The Sun.
London, England, 1832-09-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

In the course of the last week there have been
two meetings in Yorkshire—one at York, and
the other at Hull—on the subject of Poland.
Count Plater, the Polish patriot, whose energy
in behalf of his country has not been subdued
by her misfortunes, appeared at both meetings,
and, by his eloquence, even in our foreign lan-
uage, contributed much to the triumph of the
noble cause, of which, having fought and bled in
its defence, he is a fitting representative. When
we talk of triumph, as associated with the name
of Poland, of course we mean the triumph of
reason and principle and feeling ; for, thanks to
'he cold-blooded politicians of our day, Poland
was left to her fate at a moment when her atti-
tude and her exploits astonished all Europe. If
ever a people had a right to expect the aid
general sympathy and remonstrance, the
Poles were that people. Their cause was the
cause of mankind, not merely because it involved
die great interests of liberty and civilization in
the principle for which they contended so nobly,
but because the place which their country occu-
pied in the map, and their people in the history,
of Europe, pointed them out as the barrier
against that irruption of despotism with
which the world has been lone threatened.
Europe, therefore, had an interest in the
cause of Poland, to say nothing of gene-
rosity, of humanity, or of those other
`eelings which certain philosophers decry as mere
instincts that reason ought to combat rather
than encourage, because they have no founda-
tion in the selfishness of the human heart.
Europe had this interest ; France and England,
on the part of Europe, were bound to assert it ;
but what with the hesitating Councils of one
Cabinet, and the calculating fears of another,
die opportunity was allowed to pass away, and
we are not without living convincing proofs al-
ready that Poland is not the only country which
is likely to suffer, nay, which actually has suf-
fered, from the effects of that culpable neglect.
It was not the soft and courtly whispers of such
a Minister as Lord Pahnerston that should have
spoken the mind of England to the Russian
Autocrat when murder was at the gates of
Warsaw. No ; France and England should
have spoken out, or England should have spoken
out alone if' France had refused to join her..
" But that would have led to a war," say the ad-
vocates of the Palmerston policy. 'We deny it.
If England had spoken out in the tone that be-
came her, there would have been a response, or
rather a faithful echo, if not from every Govern-
ment, from every enlightened people in Europe,
(he depth and universality of which would have
scared the tyrant from his purpose. There
s fallacy and cant in this cry of war, as the bug-
tear that should frighten us away from justice.
Remonstrance—strong, energetic, fearless, open
remonstrance—was toe language that England
ought to have used ; anti as for war, it may be
brought on by backwardness as well as by bold-
ness, and by backwardness rather than by hohf-
!less when the Power with whom we are at issue
happens to be in every thing the reverse and an-
tipode of magnanimity. But the Autocrat him-
self is making up for the deficiency of the Cabi-
oets in arousing the feelings of mankind. The
atrocities to which he has been encouraged by
success—the banishment of heroes—the perse-
cution of women—the captivity of babes—
have thrilled through the heart of Christendom,
and the people are beginning to cry out shame
upon their Governments for the apathy with
which they have been looking on at such scenes.
A system of cruelty was never attempted in the
world like that by which Nicholas is now endea-
vouring to obliterate the existence of Poland. It
is the wantonness and wickedness of this system
that has produced those meetings, whicn, we
doubt not, will spread far and wide, unless the
perpetrator takes warning in time, and consents to
relax his brutal experiment. What Lord Dur-
ham may accomplish, or what he is endeavouring
to accomplish, we know nothing about ; but the.
most successful negotiator against the project of
Nicholas we take to be Nicholas himself.—
Morning Herald.
The printers of the House of Commons
seem to take a malicious kind of pleasure in
postponing the means of public information, and
in sporting with the feelings of public curiosity,
on questions of vital importance to the nation.
The Bank Committee ended its sittings in the
beginning of August, and must have delivered
over its evidence and documents to the Par-
liamentary printers some time previous to the
prorogation of Parliament. The Committee
on East India affairs, as it was equally dili-
gent in its inquiries, was equally attentive to
the means of making the public acquainted
with the result of its labours—but no report
at all from the former, and no recent report
from the latter, have yet been delivered to the
Members of the House, or to the public. We
are quite aware of the quantity of trash every
year ordered to be printed by Parliament—
raising the expense of our legislative printing to
the amount of the revenue of some considera-
ble states; but surely the quantity ought not to
prevent selection as to quality, or, if the copying
of estimates on roads and rai;ways must proceed
pari passu, in the King's printing-office, with that
of the evidence taken before Committees on our
two most celebrated monopolies,—then some
other method should be devised to throw off the
whole at a shorter interval. We have been wait-
ing with impatience for a copy of the evidence
taken before the Bank Committee for the last
three weeks, and we are quite certain that the
depositions must have been printed a fortnight
ago, from the appearance of certain parts of the
examinations of Mr. Harman, Mr. Palmer, and
Mr. Ward, in the Metropolitan Magazine for
the present month. In alluding to this latter
circumstance, we by no means complain of the
favour shown to a particular monthly publication,
but we complain that in any article of Parlia-
mentary interest, the daily press should be be-
hind the monthly, when all ought to have been
served at the same time, and with the same
punctuality. The evidence of the three gentle-
men to whom we have alluded, published in
our paper of yesterday, shows the impossi-
bility of renewing the Bank Charter with the pre-
sent privileges of the Corporation, or without a
more efficient control of the public over its pro-
ceedings. These three gentlemen are, or were,
all either Governors or Directors of the great
Threadneedle-street establishment at critical
times. They are all intimately acquainted with
he principles of its conduct, or the maxims
on which its issues are directed. They all know
the history of its past transactions, and the
gains—toe alai suss
de-
signs contemplated by Government in its various
and yet t:xv
recommendations to the Bank parlour. They
yooartmgesir, thatcom
cud the triumphstile tiaig. clangers
sf
iamnpdertficered t ;
i 1 by their depositions admit, directly • I • •
or es, pi-
creoimic
ference, that the action of the Bank on thecur-
iY)leisteel command,
enyd,have d
thatpublic
th credit
ey ca can
i

