21 AUGUST 1869, Page 2

As usual, during the recess, the daily papers keep tapping

the rock, but they have not drawn water yet in any quantity. The discussion about the morality of Formosa does not yield much, except to the lessee of Drury Lane, and London has not risen to the -very clever fly thrown in the Times by a physician. He says the police ought, for reasons of health, to pat a stop to all noises at night, particularly in Harley Street ; to make vans go slowly, arrest drunkards who sing, and move on that "love-sick fool with a concertina," who every night at the same hour plays three bars, probably as a signal. The Lancet backs his complaint, averring, we dare say quite truly, that sick children in hot weather suffer greatly from noises which disturb their sleep. Considering that the nuisance of organ-grinding has distinctly increased since it was " put down," that the streets were made for traffic, and that the interference of the police with drunkards, love-sick fools, and van-drivers would tend to increase the row, we have not much hope from the physician's suggestion. Still, his letter has a value. It explains that con- duct in the people of Sybaris which seemed to the ancients so ridiculous. They were not effeminate citizens, but devotees of sound hygiene, misunderstood because too much in advance of their generation.