KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



135 



that on the 1st of March additional facilities will 

 be afforded by the Post Office in the transmission 

 of books and works of art. Our readers are aware 

 that at present only one volume is allowed to be 

 sent in a single packet, and that no writing is 

 permitted, except on a single page of the book. 

 Both these restrictions are to be abolished ; and, 

 from the day mentioned, any number of separate 

 publications may be included in the same packet, 

 and they may contain any amount of writing 

 (provided, of course, that it be out of the nature 

 of a letter); and, in fact, with this latter excep- 

 tion, a person will be allowed to send by the 

 book-post any quantity of paper, whether printed, 

 written upon, or plain, together with all legiti- 

 mate binding, mounting, or carving; including 

 also, rollers in the case of prints, and, in short, 

 whatever is necessary for the safe transmission 

 of literary or artistic matter." — Athenccum. 



I will only add to this, — May you go on and 

 prosper! You have begun well; continued 

 weekly to "improve;" and every successive 

 number entitles you to still higher praise. You 

 have reason to feel proud of your literary off- 

 spring ; and may you live to enjoy an abundant 

 harvest from your labors! 



Yours, &c, 

 A Lover of Fair Play. 



THE " AFFECTATION " OF SENSIBILITY. 



We were much pleased the other day, 

 whilst turning carelessly over a volume 

 penned by Lady Hester Stanhope, to hear 

 her Ladyship thus pulverise certain of our 

 community. There is a wholesomeness in 

 her remarks, that charms us. We rejoice to 

 find the sentiment so naively given utter- 

 ance to. Lady Hester's anathemas against 

 her clique, are as hearty as they are honest. 

 Lea void: — 



" Oh ! how I do detest," says her Ladyship, 

 " your sentimental people who pretend to be full 

 of feeling! — who will cry over a worm, and yet 

 treat real misfortune with neglect. There is 

 your fine lady that I have seen in a dining-room, 

 and when by accident an earwig has come out of 

 a peach, after having been half-killed in opening 

 it, she would exclaim, ' Oh, poor thing ! you 

 have broken its back — do spare it — I can't bear 

 to see even an insect suffer . Oh ! there, my lord, 

 how you hurt it : stop, let me open the window 

 and put it out.' And then the husband drawls 

 out, ' My wife is quite remarkable for her sensi- 

 bility ; I married her purely for that.' And then 

 the wife cries, ' Oh ! now, my lord, you are too 

 good to eay that : if I had not had a grain of 

 feeling / should have learnt it from you.' 1 And so 

 they go on, praising each other, and perhaps, 

 the next morning, when she is getting into her 

 carriage, a poor woman, with a child at her 

 breast, and so starved that she has not a 

 drop of milk, begs charity of her, and she draws 

 up the glass, and tells the footman, another time, 

 not to let those disgusting people stand at the 

 door." 



Well done, Lady Hester Stanhope, well 

 done ! ! A few such champions associated 



with our " own " Journal, would work a 

 wholesome revolution throughout the empire. 

 Well-aimed satire pierces through the very 

 heart of humanity. — if indeed it have not on 

 a coat of mail ! 



BEAUTIFUL AND UGLY OYSTERS. 



In the last No. of the Westminster Review, 

 we find various curious particulars of that most 

 slippery fellow, the oyster, — who glides down 

 your throat before you know where he is, and 

 leaves you more hungry than ever, after you 

 have swallowed some three or four dozen of his 

 tribe. Expensive fellow, that oyster, — very ! 



During the season of 1848-49, 130,000 bushels 

 of oysters were sold in the metropolis alone. 

 A million and-a-half are consumed each season 

 in Edinburgh, being at the rate of more than 7,300 

 a-day, and more than sixty millions are taken 

 annually from the French channel banks alone. 

 Each batch of oysters intended for the French 

 capital is subjected to a preliminary exercise in 

 keeping the shell closed at other hours than when 

 the tide is out, until at length they learn by ex- 

 perience that it is necessary to do so whenever they 

 are uncovered by sea- water. Thus, they are en- 

 abled to enter the metropolis of France as polished 

 oysters ought to do, not gaping like astounded 

 rustics. A London oysterman can tell the ages 

 of his flock to a nicety; they are in perfection 

 from five to seven years old. An oyster bears 

 its years upon its back, so that its age is not to 

 be learned by looking at its beard : the succes- 

 sive layers observable upon the shell indicate its 

 growth, as each indicates one year, so that, by 

 counting them, we can tell at a glance the year 

 when the creature came into the world. If an 

 oyster be a handsome, well-shaped Adonis, he is 

 introduced to the palaces of the rich and noble, 

 like a wit, to give additional relish to their feasts. 

 If a sturdy, thick-backed, strong-tasted indi- 

 vidual, fate consigns him to the capacious tub of 

 the street-fishmonger, from whence, dosed with 

 black pepper and pungent vinegar, embalmed 

 partly after the fashion of an Egyptian king, he 

 is transferred to the hungry stomach of a coster- 

 monger, or becomes the luxurious repast of a 

 successful pickpocket. 



" Friendship" of the World.— -As we 

 grow older, we begin to grow wiser. It is no 

 more than right we should do so. Our Journal 

 was established to make men " think," and we 

 lose no opportunity of assisting in the matter. 

 In presenting our readers with the following 

 excellent remarks of Dr. Kitto, all we say is — 

 let them be read twice, and never forgotten. 

 " There has rarely yet been a man fallen," says 

 Dr. Kitto, " from prosperity into trouble, who 

 has not found many friends, like those of Job, 

 ready to lay all the blame of his misfortunes upon 

 himself, and to trace his ruin to his misconduct, 

 which now becomes apparent, or which is as- 

 sumed even if no trace of it can be found. Oh, 

 what a world were this, if ?nan , s happiness rested 

 upon the judgment of his fellows, or if the 

 troubled spirit had no appeal from man's judg- 

 ment to One who judgeth righteously! " 



