soon bereaved of the society of so noble a corps!

The repast being at an end, the ball recommenced; and now was the time judged most fit by Forrester to present his bill. For this purpose, he sought for the general throughout all the apartments, but in vain, for the latter was nowhere, to be found: he and Major Vowell had slipped off, and taken their departure, just in the nick of time when poor Forrester's appearance was suspected.

At length the poor fellow thus addressed Captain Breviter:-"Blood and thunder! captain, where is the general?"

Breviter, perfectly understanding the drift of the question, replied,-" O, damn it, Forrester, our general is great at a retreat.”

The landlord, who was greatly chagrined by this intelligence, exclaimed:-"By Jasus, then, has he walked off with himself entirely?—If so, by the holy poker! I'm clane done out of house and home. But, captain, sure enough his honur has left Vowell to settle the score?"

Breviter, laughing heartily, replied:—“ O, yes, by G-d! he has left you three VowellsI-O-U."

An Irish ex M. P., essaying to relate the above anecdote one night at Boodle's, in the presence of several gentlemen who had heard it before, commenced his narrative by saying, “It was the funniest thing he had ever heard in his life;" but, unfortunately, when he came to the winding up, he plainly discovered that he was quite ignorant of the true meaning of the joke:-for, to the question by the landlord-" But, captain, sure enough his honour has left VowELL to settle the Score ?" Mr. M -made Breviter answer, "O, yes, by Jasus, Forrester, he has left you five or six of them-A-E-I-O-U-Y."

Poor M, as he finished this list of the vowels, laughing immoderately, excited much greater merriment than he could have done by relating the bon-mot in its genuine state.

THE BANK OF KILLARNEY.

To speak of the banking system in Ireland during the late war, and, indeed, at the present day," said an Irish gentleman, one evening at Brookes's," is as bad as talking of fire to a man who has been burned out, and lost all his property in the flames. To such an extent was this species of robbery carried, at one time, that provincial or country notes were issued for sums so low as three-pence; whilst those for six shillings were actually accounted high."

Another gentleman having expressed amazement at this state of things, the first speaker gave the following instance of the truth of his assertion:

"In the town of Killarney," said he, "was one of these banks; the proprietor of which was

a kind of saddler, whose whole stock in that trade was not worth forty shillings; but which forty shillings, if even so much, was the entire amount of his capital in the banking concern.

I once accompanied a large party of English ladies and gentlemen to that enchanting spot; where, having amused ourselves for a few days, we were on the point of returning to Dublin, when one of the party recollected that he had in his possession a handful of the saddler's paper. Accordingly we all set out, by way of sport, to have them exchanged; our principal object being to see and converse with the proprietor of such a bank.

Having entered the shop, which barely sufficed to admit the whole company, we found the banking saddler hard at work, making a straddle. One of the gentlemen thus addressed him :— "Good morning to you, Sir: I presume you are the gentleman of the house.'

"At your sarvice, ladies and gentlemen,' returned the saddler.

"It is here, I understand, that the bank is kept?' continued my friend.

"You are just right, Sir,' replied the mechanic; this is the Killarney Bank, for want of a better.'

"My friend then said,- We are on the eve of quitting your town; and as we have some few of your notes, which will be of no manner of use to us elsewhere, I'll thank you for cash for them.'

"The banker replied, Cash! plase yer honour, what is that? is it any thing in the leather line?—I have a beautiful saddle here as ever was

put across a horse; good and chape, upon my say so. How much of my notes have you, Sir, if you plase?'

This question required some time for an answer, calculation being necessary; at length my friend counted them out, as follows:

Two do. for 61d. each, half a thirteen

Three do. for 81d. each, three-fourths of

a thirteen

0 1 1

30 2 14