It was now the depth of winter; snowy showers were succeeded by
biting frosts; the very smoothness of the surface of the wooden pavement
was against it; for as no steps were taken to prevent slipperiness, by
cleansing or sanding the street--or better still, perhaps, by roughing
the horses' shoes, many tumbles took place on this doomed little portion
of the road; and some of the city police, having probably, in the
present high state of English morals, little else to do, were employed
to count the falls. Armed with a list of these accidents, which grew in
exact proportion to the number of people who saw them--(for instance, if
three people separately reported, "a grey horse down in the Poultry," it
did duty for three grey horses)--Sir Peter opened the business of the
day, at a meeting of the Commissioners of Sewers for the City of London,
on the 14th of February 1843. Mr Alderman Gibbs was in the chair. Sir
Peter, on this occasion, transcended his usual efforts; he was inspired
with the genius of his subject, and was as great a specimen of slip-slop
as the streets themselves. He requested a petition to be read, signed by
a Mr Gray, and a considerable number of other jobmasters and livery
stable-keepers, against wood pavement; and, as it formed the text on
which he spoke, we quote it entire:--

"To the Commissioners of Sewers--

"The humble memorial of your memorialists, humbly
showeth,--That in consequence of the introduction of wood
pavements into the City of London, in lieu of granite, a very
great number of accidents have occurred; and in drawing a
comparison between the two from observations made, it is found
where one accident happened on the granite pavement, that ten
at least took place upon the wood. Your memorialists therefore
pray, that, in consequence of the wood pavement being so
extremely dangerous to travel over, you would be pleased to
take the matter into your serious consideration, and cause it
to be removed; by doing which you will, in the first place, be
removing a great and dangerous nuisance; and, secondly, you
will be setting a beneficial and humane example to other
metropolitan districts."

Mr Gray, in addition to the memorial, begged fully to corroborate its
statements, and said that he had himself twice been thrown out by the
falling of his horse on the wood, and had broken his shafts both times.
As he did not allude to his legs and a