584? NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



a subterfuge than a relief a measure by which the necessity of doing 

 something is acknowledged, but the meagre nature of the gift would 

 argue the parsimony of the granters. At the head of this pompous 

 list stands the article of Tiles, a material so long superseded by Slates, 

 that the voluntary relinquishment of a duty dwindled almost to no- 

 thing, may be considered as any thing but a boon. The half duties 

 relinquished on Advertisements and Soap are too small to be of any 

 advantage. The thrifty housekeeper may perhaps save a halfpenny 

 per week in her washing; but we question whether the advertizer will 

 benefit in the least by advertizing in papers of good circulation, 

 when they have at present a greater number of advertizers than they 

 can find room open for. Besides, by retaining a part, all the offensive, 

 inquisitorial, and expensive machinery of taxation is kept up. The 

 exciseman still pays his domiciliary visits at the soap manufactory, 

 and the clerks at Somerset House still play their Jack-in-office anticks, 

 and draw their salaries, let the proceeds of taxation be ever so much 

 reduced. We are sorry to say it, but Lord Althorpe's financial mea- 

 sure seems to us like a poor evasion of the just and reasonable 

 demands of the people. 



GALLANTRY AND GOLD MEDALS. The Royal Humane Society, 

 in distributing rewards to those who have performed the greatest 

 deeds of gallantry and encountered the most formidable risks in sav- 

 ing their fellow creatures from drowning, have placed foremost on the 

 list the Hon. Miss Eden, Maid of Honour to the Queen, and 

 awarded her the gold medal. We have no reason to doubt the gal- 

 lantry and courage of Miss Eden, who has thus dived and "plucked 

 up honour," in the shape of a well-ducked urchin, from a brook; but 

 we cordially detest the base satire, the scurrilous imputation cast upon 

 the whole body of the aristocracy by this award. Had Miss Eden 

 stood by and witnessed the dying agonies of the child with aristo- 

 cratic indifference, the coroner would have returned "accidental 

 death," as a matter of course : for who could expect a lady of any 

 pretensions to rank to soil her sandal to save a poor man's child, when 

 MissMartineau has so repeatedly assured us that such children have 

 no right to exist? But the maid of honour happened to be possessed 

 of the common feelings of human nature: at the imminent peril of 

 wet feet she assisted in saving the child, and although some such 

 thing is done every day as pulling children out of ponds and ditches 

 by people in the humbler walks of life, who would little dream of 

 reward for such an act yet no sooner is a like feat performed by an 

 honorable lady, than all the sensitive world are melting with sym- 

 pathy ! Such an exhibition of common feeling in one of the higher 

 orders, must call forth a general burst of admiration from a truly 

 humane and lady-loving society. All common fellows who in a gale 

 of wind have dashed among the billows to save a shipmate, with slen- 

 der chance of ever returning, must beset aside that the triumph may 

 be awarded to this fair dabbler in Datchet brook ! Apiece ot plate is 

 voted her by a grateful neighbourhood, the bells are rung, congratu- 

 latory verses are written by Tory poets, the Royal Humane Society 

 awards its gold medal, and humble and grateful regards are showered 



