THE SPKCULAT10NS OF A HUNGRY MAN. 44<7 



plexed whenever I think of this our country with all its internal 

 wealth and external resources- its pure government its noble institu- 

 tions its generous sons its valour its religion its beauty ; and then 

 to reflect upon the "price of beef in London ! Does it not turn one's 

 patriotism into rebellion, as it substitutes appetite for digestion, to calcu- 

 late that a single mutton-chop costs five-pence ! So much for the table 

 next the wardrobe. In what other country, it may be asked, would the 

 year play such abominable pranks with a man of forethought? When, 

 at any time, did the three months March, April, and May, shuffle and 

 change places with each other in so unprincipled a manner as here ? 

 When I had suffered all my cloth to go into the country for the summer, 

 and, through the kind negociation of a gentleman from Holywell-street, 

 managed to obtain an adequate supply of merino from some unknown 

 friend, for a consideration almost nominal ; was it not hard, in the 

 second week of May, to be accosted by a northerly frost, and to wander 

 through a sea of mud, that gave my un-talk-about-ables a resemblance 

 to a pair of strange-shaped zebras ? A man of small means has no 

 chance in such a climate. I had formed a party to visit the Exhibition 

 on the 12th ; but, instead of going there, I was left at home to scour up 

 an old pair of gaiters for a ball that night. None of this would have 

 happened in Greece. And then the taxes ! Not that they much affect 

 me individually only one views these things on public grounds j and 

 with this view I cannot but recommend a property-tax in lieu of all 

 others ; for I do think, when a man has not a farthing in the world, he 

 should not be obliged to pay the horrid sums he now does indirectly of 

 course for the attic-window and the small soap he may chance to 

 1 employ. I must confess I like the post-office and stamps, and many 

 other sources of national revenue ; but when a man or a minister makes 

 your landlord contribute to the land-tax, by which means your rent is 

 raised one shilling per week, I do say, that these are crying grievances 

 in this country, and no independent man, like myself, can be perfectly 

 contented in it. 



Well, then, with regard to foreign parts, what shall we say. Does not 

 Algiers offer a glorious prospect? and Greece and Turkey ? Russia 

 and Calabria ? Who is there so helpless as to be sh ut out from a pre- 

 sidency of a South American republic, should he choose to '" call one 

 into exisience ?" Who may not be Lord High Admiral or Master of 

 the Rolls in the empire or kingdom of Prince Leopold ? Why should 

 not a sly fellow ingratiate himself with the sultan, and induce him to 

 eut off the heads of all the dignitaries, according to the precedence and 

 number of their tails, that stands between him and the office of grand- 

 vizier ? Or let him call himself Sir William Congreve, and whisper his 

 vocation in the ear of the Pacha of Egypt ; and might he not instantly 

 be made generalissimo of 40,000 Bedouin Arabs, arch-defender of the 

 harem, and superintendent of their works ? No, Don Pedro's service 

 promises best. The notion is ecstatic. How fortunate was it that I 

 found a sixpence the other day (on a shop-counter.) It enabled me to 

 get a cup of what is called by a sort of poetical licence, coffee, for several 

 successive mornings, and to see the paper. But then, again, how un- 

 fortunate was it, that the first I heard of the exploits of the Don's agents 

 in beating up for recruits here, was their retreat from the Thames police 

 officers, who had taken it into their heads to enlist them. So that my 

 application was only just in time to be totally inapplicable. I would 

 follow the expedition ; but the credit of this country is so shaken, that 



