l be an object of
scrutiny and suspicion,--notwithstanding your respectable appearance.
And then, as you appear to have no business in the neighbourhood, you
will be civilly greeted with, "You are entering a dangerous
neighbourhood, sir!" In the newspapers of the following day, you may
read of a gang of housebreakers, or coiners, having been secured in this
spot. And if it be revisited when a group of felons have just left the
wharf, you will find it a scene of drunken lamentation.

In this lane is a _cul-de-sac_. It is inhabited by persons with respect
to whose actual condition the shrewdest investigator is at fault. The
visitor enters a dwelling, and climbs the narrow staircase. Upon
entering the small room, he is almost stifled by the foetid smells. In
one corner, on a mattress, lies a man, whose gaunt arms, wasted frame,
milky eye-balls, and dry cough, sufficiently indicate the havoc which
disease is doing at the seat of life. A fire has been recently kindled
by the hand of charity. Near it, and seated upon a tub, is a woman,
busily employed in toasting a slice of ham, which is conveyed rapidly
out of sight upon hearing the ascending footsteps. Her dress is gay, but
soiled, and her face is familiar to the pedestrian. Upon the entrance of
the visitor, the Bible is hastily seized, and an attitude of devotion
assumed. The question the visitor asks, is, Are you married? "Oh yes, I
was married at a village near Bury, in Suffolk; I was travelling as a
mountebank at the time." The tale is not well told. After a few
interrogatories, and the utterance of a score of lies, the truth
appears,--he was never in the county of Suffolk in his life. In a few
days he makes a merit of his confession, and marries,--a week before his
death.

Within a few yards, another scene is presented. This is a case of a man,
his wife, and his large family. The visitor is shown into a miserable
apartment, destitute of furniture; and, upon some loose shavings in a
corner, a child has been left to cry itself to sleep. The case is
relieved as one of great suffering. Relief flows freely. The wife
appears ill; and the medical man is much puzzled by her account of the
symptoms. Apparently she has been intemperate; but, according to the
symptoms, it should be something between rheumatism and tic-doloreux.
By-and-by a quarrel ensues, about the division of the spoil. An
anonymous letter is received, declaring that the party has several
residences,--that the