200 
public attention to so important asubject 
as the adequate and regular supply of fish 
for the London market, at a fair mode- 
rate price to the consumer, The plan 
suggested by Dr. M‘Culloch seems well 
adapted to facilitate the measure; but, 
when the extent of the metropolis is 
considered, it: would require such ponds 
or reservoirs to be ona very large scale: 
or, what would, perhaps, be still prefer- 
able, to have several such stations in 
the river Thames. And, certainly, not 
one of the least important considera- 
tions attached to such a design would 
be—that of providing a sure market 
(at a stipulated price) for the labour of 
the very valuable class of men who are 
now almost compelled to find employ- 
ment in defrauding the revenue! 
i PusLicoLa. 
—[=_>—. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
OU had the kindness to announce, 
a few months since, in your excel- 
lent miscellany, that Mr. Beedell, of 
this town, was executing a beautiful 
specimen of penmanship. This admira- 
ble piece of skill and ingenuity is now 
finished, and the most elaborate des- 
cription would fail in doing justice to 
the merits of it. This inimitable piece 
is surrounded by an elegant border, of 
six weeks’ labour, and contains, in a 
beautiful and tasteful arrangement, the 
following figures, &c. Common hare, 
varying hare, of the northern countries 
of Europe, pine martin, otter, wild 
cat; harrier (hunting piece); three 
foreign birds on a tree, a correct repre- 
sentation of Ottery St. Mary’s Church, 
surrounded by a beautiful border ; ruins 
of a castle encompassed by a very neat 
and pretty border. 
At the bottom of the piece Mr. Bee- 
dell has .written another specimen of 
his ‘minute penmanship. He has ele- 
gantly written, in the circumference of a 
common sized pea, the Lord’s Prayer, 
Belief, and two verses of the third 
Psalm; the whole is written with the 
naked eye, and without the least abbre- 
viation. Notso many words, in a similar 
compass, have ever been written by any 
one but this gentleman ; it is certainly 
the most rare species of micrography 
that England (and I think I may truly 
say the world) can produce. It is ab- 
solutely so extraordinary as to excite 
astonishment, and which, but for ocu- 
lar evidence, would defy credibility. 
This, Sir, is’ certainly a grand dis- 
Microscopic Penmanship. 
[Ot T, 
play of the power of the human 
eye.* 
If, Sir, you would be so kind as to 
notice the above performance, and the 
just econimmus I have made on it, in’ 
your miscellany for the next month, I 
shall feel extremely obliged.—I am, Sir, 
Ottery St. Mary. A Frienp to Gents, 
—— . 7 j 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: ; reds 
WAS last week called upon to fur- 
nish my contribution towards the de, 
cent burial of a mechanic, who had died 
in the most indigent circumstances ; so 
much so, that he had long become o 
burden to the parish where he had 
passed the principal portion of his life. 
Yet this man, who died upon the bare 
boards in a wretched hovel in Ber- 
mondsey, had been for thirty years in 
the habit of earning from £2. to £3. per 
week, with only himself and his wife to 
maintain out of these respectable earn- 
ings. To what evil source are we to 
attribute it, that such a man should die 
destitute of every solace for his closing 
hour? The answer is but too easy— 
a love of the public-house, and of those 
debasing recreations which are connect- 
ed with inebriation. The moment the 
clerk of the manufactory had paid him 
his wages, he made all speed to one of 
those places of resort, and there he sat 
till the legislative regulation compelled 
the landlord to eject him. Sunday was 
generally spent in a state of stupor in 
bed, in swallowing such doses of fers 
mented liquor as his poor slave of a 
wife obediently brought him. The con- 
sequences to his employers, and the 
work they committed to him and such 
as him, may easily be conceived, and 
may be set down among those which have 
contributed to the general substitution 
of machinery, in lieu of the faulty and 
uncertain services of manual operators. 
The consequence is, that seven-eighths 
of the journeymen in the particular 
branch of business I allude to, have 
been for years. thrown out of every 
chance of earning a livelihood. Res 
commending this example and these 
observations to the attention of opera- 
tive mechanics in general.—Your’s, &c: 
Blue-Anchor Road. Evnort Smita. 
* Onr correspondent adds a list of 
several other sentences (familiar toasts and 
sentiments) which this phenomenon of 
microscopic penmanship has also executed 
“* ornamentally ;’? and informs us that, as 
far as intention goes, they are “the last 
written words of Mr. Beedell.”"—Epir. 
SoLuTron 
