It would be hard to say which is the most
moral quarter of Lon- don. The choice at present seems to lie between Billingsgate and Grosvenor Square. A man was brought before the Lord Mayor by the parish officers of Billingsgate, for refusing to pay half-a- crown a week for the support of a bastard child. He offered to pay fifteen pounds down, in order to be released from all future trouble in the affair. Sir PETER LAURIE advised the officers to take the money; but one of them, with a very grave countenance, assured the Magistrate, that if it were known that an affair of this description was compromised in Billingsgate, the consequences would be very serious indeed, " Nonsense ! " said Sir PETER; "take the money : the thing is done every day at the West end of the town—what is done there, is not likely to lower the character of Billingsgate." The parish officers still demurred : they did not like the idea of being put upon a level in point of morality with the West end. This is edifying ; it may let our grandees into the secret of what their inferiors really think of their conduct and their morals.
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