The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-23 00:00:00

The Quarterly Review.—The opening article in
this number, under the title of " The London
Commissariat," affords a vast quantity of amusing
and instructive matter on the subject of the
"victualling" of •ur huge metropolis. A concise,
yet ample, account is given of how and whence the
chief supplies are derived, and much of the infor-
mation is somewhat astonishing to those who are
not prone to dive into the leviathan statistics of
"eating and drinking." After giving a vivid
description of Billingsgate and its traffic, the article
informs us that—
"A. few years ago all the oysters were brought by
water to Billingsgate ; but a short time since a great na-
tural bed, called the Mid Channel Bed, which stretches
for forty miles between the ports of Shoreham and
Havre, was discovered, and, the dredging•ground being
free to all comers, a vast field of wealth has been opened
to fishermen, especially as from the proximity of the
Brighton and South Coast Railway the produce can be
sent immediately to town, and escape the dues of metage
and other tolls to which all fish landed at the market is
liable. Seaborne oysters are thus placed at a great dis-
advantage, and the different companies owning them
justly complain at a city exaction whichidteaskehs a large
sum annually out of their pockets, bes
Mt charge
for porterage it entails upon the purchasers. r. ston,
is,without doubt, the largest oyster-fisher in the
who
bushelsworld , sent
from uh s lastfishe
fishery
year h
ebetween
Rock,
and a eSheerness,
and paid 8001. for metage. The whole
.trade paid no
m lessen thaneehl 3,oool.,ddoastheir own
waeuldl themselves
which enforces idleness upon the smack people.'
Relative to herring fishing we learn that "up-
sfeolry es, services
were iwt
ethfo trha,
"up-
wards of three hundred square miles of net are cast.
by the fishermen of the Port of Yarmouth alone,
every fine night of the season," and that above a
billion of herrings are annually sent into the mar-
ket. The revellers in lobster salad—that popular
accompaniment to the equally popular chorus of
"We wont go home till morning"—may like to
know where all the lobsters come from :
" The lovers of this most delicious of the erns-
tacem tribe will probably be astonished to learn
that they are mainly broughtt rom Norway. France
and the Channel Islands, Orkney and Shetland,
do, it is true, contribute a few to the metropolis
tan market, but fully two-thirds are reluctantly,
and with much pinching and twisting, dragged out
of the thousand rock-bound inlets which indent the
Norwegian coast. They are conveyed alive in a screw-
steamer, and by smacks in baskets, sometimes to the
extent of 20,000 of a night, to Great Grimsby, and are
thence forwarded to town by the Great Northern Railway
—another ten thousand arriving perhaps from points on
onr own and the French coast. The fighting, twisting,
blue-black masses are taken as soon as purchased to
what are termed the boiling-houses,' of which there
are four, situate in Duck and Love-lanes, close to the
market, and here, for a trifling sum per score, they
change their dark for scarlet uniforms. They are
plunged into the boiling cauldron,, basket and all, and
in twenty minutes they are done.

"The lobster trade is mostly in the bands of one
salesman, Mr. Saunders, of Thames-street, who often
hae upwards of 15,000 consigned to him of a morning,
and who causes no less than 15,0001. a-year to flow into
the fishy palms of Norwegians for this single article of
commerce. '
Only think of the mountains of meat the Lon-
doners gnaw through, when we hear of about five
hundred thousand beasts, more than two millions
of sheep; with calves and pigs to match, being
annually devoured, without including country-
killed meat at Farringdon and Whitechapel mar-
kets. The sterling value of this flesh amounts to
fourteen millions. Then we receive six hundred
thousand rabbits from Ostend, not mentioning the
produce of our own warrens. Two millions of
fowls come from Surrey and Sussex ; and the
aggregate quantity- of poultry and game consumed
is something startling to those ladies who find the
" wing of a chicken" rather too much for them—.
in public.
The account of Covent Garden market and its
supplies is excellently rendered. Speaking of Cu-
cumbers, it is related by Mr. Cuthill that—
" He has seen as many as fourteen acres under hand
glasses in a single domain, and has known 200,000
gherkins cut in a morning for the pickle merchants.
Strangely enough they have refused to grow well around
London ever since the outbreak of the potato disease." •
As regards rhubarb—
" Rhubarb is almost wholly furnished by the London
market gardeners. It was first introduced by Mr. Miatt
forty years ago, who sent his two sons to the Borough
market with five bunches, of which they only sold three.
From"this time he continued its cultivation, notwith-
standing the sneers at what were called his ' physic
pies.' As he predicted, it soon became a favourite, and
now hundreds of tons weight are sold in Covent Garden
in the course of the year."
Coming down to vulgar beer, perhaps some of
our readers may be enlightened by the following
anecdote touching our English nectar.
" On countless sign-boards of the metropolis this last
is advertised by the title of entire,' and it is thus that
the liquid and its name arose. Prior to the year 1730,
publicans were in the habit of selling ale, beer, and two-
penny, and the thirsty souls' of that day were accus•
temed to combine either of these in a drink called half
and half. From this they proceeded to spin three
threads,' as they called it, or to have their glass filled
from each of the three taps. In the year 1730, how-
ever, a certain publican, named Norwood, to save him•
self the trouble of making the triune mixture, brewed
► liquor intending to imitate the taste of the ' three
threads, and to this he applied the term ' entire. his
concoction was approved, and being puffed as good por-
ters' drink, it speedily came to be called porter
The second paper is on "Church Bolls," clever
in its detailed facts, and interesting in its poetic
legends relative to those "iron tongues of time."
Dear Oliver Goldsmith, whose very name is music
to our ears, is made the subject of a lengthy article,
which will be read with interest by all who are
capable of appreciating " The Vicar of Wakefield,"
and " The Deserted Village:" This isfollowed by
some theological pages on " The Eclipse of Faith."
For our own partoFe.think creeds and professions
unfitting subjects for publio disputations ; and we
fear that the espousings and expoundings of the
various schisms and "isms" extant, arise oftener
from pride in man than reverence of God. The
number winds up with some pleasant gossipping
recollections of " Samuel Foote." There are a
great many very familiar " Joe Millerisms " told
us again, but there is much that is very amusing,
and comparatively new. Foote was a rich humorist,
a clever draniati.it, a gay companion, applauded by
his theatrical audiences, and flattered by his table
friends ; yet wo find it stated that " he lies in the
cloisters of Westminster Abbey without any memo-
rial either in stone or marble." The common fate
it seems of those who " set the table in a roar."
"Alas ! Poor Yorick !"

