I deny that, by running after _me_, the Public has been guilty of an insane action. At least in the sense attached by Mr. NORWOOD to the accusation. Further, I have yet to learn that the Public ever _has_ run after me. And if the Public has run after me, I absolutely and entirely contradict the absurd statement that it could get much better work done by others--_at any rate for a third of the money!_ I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient Servant, (_Signed_) A. BRIEFLESS JUNR. _Pumphandle Court, Temple._ * * * * * OUR BOOKING-OFFICE. _A Secret Inheritance_ is the title of Mr. B. L. FARJEON'S latest, and only not his best, Romance, because his others have all been as absorbingly interesting and as exciting as this. Yet because in this the author adheres strictly to the point, without any carpenters' scenes, of humour, which are distracting and irritating, I am inclined to set this down as the best of all Mr. FARJEON'S,--in fact,--the best-by-Far-jeon. He is, for many reasons, better than BOISGOBEY. [Illustration: Sketch of a Review. The March of Intellect.] In an admirably got up and well-arranged Jubilee volume about Pope LEO THE THIRTEENTH, by JOHN OLDCASTLE, we find an item of information which may be advantageously recommended to Emperors, Empresses, Monarchs of all they survey, Princes, Lord Mayors, and Aldermen. It is "the Pope's dinner." Listen, "A few minutes suffices for its consumption." "He does not spend a hundred francs a month for his table." Not one pound a week! Not three shillings a day on his food, wine included! He dines "at two o'clock: his mid-day meal lasts not longer than half-an-hour, and is very frugal, consisting of soup, one kind of meat, two dishes of vegetables, some fruit, and, by the doctor's orders, a glass of claret." His supper at 9.30 consists of "soup, an egg, and some salad." Is there a Radical living who could tax the Pope's bill of fare as exorbitant? _The Red Spider_, by the Author of _Mehalah_, &c., is the _Un-read Spider_ as far as I am concerned, for I could not manage to get through it, and I did try. BOOK WORM. * * * * * THE NU DIKSHONARY. DEER PUNCH, Az I speek, so I rite, az neerly az possibl. I hope that wunce popular soshial and intellectual recreashon meeting the "Spelling Bee," (_sic_) will soon be revived, with a difference. It may be expected to cum up agen under the name of a Fonetik Spelling B, and the auspices of the American Spelling Reform Associashun. A competishun in spelling English wurds acording to thare sound may divert superfishl hearers; but no dout menny of those who hav cum to scoff wil remane to spel.