1826-] Letter on Affairs in, general. 6385 
dressed in them, round me. | I,shall never forget two that.talked French, to 
a.Frenchman—or the man’s countenance as he listened to it.,, "These were 
certainly of the. first quality| too... For I recollect, | that in the course,of 
the dinner there, was some. little confusion, and one jof, them, could 
get no sauce to her fish; upon which I offered my services; but without 
being quite successful, for after great exertion, I could only obtain some 
anchovy, and was obliged, to express my regret. that 1) could, find no 
<< soy;”+-when the dear creature put me out of all pain in a moment, by 
observing. that—she ‘« was much obliged to me, and thanked me ;’, and 
that, if she “could. but get the anchovy,” she did not “care a button 
about the soy.” 
_..Avhorvible accident occurred in St. James’s-street last Friday, which 
might, have been attended with the most fatal consequences. The Guards 
Club-house, which is (or rather was) next door to Mr. Crockford’s new 
Gaming-house which is being rebuilt in that street, thought that it ought 
to be rebuilt also, and suddenly tumbled down. A morning newspaper, 
describing this occurrence, observes: ‘ Providentially, none of. the 
officers of the Guards. were in the house at the time!” A dispensation 
which (ina nationl point of view) deserves to be returned thanks for, cer- 
tainly. , The accident was entirely occasioned by an “ improvement ; in 
which—to,add to the size of a drawing-room—half the thickness of the 
party wall which supported the whole house had been cut away! teil 
. Tbe musical, composers of the metropolis—like “Slippery Sam” in. 
the « Beggars’ Opera” —are beginning “ not to think one trade enough.” 
We haye had two Operas produced within the last month—“ The Houses 
of Grenada,”—and “A Trip to Wales ;’—both, with the drama, as well 
as the songs, plot, dialogue, melody, and accompaniments, prepared 
by.the. same individual, and that individual a fiddler. I rather think that 
Adam Smith upon.this point is right; and that the old system of, dividing 
the labour in, writing singing farces is best. Both the novelties in question 
were damned; and, as I hear, by a sentence perfectly unexceptionable. 
: Isee.a most singular specimen of humbug, brought forward under the 
semblance.of. an argument, by some of those persons who are opposing 
the,repeal. of the Corm Laws, to wit—that a reduction inthe price of 
agricultural. produce, must lower the wages of the agricultural labourer. 
Now those who, propose this doctrine as an “argument,” must believe, 
I think, that the people of England are mad or blind! and not able to 
see what goes.on about them. Because—can it be possible, I want to 
know, to devise any system under which the agricultural labourer shall get 
less of whatvhe raises (for his own consumption) than he gets at present ? 
» am quite jsure, in defiance of all the Political Economy in the world, 
that. where.an article is of less value in the ground where it is raised—in ' 
the same proportion, the labourer who is engaged in raising itis likely to 
consume,more. . And I think no man, for instance, who ever saw the sort 
of fire| that, is kept in a collier’s hut, at Bilston or Wednesbury—(a fire, 
six, times larger than a London artisan can afford to keep) will believe 
that that collier would keep the same fire, if all the coals which he raised 
could be.carried to a store half a mile off, and sold at eighteen-pence 
the, bushel. , Besides this very principle—that cheapness enables people 
to consume—is forced) down my- throat upon every other subject—where it 
happens to suit.the purpose of a legislator to rely upon it! | What politi- 
Gls ccreaniets al should like to know, ever yet admitted, that the taking 
every, human.course which could make stockings cheap, tended to place 
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