house, a little ragged girl came out, who, on being asked for
the Duke, pointed to a door, which Mr. B. entered. At a little deal
table he found Cobbett, teaching the Duke and Monsieur Talleyrand
English!

* * * * *

BAD COOKERY A CAUSE OF DRUNKENKESS.--To what are we to ascribe the
prevalence of this detestable vice amongst us! Many causes might be
plausibly assigned for it, and one of them is our execrable cookery.
The demon of drunkenness inhabits the stomach. From that "vasty deep"
it calls for its appropriate offerings. But the demon may be appeased
by other agents than alcohol. A well-cooked, warmed, nutritious meal
allays the craving quite as effectually as a dram; but cold, crude,
indigestible viands, not only do not afford the required _solatium_ to
the rebellious organ, but they aggravate the evil, and add intensity
to the morbid avidity for stimulants. It is remarked that certain
classes are particularly obnoxious to drunkenness, such as sailors,
carriers, coachmen, and other wandering tribes whose ventral
insurrections are not periodically quelled by regular and comfortable
meals. Country doctors, for the same reason, not unfrequently manifest
a stronger predilection for their employers' bottles than their
patients do for theirs. In the absence of innocuous and benign
appliances, the deleterious are had recourse to exorcise the fiend
that is raging within them. These views are explicable by the laws
of physiology, but this is not the place for such disquisitions. One
reason why the temperance movement has been arrested in this country
is, that while one sensual gratification was withdrawn, another was
not provided. The intellectual excitements which were offered as a
substitute have not been found to answer the desired purpose. Our
temperance coffee-houses are singularly deficient in gastronomical
attractions; and the copious decoctions of coffee and chicory which
are there served up, with that nauseous accompaniment, buttered toast,
are more calculated to create a craving for stimulants than allay
it. The lower classes of Scotland are as deficient in knowledge of
cookery as the natives of the Sandwich Islands; and if our apostles of
temperance would employ a few clever cooks to go through the country
and teach the wives and daughters of the workingmen to dress meat
and vegetables, and make soups, and cheap and palatable farinaceous
messes, they would do more in one year to a