alone enjoy such beautiful exhibitions, and who are not permitted to enter on the Sundays, ought not to induce the "ladies and gentlemen" to make so pointed a display.

We have heard that Mr. Rogers, or Mr. Hook, or Mr. Somebody, justifies this desecration because the wild beasts are preying animals; but this is all unseemly mockery. If the Gardens are to be opened on the Sabbath, it should be for that description of persons who are unable to see the curiosities on any other day; for why should not Miss Snaggs, or Miss Baggs, or Miss Bodkin, have the advantage of watching elephants bathe and monkeys flirt as well as the Duchess of Doublechin or Lady Jemima Juicy? We are as aristocratic in our feelings as our neighbours, and as anxious that the aristocracy should be upheld; but we do say, that when all these grandees can go to see sights any day in the week, and their inferiors can only go to see them on one, it is, to say the least of it, bad taste to make an ostentatious parade of needless Sabbath-breaking, which not only renders them conspicuously careless of sacred obligations, but excludes others from enjoyments of which, at no other periods, they are unable to partake.

RAIL-ROAD PROSPECTS.-The world, at least the English world, appears to be rail-road mad. We have already forewarned the eager speculators in trams and trains that they may be extremely likely to burn their fingers; and the more we hear of the circumstances connected with these undertakings, the more strongly we become confirmed in our opinions respecting them.

We believe-but we are not certain even of that, up to the present time -that the Manchester and Liverpool rail-road " pays." If it do, it is because the novelty has attracted an unusual number of passengers, and because the principal part of the traffic upon it at any time is that of carriages conveying men, women, and children. It is notorious that the wear and tear of rail-roads worked by heavy vehicles is enormously expensive; and we are quite certain that even the Bristol rail-road-pigs being the principal commodity to be forwarded to London-must be a failure. Of what earthly advantage can the Southampton rail-road be? What goods have we to receive from Southampton ?-hops from Farnham, or again pigs from Hampshire; but what is the influx or efflux of people into or out of the place itself?—the towns it is to pass near are few-none manufacturing towns-none places of popular resort.

But this is not all. Let the speculations be as advantageous as the projectors wish them to be, is not some regard to be paid to the welfare and convenience of the metropolis and its suburbs? If these schemes, which have at least, some of them-secured the sanction of Parliament, are realised, what turmoil and confusion, what mischief and misery, will ensue to London and its neighbourhood! These rail-roads are to run across the country at a height of eighteen or twenty feet above the level of the lower grounds. The Bristol viaduct is to come into London by the Brompton road, and end at an alehouse called the Hoop and Toy. In stretching away from this point, it will cut up and destroy all the agreeable residences and pretty gardens and grounds of the peaceable inhabitants of that thickly-peopled neighbourhood; and instead of a lawn or shrubbery, brought to perfection by the care of years, at the back of his villa, the owner or tenant will have a huge wall, nearly as

high as his house, brought, perhaps, close to his back drawing-room windows, his rest and quiet being, throughout the night and day, broken and disturbed by the roaring of steam-engines, the rattling of wheels, and, in the Bristol case, the squeaking of pigs.

This is not all, no, nor half of the mischiefs which must ensue. Not only are those individuals, whose gardens and grounds are thus mercilessly to be cut up, to be outraged, but the public generally, and persons individually removed from the actual nuisance, are to be more seriously injured. This Bristol rail-road, after striking across through the fields and gardens between Fulham and Hammersmith, is to cut into Brompton, and there stop. At this point of stoppage all the passengers—aye, pigs and all-from Bristol are to be shovelled off the high shelf, and left to get into town how they can. To this point, then, all the cabs, omnibuses, flys, vans, and caravans disposable for the purpose will repair, in order to receive the new arrivals; and from the ending post to Hyde Park Corner, the crowd and confusion will be such as to render a residence in any part of Knightsbridge, or those agreeable rows and terraces between it and town, utterly impossible. So much for the Bristol road. The Southampton will do for another inlet into the metropolis exactly the same; while the neighbourhood of the Regent's Park and the Hampstead Road will fall a victim to the equally diabolical effects of the viaduct from Birmingham. As for the Greenwich affair, that ends on the other side of the water; and considering that to all civilized persons in the capital, the difficulty of getting to the Bricklayers' Arms, where it is to begin, is just as great as getting to Greenwich altogether, it does not much signify, the others do.

