The distress for change has produced a curious remedy. Every man is now his own banker. Go to the theatres and places of public amusement, and, instead of change, you receive an I. O. U. from the treasury. At the hotels and oyster-cellars it is the same thing. Call for a glass of brandy and water, and the change is fifteen tickets, each "good for one glass of brandy and water." At an oyster-shop, eat a plate of oysters, and you have in return seven tickets, good for one plate of oysters each. It is the same every where. The barbers give you tickets, good for so many shaves; and were there beggars in the street, I presume they would give you tickets in change, good for so much philanthropy. Dealers, in general, give out their own bank-notes, or, as they are called here, shin plasters, which are good for one dollar, and from that down to two and a-half cents, all of which are redeemable, and redeemable only upon a general return to cash payments. Hence arises another variety of exchange in Wall Street. "Tom, do you want any oysters for lunch today?"-Yes!" Then here's a ticket, and give me two shaves in return." [Among the causes of the crash was the illimitable Speculation in Land.] The city of New York, which is built upon a narrow island about ten miles in length, at present covers about three miles of that distance, and has a population of 300,000 inhabitants. Building lots were marked out for the other seven miles; and, by calculation, these lots when built upon, would contain an additional population of one million and three-quarters. They were first purchased at from 100 to 150 dollars each, but, as the epidemic raged, they rose to upwards of 2,000 dollars. At Brooklyn, on Long Island, opposite to New York, and about half a mile distant from it, lots were marked out to the extent of fourteen miles, which would contain an extra population of one million, and these were as eagerly speculated in. At Staten Island, at the entrance into the Sound, an estate was purchased by some speculators for 10,000 dollars, was divided into lots, and planned as a town to be called New Brighton; and had the whole of the lots been sold at the price for which many were, previous to the crash, the original speculators would have realized three million of dollars. But the infatuation was not confined to the precincts of New York: everywhere it existed. Sea-serpent and Lobsters. Since I have been here (Boston), I have made every inquiry relative to the seaserpent which frequents this coast alone. There are many hundreds of most respectable people, who, on other points, would be considered as incapable of falsehood, who declare they have seen the animals, and vouch for their existence. It is rather singular that in America there is but one copy of Bishop Pontoppidon's work on Norway, and in it the sea-serpent is described, and a rough wood-cut of its appearance given. In all the American newspapers a drawing was given of the animal as described by those who saw it, and it proved to be almost a fac-simile of the one described by the bishop in his work. Now that we are on marine matters, I must notice the prodigious size of the lobsters off Boston coast: they could stow a dozen common English lobsters under their coats of mail. My very much respected friend Sir Isaac Coffin, when be was here, once laid a wager that he would produce a lobster weighing thirty pounds. The bet was accepted, and the admiral despatched people to the proper quarter to procure one: but they were not then in season, and could not be had. The admiral, not liking to lose his money, brought up, instead of the lobster, the affidavits of certain people that they had often seen lobsters of that size and weight. affidavits of the deponents he submitted to the other party, and pretended that he had won the wager. The case was referred to arbitration, and the admiral was cast with the following pithy reply," Depositions are not lobsters." American Curiosity. The especially the mob: they cannot bear anyThe Americans are excessively curious, thing like a secret,--that's unconstitutional. It may be remembered, that the Catholic convent near Boston, which had existed many years, was attacked by the mob and pulled down. I was inquiring into the cause of this outrage in a country where all forms of religion are tolerated; and an American gentleman told me, that although other reasons had been adduced for it, he fully believed, in his own mind, that the majority of the mob were influenced more by curiosity than any other feeling. The convent was sealed to them, and they were determined to know what was in it. "Why, sir," continued he, “I will lay a wager that if the authorities were to nail together a dozen planks, and fix them up on the common, with a caution to the public that they were not to go near or touch them, in twenty-four hours a mob would be raised to pull them down and ascertain what the planks contained." I mention this conversation, to shew in what a dexterous manner this American gentleman attempted to palliate one of the grossest outrages ever committed by his countrymen. Periodicals. A PICNIC FROM THE JULY MAGAZINES. Inns of Court Hall Dinners.