A Hundred Years Ago
THE " SPECTATOR," FEBRUARY 14TH, 1829.
TALES or Felines.
• Well-regulated minds take no pleasure except in the perusal of that which is consistent with the principles on which they believe the welfare of society or the happiness of individuals is founded ; education is, however, - of so random a description generally, and in its best form so imperfect, that feir people are aware of the tendency of what they read; fewer still have so piiltiiated a moral sense as to reject with unhesitating indignation the noxious matter the moment they perceive the bitterness of its taste. This: very bitterness in some vitiated tastes acts as a relish ; and, like olives, relieves the insipidity of wine, or stimu- lates a surfeited palate. The ordinary measure of a novel's excel- lence, is the power of the writer to produce interest in the reader : if he can make the pulse beat quicker—if at any crisis of his tale the breath thickens or tears fill the eyes, or if, in short, it produce any kind of strong emotion—the end is worked ; the author is popular, the book is sold, the publisher is pleased, and recom-
mends the authOr to try again. '
SILK WEAVERS.
A meeting of the inhabitants of Spital6elds and Bethnal-green was held on Monday, to raise a subscription to enable the weavers to apply for a protecting law. Many affecting detailii of their distress- were-given. It was said that nearly half the looms were unemployed ; and many of them were compelled to work at prices eo low that, with ,skirteen or eighteen hours' labour per day, they could scarcely provide bread for their families. .
STARVATION.
An inquest was held on Tuesday, at- the Cannon- public house, Hungerford, on the body of Win. Cummings, aged 29, whose death was caused .by want of necessary food, and the shook he sustained by his landlord distrauauo his furniture for rent. and turning him Out of his dwelling. Verdict.—Died b., the visitation cf God.
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