We are all in a great bustle, in town here still. Foreign and domestic, fresh novelties are coming out every day. There's a new plot from Russia, for the "Chronicle," arrives regularly every morning; and a story of another Jew cutting his throat on the Stock Exchange, gives interest to the "Traveller" every afternoon. Then the bankers have been failing; and the elephant is dead; and the silk-weavers are all going to the work-house; and Mr Cobbett is going to save the nation by coming into Parliament. People are altogether so busy, that there were two men hanged at the Old-Bailey last Friday morning, and not above half the usual number of seats were let by the shopkeepers opposite, to witness the execution.

Parliamentary affairs, since the opening of the session, important, but something dull. Hume's joke the calculation how long the half-pay of ficers would live, and limiting those of sixty to two years-was rather pleasant. People said abroad, that he counted as if he were still their physician. The other idea, of easing the burthens of the country by taking fifty per cent off ministers' salaries, was laughable, though not new; but Mr Hastings Davies, on the economy of disbanding the regular troops, and raising new battalions of militia instead, was clever and soldierlike-I understand this gentleman was once in the army; it seems a pity that he did not continue.

Chiefly busy, however, in both houses, on the subject of the currency -a question of which I know nothing, in common, I suspect, with nineteen out of twenty who discuss it. I cannot discover, nor ever could-so there's no use in mincing the matter-what principles should fix the quantity of circulating medium (paper or gold) which a given country, for its advantage, ought to possess-nor, precisely, where the line should be drawn between the use of a metallic currency, and a trading upon credit. For the "national distress," however-which, by the way, is not quite "national "because Tom gains what Jack loses-and a great many people sit very snug and quiet in the midst of the tumults-the

"distress," or the greater part of it, is a far more intelligible question; and nothing strikes me as more ridiculous than to hear men blaming the measures of Government, for that ruin which is the legitimate result of their own extravagance or blind cupidity! If people will insist upon making great fortunes in less time than their fathers took to lay the foundations of small ones-those who are established in trade undertake business to fifty times the amount of their capital-and those who should still be agents, start up as principals, and speculate to vast extents without any capital at all-if people will act in this way, they are not traders-they are gamesters; and even gamesters constantly of the least creditable description !-gamesters without money-who have nothing for it but "the Basket" in case of loss. What right have I to enter upon a hazardous commercial undertaking, without some power to pay the damage, in case that undertaking fails, more than a man has to set me a hun

dred pounds upon a game at billiards, or a horse race, who has not fifty shillings in his pocket to pay me if he loses? If I take this course and win, how have I grown richer than my neighbours?-Only by taking traband risk, which would have been fraud if I had failed-occupying ground which was open-why ?-because, for the common advantage, it had been agreed that all should abstain from occupying it. But that I should win at such a game, in the long run, is impossible; because my game is known; and, the moment it appears to be successful, others fall into it as well as myself. Excess of competition then produces an excess of supply. People who will sell, may always find buyers and consumers; so that for a time the market seems to do more business than ever. By and by comes the day for payment; there is no payment, and one man's deficiency absolutely becomes an excuse for the stoppage of another. People who intended to make millions, have been consuming as if they had made millions; forced sales bring the prices of commodities below the cost of production; and this general flight at enormous

profits, ends in the cutting up, pro tempore, of profit altogether. Here is the secret of two-thirds of our 66 national distress."

Turn from our own woes, to weep for those of others-the Saints see sweetness in the selling of East India sugar, and the "Anti-slavery" people are upon us, tooth and nail. Petitions to Parliament hang up for signature at every chandler's shop door, praying that the negroes in the West Indies may have advantages such as the signers themselves, about one in six, possess; and ladies are gathered together at county meetings-to the most sinful and indecent interruption of the making of pigeon-pies-to consider of the fitness of chattering Colonial Assemblies into reason, or, with the crack of a fan, repealing you some sixteen or twenty of the Island statutes. Denman's motion, upon the trial of the insurgent slaves, you knew of ?-Fowell Buxton let off a murderous harangue upon it! besides two or three more upon petitions. Brougham's general proposition has been put off; and will not come on, I understand, in the shape originally intended. But the Jamaica question was discussed. Denman's vote of eensure of course rejected; but the main question was discussed, on the part of ministers generally, with equal temperance and liberality.

