NEWS OF THE WEEK.
fr HE Frost, which for a week almost paralysed traffic in South
England, broke up on Wednesday, the 26th inat., the thermo- meter rising in a few hours, under the influence of a south-west -wind, from 20° Palm to 40°. The snow melted rapidly, and by Friday, though it had not disappeared, the streets of London were covered with practicable slush, more unpleasant to the -wayfarer than the snow, but much less inconvenient to business. The thaw was welcomed with delight, for the frost, coming as it did upon a heavy snow-storm, had inflicted a serious amount of misery. Several trades, such as the fishmongers, were stopped -altogether. Coal nearly doubled in price, oil more than doubled, milk became in some places unprocurable, and the supply of water was intercepted, till most householders found it a costly matter, either in cash or time, to obtain sufficient for daily use. Had the arrest of traffic lasted a little longer and been a little more complete, London might have suffered under a situation which we have endeavoured elsewhere to depict. Life in this wilderness of houses is so entirely artificial, that a ten days' arrest of the regular machinery might produce -serious calamities, As it is, the snow-storm, with its addition to the price of oil, of coal, of wood, of water, of milk, and of plumbers' charges, has probably cost the householders of London double their January rates, and has raised the death-rate for a fortnight twenty per ceat. The old die like flies in a cold snap of that sort.
