Star.
London, England, 1824-09-07 00:00:00

played, el leaven instead of yeast, and seawater was used
:as a subititute for salt ; our bakehouse was contiguous
to the sea, an arm of which wa.hed its walls, and here
' first became acquainted with the use of salt water in
the making of bread. The bakehouse contained six
evens, each of which at a batch baked seven hundred
and twenty pounds of bread, and four of these batches
were drawn in tuenty•four hours. The daily consump-
tion of flour and its appendages were forty-eight sacks,
that is to say, a mixture of wheat, barley, rye, oats,
beans, peas, &c. Now it requires four pounds of salt
to work a sack of flour into bread, and as the Contrac-
tor used salt water, the gift of the elements, in lieu of
salt, he pocketed the value of one hundred and ninety-
two pounds of salt, or ninety-five thousand eight hun-
dred and eighty-eight pounds sterling during the period
of the thirteen lunar months of his contract ! What a
fraud upon the revenue! What wickedness towards
the poor prisoners, whom Government required to be
duly nourished, and for which a remunerating price
was most punctually paid. The fact was, that we were
unable to eat a morsel of the bread ourselves."

( To be continued.)

IMPROVEMENTS OF THE AGE.

Amongst all the improvements of the age, none per-
haps are more striking than those which have recently
been made, and indeed are at present making, in the
language of ordinary life ; it is not merely by the intro-
duction of foreign words and phrases into the English
tongue, or the designation of places of amusement, or
shops, or carriages, by alien titles, that this great alter-
ation is working, but by the adoption of figurative
phraseology and elegant expressions, which bid fair to
rival the former foppery of Eupheuism.
Who in these days ever reads of boarding-schools?—
nobody : they are transformed into academies for bays
and seminaries for girls—the higher classes are " Estab-
lishments; a coach-maker's shop is a " Repository for
Carriages;" a milliner's a 44 Depot ;" a thread-seller's an
" Emporium." One buys drugs at a 0 Medical Hall,"
wines of a " Company," and shoes at a " Mart;" black-
ing is dispensed from an " Institution," and meat from
a 44 Purveyor." These have long been evident it is
true ; but we disregard them all in comparing the effect
likely to be produced upon society by the adoption of
such gross absurdities, with that which probably will
result from the introduction into the language itself-of
others still more glaring.
For instance, instead of reading, that after a ball the
company did not go away till daylight, we are told
that " the joyous group continued tripping on the light
fantastic toe until Sol gave them warning to deparr. If
one of the company happened on his way to tumble
into a ditch, we should be informed that " his foot
slipped, and he was immersed in the liquid element."
A good supper is described as snaking the 44 tables
groan with every delicacy of the season." A crowd of
briefless lawyers, unbeneficed clergymen, and half.pay
officers, are enumerated as a " host of fashion" at a
watering-place, where we are also informed that ladies,
instead of taking a dip before breakfast, " plunge them-
selves fearlessly into the bosom of Neptune." _
A sheep killed by lightning is a thing unheard of;
the animal may be destroyed by the "electric fluid;'
but even then we should not be told that it was dead:
we should be informed that " the vital spark had fled
for ever." If the carcase were picked up by a carpen-
ter or shoemaker, we never should hear that a journey-
man tradesman had found it; we should be told that its
remains had been discovered by an 44 operative artisan."
All little girls, be their faces ever so plain, pitted, or
pitiable, if they appear at a public office to complain of
robbery, or ill-treatment, are invariably " intelligent
and interesting ;" if they have proceeded very far in
crime, they are called " unfortunate females r should
they by any accident have a prospect of becoming
mothers, we are informed " that they are in a way
that ladies wish to be who love their lords." Child-
murder is elegantly termed " infanticide ;" and when
it is punished capitally, we hear, not that the unnatural
mother was hanged, but that " the unfortunate culprit
underwent the last sentence of the law, and was
launched into eternity."
No person reads in the newspapers that a house has
been burnt down; he perhaps will end " that the house
fell a sacrifice to the flames." In an account of a launch
we learn, not that the ship went off the slip without any
accident, but that " she glided securely and majestically
into her native element, the said native element being
one in which the said ship never was before.
To send for a surgeon if one's leg be broken, is out
of the question ; a man indeed " may be dispatched for
medical aid."

There are now no public singers at tavern dinners—
they are " the professional Gentlemen ;" and actors are
all " professors of histrionic art." A kept-mistress is
not to be found from Grosvenor-place to Bethnal Green:
they are " Ladies living under the protection of Gen-
tlemen." Widows themselves are scarce : they are all
" interesting relicts ;" and as for nursery maids, they are
now-a-days universally transformed into "young persons
who superintend the junior branches of the family." -
These little delicacies and refinements appear to us to
threaten the plain, sensible, straightforward language
of John Bull; and however sweet to double-refined
minds, and however charming in very polite society, are
in plain narratives and public papers contemptiblyabsurd.

Friday se'nnight, a melancholy accident happened on
the road between Kilmacolm and Port-Glasgow. A
noddy with two Gentlemen, which was driven by Alex-
ander M'Donald, of the Port-Glasgow Inn, was coming
down Clune Brae, when one of the wheels struck a large
stone projecting from the side of the road, and such
was the concussion that the driver was unfortunately
thrown head foremost out of his seat, and pitching with
great violence upon his head, almost instantly expired.
The coach proprietors in all parts of the country
have sustained great losses is horses from the excessive
heat of the weather during the last week; and it ap-
pears the London coach-rpasters are not a ithout their
share. We have heard of one who, on Thursday, lost
four valuable horses; another two; another two in one
stage only.
A poor man named Pocock, who lived near the Bull
and Pump public-house, in Coleham, near Shrewsbury,
on ‘Vednesday returned from his work unwell. Next
day, he set off to his business, but was compelled to
return. His wife left him, and went out leasing. When
she was reproached for so doing, she answered, He is
a rogue, and when I go home I will turn him out of the
Louse." It appears that she did so ; for the unfortu-
nate man was found next morning laid on the grass in
an adjoining field. In this state be was again left next
day (Friday) by his wife, who again went out leasing.
Early on Sunday morning he expired. Not long ago a
child of this woman's was left alone in the house,. when
it drank out of a boilicz tea-kettle, and expired.