We are perfectly aware that private convenience ought to yield to the public good, and that, to use the words of him whose words better express all things than those of any other man, we must, to

"Do a great right, do a little wrong;"

but, in the cases to which we are now alluding, the great sacrifice of individual convenience renders it, not a private, but a public question. If not only ten or twenty thousand individuals are injured and distressed by the erection of these abominable nuisances, but the safety of the whole population is endangered by the crowding from their "ends" to the different parts of town, it ceases to be either a private evil or a little wrong. We should not speak so strongly on a subject which we consider to be of the highest importance to the people of London, if we were not prepared to suggest a qualification of the evil which we think might most reasonably be adopted. Instead of having three or four of these rail-roads-if rail-roads there must be-all entering London at different points, let all the rail-roads unite at a given distance from town -the Western, the Southampton, the Bristol, the Birmingham-all might be brought together, by a very little trouble, at three or four miles from the metropolis. Then let the one rail-road entrance to town serve for all the roads, and bring that to a point at which, from local circumstances, no mischief could be done in any degree comparable with that which must inevitably be derived from the cutting up and destroying valuable property and thickly-studded houses in those of the suburbs to which we have just alluded.

Supposing that the roads, having met at some distance from town, could,

when combined, or rather reduced to one, pass somewhere at the back of the Regent's Park, and so enter town by Maiden Lane and the Copen. hagen Fields, to the end of Gray's Inn Lane. At this point, merchandize of all sorts would find its way easily into the city. There are no houses, or certainly very few, in the line of way; and the diverging roads at King's Cross would carry off the various carriages necessary for the transport of passengers in almost every direction essential to their con

venience.

It really is worth consideration. The experiment has never yet been tried of having several such rail-roads as approaches to a great city; and although the projectors may be armed with Parliamentary authority to carry their most promising schemes into execution, they ought, most assuredly, to pause before they do an injury which, grievous as it seems it is likely to be, will, when done, be irretrievable.

THE KEMBLES.-It was said some time ago that Charles Kemble had actually arrived in this country with Mrs. Butler, his daughterthere is not one word of truth in this report-they are still in America, and, from what we hear, continue their attraction so powerfully, that their anticipated profits are not rated at less than 8000l. per annum, for three years to come, if they choose to stay in the United-or, as it appears, the politically Dis-united-States so long. We admit that so protracted a residence in such a country must be not over-agreeable. Yet, when a pill is so admirably gilt, it may be prudent, and perhaps not quite so disagreeable, to swallow it. It should appear, if these accounts be true, that Mr. Butler is very much of our opinion, for he consents to follow the example of certain lords and gentlemen who have ceded him, and allows his wife to continue her professional exertions. We are very glad he does, for perhaps he may, under all circumstances, not object to let us have one peep at her when she returns to England. Three years is a long period to look forward to, yet time flies; and when she returns she perhaps may act upon a sort of Tontine principle-for the benefit of the survivors. We sincerely hope she is as comfortable as she deserves to be, and that her happiness as a wife may be proportionate to her excellence as a daughter.

pre

"blow

HEROES AT LISBON.-There has been, what may be called, a up" (sine pulvere) at Lisbon, between two very considerable persons, Sir John Milley Doyle, K.C.B., &c. &c. &c., and General Bacon, K.T.S. Nothing can more clearly exhibit the sort of discipline and arrangement and feeling which exist in the army of Don Pedro than the exposé which has taken place.

We cannot give all the correspondence, but an outline of the affair will suffice.

Some reports of an unpleasant nature having been circulated as to the mode in which General Bacon, K.T.S., (son-in-law of the late Lady Oxford,) had disposed of some booty taken by the troops under his command at Vallonga, Sir John Milley Doyle undertook, as a friend of General Bacon, to write to him to tell him of those reports, he, Milley, being a confidential aid-de-camp of Don Pedro, and a person supposed to stand very well with the ex-Emperor.

Bacon answered this communication by denying the truth of the

statement; but this letter somehow did not get to Sir Milley in time to be answered before Bacon sent him a message by Captain Wakefield. Milley, however, refused to meet Bacon till he had cleared his character from the charges which the said Milley had previously told him he did not believe; upon which Bacon, K.T.S., wrote the following brief but pithy epistle ;

"Alcantara, April 28, 1834.

"You are a dirty, cowardly, backbiting, infamous scoundrel; and if you dare retrieve your lost character, you will make your appointment with Capt. Wakefield to-morrow morning at nine o'clock; if not, I shall not write to you, to consider yourself horsewhipped, but I will apply the end to the most vulnerable part of your disgraceful and dishonourable person.

(Signed)

"To Sir John M. Doyle, K.C.B."

"A. BACON.

