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THE REGRETTED WATCH. 



"Watch! watch! watch I" Obsolete Cries of London. 



START not, mistaken reader! Although in veterately inimical to 

 the manifold glaring abuses of the New Police system, I am, or 

 rather was, equally opposed to the ludicrous incompetence of the 

 " good old" Watch, who are now happily, become as obsolete as the 

 " Tom and Jerry" boys with whom they will be associated in all 

 time to come, and with whom they are now " locked up" in the 

 " dark hole" of the grave, awaiting alike their " turn" to be " called 

 up" before the great " magistrate" of the world, who, I trust, will 

 " dismiss" them without even the (< usual penalty for being drunk and 

 disorderly" in their sublunary and erring probation. Peace be to 

 their manes ! 



No ! mine is a tale of a watch at sea. 



And yet will I bet thee, still miscalculating reader ! that thou art 

 now fancying in thy mind's ear the monotonous sound of the " spin- 

 ning" of some " long yarn" of log-line-breadth escapes from the 

 imminent deadly rock, or other moving accidents or disastrous chances 

 on the perilous ocean. 



Still, still, impatient reader ! art thou widely " out of thy reckon- 

 ing," albeit on such wonders I might slightly touch for thy better 

 understanding of " my whereabouts." But read,, that thou mayest be 

 satisfied. 



Some fifteen years ago, being suddenly stricken with a violent itch 

 for adventure and an uncontrollable desire to better my fortune in 

 foreign countries, I hastily converted all my disposable effects into 

 cash, which, under the guidance of an old merchant, a friend of my 

 father's, I invested in dry goods suitable to a market of one of the 

 cities of North America. Having completed my purchases,, I shipped 



them and myself on board the good ship , which was on the eve 



of her departure. In the hurry of embarkation I had forgotten the 

 injunction of my old friend to take out a policy of insurance on my 

 property, which, I afterwards had the " glorious uncertainty" to feel, 

 was, like myself, altogether at the mercy of the winds and waves, or 

 dependant on the staunch timbers, or competent knowledge of the 

 captain and officers of the good ship . 



I consoled myself, however, with the idea that if my bales of 

 broad-cloths and muslins were destined for the wardrobes of Davy 

 ?Bnes and his attendants, I should at all events " be there to sea" 

 Its Cowper wished to be at the next race of his friend, John Gilpin ; 

 and that if we both arrived " in good order and condition," the pre- 

 mium would be so much more money in my own pocket. 



There were three cabin passengers besides myself, and about sixty 

 in the steerage emigrants from their native land ; so, among such 

 a diversity of persons, " cribbed, cabined, and confined" in the little 

 space allowed to human freight on board a merchant-ship of three 

 hundred tons, it may easily be supposed there was by no means a 



