Star.
London, England, 1823-09-09 00:00:00

CRONIES LIE DOWN.

In the summer of I; 9S, many of the Dublin Yeo-
manry Corps wele suspected of treasonable disposi-
tions, and none more strongly than the " Lawyers'
Artillery ;" the members of which were not, however,
exclusively of " the profession." Awaie that his
corps had gotten a bad name, for which there was at
the same time no apparent reason, as every soldier
tinder his command displayed a sufficiently loyal and
enormous queue (to disguise their assumption of the
Republican crop, the United liishmen, in the Spring
of 1795, assumed " false tails"); yet was the Cap-
tain Commandant (a sly old fox—the late Mr. Cald-
beck, an eminent barrister and K.C.) not the man
to be imposed upon by appearances, and he hit
upon an extraordinary expedient to ascertain to
what extent disaffection had extended itself in the
" Lawyers' Artillery," with a view to " reform
it altogether." On a certain day, when the corps
was on parade, he Commandant ordered them
to draw up in a single line--then to " stand at
ease." Soddenly, stooping immediately in front of
his men, he pretended to pick up something from the
ground, then raised at arm's length a false tail, cry-
in
,4 out, with a loud voice and severe aspect, " who
bas lost t! e tail ?" Simultaneously, as if ordered
to perform some movement of the manual exercise,
every man in the corps, with one solitary exception,
raised his right hand w ith a rapid motion to the back
of his held. The whimsical ordeal had completely
succeeded. The corps was marched by its Captain
to the Royal Barrack, where, surrounded by two
regiments of infantry, they were disarmed and di-
vested of their accoutrements ; and the " Lawyers'
Artillery" ceased to be.

POLICE OF THE MET noPor.ts.—Such has been the
preventive effect of the establishment of the.patrol,
that there was not a single night charge at Bow-street
Office either on Saturday or 'Monday morning.

Yesterday morning, a man, dressed very fashion-
ably, called at the residence of Lady Lindsay, in
Leicester-square, and inquired of the. maid-servant
it her Ladyship was within? On being told she was
not, he said he would go up stairs into her apart-
ments, and leave a note for her. The servant in-
cautiously permitted him so to do, and shortly after
he went away. When her Ladyship came home, she
found that her purse had been stolen from a small
depository, containing gold and ,bank-notes to the
amount of £l4O, by this supposed Gentleman.
DI3OOYERY SIIIPS.—A look-out vessel, with provi.
sions, it is understood, will shortly be dispatched to
Lancaster Sound, in search, of Captain PARRY. It is
said that those Northern Seas remain clear of ice until
the winter is somewhat advanced : if this be the case,
it may not yet be too late to make the search; and
perhaps some of the whalers lately returned from
Davis's Straits, which are particularly fitted for, and
used in the navigation of those seas, would be best
calculated for the enterprise.

Our readers know that several of the Bonapartean
Officer, who went off to Spain from this country,
had returned from Corunna before the submission of
General MORILLO; We now can state the important
fact, that a number of these Officers set off two days
ago, on their return to Spain, on board the Royal
George steam-packet. Their destination is Cadiz, or
any other pat of Spain occupied by the Consti-
tutional troops. The packet proceeded from the
River to Portsmouth, and thence to Jersey, which
has lately been the rendezvous of the French refugee
officers.--Sunday Monitor.

NEGRO SLA VERY.—Extract of a letter, dated Nevis,
July 18:—" I am happy to say that the legislature
of this island have anticipated the wishes of the Mi-
nisters, in adopting most of the regulations recom-
mended for the amelioration of the condition of the
r egroes, and have every disposition to concede the
ss hole, as soon as practicable. No change in the con•
duct of the slave population has yet been manifest in
is i:land, in consequence of the late discussions
in Parliament; and 1 am fully of opinion they will
never consider anything that may be done for them
Alb a boon, that has for its foundation the suppression
.4)f their Sunday market, or compelling them to marry.
bltlch, very much. ought to be done in the way of
lii,tructiou, berme these points are enforced. I can
s, cal( dispassionately am the subject, because during
"eighteen years I have been in the West Indies, I have
nes er owned a slave: all my servants have been hired.
The doing away the cart-whip, and changing the name
a the driver to that of Captain. has been merely a
subject of laughter to most of the gangs, at the e%-
per,se of the driver, whom they consider degraded.
'll,ere never was a subject more misunderstood by
the people of England than that of slavery in dle
ttt

• *_,•

NEW LANARK ESTABLISHMENT.