-The Inner Temple professes to receive the rich and great more exclusively, and accordingly the legal bill of fare at that inn is recherché in a high degree-nothing plain ever being put upon the tables, and French cookery preferred. The strictest silence is enjoined in this Hall during the whole time of gastronomic study, hob-nobbing being interdicted as low, and no further intercourse permitted among the several members of the mess, than an occasional scowl transmitted from one side of the table to the other, after the manner of the English who have not the honour of one another's acquaintance, and who, consequently, have an undoubted right to assume every stranger to be a pickpocket, until there is good evidence to the contrary. In the Inner Temple Hall it is understood that you may, in a case of great emergency, ask your neighbour for the salt; but it is also understood that he is not obliged to let you have it. It will be advisable that the young and inexperienced student should not venture to hazard an observation upon the weather in the Hall, that being here considered an indirect attempt to make your neighbour's acquaintance, which he very properly resents by staring you earnestly in the face, and buttoning up his breeches' pockets. The Middle Temple is of a different temperament, as "The Inner for the rich, the Middle for the poor." And here accordingly the course of professional education is confined to the scrag-end of a neck of mutton, and occasionally griskins. The consequences of this meagre course of study may be easily predicted; and the fact is well ascertained, that the Middle Temple has given to the world fewer great men, and these at longer intervals than any of the other Inns of Court. How indeed could it be otherwise? What professional acumen can be derived from the scrag-end of a neck of mutton, or what inspiration can the sinking advocate imbibe from griskins?—Blackwood. French Diligences. -Curious it is to see those gaunt Holbein-looking horses, scampering away under the thundering blows of the gnarled whip-handle, or suddenly halting, or rolling groggily to one side, or shuffling knee-deep in dust, of their own raising, dragging their little friend, the associated donkey, through it,—such as these, and many others, meet or pass you in long succession, two, three, four at a time, with right jovial crews inside, who sing, smoke, and make the most of their short drive; while at the distance of several miles off, o'er canopied and emerging each from its cloud, the towering roof, the herculean build, and the approaching thunder of rival diligences freighted from England and Boulogne, approach, arrive, and concessions of the road, leaving the and pass with all the honours, privileges, cloud of dust which has dredged us like millers, to be slowly dissipated.-Blackwood. Abury and Stonehenge. On June 13, Mr. Rickman communicated to the Society of Antiquaries an Essay, containing some important arguments, tending to shew that the era of Abury and Stonehenge cannot reasonably be carried back to a period antecedent to the Christian era. After tracing the Roman road from Dover and Canterbury through Noviomagus and London to the West of England, he noticed that Silbury is situated immediately upon that road, and that the avenues of Abury extend up to it, whilst their course is referable to the radius of a Roman mile. From these and other circumstances, he argued that Abury and Silbury are not anterior to the road, nor can we well conceive how such gigantic works could be accomplished, until Roman civilization had furnished such a system of providing and storing food as would supply the concourse of a vast multitude of people. Mr. Rickman further remarked, that the temple of Abury is completely of the form of a Roman amphitheatre; which would accommodate about 48,000 spectators, or half the number contained in the Colosseum, at Rome. Again, the stones of Stonehenge have exhibited, when their tenons and mortices have been first exposed, the workings of a well-directed steel point, beyond the workmanship of barbarous nations. It is not mentioned by Cæsar or Ptolemy, and its historical notices commence in the fifth century. On the whole, Mr. Rickman is induced to conclude that the era of Abury is the third century, and that of Stonehenge the fourth, or before the departure of the Romans from Britain; and that both are examples of the general practice of the Roman conquerors to tolerate the worship of their subjugated provinces, at the same time associating them with their own superstitions and favourite public games.