avert ruin or occasion distress at their pleasure.
A long unrevealed history of Bank secrets has
been begun by these Directors, which we have
no doubt is fully developed by the subsequent
testimony, and by the official papers given In the
report. We anticipate, therefore, from this in-
quiry, a full disclosure of " the art and mys-
tery" of manufacturing factitious prosperity,
and real panics,—of enlarging and contracting
the money credits of the nation,—of raising
and lowering the interest of capital, and the price
of the public secuntres,---of altering the value of
all mortgages and fixed pecuniary engagements,
—and of exciting or paralysing all the recent
enterprises—whether agricultural, manufacturing,
or commercial,—of the kingdom. During the
whole of the year 1824 and the first half of
the year 1825 the nation seemed to he seized
with a frenzy of speculation ; colossal fortunes
were supposed, or expected, to be made in a
few days or hours,—British capital seemed to
overflow into a thousand neglected channels of
industry, and to fill up every avenue of gain,—
joint-stock adventures, and unlimited funds to
carry them on, were the order of the day,—our
houses were to be built of joint-stock bricks—
our tables to be supplied with joint stock fish,
—our linen to be washed by Joint-stock steam,
—our tea to be whitened with joint-stock milk,
and our wives to be ornamented by joint-stock
pearls. Nay, we were to be carried to the grave
by joint-stock undertakers, and to be buried
in a joint-stock cemetery. It will naturally be
asked, was there any new mine of wealth disco
vered in the kingdom to authorize such expec-
tations? Or, was there any new epidemic like
the cholera, imported, to account for such a ge-
neral madness ? No ! the whole of this pros-
perity and adversity was an affair of the Bank
engraver. It all depended upon the bank note,
and when the Bank Directors drew the wire
which moved the machinery, their own creation
of artificial wealth disappeared with the rapidity
and the crash of a scene in a pantomime touch-
ed by the wand of Harlequin It would ap-
pear, therefore, that the Bank Directors have
had in their hands, not only the measure ofevery
man's estate, and the means of enlarging or
contracting every man's credit, but the very
senses and intellect of the nation. They could
excite in our merchants and manufacturers the
Pyrrhic dance of speculation, or overwhelm them
with the funereal music of despair, when
ever they pleased. In 1816, in 1819, 1820
1821, and 1822, and in 1825, they pulled the
strings so tight—they screwed the tourniquet
b 0 unmercifully, that they nearly threw
the nation into convulsions. By relaxing
their hold in the intermediate periods, they
produced in the patient a delirium of satisfac-
tion, or allowed him to enjoy an interval of com-
parative ease. They are still desirous of main-
taining the same empire over our interests, our
enterprises, and ourresources. Will such a dark
irresponsible tyranny be any longer endured ?—..
The evidence of Mr. Harman and Mr. Ward
show plainly that the Bank neither understands
its own interests nor that of the public. The
Ditectors issued money on all sorts of specula-
tions, between the beginning of 1823 and the
middle of 1825 ; and were not warned of their
danger, by the disappearance of their cash, till,
in November, 1825, they were reduced to about
a million of gold coin; and, in December of
that year, were obliged to resort to the disconti-
nued circulation of 11. notes. In their distress
they had recourse to Government, and asked for
another Bank Restriction Act, which would, if
granted, have put the seal on the infamy of the
establishment for ever. The following most ex-
traordinary avowals of Mr. Harman will never
be forgotten, so long as there is a manufactory
of paper credit in Threadneedle-street, or a Mint
on Tower-hill,—so long as the bubble schemes
of 1824, and the panic of 1825, find a place in
the commercial history of the country:—
" Did any communication take place between the Bank
and Government respecting an order in Council to restrain
Payment in gold at that period, December, 1825 ?—Yes,
it wax sugg.sted by the Bank.
" What answer did his Majesty's Government give to
that ?—They resisted it from first to last.

