604 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



nance of temper, that may have interfered with the perfect agreement of the 

 parties, and engender a lasting ^friendship, if we may so call it, which is 

 less likely to pass away or change than the selfish pass'ion called love. 



The middle classes fare no better than their superiors. Immorality, false- 

 hood, and inhospitality, are charges almost indiscriminately applied to the 

 whole body, and as for the third estate, the commons, nothing seems bad 

 enough for them. Cheerfulness, under the pressure of misfortune, is the only 

 redeeming quality allowed them, and as for their morals they seem to be like 

 negative quantities in algebra, subtractive. As proof of this, the first fact 

 brought forward is that few or no young men among the lower classes " can 

 plead innocence of sexual intercourse" at the age of twenty years. Not to 

 mention the indelicacy of harping on this string through page after page, we 

 would ask why this accusation is made against the lower classes only ? We 

 do not deny the truth of the allegation. " Tis true, 'tis pity, and pity 'tis 'tis 

 true." But are the youths of the higher and middle classes immaculate? 

 The fact is, young blood is young blood, and will obey the dictates of 

 nature, unawed by the warning voice of the moralist, or the probable and 

 immediate evil in prospect. We condole with Mr. Grant on the wickedne&s 

 of mankind, and repeat with poor Ophelia : 



" Young men will do't 



When they come to't." 

 What more is to be said? 



That spirit-drinking is a pernicious habit almost entirely confined to the 

 vulgar, we are ready to admit. But all men, civilized or savage, seem to have 

 a natural taste for strong liquors, and we do not conceive that a greater pro- 

 portion of the populace indulge in drams of gin, than among their betters, or 

 at least those who ought to be their betters, carouse in healths drained pottle 

 deep. Still there is no denying, the prevalence of this most pernicious vice. 



In his enumeration of the humbler classes, and his sweeping assertion that 

 they are all in a state of miserable poverty, Mr. Grant seems to have for- 

 gotten that a very important item in the population of London consists of 

 mechanics and artisans, who earn their thirty shillings and from that to three 

 pounds a week, which is quite enough to procure them all the necessaries, 

 many of the comforts, and some of the luxuries, of life, and enables them to 

 bring up and educate a young family decently and creditably. No doubt 

 among these men there are many bad characters, but the majority are decid- 

 edly a very respectable set of men, and ought not to be included in the ranks 

 of dram-drinking paupers, thieves, and Sabbath-breakers. And this reminds 

 us that much fault is found with those who, on that day which God has ap- 

 pointed for the rest and recreation of man and beast, quit the smoky precincts 

 of London, and themselves and families endeavour to breathe a little fresh air 

 in the suburbs. They must not, forsooth, smoke their pipes and drink their 

 pint, while their wives gossip with their neighbours, out on the same errand 

 of health, over a dish of tea, and their little ones rejoice in the free space they 

 have to gambol in and stretch their innocent limbs. This out-Agnews 

 Agnew : we'll have no more on't. And, as for the startling dogma, that 

 nine-tenths of the operatives pf London are professed infidels, it bears its own 

 refutation in its extreme absurdity. 



Justice is done to the ready wit of the lower classes, and we insert the 

 following extract, which is characteristic enough. 



" Some of the similes or imagery which the lower classes of London are in 

 the habit of using, are exceedingly happy. 



" ' Harry, my boy,' said a cobler, the other day, to a journeyman tailor, 

 * can you lend me a shilling ?' 



" ' Bless your soul,' said the knight of the thimble, ' I have not got so much 

 about me as would pay the toll at a turnpike-gate for a broom-stick.' 



" ' Ned, my jolly old fellow,' said one cartman to another, as they both 

 sat quaffing a pot of porter in a tap-room 'Ned, von't you have a slice of 

 this here loaf?' 



