ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. I I I 3 



per dozen ; and the growers complain that the retailer for 

 opening them in the London shops gets as much as the 

 grower does for giving them five years' attention. And 

 those who have followed me thus far, know very well that 

 this is no small thing, for the oysters require it constantly. 



Now, in allusion to these prices, I think that the above 

 statements corroborate the Marquis's facts and figures with 

 a vengeance. And that unheeded complaint of the Burn- 

 ham oyster cultivator anent the London shopkeeper's 

 profit, speaks loud as Neptune's horn that 



"There's something rotten in the State of (England), 

 and that it needs but little of 



* our philosophy (to) find it out.' : 



To this also, I think the reader will agree ; and, for 

 the present, having said quite enough upon this matter, I 

 will resume the broken thread of his Lordship's valuable 

 discourse, assuring him that where any digressions may 

 occur, and whatever their tone, I esteem his article more 

 highly than to think and speak of it in any other manner 

 but that of sincere respect. 



With the candour of a true Briton, the Marquis makes 

 an assertion which should be written in letters of gold over 

 the entrance of the department where the Board of 

 Trade officiates. 



It is true there is nothing of a remarkable nature in 

 this assertion, for it is daily quoted in the social litany of 

 the proverbial long-suffering and patient British Public, 

 and for many years has been 



" Familiar to our mouths as household words." 



But, coming from so high an authority, this echo of a 

 well-known fact trumpets its self-evident truth and serves 

 to arouse and alarm our un-English-like ostreological 



