The Sun.
London, England, 1824-04-24 00:00:00

[MORNING HERALD.]

The increase of crime, to which we alluded
yesterday, does not say much in favour of the
universal system of education so much in fashion ;
at the same time it must be admitted, that in
proportion as a nation increases in population,.
and in that which is called commercial prospe-
rity, so will also its crimes increase, in a pro-
portionate ratio. Also the system of machi-
nery introduced so universally in the manu-
facture of goods tends to increase crime ;
Inaagre
more, ha d
everyfor machioery concentrates population. For-
merly the manufacturing of the country being
comparatively performed by hand, every
littlevil-
ts f a
rmma-tahouorascet manufacturing
]r n g establishment;
a manufactory,
on a small scale, of its own. But now,, instead
of this being spread over the country, it has, in
consequence of machinery, resolved itself into,
probably, not more than half a dozen large towns.
The oldest writers on the subject of large cities,
dwell on the bad effects arising from the-con-
gregation of a mass of people ; and for this
reason, that in
a large place, a wicked man
can comparatively be wicked with impunity; the
eye of his neighbour is not upon him. In -the
Country, on the contrary, what a man does, if
It be improper, is soon known, and the gossip
of his neighbours obliges him either to be
more virtuous, or he is compelled to leave-
the place. We consider 'London to be the
most corrupt Place in all England, and
this corruptness, we are persuaded, arises
principally' from its immense size. And in
proportion as London increases, so also will
its wickedness increase, because its means for
the concealment of crime increase. It is not
improbable that wicked-cities carry with them
their antidote ; in time they grow so bad, that it
becomes the fashion not to live in them. Who
can say but the infamousness of Gomorrah,Baby-
lon, Nineveh, and other large cities, was the
cause of the inhabitants retiring from them ? As
to whether universal education has a tendeocy
to check corruption remains yet to be demon-
strated : but the abettors of universal education
should bear
in mind, that in proportion as they
educate people, fitting them for the superior
employments in life, so in proportion they-
ought to create a sufficient number of the supe-
rior employments. How many men and women
are now living in this great city, whose education
causes them to be too proud to accept a menial
employment, but who cannot procure a superior
one ? Sir John Newport is going to diffuse the
blessings of education throughout Ireland. After
he has diffused those blessings, we should like to
know who are to run up and down English lad-
ders with hods of mortar and bricks on their
shoulders, helping the English and Scotch
builders of houses ; and if Sir John extend his
beneficent regard to Wales, who are to carry
pails of milk ? Does Sir John intend to follow
his measures up with a Bill to import black
men to +u-pply the Irishmen's places, or
black women to deal out milk to London
ladies, instead of Welch milk-maids ? Sir
John says, that he will improve the condi-
tion of the lower orders of his country-
men, and that they should no more run up
and down ladders in England, with hods of
mortar and bricks upon their shoulders—they
shall no longer be slaves to the well-educated
Scotch and English. He will teach them all to
read, to write, and to cipher ; and, no doubt, he
will give them some little knowledge of political
economy, and then, as a matter of course, Mr.
Hume will send them off to the East Indies to
become writers or officers ; such few, however,
as stay at home, will have to discharge the func-
tions of secretaries, clerks, &c.

We are happy to hear that Mr. Alderman
VENABLES is so far recovered from his late indis-
position as to be able to leave town.

OBSCURE PHRASES, &c.

INQUIRY into the MEANING of CERTAIN OBSCURE
PHRASES and OLD COMMON EXPRESSIONS.

THE 11Itt.LcrOs THUMB.—In Chaucer, the mil-
ler is thus described—
Well couth he steale come and told it thrise,
And yet he had a thumbe qf gold parde.
A white come and a blew hode weared he, &c.
Tyrwhitt observes on this passage :—" If the
allusion be, as is most probable, to the old pro-
verb, Every honest miller has a thumb of gold,'
this passage may mean, that our miller, notwith-
standing his thefts, was an honest miller—i. e. as
honest as his brethren."

" I suspect," says Mr. Ellis, " the Miller's
Thumb" to have been the name of the strickle
used in measuring corn, the instrument with
n•hich corn is made level and struck off in mea-
suring. Perhaps this stricle had a rim of gold
to show it was standard ; true, not fraudulent."
PUTTING THE MILLER'S EYE OU I.—ln the
Gentleman's Magazine for November, 1783, the
inquiry after the meaning of the expression
" putting the Miller's Eye out," when too much
liquid is put to any dry or powdery substance,
is answered by another query :--" One merit of
flour, or any powdered substance, being dryness,
is it not a reflection on, or injury to the miller,
or vender of such substances, when they are
debased •r moistened by any heterogenous
mixture ?"