" Did the Government suggest any other course in re-
fusing the suggestion of the Bank ?—No ; they left the
Bank to act at its discretion, hoping the panic would
subside; and it is to be observed, that though our treasure
was so much reduced, even much more reduced as we ap-
proached the crisis, we were at that period receiving gold,
because we strained every nerve to get gold from the con-
tinent. Bullion came in, and the .11int coined ; they
worked doub!e tielcs—in short, they were at work night
and day; we were perpetually receiving gold from abroad,
and coin from the Hint.

" Was there a period in December, 1825, during which
the Bank contemplated the great probability of being en-
tirely exhausted of gold?—At the latter end of 1825, de-
cidedly.

" Do you recollect the lowest quantity o f gold which
the Bank possessed during any period of December, 1825 ?
—No, I do not remember immediately, but it was mise.
rably low.

" Was it under the 1,300,0001. you have mentioned ?
...—Unquestionably.
" It was stated by the late Mr. Huskisson to a Member
of the House of Commons, that he, as a Member of the
Administration at that time, suggested to the Bank, that
if their gold was exhausted they should place a paper
against their doors, stating that they had not gold to pay
with, but might expect to have gold to recommence pay-
ment in a short period ; do you recollect such a suggestion?
—There was such a suggestion.
" What would, in your opinion, have been the conse-
quence of that paper placed against the doors of the Bank,
without preparation to support commercial and finan-
cial credit ?—I hardly know how to contemplate it.
" The Bank of England issued 11. notes at that period ;
was that done to protect its remaining treasure?—Decid-
edly, and it worked wonders ; and it was by great good
luck that we had the means of doing it, because one box
containing a quantity of 1/. notes had been overlooked,
and they were forthcoming at the lucky moment.
" Had there been no foresight in the preparation of
those 1/. notes ?—tione whatever, I solemnly declare.
" Do you think that issuing the 11. notes saved the
Bank ?—As far as my judgment goes, it saved the credit of
the country."

The opportune discovery and miracle-work-
ing power of the box of one-pound Bank-notes,
would appear from this account to have been the
sole protection of this great country from a con-
vulsion. By the evidence of Mr. Ward, and by
the knowledge of facts which we have otherwise
acquired, it is proved that the reduction of the
4 per Cents, to a stock of 3i- per Cent. was en-
tirely owing to the issues of the Bank. Thus,
if the national creditor was cheated of 10s. out
of every 41. which the Government owed him,
it was by the same kind of Threadneedle-street
jugglery which brought the nation " to within a
few hours of barter," or to the brink of ruin, in
December, 1825. We shall have other oppor-
tunities of recurring to this subject.— Times.

