this duty is much too high is obvious to any one who consults the records of the Custom House, or, better still, who is acquainted with the habits of the middle classes. According to a sensible essay, published four years ago, the French make nearly a thousand millions of imperial gallons of wine annually; and 66 we purchase from France not more than one part in 2,500 of the wine made in that country, not taking into account that part which is converted into brandy."

As an excuse for discouraging French wines, it is sometimes alleged that the French will not buy our cottons; but, surely, this is a second edition of Dr. Johnson's story of the idiot, who, when his friends affronted him, used to lie all night upon the bridge! If the French like to dress shabbily, must we, in revenge, drink unpleasantly?

It is often urged, in addition, that claret is too cold for our stomachs. Pshaw! Just read the following figures; they are taken from the book above quoted, and represent the gallons of wines exported from France to different countries in 1832 :The Hanse Towns (chiefly for the supply of the interior of Germany) Holland

................

4,666,676

Prussia................................................ 2,110,026

Belgium Russia England

1,899,157 1,127,448 530,164 Is the climate of Holland so broiling, and are Dutch stomachs so hot, that four times the quantity of French wine is required for a population so much smaller than ours?

....................................................................

It is worthy of remark, that, long after the Methuen treaty, Scotland and Ireland, under the genial influence of low duties, were still famous for claret: so erroneous is the vulgar opinion that it is a wine only suited for hot weather! But custom-house officers, so potent is their spell, might banish claret from Bourdeaux! There is a humorous epigram by Home, the author of Douglas, in which he attributes the fiscal regulations, which introduced the heavier wine of Portugal into Scotland, to a settled design to break down the spirit of the people.

"Firm and erect the Caledonian stood,

Old was his mutton, and his claret good; 'Let him drink port,' an English statesman cried; He drank the poison, and his spirit died!"

It is a great mistake in public hygiene to consider wine as a luxury for a few only, and to drive the middle classes to spirits by prohibitory duties. The late Mr. Jefferson, President of the United States, expresses his gratification, in his Memoirs, at the introduction of a very cheap wine (St.

* Commercial History of Wine, in the Household Year-book for 1836.

George) into his neighbourhood, which had already quadrupled the number of those who kept wine. In the same work he says: "I rejoice, as a moralist, at the prospect of a reduction of the duties on wine by our national legislature. It is an error to view a tax on that liquor as merely a tax on the rich. It is a probibition of its use to the middling class of our citizens, and a condemnation of them to the poison of whisky, which is desolating their houses. No nation is drunken where wine is cheap; and none sober where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage."

We, too, have a better prospect before us. A commercial treaty is all but concluded with France, and we may hope, in a few months, to have the best and wholesomest wine in the world, at a very reduced price.*-Medical Gazette.

"THE SHERIFFS' PLATE."

THE two pieces of plate voted by the Court of Common Council of the City of London, to the Sheriffs Evans and Wheelton, have been designed and executed with great taste, by Mr. Metcalf Hopgood, of No. 202, Bishopsgate-street.

The design of each consists of a triplesided pedestal, or plinth, with bright panels supported on three massive scroll feet. From the centre rises a group of palms, with overshadowing branches, under which are placed female figures, representing Truth, Justice, and Liberty, with their appropriate emblems. These figures are in dead silver; and the allegory of the artist is, that truth, justice, and liberty flourish most under the blessings of peace. From the crown of the palm-trees proceed three branches, each of which again divides; the whole forming supports, or branches, for six lights; in the centre of which is an open frame, in dead silver, supporting a cut-glass dish. Upon one of the panels are engraved the arms of the city of London; the arms of the Sheriff; whilst upon the third panel is inscribed as follows:

another

"Presented, the 27th of April, 1840, by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons, of the city of London, in Common Council assembled, to William Evans, Esq., one of the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex, as a token of honourable distinction for the conscientious feeling and magnanimity of conduct displayed by him, in conjunction with his colleague, John Wheelton, Esq., in enduring, with unflinching firmness, a protracted imprisonment for an alleged breach of the privilege of the House of Commons, in refusing to refund to Messrs Hansard, the printers to the House, money levied by

*While writing this article, we see it stated that, by a treaty just concluded, French wines are to be admitted into Holland, duty-free. No fear of the "coldness" of claret there, at any rate.

the Sheriffs, in obedience to the Queen's writ, and in discharge of their official duty, whereby they upheld the supremacy of the law, and entitled themselves to the thanks of their country."

The height of each piece of plate is about two feet six inches: weight, 250 ounces each; cost, 150 guineas each. The design is altogether a very graceful composition, expressing its object with tasteful simplicity and elegance. We regard these testimonials as equally honourable to the Sheriffs and the Corporation by whom they have been presented. The circumstance is worthy of this pictorial record; for, over and above its interest as a recognition, by a legislative body, of individual firmness and independence in official duty, it has led to another beneficial result; namely, the reform of an anomalous state of the law, such as too frequently brings into disrespect the entire system, of which the objectionable statute had hitherto been an integer.

