17 FEBRUARY 1933, Page 16

A Hundred Years Ago

." TI1B SPECTATOR," FEBRUARY 16211, 1b33.

We take the following from the Journal du. Cointiteiee of Lyons, on the 27th ult.—" Two days ago a mercantile house was opening some bales of cotton, when, to the astonishment of those engaged in the operation, there was found in one of them the body ala Negro, bent double- and carefully packed in the middle of it." [This story is not Inoreclible. Some years alp, Mr. W. Gray,. of Boston, at that time the largest shipowner in the United States, and eng.aged extensively in the Weat India trade, found a young " nigger " snugly preserved in a hogshead of rum.. He ordered his cooper to head up the cask immediately, and not to mention . what he had seem; adding this truly mercantile. remark-,-"If I buy the Devil, I'll try to sell him."'