and utility of a newspaper; and certes Sir Robert Spinning-jenny himself could not object to man or woman either entertaining so rational and innocent an opinion. But haply some of our young-lady readers may be disposed to marvel at this peculiarity of taste, and even to question the veracity of our narrative so far. Before indulging such sceptical temper, however, let them first make themselves thoroughly conversant with Dr. Brown's Theory of Simple Suggestion-let them reflect how a single word, written or uttered, will sometimes recall a host of glorious images from the fairyland of memory-how the simple monosyllables, "John," "James," or " jaunt," for instance, may conjure up a world of honied words and heathery braes, blue lakes-balmy sighs, and solemn leagues and covenants, settled and sealed in bonnie birken bowers,—but, above all, let our sweet demurers wait till they get fairly initiated into the ecstatic mysteries, revealed only to such as habitually frequent all "Sales by Auction"-(growing crops excepted)-for ten miles round; and then will they confess, there was neither folly in my good aunt's advertisement studies, nor fallacy in her nephew's reminiscences—that there is magic in the very name of a silver-clasped china bowl, or an antique oaken cabinet, with its inexplorable arcana, when destined to the hammer and the highest bidder. It was in accordance with these mental phenomena that my respected relation's fancy took fire and wing both, whenever it came in contact with the seemingly uninflammatory and mundane materials of an auctioneering paragraph. The whole scene of joy to be, was immediately before her mind's eye. The hitherto inaccessible penetralia of the devoted mansion-bed-rooms, boudoirs, wardrobes, closets, and presses, were anon patent and revealed. Here were primitive mountains of blankets and bed-linen, surmounted by secondary strata innumerable, of damask towelling and table cloths, all as pure as the snowy coverlet of the Alpine ranges: and there were ivory beds, and bed-posts, which some General Liverless had brought from the Indies, with hangers of many-hued embroidery, probably the handywork of his maiden sister, or the Queen of Sheba herself; and all "Going! going!" for a mere song; with lots of Indian gods and goddesses, compelled to abdicate the mantlepiece at little more than two-pence a Divinity! Such is a faint glimpse of the ravishing visiters which passed in panoramic vividness before Miss Mellow's inward sense when the intimated sale was that of some deceased patrician; but she was no despiser of "the short and simple annals of the poor;" and I once heard her confess, that a notice of a humble old bachelor's roup, which had been stuck up at the church door, caused her lose the benefit of an excellent forenoon's discourse on the text "All is vanity and vexation of spirit"-for she was convinced his garret contained a world of stouthrie that his mother had left him. It is also alleged-but this I do not vouch for that on another occasion, while she was engaged in serious conversation with the minister, all on a sudden the village drummer's rub-a-dub and stentorian bawl was heard. The reverend gentleman had just said something very impressive and profound, and with silent pleasure he soon observed Miss Mellow sunk in a deep reverie, and no doubt attempting, as he opined, to get at the pith and marrow of his remark; when to his unutterable astonishment she started, exclaiming at the top of her lungs, 66 Sixpence more! sixpence more!" her fancy having forthwith realized the scene and the "Sule going on."

But without dwelling on the sweet anticipations of the thoroughgoing Roup maniac, who, in imagination, is obviously all compact with "Lover,

Lunatic, and Poet," let us come to the actual scenes which, by frequent recurrence and repetition, go to generate this "fine frenzy.” A roup we believe to be one of the wisest human institutions, if indeed human wit could rise so high as to devise it. We cannot help thinking some utilitarian Pythoness may claim the honour of the suggestion. Dr. Adam Smith ascribes the subdivision of labour to an inherent propensity to truck and barter; but we know of no mere instinct that could prompt to so simple and direct a way to wealth, especially for the buyer. At all events, it is a mode of sale directly opposed to the spirit of monopoly, and admitting the fullest scope to competition. Of course, this last consideration had no effect in inducing our aunt's regular attendance on these exhibitions, in all possible, and some almost impossible cases; but the attractions they presented were sufficiently strong, independently of all such reflections. In short, there are few of her sex, who, having once come within its sphere, could be expected to resist the captivating charm. Only think what monstrous bargains are sometimes to be had, of articles, too, quite out of the ordinary way of traffic! I am convinced my aunt's attic museum embraced hundreds of useful and ornamental pieces of furniture and apparel, so very rare that many of her acquaintances scarcely could divine the purposes for which they had been made; and which no individual, with her slender means, could ever have collected otherwise, even though they had frequented Leipzig fair for a dozen of years running. It would be absurd to attempt a description of this onnigathering. Nothing less graphic than the pencil of some of the best Flemish masters could do the subject any thing approaching to justice. We leave it, therefore, sacred to the fancy of such as can boast a congenial sympathy with the owner; assuring them of "ample room and verge enough" to indulge their divine faculty. But it were a gross and calumnious misrepresentation of my worthy relative, and all kindred spirits, to allege that they attended these marts for the sake of profit alone,-to gratify the mere amor sceleratus habendi." True, a good bargain, no matter of what, is a very agreeable sort of a thing; but the manner in which it may be come at, and the pleasures attendant on the conquest, must not be overlooked. These are confessedly rich, rife, and rational, at a roup, and among its roupgoing population. For instance, you are on the spot perhaps an hour before business commences. You range unchecked through every secret nook and cranny. You touch, handle, and scrutinize every thing at will. There you are at once, like a bee in a butter-cup, among the disjecta membra of a dressing-table drawer, puffs, patches, and powders; stumps of well-worn tooth-brushes, tortoise-shell combs, and half-discussed bottles of incomparable Macassar. Perhaps there are a few frag ments of letters among the hair-papers, and from these a person of ordinary shrewdness can easily catch a cue to the nature of the correspondence; and, if not on the spur of the moment, what harm, pray, in dropping things of that kind into one's reticule, in order to take them home, and decypher them at leisure? You lock and unlock, and feel yourself, for the time being, sole proprietor,-the monarch of all you survey,and, in fact, there is no saying how much of what you see may soon become your own. You are now in the attics, and anon in the kitchen, the cellar, or the scullery, with all the intervening world before you where to choose. But wherever you turn, what delightful insight into human character opens on the reflecting mind! Just as surely as a schoolboy knows, by the bird's nest he has discovered, the name and na

