314 
way they can, the manufacturers have 
resorted to’ contrivances to avert the 
pressure of this coercive branch of 
money-levying; and the result is. the 
same as in all cases of financial. op- 
pression,—trickery attempting to coun- 
teract the invasions of legislative re- 
quisitioas, leaving the public as gulls 
of such a desperate game, viz. by 
forcing articles of bad quality upon 
them, instead of (as heretofore) good 
ones, 
As Lhave laid part of this gross 
system bare, I will finish it by saying, 
that the same species of legalized 
adulteration in paper-making. exists 
in the (second class) inferior papers 
as those manufactured by the ‘+ white 
class. makers.” Retail shopkeepers 
are continually complaining of tho 
rottenness and imperfection of the 
species called whity-brown; and no 
wonder: the article is often so stufled 
with chalk, and other vile trash, that 
on applying it to the fire it actually 
moulders, and refuses to burn. The 
large brown packing-paper, used in 
warchouses, &c,. which used to be for- 
merly of a strong firm texture, when it 
was the unalloyed. produce of old 
tarred rope, is now fabricated in such 
a way as to contain nearly as much 
clay or marie as it does of the refuse 
of hemp; and the ‘consequence is, a 
weak paltry article, which will hardly 
bear handling, or the characters of the 
ink, instead of a good sound, tar-smel- 
ling, paper,—being foisted upon all 
classes of tradesmen, who have occa- 
sion to use it. 
Wellmight Burns apply the abusive 
epithet he did:to the f:xcise: tospeak 
with concise condemnation of it, I 
must say it is the stamp of an oppres- 
sive poverty-sinking government, and 
the greatest drawback which ever 
existed on the free exercise of honest 
labour and manual industry. 
Cullum street. Ewort Smit. 
——— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
FRNHE new Marriage Act has been 
regularly debated and passed in 
Parliament, to the no small gratifica- 
tion of some high personages, and is 
regularly disregarded, and in progress 
to be forgotten, by most of the married 
part of the community, like many 
other wise laws, with which they think 
they have at present nothing to do. A 
caustic old gentleman of my acquain- 
tance; to whom a copy of the new Act 
4 
On the Fraudulent Practices of Paper-makers. 
[Nov. 1, 
was given the other day, threw it by 
with great composure, without trou- 
bling himself to open it ; only obsery- 
ing, that by the time Providence in its 
kindness might send him a change in 
his old day, and he undertook again 
to go before the altar with a new com- 
panion, (it being then the fourth time,) 
there would without doubt be a still 
newer Marriage Act, or an amendment 
and new modelling of the present, 
which he then might consult; for, said 
he, the newly made Jaw will shortly 
be declared null and void, to. make 
room for a wiser; when the purposes 
of the present are seryed, as applying 
to some dignified personages, to wlom 
all things in heaven and earth are of 
course subservient. 
But, sir, there is a great portion of 
the community who are still uxmar- 
ried, although the 1st of September is 
gone past;°a great many who are 
thinking of marriage; a great many 
who have long been plotting and plan- 
ning for it ; and not a few, particularly 
of the female sex, who are only hoping 
for it: among all of whom the Mar- 
riage Act has produced what is com- 
monly called a sensation. 
But, delays being datgerous,. no 
small number have been frightened by 
the portentous 1st of September. te 
plunge into the holy state of wedlock, 
to whom the said Marriage Act has 
also, without doubt, been the means 
of producing a considerable amount of 
sensation. There is a_great sensation 
felt at the Stock Exchange when a 
great man cuts his throat, or an eastern 
pacha happens to lose his head; there 
is a sensation in the city when a “good 
man” becomes bankrupt, or a fat 
citizen turns Highlander; there is a 
sensation among the Scotch clergy 
when they have an “eflulgent” address 
to write to the “bulwark of their 
church ;” and there is a. sensation 
among the bishops when one. of their 
members is found out to be—not so 
good as he ought to be. 
But there area great many who have 
other things to think of besides ‘the 
kirk of Scotland,” and the city baronet 
without breeches; ; who are neither 
careful about Ali Pacha nor the Vice 
Society; who nevertheless have their 
feelings, and to whom the Marriage 
Act is of no little importance. Ihave 
had some e6pportunity of observing 
how this terrible Act has affected 
many, particularly among the lower 
orders, about whom the Act-makers 
never 
