10 SEPTEMBER 1932, Page 11

A Hundred Years Ago

THE "SPECTATOR," SEPTEMBER 8TH, 1832.

Bartholomew Fair was proclaimed in the usual form on Monday. On the suggestion of Mr. Charles Pearson, every degree of strietness which the law permits was used to enforce the shutting-up of the. numerous public-houses and gin-shops in the vicinity of Smithfield, at the regulated hours. The weather has been exceedingly favour-, able to the holyday folks ; and we would fain hope, notwithstanding the anticipations to the contrary, that the fair will not add to the virulence of the cholera, the fear of which dictated Mr. Pearson's suggestion. If the Magistrates could contrive a gauge by which to measure the purity of the liquors dispensed by the publicans, they would do more to repress disease than by shutting them up at eleven o'clock. It is the quality of the "heavy," as much as the quantity, that injures the stomach of the unthinking bibber.