TO BEAR THE BELL.—" A Bell was a common
prize," observes another writer in the miscellany
just quoted : " A golden bell was the reward of
victory in 1607, at the races near York ;" whence
the proverb for success of any kind, " To bear
the bell ;" or in Ray's English Proverbs (which
seems to be the genuine reading) 44 to bear away
the Bell." Another writer inquires "If the
proverb bearing away the Bell' does not mean
carrying or winning the fair lady (belle)."
TURNING CAT IN PAN.-Dr. Pegge supposes
turning " Cat in Pan" a corruption of turning
tale (the old word for cake) in pan—i. e. says
he, " when the lower side is made brown in a
frying pan, the cake is turned the other side
downwards."

In the Workes of John newlie im-
printed, 4te. Lond. 1598, is the follow

" Thus may you see to turn the cat in pan."
Cock AND PTE.—This phrase had an allusion
to the peacock or pheasaut pye, a highly esteemed
dish with our ancestors, and from which a. ludi-
crous oatli.was prevalent in the days of Shakspe.are,
which he has, with much propriety,. put into the
mouth of Justice Shallow, who, soliciting the stay
of Falstaff', exclaims, -
By cock and pye, Sir, you shall not away to-night !
This dish is said to date its origin front the
days of chivalry, when it was usual for the knights
to take their vows of enterprize, at a solemn feast,
on the presentation to each Knight, in turn, of a
roasted peacock hi a golden dish. For this was
afterwards substituted, though only in a culinary
light, and as the most magnificent dish which
could be brought to table, a peacock in a pye,
-preServing as much as possible the form of a bird,
with the head elevated above the crust, the beak
richly gilt, and the beautiful tail spread out to
the full extent.

The use of the yeacock, however, as one of the
articles of a second course, continued to the close
of the seventeenth century ; for Gervase Mark-
ham, in his English Housewife (1683), enumerst.
ing the articles, and ordering of a great feast,
mentions this, among other birds, now seldom
seen as objects of cookery :" " then in the second
course ye shall first prefer the lesser wildfowl,
as, &c., then the lesser land fowl, as, &c, &c.,
then the great wild fowl, as bittern, kern, sho-
veler, crane, bustard, and such like. Then the
greater land fowl, as peacock, pheasant, puets,
gulls, Ste. This term of cock and pye, most
likely gave name to Cock and Pye Felds, now
Seven Dials.

DINING WITH DUKE HUMpIiREy.--The mean-
ing of the common expression " to dine with
Duke Humphrey," applied to persons, who being
unable either to procure a .dinner by their own
money, or from the favour of their friends, walk
about and loiter during dinner time, has, after
many unsuccessful attempts, been at last satis-
factorily. explained. It appears that in the an-
cient church of St. Paul, in London, to which, in.
the earlier: part of the day, many persons used to
resort for exercise to hear =the news (and on.
whiCh account it was called " Paul'S,walk,")one
of the isles was called 'Juke Humphrey's-walk
—not that there ever was in reality a cenotaph
there to the Duke's memory, who, every one
knows, was buried at St. Alban's in Hertford-
shire, but " because," says Stowe, " ignorant
people mistook the fair monument of Sir John
Beauchampe, son to Guy, and brother to Thomas
Earl of Warwick, who died in 1358, and which
was on the South side of the body of St. Paul's
Church, for that of Humphrey Duke of U louces-
ter." Abundance of passages in the works of our
old writers tend to confirm this -explanation—
Thus we find in 4' Iliervey's Letters and Son-
nets," 1592, " To seeke -his dinner in Ponies
with Duke Humphrey—to licke dishes, to be a
beggar."
And in an old tract of Dekkars,intitled " The
Dead,Tearrne," (1607), St. Paule's steeple is in-
troduced- as describing the company walking in
the body of the church, and among other things,
says—" What layinge of heads is there together
and sifting of the brains still and anon, as it
groves towardes eleven of the clocke (even
amongst those that wear guilt •rapiers by their
sides), where for that noone they may shift from
Duke Humphrey, and bee furnished with a din-
ner at snme meaner man's table."

