The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 10, No. 282, November 10, 1827 by Various
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page 8 of 51 (15%)
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[2] "Which, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length
along"--POPE. [3] It is, indeed, difficult to avoid one, call it what you will, and quite as difficult to find a more absurd name than that adopted, unless, indeed, (why the machine goes but five miles an hour,) it is called a diligence from not being diligent, as the speaker of our House of Commons may be so designated from not speaking. It consists of three bodies, carries eighteen inside, and is not unfrequently drawn by nine horses. A cavalry charge, therefore, could scarcely make more noise. Hence, and from the other circumstance, its association in the second stanza with the triune sonorous Cerberus. A diligence indeed! [4] The intrusive garrulity of French waiters at dinner is notorious. [5] This "sea Mediterranean" is a most filthy, fetid, uncovered gutter, running down the middle of the most, even of the best streets, and with which every merciless Jehu most liberally bespatters the unhappy pedestrian. Truly _la belle nation_ has little idea of decency, or there would be subterranean sewers like ours. [6] French houses are cleaner even than ours externally, being all neatly whitewashed! _mais le dedans! le dedans!_ [7] The servants are as notorious for their incivility as for their intrusive loquacity. |
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