great expense, a
pavement that is dirty, stinking, and everything that is
bad."--(laughter.)

In Pope's Homer's Iliad, it is very distressing to the philanthropic
mind to reflect on the feelings that must agitate the bosom of Mr Deputy
Thersites when Ajax passes by. In the British Parliament it is a
melancholy sight to see the countenance of some unfortunate orator when
Sir Robert Peel rises to reply, with a smile of awful import on his
lips, and a subdued cannibal expression of satisfaction in his eyes.
Even so must it have been a harrowing spectacle to observe the effects
of the answer of Mr R.L. Jones, who rose for the purpose of moving the
previous question. He said, "I thought the worthy alderman who
introduced this question would have attempted to support himself by
bringing some petitions from citizens against wood paving--(hear.) He
has not done so, and I may observe, that from not one of the wards where
wood pavement has been laid down has there been a petition to take any
of the wood pavement up. What the mover of these resolutions has done,
has been to travel from one end of the town to the other, to prove to
you that wood paving is bad in principle. Has that been
established?--(Cries of 'no, no.') I venture to say they have not
established any thing of the kind. All that has been done is this--it
has been shown that wood pavement, which is comparatively a recent
introduction, has not yet been brought to perfection--(hear, hear.) Now,
every one knows that complaints have always been made against every new
principle, till it has been brought to perfection. Look, for instance,
at the steam-engine. How vastly different it now is, with the
improvements which science has effected, from what it was when it was
first introduced to the notice of the world! Wherever wood pavement has
been laid down, it has been approved of. All who have enjoyed the
advantage of its extension, acknowledge the comfort derived from it. Sir
Peter Laurie asserts that he is continually receiving thanks for his
agitation about wood paving, and that an omnibus would not hold the
compliments he receives at the West End. Now, I can only say, that I
find the contrary to be the case; and every body who meets me exclaims,
'Good God! what can Sir Peter Laurie be thinking about, to try and get
the wood paving taken up, and stone paving substituted?' So far from
thanking Sir Peter, every body is astonished at him. The wood pavement
has not been laid