Looked over the papers printed before the House in the affair, with considerable interest, which fully show the necessity of the executions; and, moreover, a state of things generally in the islands which it will be a matter of very puzzling nicety to deal with. Nothing can be more certain than that the whole system of slave trial, as it now stands, is monstrous; and yet, looking merely to these proceedings, it seems almost impossible to devise any form of trial that could at once be safe and satisfactory.

You have a black population to deal with, which you count by thousands, in a state of ignorance and ferocity scarcely imaginable; and this is to be controlled by a handful of whites, whose comparative numbers, against the thousands, scarcely_amount to twice as many dozens. These desperate creatures, who have every interest in destroying their masters, and, in point of physical strength, are able to do it twenty times over-all their conVOL. XIX.

versation is about "killing buckra !" and "Wilberforce for ever!"—are circumstances under which Mr Buxton, whose throat lives on this side of the water, may feel no uneasiness; but which may well drive a colonist sometimes to desperation, who lies down with his family round him every night, and has no such protection against them.

Then the quantity of perception possessed by these people-no one who reads these insurrection papers can doubt it,-as compared with their disposition to do mischief, is at present very limited. We may teach themand we must do so; but we shall not teach them in a moment; and, while we hold the book in one hand, it would be more than madness to let go the sword from the other. The whole detail of these trials, as taken from the Judges' notes-upon which Mr Denman desires of Parliament to censure the verdict given-is such as would bewilder an English jury completely; they must find a verdict unsatisfactory to themselves, if they found a verdict at all. Almost all the witnesses are approvers. The whole of them are slaves. Many are declared, by their own masters, to be thieves and liars-quite unworthy of belief. In one case, a boy gives evidence to hang his own father. There is no counsel to cross-examine for the accused, as the Attorney-general observes very justly; and yet it is impossible not to see that the very commonest cross-examination by counsel would have put such witnesses (from their sheer want of intellect) out of court in a moment. As the trial stands, you see that it is insufficient. You scarcely know whether the jargon of the prisoners or the witnesses is the most monstrous. You feel that an English jury would be inclined to say-" It is impossible to put men to death upon such evidence." And yet you see clearly that the culprits intended mischief, and that it is impossible to saffer them to escape.

Men argue as though we were in Jamaica as we are in England-where, set a whole Old Bailey calendar of prisoners at liberty, and the consequence would be a flea-bite, even to the metropolis. But look at the purpose of these savages in electing each other" Kings"-" Governors"-and 3 N

Majors;" and this is no business of forging a note, or stealing a pocket handkerchief-see the consequence of their once finding that they have force to execute it? Look at their blind ferocity, and still blinder superstition! Their drink, composed of human blood, and rum, and gunpowder. Their Obe ahs, which are to make them invulnerable and invisible. The images of augury-the salvo for perjury, by holding silver in the mouth-the wizard that catches musket balls in his hand -the magic coffin which contains the white man's hair! These things arise out of a state of ignorance and degradation? Granted! Out of a condition which must be altered? Granted again! But, unless the West Indian islands, and the lives of the white in habitants of them, are to be presented -served up as an offering to the negroes, we must know that their state and their feelings are changed, before we relax those bonds which, under this system, form our only safety. And it is the very perpetual interference of such people as the Saints that compels the planter, in his own defence, far from slackening the cord which he holds, to strain it constantly the tighter. What would be the immediate result, as regarded the mere personal comfort and advantage of a regiment of soldiers, if every private in it could be persuaded to-morrow that he was a very oppressed and illtreated person? How can any man wonder that the colonists should throw missionaries into the sea, when those missionaries are the recognized and appointed agents of a party, which is striking every hour against their properties and their lives? There must be a change; but it must be gradual, and it must have regard to vested rights and interests. Every minister in the country stands pledged to safe and steady amelioration; and the less those persons whom the colonists dislike and distrust exhibit themselves in the affair, the better. But I am sick of cant and coxcombry. If Mr Buxton and his friends are in such haste, why do they not buy all the land in a single island, and missionize and philanthrophize at their own expense, instead of meddling with the properties of other people? The excellence of their colonial system being demonstrated in this way, they would not only have all the planters break

ing each other's necks to be foremost in the race of imitation, but would probably realize considerable pecuniary profit (which is almost as pleasing a consideration as helping our fellow-creatures) into the bargain.

Talking of colonial enterprises, & very odd one is meditated here-almost too extraordinary, you will say, for belief; but I can pledge myself for the existence of the project.

