1829.J Affairs in General. j675 



The Omnibus system is progressing, as Jonathan says ; and when 

 ■we consider that the Omnibus carries its freight of twenty solid 

 citizens at the rate of ten miles an hour, we may fairly apply the 

 word. We hope that some active legislator in the coming session will 

 redeem the character of Parliament by showing that it is doing some- 

 thing, and that the mode of redemption will be by allowing us to have 

 an Omnibus in every street. We should be glad of this, if it were only 

 for the sake of the shivering poor devils of Hackney coachmen whom we 

 see frozen on their boxes in this merciless weather. If they were all 

 turned into the snugly great-coated and well fed fellows that pilot the 

 Omnibus, they and we would be equally comforted. 



But discontent among the whips is, at pi'esent, the popular sentiment. 

 Witness the following Sapphics by a driving son of Apollo, Phaetoji 

 being the original neck-and-neck charioteer. 



COACHMAN. 



Tell ine^ Jem, now what'U be thy calling? 



Smashed is my coach — my occupation gone, too ! 



No more shalt thou vociferate in loud tones — ' 



" Plenty o' room. Sir !" 

 No more shall I, in toggery of Witney, 

 Knowingly cock my castor all o' one side : 

 No more the girls shall titter, " A\'hat a handsome 



Paddinffton coachman !" 



■o^ 



CAD. 



Master, I'm blow'd if ever body see'd such 

 Wehiclcs as them Honmibuses, vot have 

 Come on the road, and obligated us to 



Go to the vorkhouse. 

 Shillibeer, damn iiim ! 'nopolizes all the 

 Road, for he claps the rum 'uns in alongside 

 Of the real gemmen, twenty on 'em, just like 



Hens in a hencoop. 



COACHMAN. 



No bobs nor tanners can I give thee now, Jem ; 

 Quarter-day's come! I see a bailiff crossing — 

 Slip in with me, although I'm done, I'll stand some 



Max at the Stingo. — Z^Age. 



Fawcett has been desperately worried to make him turn bountiful iu 

 his old age; but the " old veteran," as that bustling and pleasant person- 

 age, Robins, the Auctioneer, calls every one above thirty, is iron and 

 brass to the hint, and buttons up his pocket with ten times tlie ferocity 

 at every new call upon his feelings. The attack, however, goes on, and 

 we recognize the energy of the Auctioneer's pen in the following para- 

 graph, which has appeared in the papers, and which ought to shake the 

 " old veteran" out of Iiis prudence. 



" We very reluctantly give credit to the report that a comic actor, at 

 Covent-Garden Theatre, an old favourite of the public, who, by means of 

 a large salary, coupled with a life of prudence, has become an indc~ 

 pendent genlleman, is the only individiuil connected with that establish- 

 ment who has positively refused to unite with his fellow-labourers in 

 their endeavours to keep afloat the theatrical vessel, by depositing with 

 the treasurer a certain portion of their weekly incomes, to be converted 



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