GOULBURN'S UNKNOWN TONGUES.
Da. HOWRING proposes that candidates for the Consular office should be examined to see if they understand the language of the country to which they are sent. Mr. GOULBURN acutely objects, that it would not always be easy to find qualified examiners : for in- stance, we have a Consul in the Sandwich Islands ; and he doubted whether Dr. B0WEING himself " could undertake to examine him as to the progress of his studies in the Sandwich tongue." Because Dr. HOWRING does not understand the Sandwich tongue, competent professors should not examine persons in Russian, German, Spanish, Arabic, or Persian ! But Mr. Govenuee reckons without his host : Dr. BOWBING'S unpublished Anthologies of Nootka Sound and Patagonia have brought him very near to Polynesia. Besides, the thing is as facile as Mr. GOULBURN% argument—he could do it himself: let him eat a tongue-sandwich backwards, the last mouthful first, and he will soon be delighted at perceiving his own progress to the root of the Sandwich tongue.
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