WAR AND FINANCE,

The country is at present so intent upon the war in
the Crimea, that it will not find time to attend to other
considerations. But everything in England is a money
question. And the state of the national finances cannot •
long be disregarded.
There is little doubt amongst many of the mast emi-
nent and right-judging of the London merchants and
bankers, as well as amongst those scientific persons who
have most deeply studied the monetary question, that
but for the unlooked-for flow of an enormous amount of
gold into this country from California and Australia, the
state of the country, during the last year, would have
been most calamitous. *The efflux of gold to pay for.,
corn would have necessitated a contraction of the cir-
culating medium by the Bank of England and thveo
country bankers, and a panic worse than any
wlde havea
yet witnessed, inasmuch as free trade
trhecsiuliltta.tedAntyheveoxsipsotortoooof
tboul
have been, under such circumstances, out
ques-
tion. Our sword must have slumbered
been unable to pay
destinies of Europe have thus .
scabbard, for the simtbpole
orxepasenobeneeent‘tobmfataddvwea
aogugtrao7 the
euiptl de. n have
Then
peacefully in its
Rliouns,eiLould hawvrobneewnotuhlde
ewt
oignhgda
fornia and Australia.
circumstances of the country 1
What are the present the fortuitous discovery of the precious metal in Cali-
frequently to the amount of nearly
Large sums
notfvyb,ullion have, week after week, come
intoi
ltl
ihoen
,c;sut still the stock of gold in the Bank has
not increased.- The--bullion did not stay with us. It
did not even pass through the Bank, but appeared
to leave the country immediately after its arrival.
A steady drain of bullion from the Bank has thus set in.
On January Ist, 1853, the Bullion in the Issue Depart-
sue
nei eradn ti j
by
yrw ht3ihcl:l, regulateslreBtsu3r ,n2llfBo, t50rh37e,90,
se
6t
.0
17:
iistsbuaedof declinednoteswro 1250,108104, 0080051.1;
On 31st December,
1854, it had sunk to
Oct. 7, 1854,-only 1,i4,960,015i.
12,350,0331. Consequently the active circulation of notes
which on Januaryl,lBs3, was 23,053;510(., was on De-
Money being thus made and by the return of
scarce, various heavy failures
have occurred in Liverpool and other places, and, to say
the least, a check is given to the prosperity of trade.
At a time, therefore, when it is of the greatest import-
ance to this country to maintain that commercial
prosperity which may keep up the revenue, and enable
the people to bear the increased and increasing burden of
1 taxation, our whole financial system is dependent on the
1 quantity of gold which we may be able to retain in the
Bank coffers.
This is the result of Peel's monetary policy—a policy
which has done more harm to this nation than the mis-
takes of all the other shallow pretenders to staternan-_
ship put together, and which, but for the interference ofProviience in revealing vast masses of gold to man
this time, would have brought us to the very verge of
ruin.
it of a portion of its venom, buti only for A time, disarm
i A complete reform
.1)-1. yskire Courier.
~
come
prigolbiety. , iscsiovourmadsitcaonlloyesbmaday,that it will never
will remedy the enormous ova .
—........
der

Dr. Evory Kennedy has been unanimously re-elected
president of the King and Queen's College of Physicians
inj,reland for the easel's Year.