8 JANUARY 1831, Page 12

The Gentleman in Black is no clergyman : it is

the individual who is represented as going about seeking whom he may devour, and against whom we are hebdomadally put on our guard from the pulpit. In former times, he was personified rudely—he was always represented as wild, savage, fiery, and sulphurous : this pictureaccorded with the manner of the times ; but the Devil keeps pace withethe improvements of society—he is now a" gentleman in black;' pleasant in voice, and not disagreeable in manners—in short, he is scarcely to be distinguished from a parson or an attorney, except by the profusion with which he scatters his bank-notes. It is one of the signs of the times, that the Devil now-a-days tempts by promising credit at his banker's to an unlimited. extent. CRUIKSHANK has drawn, his portrait in several interesting positions ; and it would appear, from the euperiority of the drawing, that he has much more of the Devil in him i than his brother, who has tried his hand at a likeness of the Arch-Enemy ill the Devil's Walk.