municipal use was known to the ancients. I had a strong notion that the savory meat made by Esau for his father was in fact no other than mock turtle; and was engaged in consider ing what sort of mock turtle could be manufactured of venison or kid-when I was aware of the door of our sitting room gently opening, and a tall gentlemanly looking man entered, dressed in black!

He advanced to the table, and, nod ding familiarly, helped himself to a glass of wine.

"Do you know me?" said he.
"No," said I.

"I thought as much," he replied. "I am Peter Schlemihl-do you know

me now?"

"Peter Schlemihl?" I answered. "Oh yes I have heard of you;" but I could not at the moment recollect whether he was the man without a shadow or the man with a cork leg.

A reflection passed through my mind, that there was rather an absence of ceremony in his introduction, but I asked him to be seated and inquired his business with me.

"I am come," said he, "to take a walk with you-do you know Liverpool?"

I was not at that moment disposed to take a walk, and a certain rheumatic twinge in my feet gave me to understand that a walk would, at thất time, be particularly disagreeable, for which reason, and because I was conscious of something like a repulsive feeling against the man, I resolved, although I am intimately acquainted with almost every nook and corner in Liverpool, to deny my knowledge of the place, and to tell Mr Schlemihl a plain lie.

"Mr Schlemihl," said I

"Don't mister me," he replied; "my name is Peter-Peter Schlemihl. But do you know Liverpool?"

"No," said I, bolting out the lie at

said he, “ we shall be back before she awakens ;-so, come along."

The bell, announcing the departure of the packet, at that moment rang, and Peter Schlemihl reaching my hat and gloves, put the former on my head, and gave it a whack, by way of settling it firmly down, and taking me by the arm, I felt no power to resist; but almost instantly found myself on board the steam-packet, sailing on my way to Liverpool in company with Peter Schlemihl.

In a few seconds we were across the river and landed on the parade; but, in ascending the steps, some villain with an iron heel to his boot, gave my toes such a squeeze that I almost screamed with agony. Peter saw my distress, and putting an arm through one of mine," Never mind," said he, "I'll provide you with consolation;" and almost before I had time to ask whither we were going, I found myself seated with him in a room in the Mersey Hotel.

Mr Horne was the very pink of civility, and the waiters appeared to know Peter Schlemihl well, and seemed to understand his very looks; for, although I did not hear him give any order, and although I certainly gave none, two plates of rich turtle were almost instantly before us, accompanied with lemon, cayenne, punch, &c.

"I have dined," said I, as I almost mechanically took a spoonful; but that spoonful sufficed to drive away all remembrance of my pain, and all recollection of my dinner. It was delectable; and we ladled away with the gusto of men tasting turtle for the last

time.

"How do you like it?" said Peter, when I had finished.

"It is admirable," I replied; "who could help liking it?"

"Well," said he, " if you are satisfied, put the spoon in your pocket, and let us march."

"The spoon in my pocket!" I answered; "do you wish me to be taken up as a thief?"

"Quite a matter of taste," said Peter Schlemihl; "suppose you had swallowed it by accident—and you opened a mouth wide enough to have admitted a soup-ladle, putting a simple spoon out of the question-suppose you had swallowed it by accident,

could you have been successfully accused of theft? And where is the difference to Mr Horne, the landlord, betwixt your putting his spoon in your stomach by accident, and putting it in your pocket by design? In either case, I take it, the loss to him would be pretty much the same; so the difference, you see, is but in words;-but come along."

So saying, he again put my hat on my head, giving it a thump as before, and putting my gloves in my hand, I was presently walking in his company, at a quick rate, towards the Exchange, without having any clear idea of the way in which we left the turtle room in the Mersey Hotel.

To my surprise, the daylight still continued people were passing back. wards and forwards, and appeared to be in all the hurry and bustle of mid. day business; though, from the hour, I expected to see the gas in full blaze, and the streets deserted of their mercantile population.

"Is it not a handsome pile of building?" said Peter Schlemihl, after he had walked me round the Town Hall, and pointed out its beauties-its portico-its frieze-its dome-and after he had led me round the area of the Exchange buildings, and pointed out each and every part worth notice.

"Is it not a handsome pile of building?" said he.

"It is undoubtedly very hand. some," I replied, " and does great credit to the place, but as a piece of architecture, it is by no means perfect; and".

