178 \otesfortlieMoHth. [FEB. 



with an account of the exact date at which it happened. This is almost 

 as good as Dr. Franklin's story of " Polly Baker."* 



The newspapers have been particularly prolific during the last three 

 or four months, with complaints from " Correspondents" and " Constant 

 Readers," of the various abuses to which the constitution of society is 

 subject. First, somebody wrote a long and pitiful exposure of the frauds 

 of linen drapers. This was followed by a revelation of the enormities of 

 the wine merchants. Then came the robberies (peculative, not larcenous) 

 committed by servants. Then an appeal on behalf of those unhappy 

 victims to a passion for clear muslin and gentility, the ladies' " com- 

 panions" and governesses. And finally, some twenty pens in a row pour 

 out upon the public a most deplorable " full and true account," of the 

 sufferings of the people called " school assistants," or " ushers." 



Now we ourselves have found it absolutely necessary, for a long time 

 past, to steel our hearts against all " ill-used people." And our readers may 

 recollect, that, when the linen drapers' shopmen wanted a law made to 

 shut up all shutters at eight o'clock, that they might be dressed in time 

 for the " saloon," or " half-price" at the " Adelphi Theatre," we threw 

 ourselves as guardians of public reason into the gap, and declared, in 

 the face of watering pots and yard measures, that no case was made out 

 for the enactment. In the same way with our present appellants, the 

 " ushers" the sum of whose claim is, " that they are gentlemen," and 

 entitled to be treated " as such" we are afrai'd that these open de- 

 .clarations of their title to respect however honourable to their can- 

 dour will be apt to throw some suspicion upon their common sense, 

 as well as on their modesty. Position in society, must be tacitly either 

 assumed, or accorded ; it cannot be argued for, or taken upon petition. 

 Many a man, by the force of confidence or assurance, receives deference 

 who has no just title to it : but no man can demand it although from 

 a chimney-sweeper without incurring contempt even if he escapes 

 a taste of the soot-bag for his pains. The complaint of the " gentle- 

 men ushers," however, strikes us as peculiarly unreasonable: for ex- 

 ample to take that which appears to be pretty nearly the sum of it, 

 from the gentleman who leads the cry, in The Times of the 21st of 

 December. 



This individual says, that, " being a graduate of a university," &c. ; 

 but " having nothing to depend upon but his acquirements as a means 

 .of livelihood" in which case, instead of being a graduate, he would 

 have done incomparably better to become a carpenter ; he " accepted" 

 (which we suppose is his mode of saying " sought after and solicited") 



* Old as this story is, some of our readers may not be acquainted with it In one of the 

 years just before the American war, a sort of " Police Report," appeared in one of the 

 -Philadelphia papers, describing the bringing up of a woman, named " Polly Baker," before 

 some magistrate, for the offence of a sixth bastard child. Mrs. Baker, on being reprimanded 

 for such incontinence, made a speech, in which she defended her general moral character, 

 and alleged that, in a rising state, like that of America, she ought to be considered as a 

 benefactress rather than a criminal. The speech was thought a very admirable one at the 

 time ; and though perhaps something overrated, was eloquent and forcible certainly pro- 

 ceeding from such a quarter. Several years afterwards, when Franklin was in France, in 

 the course of a conversation upon the power of natural genius especially in free states, &.c. 

 with the Abbe Raynal, and certain other men of science, the speech of" Polly Baker" 

 was quoted as an instance of what mere faculty, without assistance or cultivation, could do. 

 'Franklin waited till the Difference was over ; and then said, / wrote that speech myself. 

 I was working for a newspaper at the time, and did not know what to write. There 

 never was any such person as. '.' Polly Baker." 