[IL OWEN AND THE PRESBYTERY OF LANARK
AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF SCOTLAND.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.
SI R—.l am highly gratified that a fit opportunity at
length presents itself of adverting to the prejudices
which, for several years past, have been accumulat-
ing in the mind of the Rev. Mr. Menzie4, of Old La-
nark, respecting the establishment at New Lanark ;
and of disabusing the Public of the numerous reports
which, in consequence of those prejudices, he has
deemed it his duty, since the year 1816, to circulate
with great industry, far and near.
It is known to all reflecting men to be a law of our
nature, that when the mind, at an advanced period
of life, is filled with prejudices, the judgment be-
comes obscured, and often worse than useless. This
law of our common nature at once discloses the ori-
gin of the Letter which, fortunately for the cause of
truth and for the improvement of society, Mr. Men-
zies has given to the Public. He is not to be blamed
for it: he is greatly to be pitied on account of his own
feelings : at the same time he is, however unknow-
ingly, the instrument by which much service will be
done to the world. He has no doubt been desirous
of giving the truth, and the whole truth, in the official
statement which he has put forth ; and yet it so hap-
pens that, from the beginning to the en.i, it contains
nothing but error and misrepresentation—to be ac-
counted for only by the extent to which his prejudices
have led his feelings and judgment astray.
It is evident that Mr. Menzies has communicated
his prejudices to the Presbytery of Lanark, and that
the Presbytery of Lanark have transmitted them to
the General Assembly of Scotland: the result is, that
a statement has been concocted, which it must be
melancholy to their friends to hear explained.
I have been publicly accused of excluding. the
Bible from the schools at the Institution for the forma-
tion of character at New Lanark, where little or no
attention is said to be paid to religious instruction; and
of practising delusion and deception on the Public, re-
specting the moral state of that village, the females
of which are accused of being less chaste than others.
It so happens, that these charges are all directly
contrary to fact. I have been long conscious of the
tyranny to which the human mind has everywhere
been subjected, and of the evil thus produced. It is,
therefore, a principle of which I have always been
extremely tenacious, that all my fellow•creatures
should enjoy full liberty of conscience; and I have
been equally scrupulous in not infringing, in my own
practice, upon the conscience of any one. The inhabit-
ants of New Lanark being almost all Calvinists, I
concluded that they would wish their children to be
brought up in this creed. I therefore, from the time
this establishment came under my direction, twenty-
four years ago, have allowed the Scriptures and the
Catechism of the Church of Scotland to be regularly
read and taught in the schools. I have done so solely
in obedience to the general principle I have just
stated ; and I never, for one moment, had the most
distant intention of withdrawing either.
If the inhabitants of the village had been Roman
Catholics, the Scripturvs, on the same principle,
should have been excluded; or, if Jews, the New

Testament should not have been introduced; or, if
they had been Mahomedaps, the Koran should have
been taught: for I hold it not only to be unjust, but
downright despotism and tyranny, to force upon a
people anything contrary to their consciences, or to
withhold from them what they conscientiously be-
lie've to be essential to their religious welfare.
Never for a moment did I suppose that any Mi.
ulster, or body of religious men in this country, could
imagine that 'they had any right to interfere with a
private school, which was in no way whatever under
their jurisdiction, and not even supported by one
Calvinist; nor have they any right: I tell them now,
that they have no mote authority to interfere with the
New Lanark schools than with the arrangements of
my private hou,e; nor have they any to meddle with
the conscience of any one, whether Christian, Jew,
Turk or Infidel, as they may term him. Any of our
fellow-subjects in India have as much right, were
they here, to establish schools for the instruction- of
their children in the Hindoo mysteries, as the General
Assembly of Scotland possess to establish schools to
instruct children in the mysteries of Calvinism; and,
were it otherwise, I for one would leave a country
where such religious despotism prevailed.
But Mr. Menzies, whatever might be his desire,
never ventured to make any such representation to
me, as he states in his letter, respecting the alleged
prohibition of the Scriptures in our schools; nor did
any member of the Presbytery ever mention the sub-
ject to me. These Gentlemen well knew they had no
right to do it. All that ever passed between Mr.
Menzies and myself, on this subject, happened one
day when he was coming into the village, and I was
returning from it. On meeting him, after the usual
salutations and inquiries, he said, " I hear in Lanark,
Mr. Oa en, that you do not allow the Scriptures to
be used in your schools. Is it true?" The question
appeared to sae so very absurd (for I had not then
heard that such an idea had been entertained by any
one), that I replied, with some emphasis, " Mr. Men-
zies, I recommend one general rule to you in these
matters, which is, that you never give any credit to a
report in Old Lanark, respecting the proceedings at
New Lanark, for not one in twenty of them is true ;"
and we immediately separated. Now this is all that
ever passed between Mr. Menzies, or the Presbytery
of Lanark, and myself, on the subject of withdraw-
ing the Scriptures.
The mistake which was so eagerly seized upon by
the enemies of the system which I advocate, was
a very simple one.
I wished to improve the minds of the children in
the schools, by giving them a general knowledge of
Natural History, Geography, and Ancient and Mo-
dern History; and I had made some preparations for
this purpose, and given some general instructions to
the masters on these subjects, just before I set out on
a journey, on which I was likely to be absent some
months. On the morning of my departure, I looked
into the schools, as is my usual practice, to say good
bye to the children, with. whom I spend as much time
as possible when 1 am at home, believing, as I do,
that the right education of the rising generation is
the most important duty that society can perform.—
Just as I was coming away, one of the masters, Mr
Mendell, who is very religiously inclined, said, " If
we give these lessons in Geography and History to
the children, thtre will be little tune to read die Scrip-

