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USEFUL POETRY,

ORIGINAL AND SELECT.

PLEASURES OF EDUCATION.

YOUTH of my country, children of my heart,

A father's counsel hear his tongue impart, And let his words upon your mem'ries press,

For they are meant to teach you happiness.

Your minds, now form'd by Nature's bounteous hand,

With fertile strength, teem like your native land;

And whatsoever you may plant or sow, Grain, root, or flower,-will flourishingly grow.

Yet, though the land be rich, the season good,

Labour alone gives harvest plenitude:
The richest soil, uncultivated, feeds

But vermin foul, and yields the rankest weeds.

Plant in your minds my words, and they will shoot,

With lasting, firm, and salutary root:
Toil to improve, be constant in your care,
And Heav'n will bring the goodly fruit to

bear.

Spirit of EDUCATION, to thy praise Arise the efforts of my willing lays; Inspire me as touch the untried string, Thy pleasures to the infant heart to sing. Thrice happy task, to teach the untaught

ear

To love the sounds that tell thy blessings dear;

To show their beauties to the eye of youth, In all their bright and captivating truth: May every infant mind the fire receive, Which thou, blest spirit, thou alone canst give.

And thus the fogs of ignorance, from earth Shall fly, nor smother Reason in her birth; But light of truth, from one bright arch shall fall,

To show the ways of Heaven and earth to all.

Clouded in barbarism long England lay, And people after people pass'd away Beneath the darkness. Then her woody plains,

Patch'd rude together, forming vast domains,

Crouch'd round the spot where the proud

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Mankind in herds, each. herd its feudal lord,

Their bread, their lives depending on his word;

Fated to do, or die, as he thought fit,

They felt his power, and they bow'd to it.
For him or for his cause, unjust or good,
They'd fire their neighbour's home, and
spill his blood.

His bugle sounded-'twas the signal note
To rise and cut his brother baron's throat;
Seize on his cattle, castle, and domain,
And then, by greater robbers, lose again!
Each petty tyrant's fancies were the laws,
The people slaves, and ignorance the

cause.

At length the glorious light of knowledge broke

The deep, dense glooni, and Liberty awoke, Gazed on the opening prospect with a smile,

And breathed her benediction o'er the isle ! Then native Independence rear'd her head, And bloated Tyranny for ever fled.

Fair Science, charm'd, beheld the new bright scene,

And built her temple 'midst her bowers green:

The sister arts, all strength'ning as they grew,

For ever varying, and for ever new,
Taught the rough hand of industry to guide,
In plastic maze the country's fleecy pride:
Genius arose to consecrate the plan,
And patriot love united man to man.

'Twas thus in darkness lay the brightest

isle,

And thus her blinded people felt awhile The woes man feels when fetter'd by his kind,

But, loosing with the body's chains the mind:

Twas learning gave her sons a deathless

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Published every Saturday Morning,

By KNIGHT and LACEY, 24, Paternoster-Row.

T. C. Hansard, Pater-noster-row Press.

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The series of the Plates of the markets (four in number) are published: we shall give an article upon the subject of London markets generally.

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In our preceding Number, under this head, we adverted to the several retail prices of meat, as compared with the wholesale: we shall now offer a few desultory remarks upon this subject.

At

An economist will purchase articles for general consumption when they are plentiful in the market, and consequently cheaper than when scarce; but persons who will indulge in certain luxuries at particular seasons must pay for the fashion. A calf's head at Christmas will fetch eight shillings; this month one equally good may be bought for two shillings. At Christmas a calf's foot will cost one shilling and sixpence; now four may be bought for sixpence. Christmas the purchase of a fine cod will leave little change from a sovereign; now half a crown will buy a cod weighing eighteen pounds, not twopence per lb. Last week, two dozen of whitings, perfectly fresh, were sold at Billingsgate for one shilling and fourpence; the same money must frequently be given for a single fish of the same description; nothing varies more than the price of this article; an arrival of a boat or two at the market will effect a reduction of fifty per cent in a few minutes.

