PREFACE.

THE name of the country town, in Englanda well-known fashionable watering-place-in which the events that gave rise to the following correspondence occurred, is, for obvious reasons, suppressed. The interest attached, however, to the facts and personages of the story, render it independent of all time and place; and when it is recollected that the whole train of romantic circumstances so fully unfolded in these Letters has passed during the short period which has now elapsed since the great Meetings in Exeter Hall, due credit will, it is hoped, be allowed to the Editor for the rapidity with which he has brought the details before the Public; while, at the same time, any errors that may have been the result of such haste will, he trusts, with equal consideration, be pardoned.

Poor "Pa" hath popp'd off-gone, as charity judges,
To some choice Elysium reserv'd for the Fudges;
And Miss, with a fortune, besides expectations
From some much rever'd and much-palsied rela-
tions,

Now wants but a husband, with requisites meet,-
Age thirty, or thereabouts - -stature six feet,
And warranted godly -to make all complete.
Nota Bene-a Churchman would suit, if he's high,
But Socinians or Catholics need not apply.

What say you, Dick? doesn't this tempt your ambition?

The whole wealth of Fudge, that renown'd man

of pith,

All brought to the hammer, for Church competition,[with.

Sole encumbrance, Miss Fudge to be taken thereThink, my boy, for a Curate how glorious a catch! While, instead of the thousands of souls you now

watch,

To save Biddy Fudge's is all you need do;
And her purse will, meanwhile, be the saving of you.

You may ask, Dick, how comes it that I, a poor elf,
Wanting substance even more than your spiritual
self,
[shelf,
Should thus generously lay my own claims on the
When, God knows! there ne'er was young gen-
tleman yet

So much lack'd an old spinster to rid him from debt,

Or had cogenter reasons than mine to assail her With tender love-suit-at the suit of his tailor.

But thereby there hangs a soft secret, my friend, Which thus to your reverend breast I commend: Miss Fudge hath a niece — such a creature! — with eyes

Like those sparklers that peep out from summernight skies

At astronomers-royal, and laugh with delight
To see elderly gentlemen spying all night.

NN

While her figure-oh, bring all the gracefullest
things
[wings,
That are borne through the light air by feet or by
Not a single new grace to that form could they teach,
Which combines in itself the perfection of each;
While, rapid or slow, as her fairy feet fall,
The mute music of symmetry modulates all.

Ne'er, in short, was there creature more form'd to

bewilder

A gay youth like me, who of castles aërial (And only of such) am, God help me! a builder; Still peopling each mansion with lodgers ethereal, And now, to this nymph of the seraph-like eye, Letting out, as you see, my first floor next the sky.'

But, alas! nothing's perfect on earth- - even she, This divine little gipsy, does odd things sometimes;

Talks learning-looks wise (rather painful to see), Prints already in two County papers her rhymes; And raves-the sweet, charming, absurd little dear! About Amulets, Bijous, and Keepsakes, next year, In a manner which plainly bad symptoms portends Of that Annual blue fit, so distressing to friends; A fit which, though lasting but one short edition, Leaves the patient long after in sad inanition.

However, let's hope for the best-and, meanwhile, Be it mine still to bask in the niece's warm smile; While you, if you're wise, Dick, will play the gallant (Uphill work, I confess,) to her Saint of an Aunt. Think, my boy, for a youngster like you, who've a lack,

Not indeed of rupees, but of all other specie,

'Tis rumour'd our Manager means to bespeak The Church tumblers from Exeter Hall for next week; And certainly ne'er did a queerer or rummer set Throw, for the' amusement of Christians, a sum

merset.

"Tis fear'd their chief "Merriman," C-ke, cannot

come,

Being called off, at present, to play Punch at home; And the loss of so practis'd a wag in divinity Will grieve much all lovers of jokes on the Trinity;

His pun on the name Unigenitus, lately Having pleas'd Robert Taylor, the Reverend, } greatly.

"Twill prove a sad drawback, if absent he be,
As a wag Presbyterian's a thing quite to see;
And, 'mong the Five Points of the Calvinists,
none of 'em

Ever yet reckon'd a point of wit one of 'em.
But even though depriv'd of this comical elf,
We've a host of buffoni in Murtagh himself,
Who of all the whole troop is chief mummer and
mime,

As

C-ke takes the Ground Tumbling, he the
Sublime; 4

And of him we're quite certain, so, pray, come in time.

release ye;

Never mind, tho' the spinster be reverend and thin, What are all the Three Graces to her Three per Cents.?

While her acres!-oh Dick, it don't matter one pin How she touches the' affections, so you touch

the rents;

And Love never looks half so pleas'd as when, bless him! he

Sings to an old lady's purse " Open, Sesamé."

By the way, I've just heard, in my walks, a report, Which, if true, will insure for your visit some sport.

1 That floor which a facetious garreteer called "le premier en descendant du ciel."

2 See the Dublin Evening Post, of the 9th of this month (July), for an account of a scene which lately took place at a meeting of the Synod of Ulster, in which the performance of the above-mentioned part by the personage in question appears to have been worthy of all its former reputation in that line.

The Evangelical Magazine. A few specimens taken at random from the wrapper of this highly esteemed periodical will fully justify the character which Miss Fudge has here given of it. "Wanted, in a pious pawnbroker's family, an active lad as an apprentice." "Wanted, as housemaid, a young female who has been brought to a saving knowledge of the truth." "Wanted, immediately, a man of decided piety, to assist in the baking business." "A gentleman who understands the Wine Trade is desirous of entering into part

nership, &c. &c. He is not desirous of being connected with any one whose system of business is not of the strictest integrity as in the sight of God, and seeks connection only with a truly pious man, either Churchman or Dissenter."

3 According to the late Mr. Irving, there is even a peculiar form of theology got up expressly for the money market. "I know how far wide," he says," of the mark my views of Christ's work in the flesh will be viewed by those who are working with the stock-jobbing theology of the religious world." "Let these preachers," he adds "(for I will not call them theologians), cry up, broker-like, their article."-Morning Watch.-No. iii. 442, 443.

From the statement of another writer, in the same publication, it would appear that the stock-brokers have even set up a new Divinity of their own. "This shows," says the writer in question, "that the doctrine of the union between Christ and his members is quite