/
•

~~

tares, and to teach the Catechism." The latter was
then taught on Saturdays. • I instantly replied, as I
was leaving him, " Then let the Catechism be taught
on the Sabbath, in the Sunday schools." The Sunday
schools are held three times each Sabbath, when the
Scriptures are read, and the Catechism taught. I
heard nothing more on this subject until I met Mr.
Menzies, as I have mentioned, many months after-
wards. It seems the master, with whom alone I had
the conversation, supposed that the Scriptures, as well
as the Catechism, were to be read on Sundays only,
but even this mistake of Mr. Meudell's was rectified
by Mr. Clegg, as soon as he was informed of it, a few
days afterwards, and many months before I heard a
word about the matter. It is probable I should not
have heard that such a mistake had ever occurred, if
the supporters of the old errors of the world had not
thought that it was possible they might make some-
thing of it, to the disadvantage of the New Lanark
establishment : but this attempt, like those which have
preceded it, will only tend to render the new system
better known throughout society, and aid in spreading
'a knowledge of its superior principles and practice.
Mr. Menzies does not come into the schools, except
upon these formal visits of the Committee of Presby-
tery, when agreeably to their arrangements. they only
inquire what unintelligible mysteries the children are
taught, and never ask what real knowltdge they have
acquired. Mr. Menzies is now far more ignorant of
the real state of these schools, which are within a
mile of his house, than a great portion of the intelli-
, gent part of the population of Europe and America.
In consequence of this ignorance, combined with his
prejudices, he is wholly incompetent to give a rational
opinion respecting them.
Now, as to the delusion and deception which these
Reverend Gentlemen allege that I have practised
upon the Public respecting the moral state of the in-
, habitants of New Lanark : it is very possible I may
be prepossessed in favour of these people, although
I do whatever is in my power to overcome, in my
own mind, prejudices of every description, and in
all cases endeavour to draw my conclusions from
facts alone. Thus striving against a strong natural
bias of our nature, I do aver, however, that I have
not seen, in any part of the world in which I have
been, an equal population of working people so uni-
formly industrious, sober, honest, steady, and well
conducted in all respects, as the inhabitants of New
Lanark have been for many years past; and I speak
not lightly upon these points. The population of
New Lanark is now double what it was twenty-four
years ago ; and before that period the Justice of Peace
Court was regularly occupied during a great part of
every sitting in taking cognizance of the petty squab-
bles and malpractices of the villagers; and this business
continued to increase up to the day when my partners
and myself first purchased the Establishment. Now,
it is a subject of surprise to the Magistrates if a single
case comes before them from New Lanark, while,
from the rest of the neighbourhood, they have as much
business as ever. There is also a regular daily regis-
ter kept, of the conduct of every one who is employed
in the mills; this account extends to four degrees of
comparison, viz. excellent, good, indifferent, or bad,
as applicable both to their moral and working cha-
racter: and it gives me pleasure to state, that, for
many years past, more than nineteen out of twenty
