2 I 



Leather Lane, Whitecross Street, and Whitechapel — the 

 kerbstone market, as he called it, where costcrmongers 

 sold their fish at about lO per cent, above the wholesale 

 price at Billingsgate. The poor did get cheap fish, and the 

 rich could, if they liked, if they would only do as their 

 grandmothers did, take their basket on their arms and go 

 with their money in their hands. But what were the fish- 

 mongers to do ? They expected him to call at the house 

 and ask, " Any fish to-day ? " " No, not to-day ; " and then 

 he came again to-morrow, and perhaps got an order for a 

 whiting or a sole, and perhaps he got paid for it, and 

 perhaps he did not, after giving twelve months' credit. 

 They could not expect any fishmonger to do that without 

 charging for it. 



Mr. Cayley said he was not connected in any way with 

 the fish trade, but simply spoke as a member of the public. 

 Although Mr. Walpole declined to express any very strong 

 opinion about the deficiency or otherwise of Billingsgate, 

 he thought the inference to be gathered from his remarks 

 was that Billingsgate was deficient in accommodation, but 

 not in men of honour and enterprise. It was only fair to 

 remember that Billingsgate was a very old institution, that 

 London had increased in population, and consequently 

 the demand for fish had increased to a very much larger 

 extent than the accommodation at Billingsgate ; this was 

 admitted on all hands. He should be glad if Mr. Walpole 

 would kindly state whether an opinion expressed in a 

 daily paper some few days ago, as having his sanction and 

 that of another gentleman who stood very high on this 

 matter, was correct, that if the fish could be discharged 

 some twenty miles down the river, and brought from there 

 to market direct, instead of being brought up to the market 

 in the ships, that that arrangement alone would probably 