And Gayton, in his " Art of Longevity,"
4to. 1659,
Wherefore we do amand Dick Humphrey's guest,

For their provision truly is o' th'

A PEG TOO Low.—'phis expression is said to
have taken it rise from the Peg Tankard, a. spe-
cies of wassail bowl, introduced by the Saxons,.
which was divided by pegs, to ascertain the quan-
tity each person drank.
Tiiis form of the wassail, or wish-health bowl,
was introduced by. Dunstan, with the view of
checking the intemperance of his countrymen,

In " Paradoxical Assertions and Philosophical Problems,
(16434) speaking of women, the Author says, " whoever bears
the Bell avi%y, yet they will ever carry the Clapper."

which for a time it effected ; but subsequentlif
the remedy was wore than the disease, being
converted into an additional stimulus to excess;
" for refining upon Dunstan's plan, each was
obliged to drink precisely to a pin, whether ha
could sustain a quantity of liquor equal to others;
or not; and to that end it became a rule, that
whether they exceeded, or fell short of the prow
scribed bumper, they were compelled alike to
drink again, until they reached the next mark.
In the year 1102, the priests, who had not been
backward in joining and encouraging thesis
drunken assemblies, were ordered to avoid such
abominations, and wholly to discontinue the prac-
tice of drinking to pegs." Some of these peg, or
pin-cups, or bowls, and pin or peg-tankards, are
yet to be found in the cabinets of antiquaries;
and we are to trace from their use also another
term current among us. When a person is much.
elated, we say he is " in a rnerry pin," which no
doubt originally meant, he had reached that
marls which had deprived him of his usual sedate.'
ness and sobriety : we talk of taking a man "
peg lower," when we imply we shall check him
in any forwardness ; a saying which originated
from a regulation that deprived all those of their
turn of drinking, or of their peg, who had become.
troublesome in their liquor; from the like rule
of society came also the expres3ion first men-
tioned, of being "a peg too low"—i. e. restrained
too far, when we say, that a person is not in
equal spirits with his company ; while we also
remark of an individual, that he is getting on-
" peg by peg," or, in other words, he is taking
greater freedoms than he ought to do, which for-
merly meant, he was either drinking out of his
turn, or, contrary to express regulation,. did not.
confine himself to his proper portion or peg, but
drank into the next, thereby taking a double
quantity.
TO PLUCK A CROW WITH ANY ONE.—In the
second part of Dekker's Honest Whore (4to.
1630), is the following passage :
We'll pull thatold crow, my father.
The subsequent occurs in the Workes of John
Hei wood, just referred to

• He lovethwell sheeps flesh, that wets his bred in the wull ;
If he leave it not, we-have a crow to pull.
A jealous wife is speaking concerning certain li-
berties hei husband is always taking. with,his
maid.

In Howell's Proverbs (1659) we read," I have
goose to pluck with you;"--viz. I have something
to complain of.

A curious question, as affecting some of out
fashionable Clubs and Subscription Mouses, iS
likely soon to come before one of the Courts
in Weitininster Hall. It has hitherto been
supposed that these places do not come within
the strict letter of the law against gaming
houses, owing to their not being kept " far
the. gain, lucre, or living," of any indi-
vidual. It has lately, however, been ascer-
tained that in some of them a large profit•
ac-
crues to the Club by the sale of the cards, and
that the house steward or factotum, has sundry
profits from the billiard-tables, &c. beyond his
Salary,
bring h
imw c
anIA
tchiercums ta
Committeences , w tt h
ni s
the C nl
at ewn
,deant
subject to indictment in common with the keeper •
of'any other house at which " unlawful games"
are played.

Tuesday a paralytic old man, who had been
receiving his pension, was dogged by two fellows who had, obsgrO
ed it to his ovin house, into which they afterwards entered, under
pretence of inquiring if he Wished to purchase coals, and find'
ing nobody in the house but a poor feeble old woman, his wife,
they forcibly took from his pocket the money, amounting to SO
guineas, with which they made off: Five or six suspieioureba-
Teeters were afterwards apprehended, through the vigilanceof tho
police, when two of them, of the names of Grainger and Mar-
shall, noted Villains, Were identified at the bar of the Court on'
Friday, by the old man and his wife, as the robbers, anderdered
by the Magistrate to be remanded, that their case may be it?'
vestigated by the Sherd-11-( Edinburgh courant.)