The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-06 00:00:00

DOUGLAS JERROLD.

Anxiously did we look forward to the appearance
of the July number of this magazine, and sorely have
we been disappointed. Notwithstanding the fair
promises of last month, Juniper Hedgehog has not
yet made his appearance. " Drat that cabman,
where can he be staying." We have, however, en
revanche an admirable " Voice from the Crowd in a
Steam-boat," by Angus B. Reach, from which we
extract the following, which we commend to the
earnest attention of the Corporation of London in
general, and of Sir Peter Laurie in particular :
" In the cold days of early spring—when east wind
and drenching sleet and rain come lashing down our
London streets—and when nobody will dare the icy
blasts of the river who has got a shilling to pay for a
cab, or twopence for an omnibus, or who is provided
with a couple of useable legs to walk withal—when the
steamers ply up and down, dripping and deserted things
one shapeless mass of oil-skins at the wheel, another
on the paddle-box—then it is that the Corporation of
London suddenly wake up to the danger of over-crowded
and too-fast-driven boats. An enthusiastic discussion
accordingly takes place in the Common Council or the
Court of Aldermen, and a code of bye-laws of terrific
severity is forthwith drawn up and established, menacing
with horrible pains and penalties the reckless skippers
who shall dare to contravene them. The whole proceed-
ing looks severe and determined. Nervous people nod
their heads approvingly, and say, All right now—the
Lord Mayor has taken the thing up in a proper spirit.
These fellows won't be overloading their boats again in
a hurry.' Alas—deluded folks ! Wait a bit. Blazing
summer comes—and sweltering London rushes on the
river. Where are the City bye-laws then? Where are
the informers who were to work them—where the stipu-
lations allotting to each passenger a certain cubic space
upon the deck? Gone—melted with the hot weather—
leaving the City statute-book a tabula rasa for the in-
scription of the same farce at the commencement of the
next mayoralty. And yet, Heaven knows, if the nuisance
be still uncorrected, it is not for want of nuisance •
mongers and grievance-hunters in the community. Only
these gentlemen are eternally catching wrong sows by
the ear. They are the cranes who wage war with the
pigmies. A parcel of ragged urchins playing pitch-and-
toss with dilapidated buttons in an alley—an advertising
van or two ; not half such an obstacle in a crowded
thoroughfare as a sheriffs broad-wheeled waggon, and
not a tithe so ugly in its gaudiness as that worshipful
functionary's official coach—a dozen or two of emanci-
pated mechanics and maids-of-all-work enjoying them-
selves in the merry go-rounds at the foot of Primrose-
hill ; or a knot of hard-working, honest, men, scouring
their skins in a cheap bath and washhouse—such are the
objects which the nuisance-mongers—or rather the
superlative nuisance-monger— of the day delights to
show his vigilance in rooting up and exhibiting to the
gaze of a world—by no means so very much scandalised
at the spectacle. Sir Peter Laurie is—as everybody
knows—a pestilent busybody, always deep in some
mare's nest or other, and yet occasionally making a
blundering step—more by chance than anything else—in
the right direction. Now, here is a chance for him.
Let him take to the steam-boat nuisance. He flatters
himself that he has put down suicide ; let him try his
hand at putting down a system which may result in
occasioning as many deaths in a moment as the mania
for self-slaughter does in a twelvemonth. Let him for-
sake Primrose-hill on the Sunday afternoons, and take
his stand on Hungerford-bridge—let him observe the
cram, the squeeze of jostling men and women, hurrying,
in unthinking, merry masses, on board the rocking and
unstable boats—let him observe the conduct of the
steam-boat functionaries jamming the live cargoes on
board as though they were packing cotton into a bale—
let him observe the sickly sway of the boats, as each
slowly moves away, groaning under its weight of human
flesh—let him see all this, and let him remember, that
all this is perpetrated in defiance of the magnates of the
City, and their solemnly recorded regulations—let him
observe that the interpretation put upon the City bye-
laws seems to be that they are laws for the City to give
the go-by to, and if, out of such materials, he cannot
erect a grievance of the first magnitude—cannot carve a
nuisance of the first water—then will I be content to be
on board the first steamer which pitches its living masses
head over heels, to drown in Thames water, and to rot
in Thames mud."
" The Dreamer and the:Worker," which is now ac-
knowledged to be from the pen of the author of
" Orion,' Mr. R. H. Horne, is continued, but the
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constables on the 2d December, 1816, and his arrival
in America. This promises to be a valuable contribu-
tion to the materials gradually accumulating for a
history of the Regency. " Club Crotchets and Cheap
Comforts" contain hints well worthy the attention of
the managers of the Whittington Club ; and the
" Converted Man" is, we fear, an overtrue picture of
what too often takes place in society. Notwithstand-
ing the absence of Juniper Hedgehog, this is a
good number of Douglas Jerrold.