"THE SHERIFFS' PLATE."

New Books.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE RECENT PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS AT DAMASCUS. BY D. SALOMONS, ESQ.

[IN this work will be found a more precise and connected statement than had hitherto appeared of the sufferings of the Jews at Damascus, arising out of the abominable charge made against them,of using human blood as an ingredient of tival. This statement is related by the the food compounded for the Passover fesRev. Mr. Pieritz, who collected the facts on the spot, and who appears, in every respect, qualified for the important investigation. Persecution, we know, is the surest provocation of public sympathy; but, in the present instance, neither the charge nor the defence appear to be overcoloured. Mr. Salomons only evinces a natural zeal in the "Reflections" which he has appended to the narrative of Mr. Pieritz; who, it should be recollected, has performed a service, not only to the Jews, but to the cause of humanity throughout the world. The narrative and other documents having already been generally quoted in the newspapers, we shall turn to Mr. Salomons's portion of the present volume, whence we extract the following reasonable refutation:]

The strict injunction against the use of blood in food is ever regarded as one of the highest importance, by those who adhere to the principles of the Jewish religion. Were it possible to imagine, for a moment, that the Jew could be so lost to every feeling of nature, as to engage in a murder for the attainment of any ordinary purpose whatever, it may be safely asserted that, dependant as the Jews are entirely on their religious teachers, it would be an entire violation of all their principles to interfere in any matter connected with religious objects, without the express direction of their rabbinical authorities. The remark, therefore, lightly made, that superstitious, fanatical Jews may, in a spirit of Eastern bigotry, do what other persons of the same faith, but not imbued with the same sentiments, would hesitate to commit, is quite fallacious. A total ignorance of the nature and structure of the Jewish religion is exhibited by those who make this observation. The Jew receives from his priest, or rabbi, the exposition of the principles which should regulate his moral and religious conduct. The rabbi himself has no authority, except to administer the law as it is written; he has no power to make any change, either in the oral or traditional law; neither can he introduce any

the British people, should, therefore, not be regarded as mere isolated events, unconnected with the principles and causes which have produced them: but they should present to our minds the undoubted truth, that neither life, person, nor property can be safe, except where the human race has been thoroughly civilized by the means of education.

[It should be added, that the work is dispassionately written, and is altogether void of controversy. It is, very properly, published at a cheap rate; which circumstance, added to the interest of the subject, ought to insure this volume an extensive circulation.

TABLE-WIT AND AFTER-DINNER ANECDOTE.

[THIS mirthful little brochure will, probably, be an acceptable companion-book to Hints for the Table, by the same Editor. We have the highest authority, that of Johnson, the grave moralist, for the intellectuality of the Pleasures of the Table, which, he maintains, "have never been incompatible with the gifts of genius, or the investigations of the understanding;" and, the Table-Wit before us is additional support of this position. It contains nearly 600 articles, such as will serve the most inveterate diner-out for a year, or more. Yet, the Editor believes there to be not a Joe in his collection. We have picked out a few specimens.]

A Sieve.-George II. once observed of the lord steward of his household, just dead, that "he had a great many good qualities, but he was a sieve!" Upon this, Walpole remarks: "It is the last receiver into which I should have thought His Majesty would have poured gold."

Eating Fish. An interesting damsel, at a dinner, being asked if she would partake of some fried or boiled soles, with bewitching naïveté, replied, "I will take some fried, if you please, for they have fewer bones."-New Monthly Magazine.

Want of a Pursuit.-A man without a predominant inclination, is not likely to be either useful or happy. He who is everything is nothing.-Sharp.

Writing for the Many.-Moliere's justification to some one who had censured him for preferring broad, homely merriment, to elevated comedy, may be quoted by those who aim at wide popularity by common means, but are capable of better things; and the observation may apply to almost any pursuit. "If I wrote simply for fame," said Moliere, "I should manage very differently; but I write for the support of my company. I must not address myself, therefore, to a few people of education, but to the mob: and this latter class of gentry take very little interest in a continued elevation of style and sentiment."

Land and Sea Fights.-An Irish officer in the army happening to be a passenger in an armed vessel, during the last war, used frequently to wish that they might fall in with an enemy's ship, "because," he said, "he had been in many land battles, and there was nothing in the world which he desired more, than to see what sort of a thing a sea-fight was." He had his wish; and when, after a smart action, in which he bore his part bravely, an enemy, of superior force, had been beaten off, he

declared, with the customary emphasis of an Irish adjuration," that a sea-fight was a mighty sairious sort of a thing."-The Doctor.

