o on excellently for a year or two after their establishment,
but that it is much more difficult to make them profitable when the
assured parties begin to die.

The Jewish fires were the heaviest blows we had had; for though the
Waddingley Cotton-mills had been burnt in 1822, at a loss to the Company
of 80,000_l_., and though the Patent Erostratus Match Manufactory had
exploded in the same year at a charge of 14,000_l_., there were those who
said that the loss had not been near so heavy as was supposed--nay, that
the Company had burnt the above-named establishments as advertisements
for themselves. Of these facts I can't be positive, having never seen
the early accounts of the concern.

Contrary to the expectation of all us gents, who were ourselves as dismal
as mutes, Mr. Brough came to the office in his coach-and-four, laughing
and joking with a friend as he stepped out at the door.

"Gentlemen!" said he, "you have read the papers; they announce an event
which I most deeply deplore. I mean the demise of the excellent Alderman
Pash, one of our constituents. But if anything can console me for the
loss of that worthy man, it is to think that his children and widow will
receive, at eleven o'clock next Saturday, 5,000_l_. from my friend Mr.
Titmarsh, who is now head clerk here. As for the accident which has
happened to Messrs. Shadrach and Meshach,--in _that_, at least, there is
nothing that can occasion any person sorrow. On Saturday next, or as
soon as the particulars of their loss can be satisfactorily ascertained,
my friend Mr. Titmarsh will pay to them across the counter a sum of
forty, fifty, eighty, one hundred thousand pounds--according to the
amount of their loss. _They_, at least, will be remunerated; and though
to our proprietors the outlay will no doubt be considerable, yet we can
afford it, gentlemen. John Brough can afford it himself, for the matter
of that, and not be very much embarrassed; and we must learn to bear ill-
fortune as we have hitherto borne good, and show ourselves to be men
always!"

Mr. B. concluded with some allusions, which I confess I don't like to
give here; for to speak of Heaven in connection with common worldly
matters, has always appeared to me irreverent; and to bring it to bear
witness to the lie in his mouth, as a religious hypocrite does, is such a
frightful crime, that one should be careful even in alluding to it.

Mr. Brough's speech somehow found its way into the new