"For mercy's sake," said Peter, "don't turn critical! If you do, I will desert you. I have known many critics in my time, but I never knew but one sensible man of the craft; and he lived to regret his taste as a misfortune. No, no! rules are very necessary in every art, and every science; but never do you imbibe the notion, that nothing can be pleasing or beautiful that is not strictly according to rule. Now, there is a monument to Nelson the glorious Nelson-before you; but, handsome as it is, and suitable as it is to a naval hero, in an important sea-port town, and standing on the high mart of foreign commerce, yet I will not allow you to look at it, for it is not strictly correct according to the code critical. By the by,

did you ever see that funny affair that the Birmingham gentlemen put up in memory of the same great man? Living so far inland, they did not perfectly understand what a sailor was like, but they made a little gentleman in black, and having heard of the green sea, they set him up in business in their market-place, as a green-grocer, being the nearest approach to the green sca that their imagination could suggestwhat the devil business had Nelson in a market-place?-they might as well have made him a button-maker!-but come along."

Peter's motions were so rapid, that, without perfectly understanding the course of our progress, I found that we were almost instantly walking up and down the news-room, bustling through the dense throng of merchants, brokers, dealers, captains, Christians, Jews, Turks, and men of all occupations-all nations-all creeds -and all colours.

Things bore an appearance of importance, for foreign news had arrived of great and overwhelming interest. Grave-looking men, with sage and anxious faces, were poring upon the newspapers at the various tables, in tent to know the news of the day; whilst those who could not obtain access to a table, were greedily swallowing the intelligence that could be collected from some loquacious friend.

To my consternation I saw Schlemihl-my companion, Peter Schlemihl!-take the newspapers from the different stands, and put them in his pocket; and, to my equal consternation, I saw him take from another pocket other papers, which he laid before the readers with such adroitness, that the exchange was not perceived; but a man who had an instant before been reading of some disastrous event, now smiled and chuckled as he read that even his best hopes were more than realized. Itrembled lest my companion should be detected, for some in the room knew me!

At length the natural result arrived. Men met, and gave different versions of news from the same papers; for Peter's papers did not appear to have been all printed at one press. Contradiction begot argument, to which warm words succeeded, and, in a very few minutes, almost every man in the room was engaged in dispute; and as

they were all talkers and no hearers, Peter Schlemihl took me by the arm, and walked me off to the Town Hall, saying, as we went, "The money. changers, and the dealers in gums and in spices, and in oils and in hides, and in cotton and in fine wool, have forgotten their commissions and their per centages for to-day."

We went into the beautiful and capacious rooms, and admired Chantrey's delicate statue of Canning-the intellectual Canning!-and did not admire a fat, heavy, old Roman looking person, whose bust was appropriately placed in the dining-room.

We walked out upon the gallery; and, after looking for some time at the panoramic scene presented to our view, Peter Schlemihl excited my surprise, and, in some measure, my alarm, by climbing, by some means or other-but which means I do not to the present hour perfectly comprehend outside the dome to where Brittannia sits alone in her glory.

Some seconds elapsed before I durst look at him, for I expected him to drop at my feet a dead and unsightly mass!

I heard a chuckle and a laugh, and, looking up, I saw Peter Schlemihl quietly seated on the lap of Britannia, with one arm round her waist, and looking up into her face with a good-humoured smile, as if he had been saying somothing arch and amusing; and she-that deceitful woman, that I always looked upon as a cold stony composition was laughing outright at Peter's fun! She even leered at him! But my indignation knew no bounds when I saw Peter Schlemihl take from his pocket a meerschaum, and very calmly fill it and light it, and after taking a few whiffs to see that it was thoroughly ignited, put it in the mouth of Britannia, who began to smoke with all the force and energy of an old fishwife, gently saying, as she began, "Thank you, Peter!"

"Peter Schlemihl!" I called out"Peter Schlemihl! come down this instant, and do not take such liberties with that lady. If you do not come down directly I will inform the Mayor and Corporation, and they will punish you well for your impudence! They will take you before Mr Hall, the magistrate, and he is not a man to allow ladies to be trifled with."

Before I had well concluded the

sentence, Peter Schlemihl came sliding down the dome, and dropped directly upon my toes, so that I was put to more pain than even when ascending the steps from the steam-packet.

