nothing of carrying one's own bundle, like the Honourable Dick Dowlas, is worthy of the worthy Dean himself. But the aggravation of the after-hint, that the Centurion ought to have walked up from Dover, Tewkesbury, or Wolverhampton, is Swift all over. "Avoid coach or cab hire at all times, and even stage hire." The next advice is quite in keeping, and reminds one of those hopeless errands which are undertaken on the first of April. It recommends a walk towards the west side of Berners Street, in search of nothing less than two rooms in a second floor, for five or six shillings a week. We wish he may get it. The sparrows might well perch on the chimney-pots of such apartments and cry cheep cheep! But the next bargain floors even the second floor :"A feather-bed and mattress, four bed-room chairs, a deal table (painted), bolster, pillow, wash-hand-stand, and French (painted) bed-stocks. You may have all these for four pounds." This rarest of dealers lives near the Marsh Gate, Westminster, and a note very archly adds, "there is only

There is something of Swift again in the unchariness about chairs-four to a single man is playing rather a high game, as he must lose three at every sitting. But the next rule for retrenchment beats Jonathan ! "A walk before breakfast will give you an appetite." Gad-'a-mercy! A morning hunt after hunger! As if a man of a hundred per annum had nothing better to do than to strop a fine edge to his stomach. "Proceed at once to No. 34, Brewen Street, Golden Square: you may there breakfast for sixpence, bread, butter, a plate of cold meat, and a large cup of excellent coffee!-what think you of that?" We think it might do-bating the walk against the wind for a cheap dinner, and quite believe, after such a meal, in the five places where you may dine for a shilling.

The next piece of sly fun concerns shoc-leather. We have

heard of standing jokes, but this is a walking one, and involves a dexterous hit at Mr. Hume and his division of

sum tottles." The Economist allows two pounds a year for shoes; but in a note-as good as a bank note for comicality -directs them to be bought of Reeve, Great Russell Street, at 128. a pair. Product, three pairs and a third. The joke, as yet, is only a fabric of two stories-but, as Sheridan was wont, the author proceeds to give its attic; and the man with six shoes and a fraction is commended to "a pedestrian tour to Hastings in one direction, or Southampton and the Isle of Wight in another." This is surely whimsical work! But, to crown the burlesque, conceive the Economist with all his gravity to invite the Centurion to all this gaiety: the Cigar Divan, the Colosseum, the Zoological Gardens, and the Diorama, to Richmond, to Gravesend, to Herne Bay, and back to see Kean, Macready, Young, Farren, Liston, Reeve, Miss Phillips, Miss Kemble, Miss Coveney, Taglioni, to hear Madame Vestris, Miss Cawse, Mrs. Wood, Pasta, Nicholson, Paganini, to give a shilling on a Sunday morning at the Magdalen, and a ditto at the Philanthropic in the evening, to subscribe to the London and Russell Institutions. To conclude, having six shoes and a third, the Economist, laughing in his sleeve, thus commends him to his chance among the pumps. "There are very respectable dancing masters, who give public balls during the winter, and if you are particularly fond of the art, you may for a trifle procure admission. A rich girl and a good one too, may sometimes be met with at these assemblies, and she may not be much more difficult to win than Lady Anne."

REVIEW.

HOW TO KEEP HOUSE; OR, COMFORT AND ELEGANCE ON £150 TO £200 A YEAR. Griffiths.

THIS is a companion to the Book of Economy written in the same spirit of fun, and affording the same broad laugh at the expense of a narrow income. The Economist here directs a brace of housekeepers with 2007. a year, how to live upon 1977. 13s. 9d. or 2l. 6s. 3d. within their means; and in doing this you have, as usual, a proportion of Swift to swallow.

Mrs. Glasse, in her directions for hare-dressing, begins, "first catch your hare," and accordingly the wag slips his young couple of housekeepers after a house. It must be low, but not in a low neighbourhood-not to exceed 30%. a year; and, as firing off a practical joke, this is one of the author's great guns. Armed with this thirty-pounder, he directs the unfortunate house-hunter to beat about Paddington, Kensington, Kennington, Brixton, Kentish Town, Hackney, and Clapton, in the hopeless hope of bringing down a landlord to his terms. Now, we happen to have asked the rent of a tenement that was advertised in letters that absorbed the whole front. "The Cheapest House in London," and it stood at something like 2007. a year.

Supposing a 30%. house to be obtained, the Economist insists that the cellars must not be damp, and truly his dry humour provides for the dryness of the vaults, by allowing only 31. a year for wine and spirits-the "wine for Sundays, and spirits for an occasional visitor, and as medicine." Prudence would say try a tract on the Temperance Society

on

a dropper-in, and as to wine, go right through your

Table Bay without touching at the Cape; but that would be contrary to the mocking spirit of the author. Thus in regard to consumption,-we mean the disease that preys on victuals, not on vitals-he prescribes rather a Long-ish treatment for a short purse; and talks to his housekeepers of the Poultry, which is certainly beyond the Cheapside of an economical bill of fare. Encore un coup. By way of being near in your marketing, he bids you send from Kensington, Brixton, or Paddington, to Covent Garden, for a cabbage; and as the servant is too old to go alone, there must be two Savoyards to a savoy. "If in Londondo your utmost to obtain a decent, active girl, at least thirty miles from town, and never permit her to go out to any distance without you." What a pleasant forgetfulness of the distance that ought to be between mistress and maid-to say nothing of the rule at p. 13 to avoid all familiarity with a domestic. But the author, like Beatrice, always "huddles jest upon jest." What might be gained by getting your greens from four miles off, is meant, of course, to be invested along with the savings of the maid-of-all-work. "Give her 67. per annum, paying it punctually every quarter; advising her as to the best mode of expending it, partly in dress, and placing the remainder in a Savings Bank." What amount Dolly or Deborah might save out of such an income, might be ascertained by the rule of three, remembering that her master and mistress, with 2007. per annum, have a surplus of 21. 6s. 3d. It might possibly suffice to take her for once to the Pit at Astley's at half-price; but the author has in store a pleasanter expedient for both Dame and Deborah. "For coach-hire, summer excursions, and an occasional visit to the theatre, you must, fair lady, MAKE A PURSE." Many innocent persons would read "TAKE A PURSE," and suppose there was a misprint :-but they would mistake the peculiar

vein of the author.

The truth is, this recommendation is in iudicrous keeping with the rest. There is a notorious proverb about making a purse ;-and the Economist, knowing that the fair lady possesses no other material, very gravely commends her to the sow's ear.

Such are the precepts which the Economist recommends to the "serious study" of small householders, at the serious price of one shilling, and to purchase which will only deprive them, according to the estimate, of all their coffee for a week.

[The announcement of the "Comic" this year-in October-takes the form of a letter to the late Mr. Tilt, its publisher.]

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE COMIC FOR 1833.

MY DEAR SIR,

The report of my death, I can assure you, is premature, but I am equally obliged to you for your tribute of putting up the shutters and wearing a crape hat-band. I suspect your friend and informant, Mr. Livingstone (it should be Gravestone), drew his inference from a dark passage in Miss Sheridan's Preface, which states that, "of three Comic Annuals which started at the same time, the Comic Offering alone remains." The two defuncts therein referred to are the "Falstaff" and the "Humourist," which I understand have put an end to themselves. If you should still entertain any doubts, you will shortly have ten thousand "impressions" to the contrary; for I intend to contradict my demys with fresh octavos. The Comic Annual for 1833, with its usual complement of plates-mind, not coffin-plates -to appear, as heretofore, in November, will give the lie, I trust, not merely to my departure, but even to anything