Sir Milley, however, was not to be moved by such sweet words, and continued to decline any meeting, and the correspondence finished with this letter of Sir Milley's:

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8, Rua das Necessidades, April 29, 1834. "Sir-Since Captain W. left my house this morning, I have had a consultation with my friends, who are decidedly of opinion that I cannot meet or hold any communication with you until you convince the public that the charges brought against you are without foundation. I was not, or am not, your accuser; but, whenever your court-martial is held, I, if called forward, will produce the persons, who will give the documentary evidence which they placed in my hands; and, after what has passed, if you wish it, I will become the prosecutor myself.

(Signed)

"J. M. DOYLE."

The next day Sir Milley was dismissed from Pedro's service, and informed that, if he meddled with Bacon, or any of his affairs, he would be treated in the true liberating style, and be clapped up in Belem (quære Bedlam?). Upon which Bacon wrote to desire the most rigid investigation into his conduct; and Milley, we suppose, may go and whistle for his reappointment.

THE TWO LONDON COLLEGES.-A very learned and interesting discussion has been going on since the publication of our last Number, in the Privy Council, on the subject of giving a charter to the London University which should empower it to grant degrees as Oxford and Cambridge do at present.

Sir Charles Wetherell spoke at great length, and with great ability, against the measure; and Messrs. Pollock, Follett, and Dr. Lushington were heard on the same side, as representing different interests likely to be affected by the indulgence.

It seems to be the general opinion that the arguments of these learned gentlemen have had their effect-that they caused considerable excitement in the minds of some of the Lords during their delivery there can be no doubt; and it must be admitted that great inconvenience arose from the circumstance that a great proportion of the Judges who were to decide the question so deeply affecting the interests of the Joint-Stock University Company in Gower-street, are shareholders in the concern to a very considerable amount.

We are extremely glad to perceive that the affairs of King's College are in a flourishing state. The testimonials afforded to the conduct of

the students by the professors are in the highest degree complimentary to those gentlemen, and must be, in a similar proportion, gratifying to the friends of the institution. The Principal stated at the public meeting held on the 20th," that such was the excellence of the discipline of the College, that, since his appointment, he had never once had occasion to exercise his authority in support of it." His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury distributed the prizes and certificates of honour, and, on quitting the chair, made a most eloquent and affecting speech to the assembled company.

THE CASE OF MR. GEE.-One of those occurrences in real life which transcend the fictions of romance has been the subject of general conversation during the last fortnight. A Mr. Gee, an attorney of Bishop's Stortford, received a letter from an individual unknown to him, requesting him to undertake some law business for him, and to meet him on a particular day at one of the inns in Aldgate.

Mr. Gee, alive to the advantages of securing a new client, lost no time in repairing to London, having taken that opportunity of bringing up with him a sum of money to pay into his bankers in London. Having reached the appointed inn, he was accosted by a young man of gentlemanly appearance, who stated himself to be commissioned by the gentleman who had written to Mr. Gee, to tell him that he was prevented from keeping his appointment by indisposition; that he was most anxious to see Mr. Gee; and that he, the young man, had a coach waiting at the door to convey him to his residence, which was scarcely a mile from the place where they then were.

Mr. Gee, still animated by an instinctive affection for six-andeight-pence, agreed to accompany his young friend, and stepped into the hackney-coach, which having been speedily "littered up," the agreeable companions were conveyed to the residence of the anxious client. As soon as they reached the house, Mr. Gee was ushered into a parlour, and thence into a back kitchen, in which, it seemed, the invalid was taking his breakfast. In passing to this apartment, however, Mr. Gee was seized by three men,-one, his amiable young friend and associate,—and thrust into a den," -so it is called in the various reports of the case,—where they first secured him by chaining him round the waist to the wall, and then proceeded to build him

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up.

Of course these persons had an object in this proceeding; the nature of which they very soon imparted to the captive attorney. It seems that Mr. Gee was concerned professionally for a widow lady of the name of Canning, and was in possession of sundry papers, deeds, &c. &c., which constituted her property, and of a sum of eight hundred pounds in money. Of all these valuable and important particulars the worthy gentlemen who had secured Mr. Gee resolved to possess themselves; and their reasons for so doing became much more evident in the sequel than they appeared in the outset of the transaction.

Mr. Gee, being made to understand their purpose and desire, and finding himself gradually quitting the world, agreed, under the impulse of excessive horror at the prospect before him, to draw a check for the 8007. and give a written authority for the delivery of the documents in question to the bearer. Having secured these important credentials, they still more firmly secured their prisoner, and left him under the con