SOME MEN END WHERE OTHER MEN BEGIN.
IT is no uncommon sight to see a man born to riches die poor, and the son of a poor man die rich ; and men are apt to say gravely, when such a practical antithesis is mentioned, that some people end where others begin. It is not in matters of money alone that this old saw is applicable : men have been known to exchange cha- racters in the course of their lives, the spendthrift becoming ava- ricious as he advanced in years, and the money-maker liberal.
Thus, Gummi has left upon record that his military experience in the Hampshire Militia was of eminent service to him when he came to narrate the exploits of Roman generals ; and his brother historian, Mr. Arasori, has just presented us with the converse of this intellectual process by fulminating against the rioters of Air- drie an "order of the day" constructed upon the model of those issued by NAPOLEON when he invaded Spain. This exchange of characters is still more striking when the parties happen to be "linked in office " : as is the case with the two unfortunate Ex. Ministers chiefly responsible for the blunders in China and Af- ghanistan. Sir Jowl CAM HOBHOUSE, who began with getting him- self imprisoned in Newgate for sedition, has tamed down into a most unobjectionable Conservative ; while Lord PALMERSTON, who started as the serviceable apologist of PERCEVAL and Ceart.z- REACH, bids fair in his old age to become a kind of second-hand "Westminster's Glory." In all these cases of transmutation, how- ever, it will be found that the parties, however different in appear- ance, were essentially alike. Thus, in GIBBON or Mr. Alas" the author will be found to predominate over the practical man ; while in PALMERSTON or HOBHOUSE, whether as Patriot or Government hack, the characteristics of the political adventurer or trading politician are always uppermost.
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