Lady Simms, in Cornhill, Lady Brown, in Mansion-house-street, Lady Roberts, in Birchin-lane, Mrs. Chambers, in Throgmorton-street, Mrs. Wells, in Copthall-court, and Miss Jones, in Bucklesbury. It is astonishing with what rapidity the subscriptions filled; and the governesses of the establishment have acted with great circumspection in confining the amusement to none but their upper circles. The chief members are warehousemen and wholesale linen-drapers, with, of course, their wives and daughters. The original plan was to exclude all retail trades; but, as this would have made the ball rather too select, the scheme was abandoned. Grocers dealing both wholesale and retail, silversmiths, glovers, packers, dyers, and paper-stainers, are admissible, provided their moral characters be unimpeachable, and their residences be not too eastward. Some discord has arisen in consequence of black-balling a very reputable pawnbroker in East Smithfield. West Smithfield is within the line of demarcation, but not East; and the exhibiter of three blue balls, who has been thus rejected, complains loudly that he is thrust aside to make room for a set of vulgar innholders and cattlekeepers from Smithfield in the West. But to squalls like this the best-regulated establishments are liable. The line of demarcation includes Bow-lane, Queenstreet, and Bucklersbury, on the south side of Cheapside; and King-street, the Old Jewry, and St. Martin's-le-Grand, on the north; but not a step beyond. The consequence is, that in the regions of Fore-street, Cripplegate, and Moorfields, northward, and in those of Watling-street, Old Fish-street, and Tower-royal, southward, a great mass of disaffection has been engendered. Wardmotes have been called, select vestries have been summoned, and special meetings have been convened; but Almack's on Friday flourishes notwithstanding. In the delivering out of subscriptions, I have heard it whispered that some tokens of partiality are discernible. Undue preferences are alleged to be given, which, if done in the way of trade, would force the obliged party to refund his debt for the equal benefit of himself and the rest of the creditors. Lady Simms's husband is a lottery-office keeper in Cornhill, and “they do say" that young men have but slender prospects of admission if they omit to buy their sixteenths at his shop. Lady Brown's lord and master is a wax-chandler in Mansion-house-street; let no man wno hopes to visit Almack's on Friday seek his spermaceti in any other shop. Sir Ralph Roberts is a wholesale iron monger in Birchin-lane; I have never heard that he is open to corruption in the way of trade; but he and Lady Roberts have six grown-up daughters, and the subscriber who fails to dance with them all in one night, may look in vain for a renewal of his subscription. Mrs. Chambers's helpmate is a tailor. A rule has recently crept into the establishment that no gentleman shall be attired otherwise than in the old school of inexpressibles terminating at the knee. This regulation (which I believe originated with Mrs. Chambers) has been productive of much confusion. The common attire of most of the young men of the present day is trowsers. These are uniformly stopped at the door, and the unhappy wearer is forced either to return home to redress, or to suffer himself to be sewed up by a member of the Merchant Tailors' Company, who attends in a private room for that purpose. This ceremony consists in doubling up the trowsers under the knee, and stitching them in that position with black silk: the culprit is then allowed to enter the ball-room, with his lower man strongly resembling one of those broad immoveable Dutch captains who ply in the long room at the Custom-house. It sometimes happens that the party, thus acted upon by the needle, little anticipating such a process, has worn white under-stockings, and a pair of half blacksilk upper-hose reaching but to the commencement of his calf. The metamorphosis, in these cases, is rather ludicrous, inasmuch as the subscriber reappears with a pair of black and white magpie legs, and looks as if he had by accident stepped ancle deep into a couple of ink-bottles. These poor fellows are necessarily forced, by the following Friday, to furnish themselves with a new pair of shorts. I am afraid Mrs. Chambers is at the bottom of all this. I have never heard of any corrupt motive having been assigned to Mrs. Wells; and Miss Jones is a maiden lady of forty-four, living upon a genteel independence. (To be concluded in our next.) AFFECTING INCIDENTS. As a party were proceeding up the river on Sunday, in passing Isharah, their at tention was attracted by the cries of a child, and on drawing near the shore they were redoubled. Near her there was lying a heap of ashes, not quite extinguished, and which appeared like the remains of a recent concremation. A number of children were standing near her, and at a little distance three or four grown-up people looking on very contentedly. An inquiry was made by a humane individual of the party from whence the cause of her distress proceeded, and it was some time before an answer could be obtained. At length it was ascertained that the ashes were those of the funeral pile on which the mother of this unfortunate child had immolated herself along with the dead body of her husband, and that the lamentations of the child were occasioned by this cause. This circumstance certainly is a singular one, but I have no doubt that it is true, for the account of it was given me by one of the party, and by the individual who interested himself in the manner I have just described. POPE AND SWIFT. POPE, notwithstanding his diminutive and mishapen figure, is said to have been not a little susceptible of even personal vanity; as he was one day asking Swift what people thought of him in Ireland? "Why," said Swift, "They think that you are a very little man, but a very with some acrimony, "And, in England great poet." Pope instantly retorted, they think of you, exactly the reverse." PRINCESS AMELIA. THE Princess Amelia, sister to his late majesty, being in the rooms at Bath, remarked a certain Captain in the army, of a most uncommon height. On inquiry, she was not only told his name and family; but, likewise, that he had been originally intended for the church. "Rather, I should suppose, for the steeple!" replied her royal highness. STOOP! STOOP! THE celebrated Dr. Franklin, of America, once received a very useful lesson from the excellent Dr. Cotton Mather, which