Parasites of Great Men.-Nature descends down to infinite smallness. Great men have their parasites; and, if you take a large, buzzing blue-bottle fly, and look at it in a microscope, you may see twenty or thirty little ugly insects crawling about it, which, doubtless, think their fly to be the bluest, grandest, merriest, most important animal in the universe; and are convinced the world would be at an end if it ceased to buzz.-Sydney Smith.

The Rebel Lords.-At the trial of the rebel Lords, George Selwyn, seeing Bethel's sharp visage looking wistfully at the prisoners, said: "What a shame it is to turn her face to the prisoners until they are condemned."

Some women were scolding Selwyn for going to see the execution, and asked him how he could be such a barbarian to see the head cut off? “ Nay,” replied he, "if that was such a crime, I am sure I have made amends; for I went to see it sewed on again."

Walpole relates: "You know Selwyn never thinks but à la tête tranchée:" on having a tooth drawn, he told the man that he would drop his handkerchief for the signal.

Social Changes.-There is not one single source of human happiness against which there have not been uttered the most lugubrious predictions. Turnpike roads, navigable canals, inoculation, hops, tobacco, the reformation, the revolution. There are always a set of worthy and moderately-gifted men, who bawl out death and ruin upon every valuable change which the varying aspect of human affairs absolutely and imperiously requires. It would be extremely useful to make a collection of the hatred and abuse that all those changes have experienced, which are now admitted to be marked improvements in our condition. Such an history might make folly a little more modest, and suspicious of its own decisions.Sydney Smith.

Cause of Conceit.-All affectation and display proceed from the supposition of possessing something better than the rest of the world possesses. Nobody is vain of possessing two legs and two arms;because that is the precise quantity of either sort of limb which every body possesses.-Sydney Smith.

Cure and Kill.-The late Lord Gardestone, himself a valetudinarian, took the pains to inquire for those persons who had actually attested marvellous cures, and found that more than two-thirds of the number died very shortly after they had been cured. Sir Robert Walpole, Lords Bolingbroke and Winnington were killed by cure-mongers.

Sir James Mackintosh had a great deal of humour; and, among many other examples of it, he kept a dinner-party at his own house for two or three hours in a roar of laughter, playing upon the simplicity of a Scotch cousin, who had mistaken the Rev. Sydney Smith for his gallant synonym, the hero of Acre.

Quid pro Quo.-Reciprocal flattery often passes for mutual merit; though such base coin, when detected, ought to be nailed to the counter, to prevent it any further passing current. Swift observes: "This is a sensible author-he thinks as I do." "My wife's nephew," says The Doctor, "is a sensible lad. He reads my writing, likes my stories, admires my singing, and thinks as I do in politics: a youth of parts and considerable promise."

Odd Foresight.-Lady Margaret Herbert asked somebody for a pretly pattern for a nightcap. "Well!" said the person," what signifies the pattern of a nightcap?" "Oh! child," said she, "but you know, in case of fire."

This reminds one of a bachelor in chambers, who was recommended, by his laundress, to purchase finer sheets-in case of illness or death.

Originality in Books.-The few original books in our day remind one of the Frenchman in the Adven

turer, who was about to compile a treatise " concerning things that had been said but once;" which, he remarked, would be contained in a very small pamphlet.

Ancestral Dispute.-The late Mr. Huddlestone believed himself to be lineally descended from Athelstane, of which his name was allowed to be an undeniable corruption; and amongst others, by the late Duke of Norfolk. These two worthies often met over a bottle to discuss the respective pretensions of their pedigrees; and on one of these occasions, when Mr. Huddlestone was dining with the Duke, the discussion was prolonged till the descendant of the Saxon kings fairly rolled from his chair upon the floor. One of the younger members of the family hastened, by the Duke's desire, to re-establish him, but he sternly repelled the proffered hand of the cadet. "Never," he hiccuped out, "shall it be said that the head of the house of Huddlestone was lifted from the ground by a younger branch of the house of Howard." "Well, then, my good old friend," said the good-natured Duke, "I must try what I can do for you myself. "The head of the house of Howard is too drunk to pick up the head of the house of Huddlestone; but he will lie down beside him with all the pleasure in the world:" so saying, the Duke also took his place upon the floor. The concluding part of this anecdote has been plagiarized, and applied to other people; but the authenticity of our version may be relied on.Quarterly Review.

Immense Trifling.-Dr. Shaw, the naturalist, was one day shewing to a friend two volumes written, by a Dutchman, upon the wings of a butterfly in the British Museum. "The dissertation is rather voluminous, sir, perhaps you will think," said the doctor, gravely, "but it is immensely important."

Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, amused himself with asking, from whom his mind descended? where it existed before he was born? and who he should have been if he had not been Richard Watson? "The bishop was a philosopher," says Dr. Jarrold, "and ought not to have asked such idle questions."-The Doctor.

