about for a considerable period in a labyrinth
of verbal difficulty, grants and conveys the
premises, together with a great many privileges
and appurtenances, and all the estate,
and all deeds, and a great many other
contingent advantages besides. Then, I find
that I am required to have and to hold the
premises in the way therein somewhat fully
specified. Then, I declare that my wife shall
not be entitled to dower; finally, Jones,
not to be behindhand, plunges into such a
confused sea of covenants and declarations,
that it is only by the professional assistance
of Mr. Tapes I am enabled to specify them
generally as "That he is lawfully seised.
Has good right to convey. For quiet
enjoyment, Free from incumbrance, and For
further assurance."

Now, in turning to the two hundred and
ninety-eighth page of Mr. Prior's Manual, I
find a conveyance of precisely the same nature
as the above, contained within, the space of
fifteen printed lines, and consisting (exclusive
of the parcels, which it is his design to place
in a schedule at the foot of the deed) of three
legal folios. There are no recitals; for, as
that gentlemen very pertinently observes,
"although, as a literary production, a
conveyance is much more complete and
satisfactory for exhibiting the preliminary state
of the title at length— yet, as in practice this
has always been well sifted beforehand, and
every party to the instrument is assumed to
be cognisant of it, it does seem monstrous
that the entire process should be gone through
again, and the draft swelled to thrice its
needful length for the benefit of some exoteric
reader in after times, who, even if he exist,
will not accept these statements on the faith
of the document itself, but will require their
strict proof: viewing the document not as an
isolated fact, but as merely one link in the
chain of title."  For reasons equally cogent,
but of too technical a nature and too great a
length to be admitted here, the Habendum
clause is not inserted, nor are there any
general words or elaborate covenants. The
conveyance simply consists of the following
heads. First: That, in consideration of so
much money paid to him, the granter conveys
to the grantee and his heirs the premises
described in. the schedule thereto annexed,
with their legal or usual appurtenances.
Second: A declaration that no widow of the
grantor should be dowable out of the premises.
Third: A covenant from the grantor
that, notwithstanding anything done or
knowingly suffered by the grantor, he is entitled
to execute the grant of the hereditaments
free from incumbrance, and that lie and every
person claiming under or in trust for him
will, at the cost of the grantor, his heirs and
assigns, do all acts required for perfecting
such grant. There the deed ends, and it is
upon this principle of careful condensation
that the whole of the forms in the volume
are framed.

It remains, therefore, for the public to
make their election between Mr. Tapes and
his sixty folios on the one hand, and Mr.
Herman Prior and his three folios on the
other. For the rest, does any gentleman
desire to enjoy the unusual luxury of being
able to comprehend his marriage settlement,
the lease of his house, the mortgage of
his property, or the clauses of his last will
and testament? If any gentleman should
entertain, or should ever so fall from his
high estate as to come in course of time by
slow degrees to entertain, this singular wish,
then let him instruct his lawyers, in their
preparation, to consult the pages of Mr.
Herman Prior's Manual of Short Conveyancing,
and to proceed accordingly.

DOWN AMONG THE DUTCHMEN.

XI.

THERE are theatres down among the
Dutchmen— in a small way, that is. The
drama is not likely to take fast root in that
marshy soil. The delicate tones and light
shading of the mimetic art are lost upon the
retina of our Dutchman. More easilv to be
conceived is it, that he should take with heartiness
to palpable sights and shows— things that
strike home at once, without necessity for any
thinking work. Tumblers, funambulists,
and showmen generally,would seem to be in
prodigious favour with him. Were Punch and
Judy but naturalised; could that ill-assorted
pair get anything like a chance— any kind of
an opening— it might be safely predicated
that it would attain extraordinary popularity,
and become an institution of the country as
much as Schiedam or Curaçoa. He would
be never weary of contemplating that
unhappy scene of discord: would neglect, it is
to be feared, his daily business. Would have
a private apparatus in his own house, with a
permanent power of representation. Would
wear his thorax unto soreness, striving to
compass that reedy tone with which the
misguided husband objurgates his hapless spouse.
It does really surprise me that no one has yet
thought of introducing to their notice this
mirth-moving entertainment.

Has he the pantomime? The harlequinade,
clown, pantaloon, and columbine? I know
not: but such facetious personages would of
a surety tickle him woundily. How would
he chuckle internally, as the funny creature
comes forward to the footlights, turning in
his toes, and hailing them with his old
salutation, Here we are! How would he roar
at the larcenies, the policemen jokes, the
buffelings, the tumbles, and the jumpings
through tamborines and glass windows! Have
they such things, or the bare notion of such
things? Perhaps, after all, a certain training,
from tender years would, be found essential.
He should be broken in, as it were,
pantomimically.

But he has theatrical shows, and a theatre