A CURIOUS TRIO.--Mr. Dallas, when Secretary of the Treasury, says
Mr. Paulding, told me the following story, which he had from Mr.
Breck:--When the Duc de Liancourt was in Philadelphia, sometime after
the execution of Louis the Sixteenth, Mr. Breck called to see him
at his lodgings, in Strawberry-alley. Knocking at the door of a mean
looking house, a little ragged girl came out, who, on being asked for
the Duke, pointed to a door, which Mr. B. entered. At a little deal
table he found Cobbett, teaching the Duke and Monsieur Talleyrand
English!

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BAD COOKERY A CAUSE OF DRUNKENKESS.--To what are we to ascribe the
prevalence of this detestable vice amongst us! Many causes might be
plausibly assigned for it, and one of them is our execrable cookery.
The demon of drunkenness inhabits the stomach. From that "vasty deep"
it calls for its appropriate offerings. But the demon may be appeased
by other agents than alcohol. A well-cooked, warmed, nutritious meal
allays the craving quite as effectually as a dram; but cold, crude,
indigestible viands, not only do not afford the required _solatium_ to
the rebellious organ, but they aggravate the evil, and add intensity
to the morbid avidity for stimulants. It is remarked that certain
classes are particularly obnoxious to drunkenness, such as sailors,
carriers, coachmen, and other wandering tribes whose ventral
insurrections are not periodically quelled by regular and comfortable
meals. Country doctors, for the same reason, not unfrequently manifest
a stronger predilection for their employers' bottles than their
patients do for theirs. In the absence of innocuous and benign
appliances, the deleterious are had recourse to exorcise the fiend
that is raging within them. These views are explicable by the laws