"THE MAN IN THE STREET."
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTAIOR."1 SIR,—Last week you had occasion to quote Lord Haldane as saying, " Remember how the man in the street looks up-on the Government." It may perhaps be open to question whether at the end of the last century, when this speech was made, the particular expression employed was in the same familiar use as it is to-day, when we hear it on all hands. The phrase is now without any doubt a stook one, and I think I am right in adding that most persons would regard it as of quite modern coinage and currency. Such was my own impression until on the very day of your issue I came upon it in Charles Greville's ,Memoirs, under date of March 22nd, 1831. Referring to an impending debate on the first Reform Bill and a possible majority against it, Mr. Greville says, " Then will come the question of a dissolution, which one side affirms will take place directly, and the other that the King will not consent to it, :knowing as the man in the street,' as we call him at New- 'market, always -does, the greatest secrets of kings, and being -the confidant of their most hidden thoughts." So the phrase was a well-known one at least eighty years ago, and is here -traced to a sporting Origin. Can any of your readers throw further light upon this subject P—I am, Sir, &c., 8 Randolph Crescent, Maida Vale. CHARLES GREEN.
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