Strangely enough, it is from the country of Washington, whom the poet was wont to reverence as the purest patriot of the modern world, that in 1869 there emanated the hideous story which scandalized both continents, and ultimately recoiled on the retailer of the scandal.

These herrings became a necessary food during Lent, and "Sor et blanc harene frès pouldré (couvert de sel)!" ("Herrings smoked, fresh, and salted!") was the cry of the retailers in the streets of Paris, where this fish became a permanent article of consumption to an extent which can be appreciated from the fact that Saint Louis gave annually nearly seventy thousand herrings to the hospitals, plague-houses, and monasteries.

It is no longer the interest of many tradesmen to sell sound wares; the consumer can no longer rely upon the recommendation of the retailer as a skilled judge of the quality of a particular line of goods; he is thrown back upon his own discrimination, and as an amateur he is apt to be worsted in a bargain with a specialist.

It has appeared, that the cheapness of licenses will not hinder the present retailers from carrying on an illegal trade; that information will not now be more safe or more frequent than before, and that the duty, if not in part evaded, may yet be probably abated from the present profits of the sale.

as if I had the twelve celestial Monsters of the Zodiac to shew within, or was forced for a livelihood, to turn retailer to May and Bartholomew Fairs.