O usury laws which guard against usurers, by making as many as possible!
O churches in which no one profits, save the parson, and the old women
that let pews of an evening! O superb theatres, too small for parks, too
enormous for houses, which exclude comedy and comfort, and have a
monopoly for performing nonsense gigantically! O houses of plaster,
built in a day! O palaces four yards high, with a dome in the middle,
meant to be invisible!

[We must not suppose this apostrophe to be an anachronism.
Tomlinson, Of course, refers to some palace of his day; one of the
boxes--Christmas boxes--given to the king by his economical nation
of shopkeepers. We suppose it is either pulled down or blown down
long ago; it is doubtless forgotten by this time, except by
antiquaries. Nothing is so ephemeral as great houses built by the
people. Your kings play the deuce with their playthings!]

"O shops worth thousands, and O shopkeepers not worth a shilling! O
system of credit by which beggars are princes, and princes are beggars!
O imprisonment for debt, which lets the mare be stolen, and then locks up
the bridle! O sharpers, bubbles, senators, beaux, taverns, brothels,
clubs, houses private and public!---O LONDON, in a word, receive my last
adieu! Long may you flourish in peace and plenteousness! May your
knaves be witty, and your fools be rich! May you alter only two things,
--your damnable tricks of transportation and hanging! Those are your sole
faults; but for those I would never desert you. Adieu!"

Here Tomlinson averted his head, and then hastily shaking the hand of
Long Ned with a tremulous and warm grasp, he hurried down the stairs and
entered the boat. Ned remained motionless for some moments, following
him with his eyes as he sat at the end of the boat, waving a white