Slaughden; Poetical Memoirs; Dunwich, a tale of the Splendid City; and
other poems, which abound with vivid imagery, life-breathing
incidents, and interesting narrative; though it is but late justice to
recommend his _Framlingham_ to the admirers of fervid verse.

* * * * *


SPIRIT DRINKING.


"Nothing like the simple element dilutes
The food, or gives the chyle so soon to flow."

The direful practice of spirit-drinking seems to have arrived at its
acme in the metropolis. Splendid mansions rear their _dazzling heads_
at almost every turning; and it appears as if Circe had fixed her
abode in these superb haunts. Happy are those who, like Ulysses of
old, will not partake of her deadly cup. If the unhappy dram-drinker
was merely to calculate the annual expense of two glasses of gin per
day, he would find a sum expended which would procure for him many
comforts, for the want of which he is continually grumbling. If this
sum is expended for only two glasses of spirits, what must be the
expense to the habitual and daily sot, who constantly haunts the
tap-room or the wretched bar? to say nothing of the loss of time,
health, and every comfort.

Dr. Willan says--"On comparing my own observations with the bills of
mortality, I am convinced that considerably more than one-eighth of
all the deaths which take place in persons above twenty years old,