A tournamfmt of an unusual character was
held at Birmingham last week by two political
champions, Mr. Thomas Attwood and Mr.
Cobbett, on the subject of the monetary system.
Our readers are acquainted with the origin of
this dialectical conflict. Mr. Attwood and
some of the Members of the Political Union
had controverted the political economy of Mr.
Cobbett, on the occasion of their recent Annual
Meeting ; the latter, thereupon, sent a challenge
to his opponents to discuss the " Toney affair"
at Birmingham on Tuesday last, the auditory
to determine the merits of the logicians. The

oral, instead of written mode of conducting the
discussion was not likely to terminate in any
satisfactory result ; and we must beg leave to
impugn the political aptitude of the Jurymen
by whom the merits of the respective disputants
were " decided." The wide field of political
science does not display, a subject of more ab-
struse and difficult inquiry than that of the prin-
ciples of a national currenty.; and on no ques-
tion are the people less informed, or probably
more misinforthed. Our systems of public debts
and complicated taxation—the temporary benefi-
' vial effects of an inconvertible paper currency,
and the consequences of a return td convertibility
from depreciated value to the ancient standard,
have produced effects and begotten evils,
for the remedy of which, e`xpe►fence
is no guide, no nation ever having
been placed in circumstances similar to our
own. We should say, therefore, that in-
dependently of the natural difficulties of the sub-
ject, the Currency is not a legitimate subject of
" agitation," anti that " a show of hands" is
little calculated to lead us out of our present
lahyrinth. Mr. Attwood is the well-known in-
defatigable advocate of an extensive paper cre-
dit ; and, "if needful," of a Bank Restriction
Act, and a debasement of the standard. He
contends, that an increased Value of the circu-
lating medium, through the operation of Peel's
Bill, has doubled the fiscal burthens of the
country—doubled the pressure of the Debt—
destroyed profit—pauperised the working
classes—and must ultimately ruin the nation.
We confess that we cannot discover his exact
specific in his published writings or speeches ;
they have rather dealt in vivid descriptions of
" distress and ruin," than in the suggestion of
any defined or practical remedies. But we be-
lieve that he considers Paper Credit may be
made a complete substitute for the precious
metals, and that the standard my be reduced fifty
or a hundred per cent. with impunity,
and without injustice. Mr. Cobbett, on the
other hand, traces all our national ills to the
introduction of paper money, and, above all, to
the consequences of the unconvertible currency
vthich existed between 1797 and 1819—that
fabric of credulity which Sir Philip Francis de-
scribed in 1810 as "a wonderful house of cards,
of which the materials are light enough to ,be
blown away, or to fall to pieces at any moment,
but heavy enough to crush this kingdom in its
fall." Mr. Cobbett treats the nation as a law-
yer does an insolvent; he would call a meeting
of the public creditors, and declare that they
must take a pro rata dividend on their respec-
tive debts, for that if the insolvent was not
wound up, he would ultimately not pay a far-
thing in the pound. Now, although certainly
the propositions of the two controversialists are
in effect similar, Mr. Cobbett, if his scheme were
necessary and practicable, propounds the
most honest expedient. He would divide the
loss " equitably," by law ; Mr. Attwood
would post it all to the creditor inte-
rest. We will not, however, comment on

the two plans ; if either be necessary or prac-
ticable, neither is likely yet to be espoused by
Parliament or the people. ft will be time enough
to consider the appropriation of the national
assets when the country takes " the benefit of
the Act." But we are far from regretting the
publicity of discussion. We do not fear any
consequences. We feel confident that the good
sense of the people of this country will ultimately
right public opinion ; that even the working
classes will discriminate between the benefits of
a wiser legislation on the subject of money, and
another revolution in all existing contracts, and
that we should first endeavour, by economy and
an enlightened system of trade and commerce,
to meet our public engagements (however cre-
ated), before we resort to the di'grace and cer-
tain confusion of any species of currency fraud,
or any mode of sacrificing one class of society
to another. In the meanwhile we trust that, in
all the large manufacturing communities, intelli-
gent men will endeavour to communicate to the
working claases just notions of their true interest,
and, above all, to address to them such plain and
expositary publications on the elementary princi-
ples of political science as will enable them to
judge rightly, and to detect the fallacies of those
who, after imposing on their own understand-
ings, seek to confound the intellect of their

neighbours. To promise the people " plenty of
money" is doubtless dealing in an easy, popular
delusion ; but it will mislead them from confi-
dence in their own habits and industry, into a
miserable, servile war, against property, till from
good cities they will retrograde to the condi-
tion of our Saxon pirate ancestors, who, break-
ing into the Irish Treasury, found such a quan-
tity of money, " that every man had as much as
could wish or desire, and they did not fall out
on the partition, since there was so much for
each man's share as he could conveniently carry
away." We have always admitted the mistakes
and injustice perpetrated by the Act of 1819-20 ;
but we do not wish another class of men—the
creditor interest—to suffer as the debtors have
done. We have always advocated a more ex
tended currency based on convertibility, the
banking monopoly abolished, and the usury laws
repealed ; but we do not desire a paper• mill
erected on the ruins of the Mint.—Morning
Chronicle.