Jesting with Friends.-He that will lose his friend for a jest, deserves to die a beggar by the bargain.

Such let thy jests be, that they may not grinde the credit of thy friend; and make no jests so long till thou becomest one.-Fuller.

Dining alone.-Solitary dinners ought to be avoided as much as possible, because solitude produces thought, and thought tends to the suspension of the digestive organs.-Walker.

Ludicrous Comparison.-The Rev. Sydney Smith compared Mr. Canning in office to a fly in amber: "nobody cares about the fly; the only question is, how the devil did it get there? Nor do I attack him from the love of glory, but from the love of utility, as a burgomaster hunts a rat in a Dutch dike, for fear it should flood a province. When he is jocular he is strong; when he is serious, he is like Samson in a wig. Call him a legislator, a reasoner, and the conductor of the affairs of a great nation, and it seems to be as absurd as if a butterfly were to teach bees to make honey. That he is an extraordinary writer of small poetry, and a diner-out of the highest lustre, I do most readily admit. After George Selwyn, and, perhaps, Tickell, there has been no such man for this last half century."Peter Plymley's Letters.

An English Dinner.-An excellent and wellarranged dinner is a most pleasing occurrence, and a great triumph of civilized life. It is not only the descending morsel, and the enveloping sauce, but the rank, wealth, wit, and beauty which surround the meats; the learned management of light and heat; the silent and rapid services of the attendants; the smiling and sedulous host, proffering gusts and relishes; the exotic bottles; the embossed plate; the pleasant remarks; the handsome dresses; the

cunning artifices in fruit and farina! The hour of dinner, in short, includes everything of sensual and intellectual gratification, which a great nation glories in producing.-Sydney Smith.

Search after Happiness.-If you cannot be happy in one way, be happy in another: and this facility of disposition wants but little aid from philosophy; for health and good humour are almost the whole affair. Many run about after felicity, like an absent man hunting for his hat while it is on his head, or in his hand.-Sharp.

Burning Chimney-sweepers.-A large party are invited to a dinner; a great display is to be made; and, about an hour before dinner, there is an alarm that the kitchen chimney is on fire! It is impossible to put off the distinguished personages who are expected. It gets very late for the soup and fish; the cook is frantic; all eyes are turned upon the sable consolation of the master chimney-sweeper; and up, into the midst of the burning chimney, is sent one of the miserable little infants of the brush! There is a positive prohibition of this practice, and an enactment of penalties, in one of the acts of parliament which respect chimney-sweepers. But what matter acts of parliament, when the pleasures of genteel people are concerned? Or what is a toasted child compared to the agonies of a mistress of the house with a deranged dinner?-Sydney Smith.

Profit and Loss.-Montaigne has a pleasant story of a little boy, who, when his mother had lost a lawsuit, which he had always heard her speak of as a perpetual cause of trouble, ran up to her in great glee, to tell her of the loss as a matter for congratulation and joy; the poor child thinking it was like losing a cough, or any other bodily ailment.

Keeping Holidays.-There are many advantages in variety of conditions; one of which is boasted of by a divine, who rejoices that, between both classes, "all the holidays of the church are properly kept, since the rich observe the feasts, and the poor observe the fasts."-Sharp.

Best of the Bad.-It sometimes happens that an unfortunate man gets drunk with very bad winenot to gratify his palate, but to forget his cares: he does not set any value on what he receives, but on account of what it excludes; it keeps out something worse than itself.-Sydney Smith.

Schools for Parliament.-In the first meetings of a society, at a public school, two or three evenings were consumed in debating whether the floor should be covered with a sail-cloth or a carpet; and better practice was gained in these important discussions than in those that soon followed, on liberty, slavery, passive obedience, and tyrannicide. It has been truly said that nothing is so unlike a battle as a review.-Sharp.

Rich and Poor.-If the difficulty can be surmounted of persuading the poor to be content with their portion in this world, there will be little or no trouble in overcoming the reluctance of the rich to prefer their larger share.―Sharp.

Good Sermons.-As it is no manners for him that hath good venison before him to ask whence it came, but rather fairly to fall to it; so hearing an excellent sermon, he never inquires whence the preacher had it, or whether it was not before in print, but falls aboard to practise it.-Fuller.

Correction of Errors.-To unlearn is harder than to learn; and the Grecian flute-player was right in requiring double fees from those pupils who had been taught by another master. "I am rubbing their father out of my children as fast as I can," said a clever widow of rank and fashion.-Sharp.

Poor Relations.-One that has advanced his fortune out of nothing, is sure to be pestered with his relations; for this reason, a certain favourite in France used to envy Methuselah, because he outlived them all.-Tom Brown.