the Post-office?" and various other gentlemen _pro_ and _con_--a
division was taken, when Sir Peter was beaten by an immense majority.

Another meeting, of which no public notice was given, was held shortly
after to further Sir Peter's object, by sundry stable-keepers and
jobmasters, under the presidency of the same Mr Gray, whose horse had
acquired the malicious habit of breaking its knees on the Poultry. As
there was no opposition, there was no debate; and as no names of the
parties attending were published, it fell dead-born, although advertised
two or three times in the newspapers.

On Tuesday, the 4th of April, Sir Peter buckled on his armour once more,
and led the embattled cherubim to war, on the modified question, "That
wood-paving operations be suspended in the city for a year;" but after a
repetition of the arguments on both sides, he was again defeated by the
same overwhelming majority as before.

Such is the state of wood paving as a party question among the city
authorities at the present date. The squabbles and struggles among the
various projectors would form an amusing chapter in the history of
street rows--for it is seen that it is a noble prize to strive for. If
the experiment succeeds, all London will be paved with wood, and
fortunes will be secured by the successful candidates for employment.
Every day some fresh claimant starts up and professes to have remedied
every defect hitherto discovered in the systems of his predecessors.
Still confidence seems unshaken in the system which has hitherto shown
the best results; and since the introduction of the very ingenious
invention of Mr Whitworth of Manchester, of a cart, which by an
adaptation of wheels and pullies, and brooms and buckets, performs the
work of thirty-six street-sweepers, the perfection of the work in Regent
Street has been seen to such advantage, and the objections of
slipperiness so clearly proved to arise, not from the nature of wood,
but from the want of cleansing, that even the most timid are beginning
to believe that the opposition to the further introduction of it is
injudicious. Among these even Sir Peter promises to enrol himself, if
the public favour continues as strong towards it for another year as he
perceives it to be at the present time.

And now, dismissing these efforts at resisting a change which we may
safely take to be at some period or other inevitable, let us cast a
cursory glance at some of the results of the ge