THE ORIGIN OF THE PHRASE, " THE MAN IN THE
STREET."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—What is the origin of the phrase, " the man in the street " ? In " The Greville Memoirs," under date March 22nd, 1831, Vol. II., p. 131, occurs the following : " The King will not consent to it [a Dissolution], knowing, as ' the man in the street ' (as we call him at Newmarket) always does, the greatest secrets of Kings, and being the confidant of their most hidden thoughts." The origin of the phrase is interest- ing. Does " the man in the street" still obtain at Newmarket, and is he a " tipster," or• merely one who speaks with confident knowledge, having none ? It will certainly interest modern journalists to know there was a "man in the street" in 1831 of similar char•acter•istics apparently to his latter-day repre-
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