things which a person can commit. We have frequently been
astonished to hear such a slang phrase as "the whole hog"
used by persons who had pretensions to very superior
standing. We would be disposed to apply to such an expression
a criticism of Dr. Johnson's, which rivals it in Coarseness:
"It has not enough salt to keep it from stinking, enough wit
to prevent its being offensive." We do not wish to advocate
any false refinement, or to encourage any cockney delicacy:
but we may be decent without being affected. The stable
language and raft humour of Crockett and Downing may do very
well to amuse one in a morning paper, but it exhibits little
wit and less good sense to adopt them in the drawing-room.
This matter should be "reformed altogether."

If a plate be sent to you, at dinner, by the master or
mistress of the house, you should always take it, without
offering it to all your neighbours as was in older times
considered necessary. The spirit of antique manners consisted
in exhibiting an attention to ceremony; the spirit of modern
manners consists in avoiding all possible appearance of form.
The old custom of deferring punctiliously to others was
awkward and inconvenient. For, the person, in favor of whom
the courtesy was shown, shocked at the idea of being exceeded
in politeness, of course declined it, and a plate was thus
often kept vibrating between two bowing mandarins, till its
contents were cold, and the victims of ceremony were deprived
of their dinner. In a case like this, to reverse the decision
which the host has made as to the relative standing of his
guests, is but a poor compliment to him, as it seems to
reprove his choice, and may, besides, materially interfere