have deserved the first character, or excellent ; that
more than nineteen out of twenty of the remainder
have merited the second character, or good ; that the
third character is seldom given to any one for more
than one day; and that the fourth character, or bad,
is scarcely to be found for a single day in the columns
of any department. The appearance of this popu-
lation, as they go to and return from their work, is
quite sufficient to convince any intelligent observer
that the inhabitants of New Lanark are very superior,
in their condition and general conduct, to any other
working population to be found in any part of the
Kingdom. There is no public-house in the village,
nor does any religious aninsosity exist among them;
—from the youngest to the oldest, they exhibit in
their daily practice, a love to Goa and to their neigh-
bour such as I have nowhere else ever witnessed. A
quarrel among the children is a very unusual occur-
rence; and even the youngest are seldom heard to
cry, either in the street or in the schools.
But how should Mr. Menzies know anything of
these people? He scarcely ever visits them, except at
a funeral, a baptism, or a wedding, when he is
obliged to attend. lam told he has not regularly
visited the villagers, in his official capacity, for more
than eight years, arid that he has not examined
his parishioners in New Lanark for more than twenty
years. I know he has not entered the houses of some
of the most constant of his hearers for more than
sixteen years. I believe the real truth to be, that he
found the inhabitants of New Lanark to improve so
rapidly in general good conduct, while he could dis-
cover no material change in any other part of the
parish, that he directed the whole of his ministerial
powers to improve the latter, amongst whom, I hope,
he has had great success. The fact is, he has derived
his information respecting New Lanark, not from
personal inspection, but from the reports of any indi-
viduals whom he could discover to be in any way
disaffected to the establishment, and who were al-
ways sure to experience his countenance and friend-
ship ; more particularly, a poor young woman, who
was for a short time employed in the schools, with a
view to give habits of cleanliness and neatness to the
little girls, but whose usefulness was almost totally
destroyed by an unfortunate propensity to intermed-
dle with everything ; a propensity arising, as it soon
appeared, from a derangement of her faculties on the
subject of religion. This she has already so often
changed, that Tier mind has become entirely unset-
tled, and bereft of all charity for those who may dif-
fer from her present opinions ; as is evident from the
letters which her friends, or rather her enemies, have
induced her to publish respecting New Lanark.
But Mr. Menzies and the Committee of the Pres-
bytery say : " there is one species of vice very preva-
lent at New Lanark—illicit intercourse between the
sexes, as the Parish Records abundantly testify, which
frequently comes under the cognizance of the Pres-
bytery, but which is •not recognised or checked as
such by the principles of Mr. Owen."
There is no single report which Mr. Menzies and
the Committee of- the Presbytery of Lanark havr
been so active in circulating as this. Fortunately;
however, the fact is easily ascertained ; for every ille-
gitimate birth here has been registered for many
years past. When this list comes to be examined,
with reference to the disproportionate number of

