432 Notes of the Month on [Oct. 



of consideration, comes to its close next year. In other days a twelve 

 months' notice might have been thought rather short for the winding-up 

 of such a concern. But as we live in an age of " doing-everythingness- 

 at-once," as the celebrated Mr. Hume says, probably the business may 

 be settled in a committee-room, some time in the Easter holidays, over a 

 week's consumption of coifee. Jeremy Bentham, too, will be by that 

 time, we presume, in the House, and every one must acknowledge how 

 much his counsels may tend to abbreviate the question. 



The papers are still keeping up a fire upon Dean Ireland and his 

 people : — " The Weslminster Abbey Show. — The Dean and Chapter, in 

 reply to an order of the House of Commons for a return of their receipts 

 arising from the exhibition of the monuments, say — ' This grant was 

 made to the Chapter in 1597, on condition that, receiving the benefits of 

 the exhibition of the monuments, they should keep the same monuments 

 always clean, &c.' The following are the receipts of five years : — 1821, 

 648/. 11*. llcZ.— 1822, 2,317/. 9* 3f/.— 1823, 1,664/. 13*. &rf.— 1824, 

 1,529/. 0*. 5rf.— 1825, 1,585/. 0*. 5d." 



It is impossible to doubt that the Dean, a man of honesty, though noto- 

 riously one of the most crabbed of the sons of the church, is able to 

 satisfy his conscience as to the distribution of those monies ; yet we are 

 not quite so well able to satisfy ours. What ! an average £1,700 a year 

 for brushing away spiders, or even for washing the faces of the old 

 effigies ! They might be gilt by contract for half the money. IMops and 

 brooms must bear a formidable price about Westminster. But the truth 

 is, that the whole charge ought to be abolished. Old as it is, it is 

 beggai-ly. It may make a few pounds for each of the Chapter, but it 

 makes more sneers than are worth the money. The whole paltry traffic 

 offends people ; it unquestionably gives a handle to scofflers, it makes the 

 church unpopular, and if the Dean could but see the countenance with 

 Avhich this miserable tax is paid, or hear the reflections which accom- 

 pany the parting shillings, he would dovibt whether Vespasian's famous 

 maxim might not be carried too far. This pitiful tax must be abolished, 

 mops and brooms must not be purchased at so heavy a charge, water 

 and brushes must be procured at some market where they will not cost 

 £1,700 a year ; and the public, whose fathers paid for the cathedral, and 

 who themselves have paid for the monuments, must be admitted to a 

 view of their own property, and have a sight of the great men of 

 England, in their monuments, without being perpetually reminded of 

 the little ones. 



Poor Taglioni ! The life of a general is precarious ; so felt Diebitch. 

 The life of an orator is a passing shew ; so felt Orator Hawkins, the 

 other night, when he broke down so piteously, in the very centre of his 

 most prepared pathos. But what are they all to the perils of a danseuse ! 

 Poor Taglioni, unblemished as she was, has made a step which the 

 Parisians say, is irrecoverable, and the occurrence of an unfortunate 

 chink in one of the boards of the King's Theatre, has sent this bound- 

 ing and elegant creature to obscurity for life. The sprain of her ancle 

 has again disabled her, and she retires, almost hopeless of returning to 

 the scene where opulence and applause attended every saltation. Alfred 

 Chalon has made his sketches of this most renowned of dancers, just in 

 time. They are clever, as what is not that comes from his dexterous pencil .'' 



