rate and
philosophical character, he lifted his right hand from his black
breeches-pocket, and burst into the following farewell to the metropolis
of his native shores:--

"Farewell, my beloved London, farewell! Where shall I ever find a city
like you? Never, till now, did I feel how inexpressibly dear you were to
me. You have been my father and my brother and my mistress and my tailor
and my shoemaker and my hatter and my cook and my wine-merchant! You and
I never misunderstood each other. I did not grumble when I saw what fine
houses and good strong boxes you gave to other men. No! I rejoiced at
their prosperity. I delighted to see a rich man,--my only disappointment
was in stumbling on a poor one. You gave riches to my neighbours; but,
O generous London, you gave those neighbours to me! Magnificent streets,
all Christian virtues abide within you! Charity is as common as smoke!
Where, in what corner of the habitable world, shall I find human
beings with so many superfluities? Where shall I so easily decoy, from
benevolent credulity, those superfluities to myself? Heaven only knows,
my dear, dear, darling London, what I lose in you! O public charities!
O public institutions! O banks that belie mathematical axioms and make
lots out of nothing! O ancient constitution always to be questioned! O
modern improvements that never answer! O speculations! O companies! O
usury laws which guard against usurers, by making as many as possible!
O churches in which no one profits, save the parson, and the old women
that let pews of an evening! O superb theatres, too small for parks,
too enormous for houses, which exclude comedy and comfort, and have
a monopoly for performing nonsense gigantically! O houses of plaster,
built in a day! O palaces four yards high, with a dome in the middle,
meant to be invisible!

[We must not suppose this apostrophe to be an anachronism.
Tomlinson, Of course, refers to some palace of his day; one of the
boxes--Christmas boxes--given to the king by his economical nation
of shopkeepers. We suppose it is either pulled down or blown down
long ago; it is doubtless forgotten by this time, except by
antiquaries. Nothing is so ephemeral as great houses built by the
people. Your kings play the deuce with their playthings!]

"O shops worth thousands, and O shopkeepers not worth a shilling! O
system of credit by which beggars are princes, and princes are beggars!
O imprisonm