2 Letter on Affairs in general. [Ave 
ly suggested that he should be hanged, summarily, in a rope composed 
of her own garters—upon the spot the judge on the bench would haye 
pronounced the sentence, and the crowd in the hall would have gone 
to blows which should execute it. 
How the right was in the above dispute I don’t know—and indeed 
that was a point which nobody seemed at all inclined to take the trouble 
to consider ;—but nothing could be more certain than that—let the claim 
be what it might—against fourteen orators in petticoats, the Signor had 
not the least chance in resisting it. In the end he was adjudged, by 
universal assent, to pay the ladies who summoned him a guinea each— 
the people only regretting that it was not a great deal more. And “ Miss 
Rummins,” who had commanded the female strength on the occasion, 
led her forces off in the direction of the Haymarket, escorted by: half 
the idle young fellows in London. 
It is confidently affirmed that a gentleman deeply concerned in colonial 
property (but whose name I forbear to mention) has determined, when 
the Slave question comes forward in the next session of Parliament, to call 
upon several members who have distinguished themselves by exposing the 
cruelties and atrocities practised upon the negroes in the West-Indies, to 
explain the consistency of their attendance at the Opera during the season 
now concluding, and the season of last year. For my own part, I say 
nothing, because we all know that colonists are wicked, unfeeling 
wretches ; and that they should be allowed to go on mutilating and 
degrading human creatures, for their interest or amusement, is a propo- 
sition not to be talked about with common temper. Si ego hoc fectssem / 
said the wolf, indeed, when he saw the sheep hanging in the butcher's 
shop; but that wolf was only a wolf—and, besides, he was a wolf that 
knew nothing at all of the social contract of modern times. People have 
learned better than to suppose, now-a-days, that, because one man steals 
a horse, another may look over a hedge. Besides, there is no parity in 
the two cases; there is as much difference between them as between 
black and white. 
For a striking change of subject—“ Indus” and the “ Pole”—to con- 
clude with, the following paragraph, in a daily paper, has excited more 
interest in London than all the politics and distresses of the “ North” 
for the next six months will do :— : 
“Tn the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland a discussion took place, on 
Tuesday last, relative to Gretna-Green marriages. ‘The strongest disapprobation was 
expressed of the county magistrates, or borough justices, who allowed them to be 
attested in their presence, and a committee was appointed to inquire into the best 
means of preventing them. Should this committee succeed, fewer post-chaises-and-four 
will drive to the North with heiresses and boarding-school girls.” ; 
This is a matter too serious to be agitated in the last page of a letter; 
but it demands immediate attention, and I shall certainly discuss it in my » 
next. It is an attempt, on the part of those who have got money, to cut 
away the best chance of those who have it to get; and the whole “ inge- 
nuous youth” of the country ought to unite in opposing it. Here are 
people living poor that they may die rich, and getting themselves damned 
for the good of their families! What is to become of the daughters and 
nieces they take so much pains for? because it is useless to expect that 
a soap-boiler (of himself) can ever get rid of money ; and he would only 
do himself some mischief if he were to attempt it. Even as Jethro spoke . 
unto Moses, I should say, in pure charity, to such a man, “ Verily, the. 
\ 
thing that thou doest is too hard for thee: choose out men that may — 
bear the burthen with thee !” ; 
‘eh 
Yy 
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