When that poor fellow’s hand dropped off as he was being carried to the Morgue, it was high time he should be buried, and yet he had to wait a day for the coroner from Christchurch, and then he came so late that the service over the body had to be read by candlelight, and our worthy doctor was laid up through it. SKETCHES OF NOTORIOUS CHARACTERS. THE LATE BOFFIN. You never noticed him in the street; of course not, nobody ever noticed him, not even when he lampooned them. That ?vas what riled him so much. I have just had glimpses of him, and have a sort of recollection of a figger that remained one cf a third, or perhaps a thirty-third mate, come ashore in the captain’s bell topper. But he’s gone now. E.1.P., which means let him rip. “ He was a man, take him for all in all. We shall not look upon his like again,” if it can be helped. Poor Boffin ! would that I could call you back to life, that I might ask you once again for that half-crown I lent you before I be came a Templar. But alas ! Death pays all debts, in which he don’t in the least resem ble Boffin. Boffin was a man of tender passions ; his sweetheart’s name was Jane Eva, and he loved her on the square. I don’t think she remains behind to mourn his loss, not much of her, for Boffin left no heel-taps. Perhaps you heard a fellow sing at the Institute something in this style— ‘ ‘ Bar-room maiden, ere I start, Of what I’ve spent restore a part; You must lend me, I declare, Enough for cab and railway fare ; Or if this you cannot do, I shall have to stay with you. Another drink before I go, On credit, and I’ll love you.” That used to make the most surreptitiously introduced small boy encore him, but this was his masterpiece: “ ’Twas a glorious spread, worth reporter’s telling, But the feed was o’er and the toasts were done, The whiskey he’d swallowed was upward swelling When Boffin remained at the board alone. 