His Majesty's Ministers are receiving warning
from the various employers in whose service
they have been. They have been, they declare,
the best of all recorded servants ; they have re-
formed 'and economised and improved with a
vengeance. They have fostered National Unions,
and patronised Whittle Harvey ; they have dif-
fused useful knowledge in the Newspapers ; and
they have made Protocols so numerous that
study is terrified by their bulk, and arithmetic
puzzled by their sum. Our Exchequer, to be
sure, is not in a palmy state ; but Lord Althorp
confesses his errors with a modesty which makes
error more interesting than accuracy could be ;
and Lord Grey, it is true, has set some twelve
or thirteen of his family to work for the good of
the country at a few thousands per annum, but
that is no more than fifty Prime Ministers have
done before the dynasty of disinterestedness
and Lord Grey ; and, finally, their places suit
them exactly, and their liveries fit them to a
nicety. " We won't argue the point with
you, Gentlemen," quoth the people of Eng-
land, " but for all that you must go." Lord
Althorp is the wisest of financiers : no man
doubts it who has listened to the panegyrics of
Parnell, and attended to the compliments of
Hume. Lord Althorp has brought the glove
trade, and the silk trade, and the ribbon trade
into the most prosperous condition.' Lord
Althorp has restored to the shipping interest its
old spirit and energy, and revived, by judicious
legislation, the drooping resources of our colo-
nies. Lord Althorp is a friend too to the
British farmer, and surely by no quackery or
fraud of his will the cause of our national agri-
culture be ever sacrificed. Yet Northampton-
shire declares that his Lordship must go. Mr.

Robert Grant is a gentleman who has taken
greater pains to obtain and retain an eligible
situation than we could have supposed it pos-
sible for so indolent and religious a gentleman
to take for any sublunary purpose. Having
within the last fe* years turned down his
glass at a public dinner because Reform in
Parliament, the toast lie was called upon to ho-
nour, was unpalateable to his taste, he has re-
cently become, for the love of the multitude, as
stout a Reformer as his neighbours, and has
looked at the frailties of Mr. Canning through
the glasses of Sir Francis Burdett. Then he
is a prophet of the abolitionists, a patron of the
negro, a denouncer of drivers, and a clamourer
against cartwhips. Yet Norwich has made up
its mind, and Mr. Robert Grant is to go.
Where shall a constituency in witnt of a valet
seek one of finer manners or smarter appearance
that: our old acquaintance Lord Palmerston ?
His smile is perfectly refreshing ; his bow has a
fascination in it which is irresistible. He has
been in the employment of so many and of such
various masters that scarcely any work can come
amiss to him ; and he has lately been so con-
stantly abroad that on the Continent his services
would be invaluable. To be sure he brings but
an indifferent character from the family he served
some twenty years; but in these times it is an
easy matter to get a capital place without any
character at all. Yet Penrhyn will not hire Lord
Palmerston; Lambeth will not hire Lord Pal-
merston ; his old master will not take back Lord
Palmerston. We cannot tell whose livery he is
to wear. And Lord John Russell too, the foster-
father of the Reform Act and the champion of
the liberties of the nation, time correspondent of
the Birmingham patriots and the slanderer of
that illustrious order, of which if he were not a
scion he would never have been strong enough
for mischief nor conspicuous enough for reproof;
Lord John Russell, the destroyer of
potwolloping, the purifier of scot and lot, the
extinguisher of Gatton, the liberator of Leeds ;
Lord John Russell, in whose honour so many
stones have been thrown and so many houses
burned to their foundations—must he, too, ad-
vertise his merits, and appeal to his admiring
countrymen with—" Wanted, a situation ?" For
Devonshire will tell his Lordship in pretty in-
telligible language that there he is wanted no
longer. Are all these dismissals and rejections
demonstrations of the popularity of the Mini-
sters, and of the satisfaction with which the country
regards their measures? A young lover writes in-
deed to the Spectator, begging that " Mr. Spec"
will inform him whether he is to take it for a
sign of special favour and encouragement that
his mistress broke his head last night with her
slipper. Equally convincing proofs of confidence
and affection are the people daily presenting to
the associated wisdom and integrity of the Ca-
binet.—Morning Post.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HO USE.

