16 SEPTEMBER 1837, Page 7

Lord John Russell bad the credit of saying a smart

thing last ses- sion about the " recant of patriotism ; " but his Lordship only quoted a wit of the last century. A correspondent refers us to Horace Wales pole's Letters for the phrase "canting is bad enough, but recanting is worse." The editor of Sir Charles Hunbury Williams's Works is probably well read in HoraceWalpole.

It is the fashion to call the vote by Ballot an " un-English "

prac- tice. Dr. Johnson did not think so. In the Gentleman's Magazine for July or August NM, (we have not the means at hand for stating the month positively,) there is a letter on the expediency of' voting by Ballot for county candidates; which Dr. Johnson, though an inveterate Tory and a prejudiced John Bull, was so far from condemning, that he strongly recommended its adoption in towns as well as counties.