far surpassing the value of many things acquired by difficulty and
danger, and for which the breadth of oceans are traversed, through
storms and tempests. Perhaps a cruise to the Gold Coast, with all its
drawbacks and contingencies, is scarcely so profitable as the returns on
the quantity of dust collected in the City of London, during the time
necessary for the voyage, and its accomplished return. About the period
I allude to, the parish of St. Luke received no less a sum than between
one and two thousand pounds a-year for dust collected, which, being
placed to the parish account, tended in a _great measure_ to keep
down the poor'-rates. In addition to its value, no kind of property is
better secured; as will be evinced, when the reader is informed that his
present Majesty, George IV., when he was Prince Regent, lost an action
for the recovery of the value of dust, carried away from the palace, by
his servants, to be used as manure. In order to a further illustration
of the subject, it is necessary to inform the reader, that what has
hitherto been considered is but a part of that incongruous combination,
the contents of a dust-cart--the very last residuum--the matter called
"brize;" previous to which, by the result of much labour, of picking,
raking, sorting, and sifting, a very pretty property is collected by the
various shareholders of this joint, stock company, as a recent case that
was brought forward at the Bow-street office will suffice to convince
us.[3]

Perhaps the reader may have never witnessed the ejection of a
dust-cart: presuming he has not, I will endeavour to give him a general
outline of the ceremony; together with all the circumstances attending
it, and a sketch of the group and foreground. Suppose an eminence of
about five or six feet already collected, in a circular form; on the
heap is a man raking about, and a little child playing with a small
brown shaggy mongrel of a dog, with a community of pigs battening on