COMMON POLITENESS.
" COMMON politeness made me stop and do it," said the tipsy hero of one of COLMAN'S stories, in reply to the remonstrances of the poor shivering individual he had roused from his bed by complying with the injunction on a brass plate, " Please to ring the bell." "Would you have me show myself less civil than a slave ?" asked the Governor of a West India colony, when one of his .suite ex- pressed astonishment at Ids Excellency's returning the salute of a poor Negro. Our esteemed fellow countrymen may believe us that all sound precedent is in favour of complying with the dic- tates of "common politeness." Now, it is generally understood that "common politeness" requires, when two gentlemen inad- vertently run against each other, that if the one take his hat °Nes an expression of apology, the other ought to take off his in return. France and England have unluckily jostled on the highway : time removal of its Minister for Foreign Affairs by the Government of the former country, we humbly take it, is equivalent to the taking off his hat in the case of aprivate gentleman—in "common polite- ness," and sound policy, England should complete the analogy by dismissing her Foreign Minister. The angry nations, thus mutu- ally pacified, would then pass on, each minding his own business.
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