—Ĝentleman's Magazine. [The above we take to be a very sensible conjecture; though we fear its effect upon the author of Cæsar and the Britons. The silence of the Commentaries upon Abury and Stonehenge, more especially in the account of Druidism, is almost confirmation of the non-existence of these monuments in Caesar's time.], Public Amusements.-Sixty years since, the Mall, in St. James's Park, continued the fashionable promenade in the evening. The Mall is now only useful as a thoroughfare from Whitehall to Pimlico, and evening promenade there is none; for the strongest possible reason, that the class of persons who give the tone to society, dine at the hour at which their grandfathers supped, and dress for dinner at the period when their ancestors, two centuries since, were undressing for bed. But the beautiful garden which has superseded the swampy meadow, and the Dutch canal, within the enclosure, is thronged in the summer evenings with those who have dined, and enjoy themselves quite as much as those who have not, and affords a new source of amusement to the public, and keeps a multitude of pleasure-hunters away from the suburban tea-gardens and bowling-greens, which, within the last quarter of a century, were so popular with the subjects of Cockaigne. The promenades of the fashionable world have taken altogether a new character. Science and art are essential to its commonest recreations. Gardens, to be attractive, must be filled with "bears, lions, and all that." The characters and dispositions of otters and ostriches, the habits of the hippopotamus, the manners and customs of monkeys, and baboons, and the domestic history of the giraffe, the family of which has been so recently favoured with an addition, form the subject of conversation for our young ladies, as a refined medium, through which they may hear the soft nonsense of their attendant swains; and, in order to give the whole affair a more striking effect with the multitude, they select the Sabbath-day for the exhibition, at the same time excluding " the people" from a participation in their amusements-all days in the week being alike to the rich and great, and Sunday being the only day in which the mechanic and artisan has leisure to see anything beyond the ken of his workshop, or breathe a purer air than its heated atmosphere. Then it is right to make periodical visits to Chiswick, in pursuit of the science of horticulture; and medals and vases, and a variety of desirable objects, are presented to such ladies and gentlemen as are able to produce the largest larkspur, the prettiest pink, or the loveliest lily of the season. For seeing this, ten shillings are most properly paid at the door, in order to keep up the funds, out of which, perhaps, it may be right to say, as it seems almost the wisest part of the affair, the governors and "council" are supplied with the finest vegetables at the lowest rate. Another fashion has recently obtained; that of taking walks of pleasure in the burying-grounds in the vicinity of the metropolis which occupy the most agreeable situations, and command the finest views. This fashion is considered most advantageous to the gaiety, health, and morality, of the people, and is held by those who participate in its pleasures, to be what the dramatist calls "deadly-lively." All these things are new within the last quarter of a century. Formerly, Kensington Gardens were quite good enough for the Sunday promenade, which was open for all respectable persons who delighted in mingling with those with whom they could not elsewhere be associated-now nobody goes to Kensington Gardens, except to hear one of the splendid bands of the household cavalry regiments playand this is always on what is called "a week day," and lest anybody beyond the chosen few should benefit by the amusement, the day, and even the hour of the performance is kept a secret from all but what Mrs. Trollope calls "La Créme," as closely and seriously as was, in the days of pugilism, the place at which the fight was to come off. The custom of hazard-playing was discontinued after the accession of George III.; but, it is odd enough upon looking backwards only eighty years, to find the sovereign, after attending divine service with the most solemn ceremony in the morning, doing that in the evening, which, in these days, subjects men to all sorts of pains and penalties; and for the prohibition and detection of which, a bill, now before parliament, is to arm the police with the power of breaking into the houses of her Majesty's lieges at all hours of the day and night.-[From a shrewd but pleasant paper in the New Monthly Magazine, "we guess" by the accomplished editor.] Punch Song :-From the German. Four noble elements, With the sugar-cane's milk, froin The universe wide. The wine-press his throne, Giveth alone. Quick, ere he vanisheth, While yet glows the nectar, Drink deep of his wave-Fraser. Varieties. An old Friend.