448

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

distinguishednpersonages, and not being allowed an entranceby paying my stilling at the gate like any other member ofthe class “ cai\ille” I have been obliged to forego thepleasure of a single visit to the “ Zoological Society’s”Garden in the Regent’s Park. However, I heartily givethem my share of contemptuous feeling for their aristo-cratical and anti-popular regulations— A card from a sub-scriber !—exclusion on a Sunday! ■ And I grieve to seethat the insulted and humbugged people of this land havegiven such efficient and thoughtless support to an institutionwhich insults every producer —that is—every valuableman in the community. What right has our Lord-ridden government to give the public land to thearistocratic showmen of the Regent’s Park ? Talk of theprogress of science—of the knowledge of zoology, forsooth;—how many members of that working-man-contemningsociety, that “ knows the difference between a hawk anda liernshaw ? ”—Or between a frog or a toad ? Toad-eaters there are plenty amongst them ; but, insteadof adding to the rational amusements, blended with in-struction, of the people, they pander to “ The Beast,”Mammon— which marks every thing in this land with itsLordly hoof. “Avaunt ye poor — ye working men!—ofsuch is not the kingdom of England!”—or,—the LordlyRegent’s Park!

I have spoken of fencing at Naples, and of Neapolitanduels. I have another duel worthy of mention, because itwill show what a brave, cool, and collected man may do,even when over-matched in arms, in point of skill, andbodily agility. An intimate friend of mine, one Count Scotti,of Parma, had a quarrel with the Marquis Campomele, whomI have already mentioned as one of the parties in thequadruple combat between French and Neapolitans. TheCount had been a good fencer in his youth, but he was now