Early in the morning is the best time to have a choice of meat at market; but under certain circumstances the economist will prefer the evening; wholesale and large butchers having a stock of veal or lamb on hands on a Saturday night in summer, will sell upon almost any terms; as the meat, although then perfectly good and fit for cooking on Sunday, would not resist the assaults of Captain

A large cod, if more than sufficient for present use, may be divided, the head and shoulders boiled fresh; the remainder, cleaned, washed, and salted for a day or two, will be found much preferable to the salt fish as generally brought to market.

Green* until Monday; upon these occasions a fine joint of veal or lamb may often be purchased for threepence or four-pence the pound, which would in the morning have fetched seven-pence or eight-pence.

BEEF for a week for a family of three grown persons and three grow ing children for little more than seven shillings, prime meat, plenty too, luxurious, and elegant:

Buy (suppose on a Saturday) a thin flank of beef, at four-pence halfpenny the pound (the highest price), weighing eighteen pounds; this costs six-shillings and nine-pence; cut off about three pounds from the thick end; take out the bones with care, cutting from you, to prevent accident (careful persons rarely meet with accidents); strip off as much of the inside skin as you can; divide the meat thus cut off, into ten or a dozen pieces; put the bones into a stew or saucepan, with three quarts of water, and stew for two hours; take out the bones, and put in the pieces of meat; boil in a separate saucepan six pounds of potatoes; when nearly done, strain and peel them; cut them into thin slices, and put them into the vessel with the meat; stew the whole an hour longer; season it with pepper and salt to your taste: this will make a nice dinner for the Sunday, and sufficient left to be warmed up (just as good) for the Monday.

We must now return to Saturday for the remainder of the flank. Have a pickling-tub with a broad bottom; a very good one may be bought of any cheesemonger (the half of a Dorset butter-tub) for ten-pence; get two ounces of each of the following:-bay-salt, salt-petre, sal-prunella, 1lb. common salt, and half-apound of coarse brown sugar; beat the hard salts into a fme powder, rub the meat well with the whole, and

A quaint saying amongst the butch ers, alluding to the discoloration in veal when kept too long.

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place it in the tub, turning it each day with the brine. On Tuesday cut off 4 lb. more from the thick end, and boil it; it will be nicely corned, and will make, with vegetables, good dinners for two days. On the Wednesday evening take your meat out of the pickle, wash it well, hang it up to drain, wipe it with a cloth, take a handful of parsley, a pennyworth of sweet herbs, chopped fine, with a ground nutmeg, a very small quantity of ground mace and cloves, about twenty corns of all-spice powdered, with a tea-spoonful of black pepper ; strew the inside of the meat with this mixture, then roll it up tight; cover it with a coarse cloth, wrapt once round it; tie it round with broad tape in three places, and let the tape pass once round it long-wise; boil it for three hours and a half; let it stand in a press, or under a weight all night; take off the cloth, and you will be tempted to taste it for breakfast; this cut into thin slices, will be found quite sufficient for the remainder of the week (and enough to supply a piece to a neighbour as a practical lesson in economy), and it will form an elegant dish; or if you prefer only eating it occasionally, you may put it by; it will keep good for a month. Pastrycooks sell it thus prepared for two shillings the pound; the expense does not exceed one halfpenny per pound increase on the cost price, but some will say it is so much trouble; try it, and you will find the trouble is scarce any, and will occupy little more time than the reading this article. Now, pray, which is most profitable, this or mutton-chops, and such like? The same family, if fed upon chops, steaks, sausages, or tripe, would consume twenty-one pounds, at an average of seven-pence per pound, which would amount to upwards of twelve shillings, being an increased expenditure of five shillings per week in meat alone, not to mention the loss of time in marketing, dressing, &c.

Potutoes.-The very best champion potatoes are now sold at six shillings the hundred and twenty pounds, somethmg better than three pounds for two-pence. It may surprise

some persons, that the dealers in potatoes are so accommodating as to wash them from the dirt, and sell them without any increase of price: it is a secret worth knowing. They suffer them to lay in water for a dozen hours or more before they wash them, during which time they suck up water as a sponge, and the dealer sells the water as well as the vegetable at six shillings per hundred. Never buy washed potatoes; they will not boil well; they will not keep; and you lose a fourth in quantity. It is not every body who knows how to boil potatoes well; we shall have a word to say upon the subject another time.

