The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-22 00:00:00

POLITICAL DICTIONARY.

ADULTERATION, a very important branch of commer-
cial industry. Though adulteration has been prohibited
by several Acts of Parliament, it is a species of manu-
facturing
t skill
turns whichth ehumble
improcvnebs b
ago. whateverloafintoit i s
some cheroot, and converts the coculus Indicus, the
quassia, the liquorice, into porter, or some other equally
theem whole-
some e
upon.
-
popular beverage.
are
oxa exalted into
n tSando tea is
andelevated l
un
ta intokesugars iits
p ;a
place
sloe-
leaves
side of flour as an ingredient in the great staff of all
our existences. The statutes against adulteration, being
uregsuaarudye dd
iasrs e
gaa
rcdheedc k
by ott e
great
and progressg i roi
of
us:in
ece a
character,re
the British merchant. It is, perhaps, a patriotic pre-
ference for the productions of his native land, which
induces the English cigar-dealer to seek the Savoy of
Great Britain rather than the weed of Bengal ; and the
same feeling no doubt actuates the tea-merchant when ho
looks for a profit—sloe and sure—from the suburban
hedges.
ADVOCATE, from the Latin words ad, to, and vocare,
to call ; because an advocate is at the call of any one
who needs his services. The early Roman advocates
professed to plead gratuitously, but some of them were
soon detected in taking fees indirectly, by making no
charge, but " leaving it to the generosity" of their em-
ployers. Clients were "expected" to give something to
the advocate, and were no doubt considered to have
acted shabbily if they shirked it ; so that at last a regu-
lar charge was made, and some of the Roman barristers
used to receive so much a head from as many as chose
to take shares in these joint-stock advocates. At length
the gentlemen of the Roman long-robe became so greedy,
that it was found necessary to limit their fees, the maxi-
mum of which was fixed at ten thousand sestertii, which
the classical student may at his leisure reduce to six an:l-
- The advocatt s were paid generally in asses,
or brass, and they paid those asses their clients usually
in the same metal. The fees were always payable before
the cause was pleaded ; and it was a rule that if the ad-
vocate died, or did not, or could not, or would not,
attend to his duties, the sum he had received was in no
case to be given back again. "No money returned"
was the motto of the Roman as well as of the English 1
barrister.
AGENT, is a-gent acting for another gent, and is
derived from the Latin word agens, doing, because an
agent is often doing his principal.
AGRARIAN LAWS related to the public lands ; and
Spurius Cassius, who was called spurious to distinguish
him from the genuine Cassius, was the first poor man's
friend who proposed an agrarian law ; for which piece
of patriotism he was tried, condemned, and put to death
in no time. Subsequently, Sempronius Gracchus, who
was the Lord Ashley of his day, carried an agrarian
law founded on the small allotment system ; and he was
murdered in an election row, as a reward for his gocd
intentions. His brother, Caius Gracchus, who wished
to see the poor settled on their land, got settled himself,
in a shindy, when putting up for the tribuneship. Other
Roman radicals passed agrarian laws, but Radicalism
was so unfashionable that its adherents got assassinated
very rapidly. The professed object of the agrarian law
was to divide the public land among the poor, so that
every Roman should grow his own cabbage, as the
people of Cos reared their own lettuces.
I AGRICULTURE, SOCIETIES FOR THE PROMOTION OF.—
The head of these Institutions is the Agricultural Asso-
ciation of England, whose chief objects are to keep
science moving, and to bring animals to a dead stand-
still by their excessive fatness. There are also provincial
societes, some of which carry round the country a quan-
tity of over-sized beasts to make a show of them, on the
same principle as Wombwell s travelling menagerie.
Megatherium bullocks, and sheep that look like moving
mountains of wool, are consequently collected into the
shape of an agricultural annual.
AIDS having been all abolished, except lemon-ado and
orange-ade, which do not savour of politics, we have
torn up three sheets of antiquarian lore, two pages of
enthusiasm, one of constitutional learning, and six lines
of vehement invective, which we had prepared on this
subject. The MS. will lie for inspection for one week
at our butterman's, after which it will be allotted in
shares to his various customers.

ALDERMEN.—This word, after being macadamised
with the sledge-hammer of Saxon research, is knocked
into ealdorman, then into ealdor, then into eald, and
finally into old-man ;so that alderman and jolly old
cock, wer9 in Saxon times synonymous. There was
formerly an Aldermanns Regis, or King's Alderman,
supposed to have been an occasional judge ; and if he
dined with the king there could not have been a better
judge of the merits of the respective dishes, which was
perhaps the object of allowing the alderman to hold
sittings in mahogany with his Majesty. There are
twenty-six London Aldermen, and "the wonder is,"
says Gunter, " where all the real turtle comes from to

. __.
supply the demand that six-and-twenty London Aldermen
must of necessity occasion."—Punch.

Of 360 geese driven by their owner last week
towards Hexham market, about 300 Wed without reaching
their destination, in consequence of their having been per-
teteitaltogrtinekthfereTyaely
e,at
tahestwreaatmer laefadiwiliiigo
jafrowma:Fapllroawfibabellyd
per-
mitted
BtroneY impregnated with lead,