1826.} Letter on Affairs in general. 633 
iyi Hatinilt a3 Fist u ; 7 (Oo h\faad.* 
sires and jostle, and stop up the way, and keep. sober people from 
sleeping in their dwellings, or approaching their own doors, from twelve 
o'clock at night to sunrise in the morning! if we are to talk, 
I say again, on the subject of “ nuisances”—to put the matter at once 
Upon a fair and conclusive footing—what an absolute nuisance is not almost 
every man in the world, with his tastes, and pursuits, and absurdities, 
to his fellow—only that he cannot be “ abated.” 
' The « morality,” indeed, of the “ Royal Gardens” is a ticklish affair 
to touch upon. But I protest—what other people may have found in 
the “ Dark-walk” I-cannot say—but the most heinous sin I ever discovered 
about it, is that it is commonly rather more than ankle-deep in water. 
No doubt a great many filthy people do go to “ Vauxhall,”—and so 
they do to every other evening show-place in England. (The rascals! 
to come, and pay their money!) But the proprietor could not hinder 
such people from coming, if he would; and I don’t see why he should 
not be allowed the same license, in this way, which is permitted to 
other speculators in the same trade. 
In fact altogether, I think such legislation rather vexatious. Let the 
M.P. light his lamps, and fire his squibs, at his own time and in his own 
way. As for the “riot,” employ a score or two more constables: and 
as ‘soon as the cider gets into any linen-draper’s head, let him be plucked 
forth and encaged. We do not build “ Stocks” for mockery, nor are 
our whipping-posts shrunk up and withered. And for the “ morality,” 
that ‘settles itself. When it appears that the ‘* Royal Gardens” are not 
moral, people that are moral can stay away from them.—And I don’t mean 
to'say that either their morality, or their taste, would be much impeached, 
if they Were to adopt that alternative at once, and altogether. 
\ A‘lady who signs herself « Polly Hopkins "—I think—a « correspon- 
dent” in the Morning Herald newspaper—has written along letter to Mr. 
Peel, the Secretary for the Home Department, on the subject of “ seduc- 
tion:” I think it would be an entertaining business to open, every morning 
for a week, all the domestic correspondence which is sent to a minister of 
state!’ ‘The documents which the writers print—to “ shame” him into 
notice are odd enough, and those personally transmitted must be very 
particularly curious specimens indeed, But the grounds on which Miss 
Hopkins calls for legislatorial interference—(* transporting” people who 
“seduce,” &c.)—on behalf of the ladies, I don’t well understand : 
because, for all the mischief that she complains of, the help—as she 
must know—lies in her own hands. Miss H. writes under feelings of 
immediate irritation, or she would see—to use a vulgar though vigorous 
illustration—that she ‘* puts the saddle upon the wrong horse.” —* It is 
not we’—as Falstaff retorts upon the Chief Justice—* that misled the 
rn Polly; but it is the youthful Polly that has misled us!” I 
ect the story of “the Italian Flower Girl,” that went the round 
of the newspapers some months ago— now quoted in the ‘* Examiner,” 
ina’ letter on the same subject. It,was a good story ; but it had one 
fault—not one word of it was true. 
‘elt .is the business of history to mark the progress no less of public 
men than of public measures :—Mr. John Wilks, the representative of 
mi aaeencent borough of Sudbury, has been taken up for forgery ; but 
-,two days’ confinement in the Poultry Compter, is liberated upon 
bail. It.is contended by the lawyers that the forgery is only a “ tech- 
nical” forgery; and the honourable members’ friends say confidently that 
- M.M. New Series—Vou.11. No. 12. 4 M 