An Italian physician, whose speculations upon the body corporal tally singularly well with some of those which have lately been struck out as to the body politic, has discovered, that all ailments and decays to which the human frame is subject, arise only from one cause, and may be removed by one remedy. The foundation of all disease he takes to lie in a vitiation of the chyle, during the process of its concoction, occasioned by the gradual accumulation of masses of morbid matter in the stomach and duodenum; and the cure is to consist in the expulsion of this offending material by a course of purgatives, to be administered for forty days without interruption; and in a proportion, as well as a continuity, not deemed within the endurance of mortal bowels by any former practitioner.

Now, the physic thus given not only cures, but renovates. At the expiration of his forty days, the patient arises, not merely cured of his particular complaint-but absolutely ground young again-with a system wholly regenerated. But then, out of good sometimes cometh evil. Being so "cleaned out," he ails no more-or, at least, never again for twenty years; and then, in the meantime, what is to become of the doctor? It is a kind of practice, you see, that won't pay; five guineas are got, and then you get no more. To meet this difficulty, the doctor sails straight for the West Indies; in fact, I believe he is already gone, where there are always, as everybody knows, a great number of old negroes in the market-worn out, and past their work-who are to be disposed of at a cheap rate. As the masters of these people cannot manumit them without providing for their maintenance, they may be had almost for nothing, and my Italian purchases all that come, at a cost-say the market should rise upon him a little-of not more than three or four pounds per

head. Having thus then secured a property in those people, our projector makes them his patients without fear. He administers his purgatives, right and left-Congo or Eboe, Sambo or Quashee-slick on, as they would say at New York, for forty days. I don't know the precise quantity of the doses; but it is to be at the rate, I understand, of from fifty to seventy results per day, according to the capabilities, or previous repletion of the individual. And, at the conclusion of this course, each negro being absolutely a new negro-smooth as an elephant's tooth, slippery as an otter, and bright as though he had been just polished all over with that favourite African cosmetic, "Warren's Blacking"-he absolutely re-sells the jumping creature in this state to his original owner, for a price of at least not less than fifty or sixty pounds, and from that up to a hundred; being a gain upon his original investment of from three to four thousand per cent, independent of the invaluable service rendered to the causes both of science and humanity!

Courses of depletion put me in mind to tell you-Mr Hayne's gim-cracks -Miss Foote's Mr Hayne-are selling, or sold, by auction at Phillips's. What a blessing it is, in the economy of human affairs, that money should have a natural instinct to gravitate from the hands of those who don't know how to use it, into the hands of those who do. There is the "dressingcase," with the gold shaving-pot, and the penknife set with emeralds and rubies, that disencumbered the happy purchaser as we hear-of seven thousand pounds; and the carriage, by "Adams of the Haymarket," which an old woman said she supposed was "made to carry it." The general show is common-place enough. Furniture gaudy-toys trifling-and pictures good for nothing. But, among the books, there was one point that rather redeems the owner's character -a set, from the very first number, of Blackwood's Magazine. They are so much worn with constant reading, that they could hardly fetch a great deal; and as it must have been a cruel cut to the poor fellow to part with them, I hope some friend will buy them in.

And really—this instance of correct taste warms me on Hayne's behalfone hears a great deal said about "dis

sipation" and "extravagance"-I protest that I can scarcely conceive a greater instance of disinterestedness and public spirit, than a gentleman's defeasing himself of a couple of hundred thousand pounds-his whole earthly means!-in the course of five or six years. Talk of making speeches in Parliament, or at public meetingsI say, if a man is a patriot, let him show it by giving up what he has got. And really I think it rather a disgrace to the retail tradesmen of London, that they have not long since founded some specific charity for the relief of such persons as could show that they had possessed, say L.4000 a-year, and beggared themselves (under thirty) without speculating in, or attempting any useful or profitable pursuit.

I am quite sure, that a peculiar alms-house for this purpose-under some more imposing title-ought to be established in England; and that, if it were so, the example would be followed instantly in every other country of Europe.

A bit of ground might be granted -government, in these liberal times, no doubt would assist- somewhere by Westminster-looking out upon the Park; and a neat row of little places run up, in the modern style, with white-washed fronts and French windows. Mr Calcraft, perhaps, might draw the plan; and Mr Maberly would furnish a hint, or occasionally superintend. A couple of wings might be appointed for the reception of decayed footmen, who would thus have an opportunity, many of them, of waiting upon their old masters over again; and an hospital added behind for bankrupt tailors-if, in these times, any such persons should be found.