BARTHOLOMEW FAlR.—Yesterday Mr. Charles
Pearson waited upon the LORD MAYOR, in his ca-
pacity of Chairman of the City Board of Health, to
request that his Lordship would give directions to
enforce those regulations respecting Bartholomew
Fair, of which, although on ordinary occasions there
might be some difference of opinion about the pro-
priety, every thinking individual must now admit
the importance and necessity. He had no doubt
that his Lordship's officers would receive the sup-
port of the respectable innkeepers who resided in
the vicinity of the fair in enforcing all reasonable
regulations at the present period.
The LORD MAYOR said, that the public must be
greatly indebted to the Board of Health for their

interference, and that the suggestions of Mr. Pear-
son were most valuable, and should be attended to.

His Lordship then gave instructions to Mr. Cope,
the Marshal, to enforce the regulations most .trictly,
and ordered that placards should be affixed in the
vicinity containing an extract from the 3d of George
IV., inflicting a penalty of 5/. upon ttle owner of
any public-house which was not closed at 11 o'clock
at night, and of dos. upon any customer who refused
to quit a public-house at that hour upon being di-
rected so to do by the constables.
A TEA PARTY.— Mr. Francis Smulke, a German
doctor of physic, was summoned to answer the com-
plaint of Mr. Smith, a horse-dealer, who worked his
way into the Justice-room on crutches.
The horse-dealer having, about twelve months
ago, received a kick in the shin from a donkey at
Dixon's Repository, employed Doctor Smulke, who
happened to be present, to cure the limb. The
wound, however, although apparently a trifle, re-
sisted a great variety of internal as well as external
applications, and at last became a constitutional sore.

.t was not until it assumed this serious character

that the horse-dealer discovered Doctor Smulke's
practice to be almost confined to the treatment of
the diseases of the inferior animals, and that the
Doctor had prescribed for him as if his proper place
was the stable. Without saying a word to the
Doctor, he went for advice to a friend of his own.
Doctor Smulke, finding that the horse-dealer had
" taken his leg elsewhere," sent in a bill, the length
of which was enough to aggravate any disease, and
insisted upon present pay. The patient thought it
his best plan to level one profession at another, and
submitted the bill to a lawyer, who set about making
a strong drawing-plaster of his own, with the cer-
tainty that it would operate somewhere. Things
were in this position when the horse-dealer received
an invitation to a tea-party at Mrs. Matthews's,near
America-square, to which, as he had taken his leg
out of medical hands for some days, he was enabled
to go. The conver,ation naturally turned, as the
Doctor was well known to most of the ladies and
gentlemen present, on the difference between him
and the horse-dealer, and the latter was just finish-
ing a portrait of the former, when in walked the
Doctor, in time to hear that graceful appendage,
" thieving quack," tacked to his name. The Doc-
tor took no notice of it ; on the contrary, he began
to play with a kitten which had been frisking about
the room, and said a few words about the cholera
morbus, which he declared was sure to lay hold of
" all nasty fellows vot has scurvy blood in their
bodies." The horse-dealer took this compliment
to himself, and said, looking round to the company,
" I hope that as the Lord has sent us such a plague,
he'll carry off what kills more people and robs 'em
at the same time—all these here foreign
quacks." A general laugh was with evident diffi-
culty suppressed at the delivery of this sentiment,
and Mrs. Matthews endeavoured to give the con-
versation another turn, but a mischievous Jew,
named Abraham Hart, who thought it a pity to
drop so fertile a source of amusement, said, " Plesh
my heart, Doctor, I hope it won't come upon people
vot has sore limbs, for I hurt my leg three veeks
ago, and it an't veil yet." " Three veek ! three
veek !" said the Doctor, " let a me see—three veek
is long time, too; now if it vas three month, you
vould surely croak; you vould surely cock your
toes." " Aye," said the horse-dealer, who sup-
ported his diseased limb upon a stool at some dis-
tance from the Doctor, " if you get a little help
from some desperate old quack." While the com-
pany were enjoying this joke, the Doctor, who was
balancing the kitten on his foot, suddenly gave
pussy a fling, and down she came, with her sharp
claws bang upon the edges of the poor horse-dealer's
ulcer. -The unhappy man roared like a bull, and
seizing the kitten, dashed it at the head of the Doc-
tor, who, with an experienced eye, avoided the fa-
vour in such a manner as to give the Jew behind
him the full benefit of it. The cat stuck in Mr.
Hart's beard, which was in the last week of its
mourning, and endeavouring to mount, tore away

the skin from his nose and mouth, while the Doctor
made the best of his way out of the house.
The learned German was now charged with the
two assaults,