-The Editor of the Gentleman's Magazine lately received a letter, signed "A Subscriber from the commencement!" The Magazine, it will be remembered, commenced in 1731! Lincoln's Inn.-On the evening of the coronation-day of our gracious Queen, the Benchers of Lincoln's Inn gave the students a feed; when a certain profane wag, in giving out a verse of the national anthem, which he was solicited to lead in a solo, took that opportunity of stating a grievance as to the modicum of Port allowed, in manner and form following: "Happy and glorious" Three half-pints 'mong four of us, Heaven send no more of us, God save the Queen! which ridiculous perversion of the author's meaning was received with a full chorus, amid tremendous shouts of laughter and applause.-Blackwood. Kean's Monument.-In "the Thames and its Tributaries," in Bentley's Miscellany, the inscription on Kean's monument is stated to be, "To the memory of Edmund Kean: erected by his son, Charles Edmund Kean, 1839:" whereas, the precise words are those in our engraving of the tablet, at page 209. We more than suspect, too, the boatman's information— that £800 has been collected at Richmond towards the erection of a monument to Kean. Ecarté is but a refined edition of "allfours." Whitebait. Theodore Hook likens whitebait, when served up, unto silkworms in batter. is Patagonian Burials. — The corpse placed in a square pit (where others have been deposited), in a sitting posture, adorned with marbles, plumes of feathers, and beads. The spurs, sword, balls, &c. of the deceased, are laid beside him, and the pit covered with a high conical pile of dried twigs and branches, decorated with red flags, bells, cloth, &c. The favourite horse is afterwards killed, and sometimes more than one. They are skinned and stuffed, and propped up on sticks, (for legs,) with the head towards the grave. The clothes of the deceased are burnt; and to finish all, a feast is made of the horseflesh. Southampton Railway.-When the line is completed, the mails will be conveyed the whole distance, 764 miles, in 3 hours. Ascot Races-On the golden cup day, May 30, there were carried by the Great Western Railway, 7,559 persons, and the receipts were 1,3931. 8s.; and for the week, 23,519 passengers, and receipts, 4,0871. 128. 2d.-Railway Magazine. A Correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine observes: "with reference to the names ending with-cock, Luke Badecot was Sheriff of London, 1266. It is possible, after all, that Badcock may be the corruption of this surname, originating from, not a shocking bad hat,' but a shocking bad coat." Buffon wrote his Epoque de la Nature at the age of seventy, and had it re-copied eighteen times. The Stomach.-In the human machine all is sympathy; and no organ can go wrong without the rest, sooner or later, paying the piper. But this being the case, it is of consequence to remember that the stomach is the common terminus of all these sympathies; and as the spider, sitting in the centre of its web, feels the remotest impact in its wide-spread machinery, so does the stomach, communicating with head, heart, lungs, and skin, partake in all the disturbances which occur in those distant parts.-New Monthly Magazine. Journal of the Statistical Society of London Registration.-The new Number of the contains an analyis of the First Report of the Registrar-General on Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England; 1837-8. It is impossible, (observes the Journal,) to appreciate too highly the value of the information contained in this Report. One of the great advantages which it possesses, is, that the facts are given as well as the deductions, by which means the latter may be tested, and the former be employed for the purposes of new comparisons and calculations. When the system of registration shall have been perfected throughout the country, more particularly with respect to births, and when the census of 1841 shall have been taken, as we hope it will be, in as perfect a manner as circumstances will admit, we shall possess a mass of statistical data relating to our population, which will open a new and vast field of improvement to the legislator, the actuary, and the physician; and is calculated to bring about results of important advantage, not only to this country, but to the whole human race. Odd Review.-The Metropolitan thus notices a medical work: "We do not like the manner in which our author has blended revelation with secretions, and christian faith with diseased kidneys." The Rose-Theophrastus describes roses, which have not a pleasant smell; wherefore, some classical writers have gone so far as to say that he, Theophrastus, never saw a rose, which we take to be a very reasonable opinion. Democritus says that if a rose-tree be watered twice every day, with warm water, in the middle of summer, it will bear flowers in the month of January. We hope the old fellow is not laughing at us. Lord Brougham's Errata.