_1826.] Letter on Affairs in general. 527 
of equalling them in their own? It is to new markets—to an increase 
on that which we gain—and to a decrease of that which we have to 
pay—and to, such a course alone, that this country can look for relief. 
The Debt arose out, of the war. The property which composes it 
was three-fourths created by the war. And it may be fair that it should 
contribute its. proportion,—give up something in common. with other 
classes of possession—to meet the charges of that struggle to which it 
owes (at least) its security. But to touch one shilling of that debt, 
without at the same time paring down every other description of charge 
upon the. country; without cutting down the expenses of the govern- 
ment ;—deferring the luxuries of palaces built, and picture collections 
purchased ;—reducing the rent charge of the landlords, and sweeping 
away the place charge which they and their dependents hold, as a sort of 
tit-bit out of the common plunder—to touch the Debt, without first, or 
at the same moment, making all these sacrifices, would be an act of the 
most nefarious injustice. It is an act which all the presumption of the 
land-owners—even of the House of Lords itself, 1 think,—will scarcely 
give them courage to attempt ; and it is one which all their power,— 
aided even by the prayers of the bench of Bishops,—will not enable them 
to. accomplish. 
Letters from France inform us that a typographical error in one of 
their leading journals lately threw all Paris into consternation for twelve 
. hours, The statement intended to be made was a very harmless one— 
to wit—‘ Hier, M. Villele (the minister), s’est rendu au Bois de Bou- 
logne”—1.e. yesterday, M. Villele walked or rode to the Bois de Bou- 
logne. Instead of which, by an unlucky misprint, the line given ran 
thus—“ Hier, M, Villele s'est. pendu au Bois de Boulogne’—yesterday 
M.Villele hung himself in the Bois de Boulogne. This is a very terrible 
“error of the press.” I have often thought the “ Errata,” though 
people don’t read it, the most amusing page in a whole book; especially 
where the author happens to have written a most atrocious MS., and the 
corrections run, for “horse” read “coal-scuttle,” &c. &c. But the oddest 
excuse that I have seen for a guid pro quo of this description, occurs ‘in 
the police reports of the Grindells’ mad case, in the papers of this morn- 
ing. . The reporter sets right an error of the preceding day, in which he 
has called a person “ Mr. Darnsford,” whose name was “ Mr. Stinton';” 
and says that his mistake arose from the circumstance of “ Mrs. Grin- 
dell’s speaking with a very peculiar accent.” It must certainly have been 
very ‘‘ peculiar accent” indeed ! 
The “ Last Lottery” was actually, and finally, drawn on the 19th 
instant. And, contrary to all received principle and speculation—the 
profound theory that lotteries always thrive best in seasons of calamity, 
and the ordinary (but not unnatural) supposition, that people (as many 
as annually speculate in the lottery) would desire to have one chance in 
a scheme which was sure to be the last—in defiance of all philosophy, 
the tickets, went off ill, Up to the very night before the drawing, all 
the various. devices to attract were, I think, super-usually active. And I 
was absolutely taken in myself, passing through the Strand, by a large 
posting-bill, headed “ Valuable offices to let, &c. ;” which, in reality, only 
announced, that ‘all the lottery offices” would be to let after the 19th 
of October; as the “last lottery ever to be drawn in England expired 
on that day !” until when “ tickets and shares, warranted undrawn, were 
selling at Hazard’s, Goodluck’s,” &c. &c. 
