trated by
"Cruikshank," and the work we have just named is a case in point. No
sooner had the "Points of Humour" appeared and made their mark, than
they were followed by an announcement by Sherwood, Jones & Co., of the
"Points of Misery," the letterpress by Charles Molloy Westmacott, and
the designs by "Cruikshank," that is to say--Robert. Although this
publication is marred by the slovenliness of execution which
characterised the artist in his careless moods, a few of the designs
are excellent, and the tailpieces--_A Six Inside_, at page 36; _Cleaned
Out_, at page 88; and the _Pawn Shop_, at page 87--suffice to show of
how much better work Robert Cruikshank was capable. George, as was usual
with him on these occasions, was horribly annoyed, and loudly and (as it
seems to us) unnecessarily proclaimed to the world that he had no
connection with the work. Probably this manifesto did no good to a book
little calculated either by its literary or pictorial merits to command
success; and as the copy before us remained uncut from the date of the
publication until the present, the inference is that the speculation of
Messrs. Sherwood, Jones & Co., proved scarcely a remunerative one.

Among the forgotten books of half a century ago, we meet with one whose
title reminds us of the "Life in London." It is called, "Doings in
London; or, Day and Night Scenes of the Frauds, Frolics, Manners, and
Depravities of the Metropolis." It came out in threepenny numbers, in
1828, and its professed object (in the queer language of George Smeeton,
its compiler and publisher) was to "show vice and deception in all their
real deformity, and not by painting in glowing colours the fascinating
allurements, the mischievous frolics and vicious habits of the
profligate, the heedless, and the debauchee, tempt youth to commit those
irregularities which often lead to dangerous consequences, not only to
themselves but also to the public." This shot of course was aimed at
Pierce Egan, who, engaged at that time in bringing out the "Finish," not
unnaturally considered these "Doings" an attempt to derive profit by an
indirect infringement of his own title. The title in fact _was_ a
misleading one, and the book a specimen of a class of useless literature
of the time, by which paste-and-scissors information compiled from
books, newspapers, and statistics by some one at best imperfectly
acquainted with his subject, was attempted to be conveyed by means of
questions