where they had a tough debate regarding our adventure in the forest:
the woodman insisting it was the Finn's spell that brought the wolves
in such unheard-of numbers, and the peasant maintaining that it was a
judgment on our desecration of Christmas-eve. For my own part, I think
the long storm and a great scarcity of food had something to do with
it, for tales of the kind were never wanting in our province. The
wolf-gathering, however, saved us a journey to Siberia: thanks to old
Wenzel. And sometimes yet, when any strange noise breaks in upon my
sleep even here in England, I dream of being in his wild hut in the
forest and listening to the wolfish voices at the door.




THE DROLLERIES OF FALSE POLITICAL ECONOMY.

PLANS FOR PAYING THE NATIONAL DEBT.


It is not customary to associate the ludicrous with financial
operations--with budgets, schemes of taxation, and national debts. In
general, they are considered to assume a formidable aspect; and when
that is not the case, their details are looked on as dry and
uninteresting--they are universally voted a 'bore.' Yet we engage to
shew, that there have been some financial projects which at the
present day we can pronounce essentially ludicrous. And they are not
the mere projects of enthusiasts and theoretic dreamers. They were put
in practice on a large scale; they involved the disposal of millions
of money; and they were in operation at so late a period, that the
present generation paid heavy taxes for the purpose of carrying them