The Sun. — 1847-07-06 (London, England)

DOUGLAS JERROLD.  Anxiously did we look forward to the appearance of the July number of this magazine, and sorely have we been disappointed. Notwithstanding the fair promises of last month, Juniper Hedgehog has not yet made his appearance. " Drat that cabman, where can he be staying." We have, however, en revanche an admirable " Voice from the Crowd in a Steam-boat," by Angus B. Reach, from which we extract the following, which we commend to the earnest attention of the Corporation of London in general, and of Sir Peter Laurie in particular : " In the cold days of early spring—when east wind and drenching sleet and rain come lashing down our London streets—and when nobody will dare the icy blasts of the river who has got a shilling to pay for a cab, or twopence for an omnibus, or who is provided with a couple of useable legs to walk withal—when the steamers ply up and down, dripping and deserted things one shapeless mass of oil-skins at the wheel, another on the paddle-box—then it is that the Corporation of London suddenly wake up to the danger of over-crowded and too-fast-driven boats. An enthusiastic discussion accordingly takes place in the Common Council or the Court of Aldermen, and a code of bye-laws of terrific severity is forthwith drawn up and established, menacing with horrible pains and penalties the reckless skippers who shall dare to contravene them. The whole proceeding looks severe and determined. Nervous people nod their heads approvingly, and say, All right now—the Lord Mayor has taken the thing up in a proper spirit. These fellows won't be overloading their boats again in a hurry.' Alas—deluded folks ! Wait a bit. Blazing summer comes—and sweltering London rushes on the river. Where are the City bye-laws then? Where are the informers who were to work them—where the stipulations allotting to each passenger a certain cubic space upon the deck? Gone—melted with the hot weather— leaving the City statute-book a tabula rasa for the inscription of the same farce at the commencement of the next mayoralty. And yet, Heaven knows, if the nuisance be still uncorrected, it is not for want of nuisance • mongers and grievance-hunters in the community. Only these gentlemen are eternally catching wrong sows by the ear. They are the cranes who wage war with the pigmies. A parcel of ragged urchins playing pitch-andtoss with dilapidated buttons in an alley—an advertising van or two ; not half such an obstacle in a crowded thoroughfare as a sheriffs broad-wheeled waggon, and not a tithe so ugly in its gaudiness as that worshipful functionary's official coach—a dozen or two of emancipated mechanics and maids-of-all-work enjoying themselves in the merry go-rounds at the foot of Primrosehill ; or a knot of hard-working, honest, men, scouring their skins in a cheap bath and washhouse—such are the objects which the nuisance-mongers—or rather the superlative nuisance-monger— of the day delights to show his vigilance in rooting up and exhibiting to the gaze of a world—by no means so very much scandalised at the spectacle. Sir Peter Laurie is—as everybody knows—a pestilent busybody, always deep in some mare's nest or other, and yet occasionally making a blundering step—more by chance than anything else—in the right direction. Now, here is a chance for him. Let him take to the steam-boat nuisance. He flatters himself that he has put down suicide ; let him try his hand at putting down a system which may result in occasioning as many deaths in a moment as the mania for self-slaughter does in a twelvemonth. Let him forsake Primrose-hill on the Sunday afternoons, and take his stand on Hungerford-bridge—let him observe the cram, the squeeze of jostling men and women, hurrying, in unthinking, merry masses, on board the rocking and unstable boats—let him observe the conduct of the steam-boat functionaries jamming the live cargoes on board as though they were packing cotton into a bale— let him observe the sickly sway of the boats, as each slowly moves away, groaning under its weight of human flesh—let him see all this, and let him remember, that all this is perpetrated in defiance of the magnates of the City, and their solemnly recorded regulations—let him observe that the interpretation put upon the City byelaws seems to be that they are laws for the City to give the go-by to, and if, out of such materials, he cannot erect a grievance of the first magnitude—cannot carve a nuisance of the first water—then will I be content to be on board the first steamer which pitches its living masses head over heels, to drown in Thames water, and to rot in Thames mud." " The Dreamer and the:Worker," which is now acknowledged to be from the pen of the author of " Orion,' Mr. R. H. Horne, is continued, but the andau l Bellrgives l . 111; 1 801 l furnishes ariyn tmpaakpeesr bount t tTI eh pe r csgerue ssos "Young p and lvatson,detailing the first oseries of entitledthe es es escapes Y tandevetnimtuereswohfiethheelahpesreodobfettlwieeebnphafiiseledsscaripoets, fromd theuring_ constables on the 2d December, 1816, and his arrival in America. This promises to be a valuable contribution to the materials gradually accumulating for a history of the Regency. " Club Crotchets and Cheap Comforts" contain hints well worthy the attention of the managers of the Whittington Club ; and the " Converted Man" is, we fear, an overtrue picture of what too often takes place in society. Notwithstanding the absence of Juniper Hedgehog, this is a good number of Douglas Jerrold.