails were join'd one way, while they look'd another!*

Och bless'd be he, whosomdever he be,

That help'd soft Magee to that Bull of a Letther! Not ev❜n my own self, though I sometimes make free At such bull-manufacture, could make him a betther.

To be sure, when a lad takes to forgin', this way,
'Tis a thrick he's much timpted to carry on gaily;
Till, at last, his "injanious devices +," some day,
Show him up, not at Exether Hall, but the' Ould
Bailey.

That parsons should forge thus appears mighty odd, And (as if somethin' "odd" in their names, too, must be,)

* "You will increase the enmity with which they are regarded by their associates in heresy, thus tying these foxes by the tails, that their faces may tend in opposite directions." -BOB's Bull, read at Exeter Hall, July 14.

"An ingenious device of my learned friend.". BOB'S Letter to Standard.

One forger, of ould, was a riverend Dod,

While a riverend Todd's now his match, to a T.*

But, no matther who did it—all blessins betide him,
For dishin' up Bob, in a manner so nate;
And there wanted but you, Murthagh 'vourneen,
beside him,

Tomake the whole grand dish of bull-calf complate.

* Had I consulted only my own wishes, I should not have allowed this hasty attack on Dr. Todd to have made its appearance in this Collection; being now fully convinced that the charge brought against that reverend gentleman of intending to pass off as genuine his famous mock Papal Letter was altogether unfounded. Finding it to be the wish, however, of my reverend friend. —as I am now glad to be permitted to call him that both the wrong and the reparation, the Ode and the Palinode, should be thus placed in juxtaposition, I have thought it but due to him to comply with his request.

MUSINGS OF AN UNREFORMED PEER.

Of all the odd plans of this monstrously queer age,
The oddest is that of reforming the peerage;
Just as if we, great dons, with a title and star
Did not get on exceedingly well, as we are,
And perform all the functions of noodles, by birth,
As completely as any born noodles on earth.

How acres descend, is in law-books display'd,
But we as wiseacres descend, ready made;
And, by right of our rank in Debrett's nomenclature,
Are, all of us, born legislators by nature;-
Like ducklings, to water instinctly taking,
So we, with like quackery, take to law-making;
And God forbid any reform should come o'er us,
To make us more wise than our sires were before us.

The' Egyptians of old the same policy knewIf your sire was a cook, you must be a cook too: