190 Letter on Affairs in general. [Aue. 
may be more certain (when they are open) to be at Jdeiswre to go into 
them. Such a scheme would suit the shopkeepers and trading people 
particularly! It is quite a wonder that it should not have been hit 
upon before. 
There would be one advantage however, certainly, gained by having 
plays represented in a morning, and that is, that the acters who performed 
in them would have a better chance of being sober at that time than they 
have in the afternoon. Here has been that very senseless person Mr. 
Ejliston, assaulting Mr. Poole, the farce-writer, again, at Vauxhall! and 
the penny “ Theatrical Registers” are rejoicing in large letters over the 
event. Mr. Elliston will be as well-known at Bow-street, in a little while 
longer, as “ Lady Barrymore.’ But it is lamentable to see a man who 
once possessed high talents, and enjoyed the favour of the town, dis- 
gracing his decline of life by vulgar intemperance and excess. 
The same paper (the Examiner) that wants to go to the play in a 
morning, gives the following important piece of chronological informa- 
tion :—‘ Next Wednesday will be the anniversary of the execution of 
Elizabeth Fenning, who was executed on July the 26th 1815, at the Old 
Bailey, under circumstances of the greatest doubt as to her guilt, and 
whose unmerited sufferings excited universal sympathy.” There must 
be something more meant in this paragraph than meets the eye. The 
writer is canvassing very likely for the next vacant editorship of “the 
Newgate Calendar. 
The new tunnel under the Thames, from Rotherhithe to Deptford, is 
proceeding with every prospect of success. The miners have already 
sunk a shaft of more than seventy feet in depth, and penetrated near 
sixty feet farther immediately under the bed of the river. The under- 
takers are in great spirits, and may certainly say with Richmond, 
“ Thus far, into the bowels of the land 
Have we marched on without impediment !”” 
Nothing striking in the way of geological curiosity has yet been dis- 
covered ; the diggers go on working constantly through one soil—a solid 
blue clay. 
Something is said of Parliament’s being assembled for a short session, 
before Christmas, in consequence of the distress in the manufacturing 
counties. Unless a grant of money were to be voted—which will be 
avoided if possible—I don’t see what would be gained by such a mea- 
sure. The foreign corn, however, must come in to a certainty; and, 
for the comfort of Mr. Jacob’s report, wheat can be brought here—fit 
for the London market—from Hamburgh, under six and twenty shil- 
lings a quarter :—which is something below Mr. J—’s six, or eight and 
forty! Purchases have actually been made of wheat capable of being 
ground into London flour, shipped clear on board, at the mouth of the 
Elbe, under twenty shillings a quarter. 
There is one beautiful little bit, however, in Mr. Jacob’s report—quite 
a tid bit—the bit about the “ Barons.” The whole country has been 
quite infested with ‘ Counts,” and_“ Barons,” and such nobility, since 
the peace! They pour in from all quarters—the rush of dignity has been 
quite overpowering. Then be it known, that, to insense the English 
public as to the real importance of these illustrious persons in the places 
where they come from, Mr. Jacob has translated the Emperor of Russia’s 
late decree—which ordains, that (in Poland) no person shall assume the 
title of «‘ Baron,” unless his income be ‘“ £20 a-year ;” of “ Count,” un- 
