THE LATEST OF COMING MEN.
ALBERT SMITH as a Protectionist! Even so : among the s of Protection patronizing the Retrogradists of W • ord was the literary father of "Mr. Ledbury." Lord Castlereagh as author of the Scottish Novels is scarcely a wilder idea than the popular humourist as a statesman. Next we shall he sending Mr. Michael Angelo Titmarsh as representative of her Ma' ty to Madrid, and Mr. Buekstone to give the voice of England the contemplated Congress for the settlement of Europe.
That the Protectionists should be *glad to catch so distinguished a person to -adorn their councils withal, is not .surprising, but rather that the gay satirizer should take up with the lugubrious traditionary policy. " Some subjeets is too serious to mention," says the Irishman; "praties is one." Albert Smith has discovered his serious subject. He goes to -the Rest and mines home laughing at the Sphinx, but findi an oracle in Earl Stanhope." Each man has his melancholy side, and here we discover the provocative of the laugher's " lachrymw rerum." The Pyramids are a -toy, the decay of Egypt is a joke; but the memory of the Corn-laws is a flebile fact, and the prices of 1845 cause the regretful tear to flow down Albert's ironical' cheek.
Or is the industrious author -Only ruldirig to his_" experiencei," and preparing to follow up his Eastern reminiscences with a new " entertainment" on the subject of Protection? As Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton says, in the words of lifoliere—one of his happiest quotations—" Pent-etre."
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