ture of the little architect, is the true roup-goer able to determine, forthwith, the temper, habits, and habitudes of the lately-occupant family, from the parent pair down to the six-year-old urchin, whose hobby-horse is stationed riderless in the lobby; or the servants, whose characteristic memorial is, the mass of broken bottles and crockery, piled up in the darkest corner of the cellar. And, truly, it is here you feel that the most pleasurable, as well as the most " proper study of mankind, is man!" But now you have completed your survey; you have ascertained whether the tea and dinner sets are complete, and properly matched; you have tried the tone of the organ and piano-forte; satisfied yourself as to the quality of the downs in three or four of the best beds; looked into every mirror, and selected that which gives back the truest, and most agreeable image; ascertained the number of yards in each of the Brussels carpets; and taken due note of the couches, window-curtains, pictures, fire-screens, footstools, napery, and kitchen utensils, most likely to go cheap. In all this, who does not see how much healthful excitement and recreation, bodily and mental? for the sight and the touch have no sooner proved the quality of an article, than internal arrangements and calculations are going on to determine the how and the how much, whereby you are to baffle all competition. But the hour is at length come, and the man of the mallet ascends the rostrum, though not before you have had a few minutes' civil conversation with him; at least I always observed my aunt inquire for his health and that of his family, dropping at same time a few hints in his ear, to the effect that he must not hang long to day, otherwise she could not wait, &c., &c. And now the order of the day being read, "all are attentive to the godlike man," while lot first, a miscellaneous mass of odd forks, skewers, brushes, and blacking bot. tles, in a once-japanned knife-tray, lies under the uplifted mall. He knows the importance of a good beginning, and immediately casts his eyes towards you. "Come, Miss So and So; a first bode from you bodes luck," is the primal specimen of his wit-an ingredient, by the by, not to be forgotten in the enumeration of roup-going pleasures. You don't care much for the articles, perhaps, but out of complaisance you oblige him at a cheap rate. He returns the favour by knocking them off instanter, amid the screams and murmurs of a dozen intending competitors, all of whom declare the word was just on their tongue's end; and among whom you are pleased to observe two or three envious opponents who, on a former occasion, had probably made you pay something more than enough for a rarity. You have vanquished them this time, however; and that's so much satisfaction; though your pennyworth should not, on examination, turn out to be very great. But only suppose that from among the omnibus rebus of the medley, you should pick out quædam alia of value, which, unobserved, had found their way into the tray-happily a very silver-looking tea, egg, or salt spoon-then what a triumph! The "opposition" is quite exasperated at your good fortune, and immediately perpetrate the organization of a "conservative club" for the purpose of monopolizing all future good bargains. But even out of such schemes my prudent aunt, I believe, often drew fresh matter of gratulation; for the clubbing monopolists generally quarrelled about dividing the first half-dozen of lots they secured, while she duly improved the period of their (aside) hostilities. The sale goes on—and once, twice, thrice, you have realized your fondest anticipations; that is to say, have not been outbid by the most adventurous of your own sex, and have found the gentlemen present so very gallant as to give up the

struggle long before the falling hammer had put you in possession of each successive prize; and, in fine, at "the shut of eve," when the sale adjourns, it turns out that, in addition to your intended purchases, a vast number of precious commodities have "fallen, unlooked for, in your hand," which, as good luck would have it, you only offered for, with a view to hasten on the business and save time. With Miss Mellow these went to furnish supernumerary beatitudes to the nightly visions that succeed such a delightful day's occupation, and to cheer on the fortunate and frugal dame to fresh conquests awaiting her on the morrow morning at " ten o'clock precisely."

