General Notices. 48 1 



get themselves or their sons made dentists without loss of time. We 

 recommend the subject to our esteemed contemporary the editor of the 

 Mechanics' Magazine and Spirit of Literature. — Cond. 



Ear-rings axe an idolatrous and heathenish abomination. As the sun 

 shineth, I believe them to be unsightly relics of a barbarous age. If we 

 are to retain the customs of savages, why exempt the nose from its annular 

 appendage ? (New Monthly i Magazine, July, 1830. p. 18.) 



We have always been of this opinion. The use of cosmetics and of various 

 appendages to heighten beauty is natural, because they are in imitation of 

 nature ; but rings, like tattooing, are an outrage. We have found many ladies 

 who, though agreeing with us, continued the custom, because their ears 

 were bored. We do not think this a sufficient reason ; but, nevertheless, 

 let every lady follow her own taste. To parents, however, we would 

 address ourselves, and entreat of them not to have their children's ears 

 perforated till they attain the age of maturity. When the fashion of 

 leaving off ear-rings becomes general among the higher classes, it will soon 

 pervade those which are below them, and that money and care now bestowed 

 on these barbarous ornaments may be transferred to the teeth, to which the 

 lower and middling classes of Englishwomen are perhaps rather deficient in 

 attention. — Cond. 



W'th regard to Mr. Owen's Plan for reforming all Classes I have given some consideration to 

 his plan, read his books, and also entered largely into his doctrines. I cannot say, however, that 

 I either approve of them, or think them practicable. It appears to me that no perfect community 

 of interest can exist between different people, unless they know that their union must be; and 

 that, whether they succeed or fail, are happy or miserable, satisfied or discontented, they are 

 obliged to remain with each other ; having no wealth but what is derived from a common source, 

 and being compelled to make the best they can of their situation, without the possibility of 

 changing it but by losing a portion of their own respectability and consequence in the world. This 

 perfect and permanent union, which can only exist between husband and wife, or parent and 

 child, seems to me indispensable to the happiness of those who live constantly with each other; 

 for, without some ties of equal potency, the jarring tempers and discordant habits of human 

 beings can never be amalgamated into one perfect mass. All communities that have been hitherto 

 presented to my observation have been sources of misery. I was a short time a boarder in a 

 convent, and I was disgusted with the petty quarrels, the envies, hatreds, and jealousies that 

 corroded the bosoms of the good nuns. I have seen the same effects produced in boarding-schools 

 and boarding-houses, and have heard of them in regiments where the families of the respective 

 officers form a species of community something similar to that proposed by Mr. Owen. I also 

 think that, constituted as we are, men and women cannot live together without feeling sentiments 

 of a more violent nature than is consistent with Mr. Owen's ideas of tranquil happiness. It is an 

 old and trite remark, that male and female servants in the same house must always be either 

 quarrelling or making love, and I am sure it is the same in boarding-houses. Besides which, I 

 do not think that the human breast can share its inmost recesses with more than one : when 

 others are admitted, it is only into the outer courts ; the adytum is held sacred, and is then only 

 occupied by self. Mr. Owen, I believe, says that we are the creatures of circumstances, and that 

 we are often good or bad solely from the characters by which we are surrounded, or the events 

 which may have chanced to bring our passions into play. This, to a certain extent, I am quite 

 ready to admit. But, as a radish seed, though it may produce a finer or weaker plant according to 

 the soil in which it may be sown, can never, under any circumstances, be forced to produce a 

 cabbage, so the mind of any individual, though it may be modified and partially changed by 

 education or other causes, can never be essentially altered. Its original character must remain 

 the same ; and, when powerfully excited, it will break forth. The acquired habits, indeed, are 

 then like the clothes of a dancing dog tempted by the sight of his natural prey ; they are either 

 forgotten, or regarded as trifling impediments ; and though they cannot be quite thrown aside, 

 are at least obliged to become subservient to the stronger impulse of the moment. — J. W. Bath, 

 May 10. 1830. 



Permanent Relief to all Classes. — Whatever maybe the temporary or partial alleviation of the 

 present distress by Mr. Owen's scheme, or any other, we entirely agree with Lord King, " that 

 we can only expect to derive permanent relief from our distresses and impoverishment in our 

 condition, from the strictest economy in every branch of the public expenditure, from the 

 abolition of all exclusive privileges [all those of the nobility, and especially hereditary legislation, 

 included] and monopolies ; from an unrestricted supply of the first necessaries of life, and of the 

 materials of manufacture ; and from a real free trade ; by which the whole community, as con- 

 sumers, will be greatly benefited, the labouring classes enabled to procure a fair reward, the 

 capitalist to augment those funds by which all labour is supported, and the efficiency of British 

 industry fully permitted to produce its natural result in enriching the country, and thus to 

 restore and secure the public prosperity." (Lord King's Speech. Spectator, Feb. 7. 1830.) — The 

 two principal means which will operate towards producing these ameliorations are the spread of 

 political knowledge among all classes, and the pressure of public burdens on the middle ranks. 

 The aristocracy would submit to the pressure of public burdens, because in the army, navy, and 

 church they share the spoil; but the middling classes, who do not share in the spoil, will not 

 submit to them much longer. It is singular that Lord King's resolutions, as delivered in the 

 House of Lords in February last, and the most enlightened and liberal that ever were spoken 

 there, of which the above quotation is the concluding one, should hardly have been noticed by 

 the legislature, and only commented on by two newspapers, the Spectator and the Examiner, the 

 latter the most consistent and independent in London. — Cond. 



The Size of Fruits produced on trees, and suspended in the air, it has 



Vol. VI. — No. 27. i i 



