1829.3 Affairs in General- 95 



opinion, as well as the royal orator ; and that we shall be ready to pro- 

 duce upon occasion. Of instruments of the chamber organ family, we 

 have had enough already for use, and we certainly have no inclination 

 for any reinforcement to our street minstrelsy. If the Duke could 

 supply us with an invention for instant deafness when the first sound of 

 those vagahondi rings in our path, we should call him a benefactor. But 

 it is our cordial wish that the Glossophone should be reserved for his 

 highness's peculiar enjoyment. As to the sextant which makes observa- 

 tions without loss of time, during the night and in thick fogs, we shall 

 beUeve in its faculties when we shall see it tried, but until then must 

 feel that, as the Brusseh' Gazette was famous for saying, " the news wants 

 much confirmation." But we call on the whole blacksmith body to 

 tell us whether the Society of Arts have advanced the comforts of 

 society by a single saveall. The heading of a pin, or a new polish for 

 the eye of a needle, are mysteries to which we never expected them to 

 soar. But they have money ; they receive a great deal ; and they spend 

 it very foolishly. Why do they not institute some experiments on their 

 own account? There are a hundred processes which the ingenious 

 inventors are unable to carry on to perfection, through the mere 

 want of funds. Why do they not take up the steam carriage, and 

 try whether a few hundred pounds might not make something of it ? 

 The present inventors are evidently deterred by the expense. Let them 

 supply Gurney, or any other clever mechanist, with the means of begin- 

 ning his machinery on a better scale, and they may do an incalculable 

 public good. Is there nothing to be done with the inventions for 

 printing, or has the printing machinery yet reached perfection? Are, 

 wheel carriages perfect ? Can nothing be done to lessen the draught of 

 waggons ? Ai-e locks the only available modes of raising the water in 

 canals ? Can we build no better bridges than mountains of granite, at 

 tiie expense of a million a piece, and with yearly repairs amounting to 

 twice the tolls ? Is the steam-engine available to all its obvious 

 purposes ? Those, and a thousand other objects of the same class, might 

 and ought to occupy the attention of a body possessing the means of the 

 Society of Arts. There are many clever men among the members ; and 

 while we are satisfied that they might render very great services to 

 society, by thus contributing their advice and assistance to other artists, 

 or by instituting experiments themselves on behalf of the society, we are 

 equally satisfied that they must look upon the candle-snuffer discoveries, 

 the medal system for pencil sketches, and daubs of flowers and beetles, 

 by schoolboys and girls, as a mockery of every purpose for which such 

 an estabhshment could have been originally contemplated. 



Judicial and Divine Horse-Dealers. 

 What are the " lower orders," the tiers etat, to say for themselves, 

 when they see the highest calling each other names ? The Irish Law 

 Courts present at this moment the agreeable spectacle of a pair of belli- 

 gerent horse-dealers, they being no less than a chief justice and a bishop: 

 two personages, deriving, from their public situations, about ten thousand 

 pounds a year each, and both squabbling fiercely about the soundness of 

 a pair of coach-horses. If this had happened between two fellows in 

 Smithfield, we should call it at once by the plain name. But the dignity 

 of the parties prohibits this, of course; and neither judge nor bishop being 

 capable of the suspicion of overreaching any body, we must consider 



