Star.
London, England, 1830-05-17 00:00:00

pay the manufacturer ! The payments of trade are not
like the dividends in stock : or even on a par with tythes,
or rent charges, &c. where a distress can come in, and
at one " fell swoop" clear debt and costs of process, at
the mere will of the creditor. To the creditor in trade,
there is indeed the process of the Courts : with the chance
lof suing where the debtor is on the look-out for a white
washing : or—the beatific and blessed certainty of losing
the whole or greater part of his debt in extra costs, where,
in the glorious uncertainty,' he may be lucky enough to
win. All the common and ruinous evils of law, do not
touch the higher orders, in their ordinary intercourse with
society : and it would be only decent for them to decline
any interference with the modes of payment which peo-
ple in trade usually adopt, and which are commonly less
the result of choice than of necessity.
If it be true that sixty thousand people in London rise
every Sunday morning, without any very intelligible no-
tion how they shall contrive to get a dinner, it would be
rather hard to say that they shall not dine at all, unless
provided for on the Saturday. Now this providence on
the Saturday is the precise thing which they want : and
when the " ways and means" fail on the seventh day,
the matter is, of necessity, adjourned to Sunday morning.
Unless some shops are kept open, and some available
channels for procuring food are left—of how many
wretches might it be said,

"And Sunday came, no Sabbath day to them !"
Even our pious Bishop himself would find his devotion
somewhat impaired by the want of a good dinner ; espe-
cially in an absence of the overture of a breakfast. In a
city containing a million and a quarter of human beings,
it is almost miraculous bow they are provided for at all.
There are more that require compassion and charity than
spiritual counsel: churches and chapels are provided in
abundance, and there is no lack of persons who can give
good advice, which is not the " one thing (most) need-
ful " on a theatre of crowded population, with limited
means of subsistence. The partial continuance of the
modes of business, on a Sunday, is not, in a religious
sense, a neglect of the " Lord's Day," but rather an
attention to personal wants that cannot be wholly dis-
pensed with. With such a deduction from the Bishop's
living as would leave him richer than a christian pastor
was ever designed to be,—how vast a portion of this said
" neglect of the Lord's Day" might be removed ! That
in the crowded haunts of promiscuous society there must
be much of want, vice, profligacy, and irreligion, is as
undeniable as it is irremediable, in a general way of
speaking : but the ministrant causes thereto, and the force
of all inducing example, are deeply laid in the ill-got-
ten gains and corrupt conduct of the higher classes.—
More than half of the misery and want of the metropolis,
may be found in persons, broken down in life ; and who in
other days have furnished to the revenue of well-fed
tyrants, high in office, and other myrmidons of power,
as much of their substance as were now a respectable
competence for life. Vice, as abstracted from want and
poverty, would form a meagre portion of Sabbath-
breakers; for such all persons are denominated, who are
not well-fed and sufficiently clad, to attend places of
public worship. It is even an offence in the nostrils of
extreme piety for the poor to go out in the open air: or
walk in the fields; or bask in the sun-shine. The order
and decorum of silence ; and the absence of unpleasant
objects, are deemed to be necessary to the tranquillity
and zest of the great man's devotions : he must not be
annoyed with unsightly views, or discordant sounds :

44 And when I pray, let no dog bark !
And are thirty thousand pounds a year essential and ne-
cessary to sustain the Christian humility of a true Pastor
of the faith? Or, are not the wily means necessary
amid competition to acquire this monstrous wealth by a
dancing attendance on the pride of greatness, and its
vain glory and ungodliness, rather calculated to under-
mine the Christian character ; and disclose in its stead,
the mere pretender to sanctity, and its forms ? Such pre-
tenders we shall find in the persecutors of the poor sin-
ners against the exteriors of righteousness, whose po-
verty might plead some excuse for the mere want of pa-
rade and ceremony in their public attendance on given
forms of worship.—Sunday Paper.

DREADFUL FIRE IN LOWER SHAD WELL.

About ten o'clock last night a fire of a tremendous na-
ture broke out in the large premises of Messrs. Floyd and
Denby, large coal-merchants, at Bell Wharf, Lower
Shadwell, which in a little time communicated to the
back premises of Messrs. Flynn and Co. the anchor-
smiths, next door, and such was the fury with which the
fire burnt, that in half an hour afterwards the flames were
distinctly seen at Temple Bar.
The large stabling of Messrs. Floyd and Co. including
a large quantity of hay, straw, and corn, and some of
their waggons, as well as a large dwelling-house, with all
the valuable furniture, are completely destroyed. The
stabling and back premises of Messrs. Flynn and Co.
also containing a large quantity of hay and straw, are de-
stroyed, but the dwelling house and the whole of the fur-
niture are not consumed, though greatly damaged. The
horses of the two firms were fortunately saved. The
dwelling-house and premises of Mr. Geddes, the ship-
chandler, have, particularly the warehouse, received much
damage.
From the density of the houses and property in this
neighbourhood, the destruction of valuable premises must,
from the fury of the fire, have been very great, but for
the prompt attendance of the Norwich Union, Sun,
Phoenix, and other engines belonging to the different
Fire-oices, with the firemen, who exerted themselves in
a praiseworthy manner.
The supply of water was very good, and the Sun As-
surance Office floating engine poured large quantities of
water from the river upon the burning flames and adjoin-
ing houses. We learn that the property of Messrs. Floyd
and Denby was insured in the Phoenix and Protector, and
that of Messrs. Flynn and Co. in the Globe Assurance
Offices. It is, under such circumstances, consolatory to
add, that no yes were lost, nor any serious accident oc-
curred on the occasion. The fire was got under by two
o'clock.

THE Two P.'s.—Prince Polignac and Potier, the
actor, are pleasantly whispered to be sons of one father.
We hinted at the origin of the former some time ago, but
did not know that scandal made the player also the son of
a King.
The sister of a celebrated vocalist, who lately was en-
gaged in a theatrical fracas at a royal theatre, is now a
neighbour of an ex-lessee, who sojourns at present under
the management of Marshal Jones. This amiable
nymph has contracted debts to the amount of 2,5001. and
her cruel creditors oblige her to reside on the Surry side
for six weeks. Her hardships during term time are
really affecting ; she pays four shillings per day for a
rule, and rides over London to while away the tedious
hours until eight o'olock, when she returns to her apart-
ments, and sits down to pick a bit of dimmer, composed
of the delicacies of the season. It is to be hope& that
her nerves wiU be sufficiently strong to endure the fa-
tigues of a Court-day in Portugal-strait.