406 
soft and pleasant, but also impervious 
to wet, (at least to a great degree,) 
and will very seldom be found to 
crack at the sides. Cc. H. 
, —_— 
Tothe Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HAVE read with some interest 
-&. the accounts your correspondents 
have furnished you of the book-socic- 
ties to which they belong: perhaps I 
may be pardoned in again agitating 
the subject, but I am induced so to do 
beeause I think the arrangements hi- 
therto proposed might be rendered 
more simple and beneficial. 
The book-club to which I belong, 
and of which I am secretary, consists 
of twelve members only; we meet at 
each other’s houses four times in the 
year,—to propose books, and to ar- 
range the affairs of the society. At 
our meeting in March the books are 
sold to the highest bidder. We are 
subject to some laws and regulations, 
which may be summed up in a few 
words :—First, no member shall keep 
the book beyond the specified period ; 
in default of which he shall.be fined 
three pence for each day. Omitting 
to date a book, cither on receiving or 
delivering it, the fine is one shilling. 
Absence when the names are called 
over at any of the meetings, the fine 
is two shillings and sixpence. 
An annual subscription of one gui- 
nea constitutes a member. 
Thus, what with the subscriptions’ 
and the fines, we generally realize 182. 
a-year ; to which may be added 8/. the 
price the books generally fetch at the 
sale: making in all 26/. We circulate 
nearly all the popular works, and we 
take in some of the periodicals. The 
following is, as nearly as possible, our 
yearly account :— £5. d, 
‘The Monthly and Gentleman's 
Magazines ---+-++ssceseseee 2 16 
The Edinburgh and Quarterly Re- 
WHOUUE E Kidmieleiicice Sb bbls cutee ae o 
The Literary Speculum ---+++-+ 0-12 
‘The Literary Register --.-++-+- 0 17 
} 6 13 
Miscellaneous Works ++++ 19 6 
26 0 
From which may be subtracted 
discount of ten per cent. allowed by 
the booksellers, which will more than 
suffice to defray the other expences of 
the club. Our miscellancous books 
Poloriresec oOo 
Mr. Retham on Book-Socicties. 
[ Dec. 1, 
consist of works of fiction, poetry, ge- 
neral literature, and science. 
Clifford-place, J. RerTHam. 
Goswell-street Road. 
— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
AN IRISHMAN’S NOTES during a VISIT 
to PARIS. 
NO, If. 
HE first—at least one of the first— 
places the English visitor goes to 
in Paris, is to a gaming-house ; he wilt 
probably promenade the gardens of the 
Tuilleries, and walk through the gal- 
leries of the Louvre, during the day, 
and then at night take a peep at the 
play. Seven gaming-establishments 
are farmed out through the town un- 
der a licence, which is purchased 
from the government; they are con- 
trolled by it through a committee of 
administration, and are open to every 
loiterer from noon of the one day to 
the dawn of the next. Sunday occa- 
sions no interruption of the eager la- 
bour. , The profits they produce, after 
the deduction of all expenditure and 
charge, is averaged at 500,000/. yearly; 
and: it is not unusnal, as I understand, 
with a contractor, the better to secure 
the continuanee of his license, to make 
morning presents of 100 napolcons to 
authority: in what quarter, 1 am sorry 
1 do not know. 
So much is enquired after them out 
of Paris, and such eventful news do 
they supply the daily coterics in Paris 
with, that I felt much curiosity to ob- 
trude myself,—as the phrase is in 
London,—into Hell. The fancy at first 
produced some of the minor’s squcam- 
ishness: ere I went to be damned, 
I took a day’s leisure to make indirect 
enquiries, and choose my ground. At 
length I fixed upon a descent alone to 
No.9, in the Palais Royal, (Galerie de 
Pierre,) as a haunt in which, on ac- 
count of the indiscriminate and hum- 
ble folks report peopled it with, ¥ 
should in all probability fall in with no 
one I already knew, or might meet 
again ; and certainly not with a coun- 
tryman,—for the establishment was 
not stylish, but rather low. In both 
respects I misjudged: I passed two 
Englishmen, heartily cursing the thing, 
as I went up-stairs; there were, be- 
sides, others in the rooms; and the 
first player, whose vagaries particu- 
larly caught my attention, was a 
giddy-hearted boy from Picardy, who 
lodged at the same hotel with me. 
As 