-In his lordship's Historical Sketches of Statesmen, just published, at p. 378, first series, he asserts that the Empress Catherine purchased D'Alembert's Library. It was Diderot's; for which she paid him 100,000 livres. Again, (p. 400,) his lordship assigns the character of Portuguese ambassador to Don Pantaleon Sa, who was executed in 1654, under Cromwell, for murder; and indeed Hume, vol vii. p. 254, states that he was joined by his brother in the commission; but that document, when produced at the trial, proved only a written promise that he should succeed his brother in the office. His lordship's assertion, therefore, is too broad and unsupported; particularly when we learn that the unhappy young man was not above nineteen years old. (See State Trials, vol. v. p. 461, quoted by Lingard xi. 176.) In the report of the omniscient lord's speech on the State of Ireland, on the 22nd of last month, it is stated that, in his recollection, no English king had visited that island from John to George IV., except William III., rather in a military than a royal capacity. His lordship forgot the two journeys of Richard II. the first in 1394, so vividly narrated by Froissard (livre iv. chap. 62); and the second in 1399, of which we have a translation by George, Earl of Totness, from the French of one of Richard's attendants. The writer does not include James II.'s residence there, as it was posterior to his expulsion from the British throne. Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1839. Criticism.—The Monthly Chronicle for the present month contains a review of "Books of the Season," upon a scale which we often see attempted, but very rarely carried out with success. We know there is a convenient mode current among critics, of clanning or classifying new books, and dispatching their merits as the doctor directed his assistant to attend the patients, by physicking the whole ward,or dealing with the books in a line or two. But the paper in the Monthly Chronicle is not of this description: it extends to sixteen pages of large type, and notices, or rather characterizes, fifty-four books in a sort of panoramic view, " as much as the reader is likely to desire, or, in this age of activity, can be expected to have leisure to enjoy." The notices are brief in letter, but comprehensive in spirit; and they reduce "into a succinct form the final impressions left by a careful examination of each work." We believe, after all, (adds the Editor), that this kind of criticism, as applied, at least, to the bulk of the productions of the day, is more useful in its results than that minute and exhausting process which, in such instances, exhibits a wasteful expenditure of time and power, the consequences of haste rather than deliberation. We repeat that the execution of this plan is admirable, and we hope the Editor will, from time to time, thus strike his critical balance with his readers; though we are recommending a system which we regret time will not allow us to introduce into our own little "world" for the specimen before us must prove abundantly entertaining, and very serviceable to a large circle of readers. Shakspeare. The season at Covent Garden Theatre closed on the 16th inst., and with it also terminated the management of Mr. Macready. The house was filled with the admirers of this truly classic actor, and long, loud, and heartfelt were the many recognitions of his high merits during the evening. The play was King Henry the Fifth, the last and perhaps the most effective of the recent tasteful revivals of Shakspeare. After its close, Macready appeared before the admirable Shakspearean drop-scene, by Smirke, and was received with boundless enthusiasm: he was greeted with a shower of floral honours, and we counted upon the stage upwards of thirty bouquets, besides wreaths of laurel, &c. His address was in excellent taste: it was courteously yet earnestly delivered, well-timed, and altogether impressive; but we regretted to hear, that the "sacrifices" required by the proprietors of the Theatre would not allow Macready to continue in the management. Much as we regret his retirement, we think he has acted with becoming firmness. In two little years, he has done more to cherish the dramatic art than his immediate predecessors have effected in many seasons: we admire his zeal, we honour his genius, and as he gracefully withdrew from the scene of his triumphs, fervently did we add our viva! for the adornment and exaltation of his ennobling art. Birmingham.-One of the days of the celebrated" Riots" of 1791 was July 15, on the anniversary of which day the outbreak took place in the present week. LONDON: Published by GEORGE BERGER, Holywell Street, Strand. Printed by WHITEHEAD & Co. 76, Fleet Street, where all Communications for the Editor may be addressed. |