66

"It was an accident," said Peter, quite an accident! and cannot be helped; but a little exercise will take away the pain."

To try the experiment, he put his arm within mine, and away we travelled, at a furious rate, towards the Zooloogical Gardens.

"Step into that cellar," said he, as we were posting along, “ and buy me a penn'orth of nuts-that's a good fellow-and then go into that shop," pointing to one," and buy me six penn'orth of bird-lime-and if you like it, you may put it in your breeches pocket."

"Nuts and bird-lime!" I answered," and put it in my breeches pocket!-indeed, I shall do no such thing-these are the only pair of trousers I have with me!but what are you going to do with bird lime? surely we are not going a bird-catching!"

"Never you mind!" said he;" will you fetch the articles, or not?"

"No," I answered, "I will not."

"A word of that sort's enough," said Schlemihl-" don't trouble yourself to say any thing more"-and slipping into the cellar, he presently emerged, with his hat half full of nuts, and afterwards going into the shop he had pointed out, he returned from it, rolling betwixt his hands a large ball of something like shoemaker's

wax.

"Here they are," said Peter-" and now for the gardens!"

On arriving there, Peter Schlemihl picked up a bit of printed paper, which he palmed upon the porter for an order, and by some legerdemain of his, we were presently inside, cheek by jowl with a blue-faced baboon. On going round, he stopped where a lot of monkeys were confined in a large cage, and Peter smiled at the sight.

"Ah, Jacko! Jacko!" said he, pitching two or three nuts amongst the solemn-looking assembly. Instantly the whole body was in confusion, leaping, squealing, and snatching after the nuts. He threw another nut, which was caught by a youngster, from whom it was snatched by an older and more experienced thief.

Another and another nut followed, and the same scene was repeated; and the sagacious brutes, seeing that Peter was the only man in the nut market, watched his every motion with intense interest.

If he went a foot more to one side than another, away went the whole monkey population in the same direction. If he raised or moved his arm, every monkey was on the qui vive, prepared to spring to the land of promise, to where the looked-for treasure was expected to fall; but if he threw a nut in the cage, then for the scuffle and the noise, the squealing, the growling, the scratching, and snatching, and clawing!

He continued to coquette with the monkeys for some time, and succeeded in establishing a very free and very friendly intercourse betwixt himself and them. At length, I saw him rolling a nut about betwixt his hands-he showed it to the monkeys, who all sprang upon their haunches, ready to seize the prize, their eyes glistening like glow-worms with eagerness. He affected to throw it!-they all jumped against each other to the quarter where they expected it to come. Again he showed the nut, and then, after exciting their attention to the utmost, he threw it amongst them.

There was the deuce of a scuffle in the cage, and the prize was seized by a veteran old monkey, who ran into a corner of the cage to secure it: but, alas! he had no bargain; for, after giving it a squeeze or two, he found his jaws almost fastened together, and gave a fearful squeal. Another monkey seized the nut, and pulled away, until he got something in his mouth, which united him by a string to the first monkey.

Peter Schlemihl threw another nut, and after that another, and another, and the monkeys became like so many infuriated demons, scratching, biting, tearing, and squealing, in their vain endeavours to extricate themselves from Peter's nuts, which, instead of be ing pure Barcelonas, were nothing more or less than the veritable bird-lime. They tugged and tore to get it out of their mouths, and as all hands were engaged in snatching and tearing from each other, and, in doing so, skipped and jumped about in all directions, the whole chattering fraternity became completely enveloped in a

netting of bird-lime, and made a noise and a riot, such as never before was heard, even in a garden devoted to zoology.

The clamour and confusion of those brutes collected together all the keepers and all the company in the gardens; and great indeed was the indignation and distress of the former on finding the dirty and adhesive dilemma in which the unfortunate monkeys were placed. A week's holiday they said, would be necessary in the monkey department, in order to rid them of their netting of bird-lime.

They began to institute enquiries as to the author of the mischief; and Peter Schlemihl, hearing those enquiries take rather a personal turn towards himself, again took my arm, and before I was aware whither we were going, Peter and I were têlea-tête with the lion.

"He is a noble animal!" said I.
"He's up to snuff," said Peter.

He then insinuated his box of Lundy Foot, without the lid, cautiously into the lion's cage, gently obtruding it upon the lion's notice with the end of his stick.