--'7'..;

youtl- g fernales who are employed in the mills, inci
when it is considered how the population was first
collected, it must astonish every unprejudiced per-
son, that under such circumstances any female popu-
lation of the same extent, could be trained td be so
chaste and circumspect in their conduct, as the fez
males of New Lanark have been for many years past.
The facts are these :—The ntraiber_of
children, born in the village of New Lanark, for thd
last twelve years is sixty-six; or aVeraging between
five and six a-year. The number of unmarried fea
males liable to such a misfortune is G3O; conse.i
quently the number of illegitimate children born in
New Lanark for twelve years past, does not amount
in the year to one in a hundred of such young per-
sons. Of these, the fathers of 23 belong to the vil-
lage; of nineteen to the town of Old Lanark, and
•
nineteen are strangers. And this the Committee of
the Presbytery calls a prevalent vice at New Lanark:
Truly they seem to have had some difficulty in find-
ing any prevalent vice among them. For my own
part, I
can say that the conduct of the female por- •
tion of our population, as well as that of the inhabit-
ants generally, has been such as I never expected to
see realised in practice, while they were surrounded
by so many unfavourable circumstances as still exist
at New Lanark, one of the greatest of which is, its
vicinity to Old Lanark, and to Mr. Menzies.
To Old Lanark—because it is the usual station for
the Volunteer Corps of the County, when on duty.
And all know how unfavourable a military station is
to female chastity ; and because no rational plan has
yet been adopted in practice, for the proper training
and employment of the population there. And to
Mr. Menzies—because the opinions and sentiments
which he holds, and which he conscientiously consia
ders it his duty to disseminate, are such as cannot fail
to stir up and to foment religious animosities, and to
retard the general introduction of kind, just, and
charitable feelings, which otherwise would have beers
long since established in this district.
In reply to the misrepresentations of the Commit-
tee of the Presbytery of Lanark, I beg leave to inform
them that a more false report of the state of any
school was never before published. I am somewhat
surprised that men possessing good and charitable
principles, could have set their names to a statement
which contains the following sentence :--4‘ The Com-
mittee state with regret that little or no attention
seems to be paid to the religious instruction of the
children of this school." If the Committee had made
themselves acquainted with the real facts, they must
very soon have discovered that the reverse of this state-
ment was peculiarly true, and that there is not the
same number of children to be found in any school
within the British Empire, whose daily practice, for .
many years past, has evinced so thorough a know-
ledge of real religion, not the religion of those Gen-
tlemen certainly, for I should regret extremely if one
of them should ever exhibit the same spirit of disin-
genuousness, and all uncharitabletiess,whizh pervades
the report of the Committee of the Lanark Presby-
tery. I shall now proceed to place the whole subject
in its proper light before the world, for it is too im-
portant to be made a petty question between an indi-
vidual and the Minister and Presbytery of Lanark,
or even the General Assembly of Scotland. The best
interests of society are deeply involved in the issue of
these proceedings.
The Minister of Lanark, the Presbytery of Lanark,
and the General Assembly of Scotland, have led the
Public to suppose " tha: they had been unsuccessful
in resisting Mr.Osven's attempts to exclude the Scrip-
tures from the schools of New Lanark."
The whole of this statement is false;
.there is not a
word of truth in it, for I never, for a moment, had
the most distant idea of withdrawing the Scriptures
from the schools; not indeed because I deem them a
proper school book, but because the parents of the
children have been educated to be Calvinists, and to
think it right that their children should read the Scrip-
tures in school.
The Minister and Committee of the Presbytery of
Lanark say that I have deceived the world as to the
moral state of the village of New Lanark. •
This is false. I have never given to the Public such
a representation of the general good conduct of these
people as their constant, daily, superior behaviour,
would justify.
They charge the population of New Lanark with
being particularly addicted to the vice of illicit in-
tercourse between the sexes.
The statement which I have given proves this to
be an unfounded slander on the character of young
females, whose conduct, under the circumstances in
which they are placed, is most exemplary, and not
to be surpassed, if equalled, by any such population
in the world.
They state " that little or no attention seems to be
paid to the religious instruction of the children in
the schools."
All the inhabitants of NewLanar 14 and all strangers
who have taken the trouble to make themselves ac-
quainted with these schools, know that a more direct
falsehood was never penned ; and I am really sur-
prised that any men could be found to put their names
to a statement which so many thousand persons can
any day disprove.
The Minister and Presbytery of Lanark, and a
majority of the members of the General Assembly of
Scotland, might know that there is not a population
of the same extent, associating every day as the inha-
bitants of New Lanark must do to carry on their oc-
cupations, whose moral and religious character, and
good will and kind conduct to each other, can be pa-
ralleled in any part of the British dominions.
And it is this very superiority that has caused the
ill-will and angry animadversions of these Reverend
Gentlemen; otherwise, they would have found fault
with all those manufacturing establishments in Scot-
land, in which no adequate provision for the educa-
tion of the children is made by the proprietors, where
vice and immorality proceed unchecked, where the
Scriptures are never used on a week day, and where
the illicit intercourse of the sexes is twenty or thirty
fold greater.
I would however again express how strongly I feel
that these Reverend Gentlemen are not to be blamed,
but greatly to be pitied. It is a law of human nature
that children may be trained to believe anything; as
witness the Mabosnedan, Chinese, and Pagan chil-
dren. - Nod, these Gentlemen have been taught from
infancy .that knowledge and true religion and good
conduct can proceed only from 'mysteries, which
...ere forced at that period into their tender minds. I
have long been impressed with contrary nOtiont, and

.!l rS •

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4;"1. to .