EVIL PRACTICE OF RENDERING MEAT, FISH, AND POULTRY, UNWHOLESOME.

The abominable custom daily prac tised of blowing, as it is technically called, or inflating butcher's meat, especially the joints of veal and lamb, with the breath respired from the lungs, to make it appear white and glistening, is a practice which claims the interference of the magistrates.

This detestable custom unquestionably renders meat not only unfit for keeping, but likewise unwholesome for human food. It is the opinion of physiologists that the meat is capable of communicating the most loathsome diseases; besides, it is such a dirty trick, that the very idea of it is sufficient to disgust one at every thing which comes from a butcher'sshop; for who can bear the notion of eating meat, the cellular substance of which has been filled with the air of a dirty fellow, who may at the same time be afflicted with the very worst of diseases?

But not only butchers' meat, but sea-fish, especially cod, haddock, and whiting, are in a similar measure often blown to make them appear large and plump; a quill, or the stem of a tobacco pipe, being inserted into the orifice at the belly of the fish, and a hole being made under the fin, which is next the gill, the breath is blown in to extend the bulk of the fish. This imposition is detected by

placing the thumb on each side of the orifice, and pressing it hard, when the air will be perceived to escape. Meat that has been inflated may at once be recognized by the cellular membranes being distended.

Another pernicious custom of rendering meat unwholesome is, to throw the beast, previous to its being killed, into a state of disease, by over-driving it; for the fever into which the furious animal is often thrown, by the cruelty of the drover, is frequently raised to madness. No person would choose to eat the flesh of an animal which died in a high fever, yet that is actually the case with all over-driven cattle. The flesh of such animals is at once distinguished at the butcher's shambles, by the cellular membrane being filled with blood, which makes the meat appear of a more florid colour, and adds to its weight.

Another highly blamable custom to render meat unwholesome is, to keep animals without food for four or five days together, to save the butcher the trouble of clearing the stomach and intestines more readily. Oxen are usually kept without food for four or five days before they are killed. Calves, sheep, and pigs, each of them two or three days. Fasting so long renders the animals unhealthy, and makes them restless, feverish, and diseased.

It is also a common practice in some grazing counties to bring to market the carcases of such animals as die of themselves. Poverty may indeed oblige people to eat such meat, but it would be better for them to eat a smaller quantity of what is sound and wholesome; at least it would afford a better nourishment, with less danger.

The injunction given to the Jews, not to eat of any creature which had died in consequence of a disease, seems to have a strict regard to health, and ought to be observed as a wholesome lesson by Christians as well as Jews.

The editor of the Literary Miscellany states, that it is a practice among many butchers to suspend calves by the hind legs with the head downwards, for hours, and to bleed them to death slowly. Such pro

cesses of complicated and lengthened cruelty, too horrid to relate, are only for the purpose of whitening the flesh; and with a similar view two calves are often tied together by their hind legs, and thrown across a horse when brought to the butcher's shop, so that they are suffered to be suspended for hours together, with the head downwards before they are killed.

On the frequent cruelties committed by butchers it is not our business to speak: every person resident in this city must have noticed, that in driving a number of sheep and oxen, if any of them be untractable, the driver often breaks one of the legs of the sheep, or cuts the large tendon on the foot of the ox. This is a cruelty at which the human mind shudders.

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The eager and insatiable thirst for gain, which seems to be a leading characteristic of the times, calls into action every human faculty, and gives an irresistible impulse to the power of invention; and when lucre becomes the reigning principle, the possible sacrifice of even a fellow-creature's life is a secondary consideration. In reference to the deterioration of almost all the necessaries and comforts of existence, it may be justly observed, in a civil as well as a religious sense, that "in the midst of life we are in death."

INDIGENCE, AND ITS REMEDIES.

(Continued from p.9.)

In considering the innocent causes of indigence, as exhibited in one collected view in our last Number, it will be seen that those requiring constant and permanent support are few

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