It is an ungracious task to add that there are not wanting human beings so senseless and malicious as to attempt to allay the pure and harmless pleasures we have faintly pourtrayed. I have heard my revered aunt asked a hundred times, in a scornful sort of way, what was the use of some of her most valuable purchases, and how she could spend a whole summer's day at such a vulgar assembly as a roup? Others have talked sentimentally of the sorrow they would feel on seeing the unthinking crowd stalk rudely and at large through the privacies of departed worth, or the desolated haunts of social and domestic endearment. But she well knew that such was only the language of youth, inexperience, or envy; and it made little impression on her mind, so far as I could observe, and certainly none on her habits. Yet I have my suspicions that she sometimes experienced a momentary fit of depression, probably anticipating the fatal day when the auctioneer should be summoned " to do for her what he had done for thousands;" and then taking me up stairs with her to the sacred depository of all her trophies," she would gaze on them, as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on," and bid me translate, in my best style, the pathetic interrogatories of Melibœus::

"En !

Impius haec tam culta novalia miles habebit ?
Barbarus has segetes ?"

which I took care to do freely, rendering "miles" the mallet-man, and so on, to suit the case of my auditor. But these clouds passed over, and nothing ever made the docile Miss Mellow so much inclined to listen to the homilies of her advisers, for a time, as the incident with which I close this rambling but truthful reminiscence. One day when the household effects of a family in the neighbourhood were being disposed of she had been unavoidably detained at home for an hour or two after the sale had commenced, and just as she arrived at the spot, the master of the ceremonies was bawling "Half-a-crown-once-twice! Half-a-crown!" She sprung forward and peered a-tiptoe over the shoulders of the crowd, to ascertain what the article might be; but being Zaccheus-like in stature, and aware that, if she would be the owner, no time was to be lost in inquiries, she breathlessly cried out "threepence more ;" and, quam primum, had handed along to her, amid the joy and good wishes of the company, a very handsome baby's cradle! This was rather a faux pas for the time being, and indeed was a pretty long-lived theme of scorn among the village fair; but I could not but think, after the storm of raillery had overblown, that my aunt was just as well pleased to see the pretty little toy in the garret as many other articles of more imme diate use,

PAUPERISM-POOR-LAW COMMISSION.

"To provide for us in our necessitles is not in the power of Government. It would be a vain presumption in statesmen to think they can do it. The people maintain them, and not they the peo. ple. It is not only so of the state and statesmen, but of all the classes and descriptions (of the rich. They are the pensioners of the poor, and are maintained by their superfluity. They are under an absolute, hereditary, and indefeasible dependence on those who labour, and are miscalled the poor. "Nothing can be so base and wicked as the political canting language, "The Labouring Poor." Let compassion be shewn in action-the more the better-according to every man's ability; but let there be no lamentation of their condition. It is no relief to their miserable circumstances; it is only an insult to their miserable understandings." BURKE-Thoughts and Details on Scarcity.

It might well seem strange, could any degree of party perverseness seem so, that the very men who claim to be sole interpreters of the wisdom of Burke, are those on whom are most utterly lost the lessons bestowed in the short treatise, an extract from which stands at the head of our present observations. Our readers need not be informed, that the "Thoughts and Details on Scarcity," were originally presented to Mr. Pitt, in 1795, at the moment when that heaven-born statesman was meditating new enactments for completion of the venerable pile of British pauperism-for improvement of temporary distress into permanent demoralization.

Under such a system of law and local administration as that which, more especially for thirty-five or forty years past, has been partly knowingly, partly unknowingly, levelled against the virtue and wellbeing of the labouring class in England; that class, had it even possessed a degree of intelligence and prudence, such as it were all but romantic to expect from any order of men, would vainly (as a whole) have striven to elevate its condition. And whence the inutility of its best efforts? Hear it, men of homilies on the improvidence of the poor! Hear how vainly the most provident conduct on their part would have contended with the inevitable effects on their condition produced by the improvidence of the rich.

Suppose that in 1795, and those succeeding years, when the rise in the prices of agricultural produce was accompanied with a rise in the wages of labour more than proportionate to the heightened cost of the necessaries of life, and the landlords had already taken alarm lest the increased wages of labour should be permanent:-suppose, however wild the supposition, that the labouring class had been capable of combining in one collective body, and a majority of them acting as if inspired with a single volition :-suppose this class, in the southern and eastern counties where the plague began, had possessed sufficient sagacity to derive hope for themselves from the source of apprehension to their superiors, -to perceive the possibility of emerging from a state of vassalage,—of so limiting their own numbers, and so raising the conventional standard of necessaries erected by opinion amongst them, that their wages should be permanently maintained above their former level.

Suppose they had resolved in grand combination for this purpose:— 1stly, That the scale of esteem and repute established within their own body should be graduated according to the degrees of sobriety, skill, and industry.

2dly, That moral and prudential restraint on intercourse, whether illicit or (so styled) licit, between the sexes, should be enforced by every sanction within the power of their own body.

3dly, That migration, whether to other parishes or abroad, should be encouraged by the whole body, when members of it became redundant.