180 Xotes for the Month. [FEB. 



footman in livery, will laugh at the assumed importance of the "gentleman;" 

 whose real condition in society is far more humble than their own. 



Then there is nothing to object to in men's putting themselves in 

 this situation ; but it is absurd to see them afterwards disposed to 

 quarrel with it. Females, who have to earn a livelihood, must be 

 poor, and may honourably claim compassion, because the modes per- 

 mitted to them of gaining support are unhappily very limited : but for 

 men away with the rogues ! while the country wants soldiers, we 

 will not hear a knave that can pass muster in a pair of breeches com- 

 plain of any thing. As to the cant about " the important duty of 

 instructing youth," &c., it is mere trash. The fact is, that two-thirds of 

 the business of ushers in schools, is to cram a quantity of useless matter 

 very imperfectly into boys' heads, which they forget (and do well to 

 forget) before they have been out of school half a-y ear. 



But the Malthusian doctrine is the only rule for " ushers," or any 

 other sort of people who feel their treatment to be below their merits. 

 Let there be fewer of them, and they may depend upon it, they will be 

 treated with all the consideration in the world. The last usher that is 

 to be found on the lists of the " Register Offices " of London whenever 

 that proportion of the " supply to the demand" may be effected will 

 be taken down, as an absolute jewel, in a post-chaise and four, to 

 Yorkshire ; and enjoy " carpeted floors," and uncompendious breakfasts, 

 with a power from which there shall be no appeal of birch and ferula, 

 when he gets there. 



We adverted, a little way back, to the failure of the projects of the 

 Thames Tunnel ; an undertaking w T hich it is now generally agreed could 

 scarcely pay the expense of keeping up, if it were completed. It would 

 seem almost incredible that, in defiance of the loss that has been sustained 

 here with the Vauxhall Bridge paying scarcely anything ; the South- 

 wark Bridge still less ; and the Waterloo Bridge (to the original pro- 

 prietors) never yet a single shilling ; with all these facts before the 

 public, there is actually a plan now advertised for building another 

 bridge over the Thames between Vauxhall and Westminster at Lam- 

 beth. The effect of such an undertaking could only be to waste all the 

 money that may be advanced by the speculators, and to destroy the pro- 

 ceeds of the Vauxhall Bridge, by dividing the little traffic that exists in 

 that quarter between two. It would be an admirable check, and one to 

 which we see no objection, upon these perfectly absurd speculations, if 

 no transfer of shares in any Joint Stock Company were recognized as 

 legal, until the Company had existed say three years. This veto could 

 give no inconvenience to the bona jide undertakers of a work ; and it 

 would put an end to the practice of starting ruinous schemes, for the 

 sole purpose of obtaining contracts to execute them ; or of disposing of 

 the stock, in the first instance, at a premium. 



An association of benevolent persons, calling themselves " The Society 

 for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals," have been making a set 

 lately at the butchers of the Metropolis ; and propose to apply to Par- 

 liament that " Abattoirs," after the manner of those used at Paris, may 

 be constructed in the suburbs of London ; so that no market for cattle 

 may in future be held, or beasts of any kind permitted to be slaughtered, 

 within the limits of the city. On the other hand, the butchers have held 

 counter meetings of their trade, at the Freemasons' Tavern ; and have 

 resolved that this proceeding of the Humane Society is an interference 