{

BOW-STIZ EFT.

have been forced to believe that. theie Gentlemen,
like the children of the Hindoos and Pagans, have
been taught mysteries and not facts, that in conse-
qtience they have been brought up in ignorance, and
trained to force the same ignorance upon others, and
that by reason of this grievous error, ignorance, po-
verty, vice, and misery are unnecessarily perpetuated
among mankind.
My real offence, in their eyes, is that I have consi-
dered it my duty to follow an opposite course to thilt
which they recommend; and that in consequence, the
inhabitants of New Lanark have derived the greatest
benefit, even from the very partial change bf system
which I have introduoed.
1 would here distinctly state my conviction that
the children here, and the population generally, are
as much inferior to what they would become under
a completely rational system of training, that should
surround them with favourable circumstances only,
as they are at present superior in habits, dispositions,
and general information, to the most neglected Indi-
viduals to be found anywhere in society.
My principles I have no wish to disguise. They
are true or false; agreeable to facts or opposed to
them : and I am willing to meet the General Assem-
bly at any time and place they may appoint, for the
purpose of discussing, in an open and friendly man-
ner, those points wherein the principles which.l ad-
vocate may differ from those which they have been
taught to entertain, and which, in consequence, they
deem it their duty to teach to others.
Should these Gentlemen convict me of holding one
principle which is not in strict accordance with every
known fact, or of which the practical application is
not directly calculated to increase the knowledge, the
virtue, and the happiness of mankind, I will at once,
before the world, acknowledge my error. But should
I be able satisfactorily to prove that the system which
1 recommend will soon place every individual be-
yond the reach of poverty, will effectually exclude
temptation to evil, will permanently establish the vir-
tue, and continually promote the happiness of the
world, then shall I expect that the time is arrived
when that reverend body will no longer regard my
advocacy of such a system as an offence, but will
cordially unite with me in rendering their fellow.'
creatures daily and hpurly wiser and happier.
If the General Assembly will not adopt this short
and decisive step, to bring before the tribunal of the!
Public what they must now consider a dangerous
heresy, I must conclude that they are not desirous of
having the principles and practices of the two sys-
tems placed on a fair and open comparison, if fair it
can be called, when every possible advantage is pro-
posed to be given to the old system, and when the'
new shall be advocated against their united learning,
by one unlearned individual.
My extreme anxiety on this subject arises from a
desire that the errors which now prevail in society,
and the miseries which are experienced by so many
millions of our fellow-creatures, even in the British
empire, should not continue to exist one day longer
than is absolutely unavoidable.

New Latuirk, 30Lb August, 1823. ROBERT OWEN.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

TREADMILL SITCULATIONS.—Mr. Cook, a constable of Norfolk,
came to town on Saturday, for the purpose of studying treadmill-
ogrophy, preparatory to the erection of such a machine in his
own constablewick. On Sunday he was invited to dine with the
Governor and study the treadmill at the Brixton House of Cor-
rection. On his way thither, he went into the military chapel at
Whitehall; and whilst there his pocket was picked of his hand-
kerchief by Tam Corduroy--a youth as well versed in treadtnill-
ography ainlzonseyancing as any going. Several persons saw Tom
0 do the trick," and he was instantly handed over to the patrol—
the Norfolk constable undertaking to attend and prosecute, him
before the Magistrate.
Yesterday morning Tom Corduroy was duly brought before
Sir Rica/MD; bat the Norfolk Constable—probably ashamed of
having been initiated into one of , the mysteries of the treadmill
in so uneonstablelike a manner—never made his promised ap-
pearance; and Tops Corduroy was therefore committed underl
the Police Act as a rogste and vagabond, instead of a thief. His
sentence was two months' labour at the treadmill—so the Nor-'
folk Constable may, if he choose, have the satisfaction of study-
ing the operation with a particular interest.
A Nice Pona.—Yeiterday a hackney-coachman appeared to
answer the complaint of a Gentleman for charging two shillings
as his fare from near the end of Bedford-street, in the Strand, to
Buckingham-gate.
Sir RICHARD BIRNIE thought the coachman was right, and
recommended the parties to put down live shillings each to have
it measured. Coachee complied, but the Gentleman thought it
-better to bear the evils that be had than to Sy to others that be
knew not of. The Gentleman was asked if he had not had it
measured? but he made no reply,
.until he was called on to pay
the expenses; when, taking out his purse, he dropped the money
into coachee's dark brown fist; at the same time observing, in
contemplative mood—" Two shillings the fare, and two shillings
the summons, and two shillings now, make six shillings which
this confounded job has cost me."
• Thanlee Sir," said coachee—thrusting the money into his
pocket—" and the ground is just sir yards over the mark."
• —Which unfortunate six yards have cost you, Sir, just
one shillingper yard !" added his Worship. •