The lion, on seeing it, went leisurely to it, and took a hearty snuff, as if he had been a snuff-taker from his infancy-the cage echoed with a tremendous sneeze, and presently with another, and a third; and he then shook his head, and his eyes watered, and he looked very like an old gentleman maudlin drunk. Again he sneezed, and being impatient at the pungency and inconvenience, he gave vent to his anger in a fearful roar, which attracted the attention of the keepers and visitors, and induced them to come towards us.

Peter Schlemihl observed their movement, and, again taking me by the arm, said—" It is time to be going;" and instantly we were by the side of the ostrich.

"This," said he, " is a gentleman of good appetite and strong digestion, so I will give him something to exercise both," taking from his pocket the head of an axe, and pitching it into the cage as we passed it.

We then came to the elephant, and as he held out his huge trunk, moving it about, expecting a cake or some other thing edible, Peter Schlemihl pricked him severely with the point of his penknife.

Suddenly I heard a fearful crash, and perceived that the elephant had broken down his inclosure, and was rushing towards us in the wildest fury imaginable.

I turned and ran, endeavouring to make my escape, but such was my fear and trepidation, that my knees failed me, and I could not get forward. I seemed to be rooted to the spot!

I saw Peter Schlemihl-the wicked Peter Schlemihl!-pass me! He looked like an overgrown kangaroo, and appeared to bound away from the spring of his tail, with the speed of a Congreve rocket. I heard the elephant coming after me, bearing down every thing in his course. I heard Mr Atkins, and all his keepers, and all his visitors, in full chase. I felt the elephant breathe upon me, and, falling down with absolute terror, I felt him pass over me in pursuit of his tormentor, Peter Schlemihl, and, as one of his feet pressed with agonizing weight upon mine, I fainted and became insensible to all that was passing.

Some good persons, I believe, took me out of the gardens, and placed me in safety; and I gradually recovered and proceeded to make the best of my way to Seacombe.

I was going along in a very melancholy mood, when I felt a slap on my shoulder, and Peter Schlemihl was walking by my side, apparently as indifferent as if nothing had occurred.

"That old savage got vexed!" said he.

"Indeed," I replied, "he might well I hope he caught you, and rewarded you for your folly."

"Thanks for your good wishes," said Peter, drily," but you see I have escaped. I made a sudden turn and got amongst the crowd of pursuers, and by that means I blinked him ; but where do you think you are going to ?"

"I am going to Seacombe," I answered.

"Indeed, my good fellow, you are not at present," said Peter; "I wish to take a turn in the market, and you must go with me."

In vain I remonstrated-he had hold of my arm, and I felt myself irresistibly compelled to accompany him.

We strolled towards that capacious and convenient market, St John's. We entered and found it crowded; and in lounging round, Peter asked the price of every thing from every body, and gave an order to every trader in the place. He bought of all things, from a cocoa-nut to a round of beef, and pressed into the service every carrier about the market.

As we proceeded, he nodded to one, winked at another, and spoke to a third, and used such familiarities to all, that I quite expected to see him handed out of the market by the police; but he was suffered to proceed without interruption, appearing to possess a license for doing impertinent things that would not be tolerated in any other person.

At length we stopped opposite to the establishment of Miss Hetty Taylor, the good-looking green-grocer, that once on a time received a Tory aristocratic kiss from Lord Sandon in the face of the whole market.

To that place he was followed by all the tradespeople from whom he had made purchases, all desirous to be paid for their goods; and by all the bearers of the articles he had purchased, desirous to know to what place they were to convey their burdens.

On reaching Miss Hetty Taylor's establishment, Peter Schlemihl, after politely bowing to that lady, picked out a quantity of turnips, took out a knife, and in an incredibly short space of time, hollowed them out-cutting features in the sides of them with surprising celerity-and converted them into genuine, orthodox turnip lanterns.

How he managed to put lights in them, I don't know, but lighted they all were; and then Peter Schlemill began to throw them about like the balls of the Indian jugglers; and away they whirled, in incredible numbers and with astonishing velocity!

The crowd was for a time delighted with the gyrations of the turnip lanterns; but, in the course of their whirling about, first one gaping spectator, and then another, received a violent blow on the face, which terminated his satisfaction.

From being anxious spectators, they became violent assailants, and seizing any thing they could lay their hands on, they began to pelt Peter Schle