20 THE OYSTEE. 



dignity about it. The only time when I, who have 

 seen most people, from Tom Thumb to the Benicia Boy, 

 from Madame Doche to the Empress Eugenie, and from 

 manly, sea-going Prince Alfi'ed to the Staleybridge 

 Infant and Jemmy Shaw's " Spider" — the only time, I 

 say, that I have ever seen a nobleman look like a noble- 

 man, was when a noble duke, a peer not only of 

 England and Scotland, but of la helle France also, owned 

 that he could do two things better than most people, 

 and that was, open oysters and polish his own boots. 

 I, like Othello, when he upbraided lago for the last 

 time, ''looked down to his feet," but found that it 

 was no fable. 



So important is our illustrious bivalve as an article 

 of trade, that it is protected by law. It is said that the 

 only two things that George the Fourth ever did — the 

 great Georgius, whom Mr. Thackeray envies and satirises 

 — were to invent a shoe-buckle and an exquisite hair-dye.,^ 

 The brains of the black Brunswicker could do no more. 

 But there is one act also — an Act of Parliament"^' — which 

 was passed in his reign, for which he is to be thanked. 

 The man who was at once the Lucullus and Apicius of 

 his times must have had some hand in the framing of 

 that Act. 



* See page 25. 



