17 FEBRUARY 1877, Page 3

A correspondent writing to the Morning Post of Tuesday, and

signing himself "Detector," points out rather well how clearly Shakespeare had anticipated in Dogberry Lord Derby's instructions to Lord Salisbury to make the Turk attend to his duties, if he could, but if not, then to depart in peace:—" Verges : If you hear a child cry in the night you must call the nurse and bid her still it."—" 2nd Watch : How if the nurse be asleep and will not hear us ?"—" Dogberry Why, then, depart in peace, and let the child wake her with crying ; for the ewe that will not hear her lamb when it baes will never answer a calf when it bleats." "The nurse is the Turk ; the child the Christian who is to wake the nurse by crying or crying out ; the ewe that will not hear her lamb or answer the calf clearly typifies the Porte turning a deaf ear to the Conference." The truth is, that the absurd disposition to interfere in other persons' affairs only so far as no interference is needed, and to stop short just when it would be useful, must have struck the humorists of all ages.