and sharps, which attunes into irregular social jog-trot all the generations that pass from the cradle to the grave;--still, "_the desire for something we have not_" impels all the energies that keep us in movement, for good or for ill, according to the checks or the directions of each favourite desire. A friend of mine once said to a _millionaire_, whom he saw for ever engaged in making money which he never seemed to have any pleasure in spending, "Pray, Mr ----, will you answer me one question: You are said to have two millions, and you spend £600 a-year. In order to rest and enjoy, what will content you?" "A little more," answered the _millionaire_. That "little more" is the mainspring of civilisation. Nobody ever gets it! "Philus," saith a Latin writer, "was not so rich as Lælius; Lælius was not so rich as Scipio; Scipio was not so rich as Crassus; and Crassus was not so rich--as he wished to be!" If John Bull were once contented, Manchester might shut up its mills. It is the "little more" that makes a mere trifle of the National Debt!--Long life to it! Still, mend our law-books as we will, one is forced to confess that knaves are often seen in fine linen, and honest men in the most shabby old rags; and still, notwithstanding the exceptions, knavery is a very hazardous game; and honesty, on the whole, by far the best policy. Still, most of the Ten Commandments remain at the core of all the Pandects and Institutes that keep our hands off our neighbours' throats, wives, and pockets; still, every year shows that the Parson's maxim--_non quieta movere_--is as prudent for the health of communities as when Apollo recommended his votaries not to rake up a fever by stirring the Lake Camarina; still people, thank Heaven, decline to reside in parallelograms; and the surest token that we live under a free government is, when we are governed by persons whom we have a full right to imply, by our censure and ridicule, are blockheads compared to ourselves! Stop that delightful privilege, and, by Jove! sir, there is neither pleasure nor honour in being governed at all! You might as well be--a Frenchman! CHAPTER II. The Italian and his friend are closeted together. "And why have you left your home in ----shire? and why this new change of name?" "Peschiera is in England." "I know it." "And bent on discovering me; and, it is said, of stealing from me my child."