1 830.] Affairs in General 45 1 



with their mouths so distorted between smile and sourness, that many 

 of them have never since recovered their usual blandness of physiog- 

 nomy. Sir Watkin has fled the town, swearing, in the purest Armoric, 

 against ever trusting any thing more versed in this world's ways 

 than one of his long-bearded, caprine compatriots. Frankland Lewis 

 took refuge from despair in a sinecure, and vows never to touch a 

 potatoe in its state of nature, as long as he can call himself a placeman. 

 Mr. Sabine has retired to his Hortus Siccus, and, abandoning contem- 

 porary fame, is preparing an exculpatory address to all future mankind, 

 which Jekyll, remorseless punster, calls, like Madame Roland, " un 

 appd a la posteriti" 



Through good and evil we have fought for the Thames tunnel. We 

 have made our pilgrimage to its shrine, braved the depths of Deptford 

 to see it, and never grieved over the loss of that which, as Pope tells, 

 ran between Swift and the love of a shirt or a supper, which ousted 

 Marlborough of his fame, and which, in our own degenerate day, 

 stripped Lord Melville of his privy councillor's gown, and had nearly 

 stripped Blenheim of its ancient monarchs of the grove. In humbler 

 language, we paid our shilling, and were glad. The sight was, in the 

 simplest ratio of profit, worth the money ; and we hope that our word 

 will go so far with the world as to stir it up to defy even the perils of 

 a navigation through the streets of Deptford, to see the tunnel, and see 

 in it the most singular evidence of the powers of human ingenuity and 

 intelligent labour that the world can boast of a work ten times the 

 value of the Pyramids, the wonder of the old world ; and ten times 

 tnore requiring invention and intelligence than the route of the Sim- 

 plon, the wonder of tha modern. 



te The annual meeting of the proprietors of this undertaking was 

 lately held at the City of London Tavern. It appeared from a report 

 which was read, that little or no progress has been made towards a 

 completion of the work ; but that they do not despair of its accom- 

 plishment whenever the prosperity of the country may be such as to 

 encourage loans or subscriptions of money for the purpose. Upwards 

 of 26,000 visitors have, during the last year, been admitted, paying the 

 usual price, which has assisted very much towards the expenditure." 



We say to them, that the time will certainly come, when their admi- 

 rable work will be felt to be, what it is, a national object an honour 

 to the country, which the country will be proud to sustain, even if it were 

 solely as the triumph of its talent; but which will be to the proprietors 

 a magnificent source of revenue from the moment of its completion. 



It was lately announced that " Kean had engaged for his spouse I and 

 himself, for a year, one of those new fangled demi-gothic cottages on 

 the banks of the Regent's Canal, near the Hampstead-road ; where he 

 has been seduously occupied in perfecting himself in the character of 

 Henry the Fifth, which he stands pledged to perform at Drury-lane 

 Theatre." This is one of the odd helps to genius that great men adopt 

 in difficult cases. Mr. Bayes is recorded as having always written 

 tragedy upon a regimen of stewed prunes. Morland's summons to his 

 genius was the brandy bottle. Young brought himself into training for 

 his " Night Thoughts" by a candle in a scull. Rabelais swallowed 

 green peas ; and Person got drunk with " Mountain Dew." The 



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