312 Notes of the Month on QSept. 



of soap and water. In a year. It is now raging in the aboriginal soil of 

 the j)Uca pohnica, and if it wanders over its border, it will be the be- 

 quest of the pantaloons of some dirty Jew, some industrious old clothes- 

 man, carrying his pack to the German fairs. There has been no symptom 

 of the disease in either Austria or Prussia Proper. Their Polish pro- 

 vinces have it, and Avill have more of it ; and we should ahnost rejoice in 

 the application even of this tremendous scourge, if it could compel the 

 two powers to give up possessions gained by acts of horrid iniquity, and 

 incapable of being held without a crime. 



The only facts known about the European cholera, are that it is not 

 impeded by winter, further than intercourse is impeded ; that it may be 

 totally kept off from individuals by avoiding contact with the diseased j 

 that all the remedies, so much boasted in the newspapers, are not worth 

 a straw, that three-fourths of the pamphlets are not worth the paper 

 they are printed on, and that our English physicians know nothing 

 about the matter. The true remedies are clean living, clean clothes, 

 temperance, and an abjuration of reading a syllable of all that has been 

 written on the subject. Perhaps we should propose a " legislative 

 enactment," ordering that Holywell-street, Strand, should be bricked 

 up at one end, and fired at the other — so that the objectionable neigh- 

 bourhood might be burned to the ground as speedily as possible. A 

 regular decimation of Duke's-place and the IMinories would be useful, 

 and an " ordinance" that the Jews should be shaved periodically by 

 the police. A general washing would be no bad expedient for St. 

 Giles's ; and the Thames, at high water, might be let in once a week, 

 in the purlieus of Paddington. But the reform fills the brains of our 

 legislature too much at the present time, and we must wait for the 

 extinction of the bill before we can ablute the Irish or the Israelites. — 

 " It was stated in the House of Commons, the other night, that six 

 IMembers had already delivered one hundred and fifty speeches on the 

 subject. It was also stated that one ISIember had repeated the self 

 same speech fourteen times. An apt illustration of the vox et preterca 

 nihil. Pity that such eloquence should have been thrown away." 



The glories of the London Bridge feast still continue to flourish in 

 description, and astonish the mayors and corporations of the remoter 

 portions of the British Empire. One happy misprint is understood to 

 have produced some thousands of letters from inquiring correspondents. 

 A newspaper had put in the word turtles for tartlets, and the account 

 that " three hundred turtles" figured on the tables, had excited a storm 

 of envy, hatred, and various other uncharitableness among the corpo- 

 rate feeders of the provinces, which may be the ultimate cause of a 

 rebellion. 



Still there are some little anomalies in the history; ex.gr. we are told, 

 — " The cutlery supplied for the late banquet, by Messrs. Champion 

 and Sons, was 4,608 ivory-handled knives, 2,472 ditto forks, 1,764 ditto 

 dessert knives, "JGH ditto forks, 123 ditto carving knives, 123 ditto forks 

 —total, 9,858. The cutlery provided for the dinner at Guildhall, wliich 

 of course was to consist of many removes, was 12,998 pieces." 



Now this we cannot quite comprehend. The number of knives seem 

 to us about twice the number of forks. It is true the knife is the 

 essential, and the place of the fork may be supplied by the fingers, if 

 one has prepared for the operation by sufficient practice But in our 



