?8 Letter on Affairs in general. [JAN. 



the grazier shall be compelled to take a penny a pound off his beef, 

 and then suffer the butcher to put three-halfpenee on. It is scarcely 

 adverted to, what a number of people there are, who while they grumble 

 lustily about " taxes," and the " times," have still an affection at the 

 same time some out of stupidity, but many from impertinence for 

 paying always what they call " the highest price." This is not to speak 

 of the crowd of other idiots, who are compelled to pay any price, because 

 their negligence or extravagance prevents them from being able to pay in 

 ready money. A man opens a shop, to sell goods at low prices, at 

 No. 55, Oxford-street ; and one to sell the same goods at high prices, at 

 No. 56 ; and one, at the end of the year, has as much trade as the other. 

 These last description of speculators it is who every day sustain enormous 

 " losses," and yet go on, and thrive as well as their neighbours, who lose 

 nothing at all. It is only a conventional mode of conducting business ; 

 both the buyer and the seller mean to cheat each other; and the only 

 question is which, in the long run, will succeed. 



The manner in which " Intelligence" is given in newspapers espe- 

 cially " Sporting Intelligence" is sometimes amusing. I copy the fol- 

 lowing paragraph from the Globe and Traveller : 



" GALLOPING MATCH. On Wednesday Mr. Bullock undertook, for 

 a stake of 200 sovereigns, to ride eight horses 82 miles in four hours and 

 a half. The first horse did 10 miles to Barnet in 34 minutes and a few 

 seconds; the second horse reached Hatfield (the other 10 miles), in 35 

 minutes ; the third went eight miles to Woolmer Green, in 25 minutes ; 

 the fourth did to Baldoek, 10 miles, in 34- minutes ; the fifth reached Gir- 

 ford, 11 miles, in 34 minutes; and the sixth went to Bugden, 12 miles, 

 in 37 minutes. Three hours and 19 minutes it took to do the 60 miles 

 in ; and the other 22 were rode, so that the match was won by a quarter 

 of an hour." 



Now from the punctuation of the last two lines " the other 22 were 

 rode, so that, &c." it would seem that the first part of the distance had 

 not been rode. But this is the least part of the curiosity of the para- 

 graph ; because, upon the historian's own words, either he must have 

 mistaken the matter from beginning to end, or he leaves out of his descrip- 

 tion the most extraordinary part of the whole race. Now, if the distance 

 of 82 miles was to be performed in four hours and a half, and the match 

 was won by "a quarter of an hour," then, the 82 miles were performed in 

 Jour hours and a quarter. And, if it took three hours and nineteen 

 minutes to do the first 60 miles in then, if the account be true, the last 

 22 miles must have been performed in four minutes less than one hour ; 

 which is an increase of speed hardly credible ! At the rate of 60 miles 

 in 3 hours and 19 minutes, to do the 22 miles, would take 1 hour and 

 13 minutes, whereas it is said to have been done in 56 minutes ! At 

 the most rapid rate accomplished in any part of the match say, from 

 Girford to Bugden, 12 miles in 37 minutes the 22 miles would take 68 

 minutes ; so that the speed must have been raised more than TWENTY 

 PER CENT, upon this, to do it in 56. Or say, that the first 12 miles of 

 the 22 were done in 37 minutes, the last 10 must have been accomplished 

 in 19 ! Either the account is totally wrong, or the most curious part of 

 the match is omitted to be described. 



A LITERAL INTERPRETATION. Monsieur Louis, the " French giant," 

 who is near seven feet high, going down to Portsmouth two days since, 

 took a place in the Mail, and found himself (as might be supposed in so 



