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 skill which improves whatever it is employed
upon. It turns the humble cabbage-leaf into the whole-
some cheroot, and converts the coculus Indicns, the
quassia, the liquorice, into porter, or some other equally
popular beverage. Sand is elev ted into sugar ; sloe
leaves arc exalted into tea ; and alum takes its place 1::)
the side of flour as an ingredient in the great staff of all
our existences. The statutes against adulteration, being
regarded as a check on the progress of science, are
usually disregarded by that great and glorious character,
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 he
looks fur 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 i
charge, but " leaving t to the generosity" of their em-
ployers. Clients were "expected" to give something to
the advocate, and were doubtno 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,
chat 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 1-
eightpences. The advocates 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

barrister.
AGENT, is a-gent acting for another gent, and is
derived from the Latin word opens, 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 be 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 good
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.
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-ade 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, were in Saxon times synonymous. There was
formerly an Aldermanus 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•

MA.RYLEBONE VESTRY.—On Saturday at the
meeting of this vestry (Mr. Tabriun in the chair), Mr. Daniell,
the churchwarden, brought up the report of the deputation
as to the proceedings which took place at the conference be-
tween the deputation and the Poor-law Commissioners on
Thursday last. He congratulated the vestry on the impres-
sion that had been made upon the Commissioners by the
arguments of the deputation, and thought there was very
little doubt their wishes would be acceded to. He concluded
by moving a vote of thanks to the Rev. Dr. Spry, the rector,
for having taken the trouble to come up from Canterbury to
join the deputation at much personal inconvenience. The
motion having been seconded, was carried unanimously. Mr.
Ridgway then gave notice that he should move, on the fol-
lowing Saturday, for a return of the expense of the police
force employed in the Christ Church district of the parish,
and described the police as most inefficient and neglectful of
their duties; they .were employed to protect the public and
prevent crime, as well as to apprehend criminals. It was
their duty to see that the law was not infringed in the public
throughfares, and to prevent any nuisance from being com-
mitted to the annoyance of the public, instead of which, they
were lounging about the streets, or courting servant maids,
supposing that they were never to interfere Lim called upon
by persons who hod suffered .any lujtu7.