"What the Committee of Inspection!" exclaimed JOWLER, seizing his hat, "Oh, what _have_ you been doing? Why the place will be ruined!" And he hurried off followed by the urchin. The next morning I got a letter from JOWLER, saying that he would never forgive me, as, by my "want of tact with the Committee of Inspection, I had ruined a widow and five small children," and, to make matters worse, I have been subsequently informed, in a satirical communication signed "MORDAUNT BROWN, JONES AND SNOBKINS," that my opinion is not one they can conscientiously adopt without further advice, "as my knowledge of Mexican Law seems to be of a superficial description." It is a painful experience, and none the less painful because I have to add it to a number of experiences of a not entirely dissimilar character. A. BRIEFLESS, JUNIOR. * * * * * "THE GRAND OLD MAN" IN DECEMBER.--Father Christmas. * * * * * [Illustration: THE LETTER-BAG OF TOBY M.P. FROM QUIET QUARTERS. _By-the-Sea, Saturday._] DEAR TOBY, I have been intending to write to you for some weeks past, but, really, life passes so quickly here, with such gentle rotation of days and nights, that a week is over before I realise that I have well entered upon it. Besides, I find, in practical experience, that the writing of a letter usually involves the receipt of one; and, though I am not bound by any rule involving the necessity of reading, or even opening the letters that reach me, it is as well to avoid, as far as possible, little annoyances of that kind. I write to you because, in your case, I make an exception to the rule of my epistolary conduct, and really want to hear from you. The occasion of this solicitude is, that I find chance references in the local weekly paper (I never see a daily) to the Irish Question, which seem to show that it is in a somewhat unusually perturbed state. I daresay if I could make up my mind to open the pile of letters that have been accumulating on my desk for the last month or so, I should be able to inform myself on the subject? But, if I once began that practice, whither would it lead me? I have found, in the course of my public life, that the last thing to do with a letter received through the post, is to open it. My correspondence, conducted in the main upon that principle, answers itself, and thus much labour, and possible friction, are saved.