he thus relates, in a letter to his In the course of conversation on the subject, the following circumstance was mentioned as a proof of the good effects of the friendly interference of Europeans in preventing the immolation of human victims. A bearer who had lived for a long time in a family was taken ill, and was on the point of being carried to the banks of the river, for the purpose of being given over to the friendly care of the Ganges to be conveyed to heaven: before he was conveyed there, however, he requested to be allowed to speak to his old mistress; and on being taken to her, he begged her son, Dr. S. Mather, dated Pessey, May to interfere to procure for him a respite of 12th, 1781. "The last time I saw your father was in 1724. On taking my leave, three days. On her interfering, some remarks were made by his friends as to the shewed me a shorter way out of the <expense which would be incurred if they crossed by a beam over-head. We were house by a narrow passage, which was were to comply with this request. His mistress promised to pay all the expenses that might be incurred, and the result is, that the man, who was so near death five or six years ago, is now alive in Calcutta, in the daily execution of his business. These circumstances are thus narrated, to prove that the friendly interposition of individuals is of infinitely more value than all the official interposition of magistrates; and that the prejudices of the natives, although they may be eradicated by kindness, can never be forcibly rooted out with any prospect of success. Calcutta, August 11, 1823. Miscellanies. TO A YOUNG LADY JUST such a form, with wings of gold, Wait my last moments, and unfold The beauty that inhabits Heaven! ++ still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind and I turning towards him, when he said hastily Stoop, stoop!' I did not understand him till I found my head hit against the beam. He was a man who never missed an opportunity of giving instruction; and upon this he said to me, You are young, and have the world before you: learn to stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many hard thumps!' This advice, thus beat into my head, has frequently been of use to me; and I often think of it when I see pride mortified, and misfortunes brought upon people by their carrying their heads too high." ANECDOTE OF GENERAL REUBEN ROUZY, of Virginia, was in- perty cannot be sold in Virginia for debts, unless at the discretion of the proprietor. He had a large family, and for the sake of his children, preferred lying in jail to selling his land. A friend hinted to him, that, perhaps General Washington did not know any thing of Then when mix'd with brieks and slates, the proceeding, and that it might be Useful Domestic Hints. well to send him a petition, with a statement of his circumstances. He did so, and the very next post from Philadelphia (after the arrival of his petition in that city), brought him an order for his immediate release, together with a full discharge, and a severe reprimand to the agent for having acted in such a manner. Poor Rouzy was in consequence restored to his family, who never laid down their heads at night without presenting prayers to heaven for their "beloved Washington." Providence smiled upon the labours of the grateful family, and in a few years Rouzy enjoyed the exquisite pleasure of being able to lay the one thousand pounds with the interest, at the feet of this truly, truly great man. Washington reminded him that the debt was discharged. Rouzy replied, the debt of his family to the Father of their country, and preserver of their parent, could never be discharged; and the General to avoid the pleasing importunity of the grateful Virginian, who would not be denied, accepted the money-only, however, to divide it among Rouzy's children, which he did immediately. MAN. ANDREW. AN IRONICAL ORDER TO A CHALDRONS three, you'll please to send, For I never like to see, Please to send some tiles and stones, INDELIBLE, OR PERMANENT INK. TAKE of nitrated silver, i. e. lunar caustic, five scruples; best gum arabic, six scruples; sap green, one scruple; fresh rain water (boiled) two table spoonsful. in the water; then add the lunar caustic, Dissolve the gum arabic and sap green which should be previously rubbed to powder. Keep the ink in a phial with a glass stopper. THE PREPARATORY LIQUID. TAKE of caustic soda (marine or mineral fixed alkali, natron), one ounce; to be dissolved in four table spoonsful of boiling rain water. To be kept in a wellstopped phial. METHOD OF USE. WITH the Preparatory Liquid, by means of a feather or a camel's-hair brush, wet that part of the linen on which the Permanent Ink is to be used. When it is quite dry, rub it smooth with the bowl of a table spoon, and, with a common pen, write with the ink, but on such part of the linen only as has been wetted with the soda solution. Expose it to the air for a few minutes; and if it be when the sun can shine on it, the blackness will be increased. The above quantity of the ink is sufficient for the usual purposes of a family of five or six persons for seven years. RECIPE FOR SINKING SPIRITS. TAKE gum-ammoniac, one drachm; assafoetida, half-a-drachm; dissolved and mixed in six ounces of penny-royal of syrup of saffron, and take two spoonsful water; add to this mixture half an ounce twice or thrice a day. The Gatherer. "I am but a Gatherer and disposer of other Addressed to a Young Lady who was MITCHELL, ON THOMSON'S BEAUTIES and faults so thick lie buried here, MAIL COACH GUARDS. To the Editor of the Mirror. SIR, The Guard of the Exeter and Plymouth coach leaves London (we will suppose) on Monday evening, he arrives at Exeter on Tuesday evening, starts for Plymouth on Wednesday morning, and reaches it the same evening. Leaves for London on Thursday morning, and arrives in Bull and Mouth street on Friday evening He has been absent from London four days and four nights, during which time he has travelled four hundred and forty Those I could read, if these were not so four miles, and rested two nights and one day. This he continues to do every four days, or about ninety-one times in the course of a year, amounting in that time to forty thousand four hundred miles and upwards. There are guards now on the road who have held their situations upwards of ten years, and during that time (allowing for illness and other casualties) they must each have travelled the astonishing number of fear hundred and four thousand miles. A. B. |