I protest I cannot imagine any prospect more delightful to humanity than the little court-yard or garden in front of such an establishment as this would present in summer,—with all the coat-horses, and wig-blocks, and curling-irons, and boot-trees, and such other appendages to spruceness, as the inmates, to their very last hours, no doubt, would retain-set out to freshen all, and take the air, and glory in the sunshine. And then, to observe the inmates themselves each the personification of some peculiar, though now bygone fashion-what a volume of reference upon costume and decoration such an institution would always

be! One brother would die as the representative of a particular shoe-tie→→→ another be eminent as the original inventor of a peculiar rise in the sleeve -a third would go on from year to year marking some nice regulation as to the length of the boot-top-a fourth exhibit to the curious of 1842 the precise arrangement of hair and whiskers, which carried all in 1821. As no foreigner, according to my plan, should be admissible, this school of virtu would be purely English; and it would be worth ten times its cost-as a new museum of study-to the hatters, friseurs, and shoemakers of future ages.

To any man who knows what la vender water is, I repeat, I can't conceive a more gratifying spectacle, than it must be to see a party of grey-headed, but not yet quite withered, old gentlemen, hovering about the doors, or peering from the windows, of such an asylum as I am speaking of a sort of "Refuge for the Dandified," as we now have it for the Destitute-dressed in lavender trowsers, pea-green coats, hats of an hundred humours, and waistcoats and cravats of more colours than ever the flower-garden boasted, let alone the rainbow-quavering remnants of opera tunes, ambling about their little inclosure in a dancing air, or holding fierce council whether the plaited or the folded shirt frill were the most becoming; and obviously fearing no visitation on earth, of all the evils flesh is heir to, beyond a tooth-ache, an empty snuff-box, or a rainy day before dinner!

Do as you like in mentioning this; but something ought to be done (in mere policy) that those who devote their lives and fort:nes to the public advantage, should not be left quite unprovided for. To prevent the abuse of the charity, no one should be admitted whose proofs of beggary were not quite distinct. I think that a certificate from half the waiters in BondStreet, that they had lent the applicant money, which they had no hope of being repaid; and from the other half that they had refused to lend him any, would be sufficient. As a light and pleasant employment, added to a provision of this kind, would not be at all objectionable, it strikes me that the "Fellows" would be excellently well calculated-and their titles would certainly recommend them-to act as

box-keepers at the theatres. They are a shocking sort of people quite unfit for such an office who " keep the places" at present. But, let the general principle be once recognized; and I engage myself to attend to the details.

Talking of box-keepers, naturally leads one to think about theatres where there has been nothing even worth abusing with us of late. Colman's turn-up with the managers of Covent-Garden, turns out, contrary to expectation, to be a hit. Nothing

worse in the world, in point of judgement, than proving a fact, when you have got the benefit of it already upon suspicion. People thought really that Colman had been priggish about "Richelieu," till Charles Kemble brought it out. And then-even purified such a five nights' abomination of nasty, stupid stuff! The licen ser may do all the wrong he likes for the next five years-this exposition has perfectly made him.

At Drury-Lane, "Count Benyowsky" is advertised-a play which is regularly damned in a different shape every ten years; and yet there are dramatic properties about it.

Mathews begins his entertainment to-morrow night. Your old favourite Terry has been doing some clever things some, very clever and getting money-at his little place in the Strand. Strand. And oh, the blessing of Cockney impudence and gullibility! three actors-Mr Sapio, and Mr Pear, man, and Mr Wallack-have been made bankrupts-"national distress!" -for forty thousand pounds!

In the literary world, not a great deal that is valuable. And complaints of a stagnation in the book trade, which seem to me to be all nonsense. I am always rather glad myself, of any call which carries trash to the trunk-makers; and first-rate books, like firstrate horses, will always fetch their price.

Read Brambletye House; I thought it a curious example of the peculiar talent of the author. You would say that the writer has taken up half-adozen of the Waverley novels-one or two volumes of Washington IrvingPepys and Evelyn's Memoirs-Defoe's History-and Wilson's City of the Plague-and pillaged and imitated away, right and left, without ever dreaming to add a fancy of his own.