1828.] Affairs in General. 517 
expedition, he was bending back towards the city, when he bethought 
himself he might, now he was so near, call upon the gentleman too, 
and have the credit of performing his commission completely. ‘I am 
Sir Peter Laurie—do you know Miss ————?” The man hesitated. 
«« Not know her, Sir !—I have just seen Mrs. B. of Welbeck-street, and 
she speaks of her in the highest possible terms.” “I dare say she 
does, Sir Peter ; Mrs. B. is the lady herself; and her mother is a very 
respectable butcher, one hundred and forty miles from London.” This, 
however, only shews a desire to be busy ; and, above all, to please a 
lord. But within this week or two, a man, five and thirty years of age, 
of sound wind and limb, was brought before Sir Peter by some parish 
officers, as chargeable to the parish, while his father was very well able 
to maintain him. The case being called on, the man stated that his 
father was a clergyman, with preferment of more than 2,000/. a year— 
that he himself had been a clerk at Everetts’, the late bankers, and dis- 
missed by them for no crime but that of winking at another’s crime— 
that Everetts’ house, though dismissing, had still occasionally employed 
him, sometimes as afootman ; and that the father had for six years totally 
abandoned him, and even refused to repay him 30/., which he himself had 
lent his father, while white-washing under the Insolvent Act, &c. On the 
face of it the story bore the broad marks of falsehood and suppression ; but 
Sir Peter, good man, took the whole for gospel, and declaimed, as he knows 
how, with great energy and eloquence upon the sad conduct of so cruel a 
parent—a clergyman too—one who undertook to teach mercy, &c. Though 
not doubting the exaggeration for a moment, we were glad to see a con- 
tradiction from the father—he, it turns out, has 400/. a year, and four 
young children, and a load of debt—the young man was himself a 
defaulter to the amount of 320/., and rescued from prosecution solely 
by the father’s undertaking to indemnify the house ; and vouchers are 
forthcoming for. money and clothes within the six years. The letter 
concludes with advising Sir Peter, another time, to hear both sides 
before he ventures to give expression to his virtuous vituperations ; and 
a very excellent bit of advice it is, and the sooner Sir Peter acts upon 
it, the better. 
__ In the late inquiries relative to the water companies, several of the 
witnesses concurred in stating that the fishing of the river was absolutely 
ruined, by the refuse of the gas-works being thrown into the Thames. 
This statement was made to prove the filthy condition of the water. 
Nothing, we believe has been done to check the continuance of this 
nuisance ; yet, the other day, we observed a sly sort of paragraph, con- 
gratulating the public upon the fish coming up the river again in abun- 
dance since the gas-works had ceased to pollute the river. This story of 
the return of the fish, we have no doubt, is a fudge ; and who should it 
come from, but the water-companies ? 
This reminds us, by the way, of Mr. Martin’s plan for bringing up the 
Colne, or a branch of it, by an aqueduct, to town. Artist like, he pro- 
poses to unite beauty and utility ; and a very handsome piece of arehi- 
tecture he is projecting. He has published his plan, and accompanied it 
by some very beautiful sketches of river scenery ; but the plan itself is 
probably too costly to pay. The Grand Junction professed to fill their 
reservoirs from the “ streams of the vale of Ruislip.’—How soft, and 
Jimpid, and refreshing felt the cold and pure liquid upon our lips—— 