The LORD MAYOR said, that although the doctor
provoked the throwing of the cat, he was not in
law responsible for the scratched face of Mr. Hart,
who certainly received the compliment from the
hands of Mr. Smith.

The Doctor declared that he never meant any
harm. He was playing with the cat, when she
struck her talons into his instep, and in trying to
get rid of her he tossed her unfortunately into con-
tact with Mr. Smith's person, but he was willing
to cure the sore again.—(A laugh.)
The Horse-dealer—Cure me ! l'd as soon
thrust my leg in the fire as let you touch it.
The Doctor=l don't vish for to touch it,
Maisther Shmith, if it vas a sound limb, like other
people's, it vould be veil, but it is bad—de stuff is
bad, my Lor, de leg is bad, and de body is bad, and
Maisther Shmith is bad fellow altogether my Lor.
The Horse-dealer—My Lord, he prescribed for
me a dozen pills as big as tennis balls. The horse
I ride could scarce swallow them.

The Doctor—Vell, veil, the ass vot your horse
carried swallowed them.—(Laughter.)
The LORD MAYOR said the evidence had quite
puzzled him; and told the horse-dealer, if he thought
it worth his while to prosecute the matter further,
to apply to the Sessions, which were about to sit.
Mr. Hart—But, please you, my Lord, who is to
pay me for my lost time ? I couldn't go to vork
vile I had the marks of that ere little brute's
scrapers upon me; and I gets my living in a
public vay.
The Doctor—Yea, my Lor, he gets his living
upon de street, by crying " do, clo I" and de people
vould say, ven dey look at his scratched face, " Ah,
ha ! vy did you let de cat out of de bag."—(Loud
laughter.) The Lord Mayor then dismissed the case.
An old Irishwoman, named Peggy Cokeray, was
brought before the LORD MAYOR, charged with
having attempted to defiaud a female in Cannon-
street.

The officer stated, that the prisoner pretended to
have found a " gold pin with an elegant diamond
in it," and told a young woman whom she met, that
as it was too grand for an ould body, she would sell
it for a trifle. The girl was about to be a purchaser,
when the officer took Mrs. Cokeray into custody.
The elegant pin was not worth a halfpenny.
The LORD MAYOR—I think 1 know Mrs. Coke-
ray. lam mistaken if she did not want to tell me
my fortune some time ago. Mrs. Cokeray—Arrah,
then, I am sure I could not tell any one's fortune,
my dear. I'm nothing but a poor old Irishwoman,
honey.—(A laugh.)
The LORD MAYOR—You certainly are a fortune-
teller, Peggy, although I dare say you did not see by
the lines of your hand that you would be brought
before me for the purpose of being introduced to
Bridewell. Mrs. Cokeray—Oh, Lord, sure you
wouldn't send me to such a place, dear !
The LORD MAYOR—Upon my word, I have
serious thoughts of sending you there, Peggy. Mrs.
Cokeray—Oh, then, I shall never see you again,
Paddy Cokeray. Arrah, then, are we to be parted
this way in our ould age, for nothing at all ? Och
hone, don't send me there,jewel.—(Laughter.)
The LORD MAYOR—WeII, I'll try you this time;
but if you are found in the city any more, I'll tell
you your fortune, and you may depend upon the
goodness of my judgment. Mrs. Cokeray—Why,
then, sweet good luck to you, dear. You may take
howid of me yourself if ever you find me in the
same place again. Poor Paddy, I thought it was all
up with us, but I'll see you again.
The LORD MAYOR—Now, quit the city as fast as
you can. Mrs. Cokeray —Yes, my jewel, I will;
and good luck to you every day you see a paving
stone.—She then made a low curtsey to the Lord
Mayor, and, putting a quid of tobacco into her
mouth, she departed amidst the laughter of the
crowd.