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water does not fail , and the axle does not break , and the coke is not of a bad quality , and the packing of the piston does not wear out , and a few other accidents to which steam-coaches are for the most part liable . But the Colonel has now apparently laid aside steaming- for the present , and has taken to mending the ways of steam . Literally , he has put forth a very useful little book on pavements , taking them up where
M'Adam left them , and where M'Adam found them , viz . in Derbyshire , in which region M'Adamizing was practised before M'Adam was born , by the farmers and labourers breaking up lumps of stone to fill the hollows worn by the cart wheels in the limestone rock which formed the bed of the road . The Colonel says that , although M'Adamized roads are good out of town , they are not good in town , on account of the dust in summer and the mud in winter . This is true ; but his
proposition , to replace broken granite by blocks of hard wood saturated with pitch , ' is scarcely a sound one . However the wood might be prepared , when new it would make the west end smell like Bankside ; saying nothing of the expense , it would become rotten beneath , at no very long period , and would form a fruitful source of nuisance , to the endangerment of people ' s health . And however tight the blocks might be in winter , in summer they would shrink and
become loose . Then again , it would be necessary to set on an extra number of policemen to watch the wooden stones , especially on the fifth of November , or the waggish boys would make bonfires from one end of the town to the other . Moreover , the poor people in the winter would be apt to regard the street pavements as glorious fuel quarries . Only think of blocks of hard wood saturated with pitch . It would be worth while to make a riot at one end of the street , in order to draw
away the * raw lobsters'' attention while digging up the other to carry home . The phrase amongst the poor menageres would soon be , ' I say , Misses , coals is fell , caus wood ' s to be got for nothing . ' Talk of farmers' hedges , indeed ! gipsies would think scorn to touch them , with such extensive quarries to be found in town . In Whittington ' s time the song was ,
London streets are paved with gold ;' Bat the shivering poor of St . Giles and Westminster would sing , with far greater glee , during the hard black frosts of winter , * London streets is paved vith vood , Lung live Macerone ! And ve'll blow out vith summut good , Bought out on our coal money . '
Hard blocks of wood saturated with pitch ! only think what precious fuel ! How the flame would roar up chimneys long unacquainted with fire ! How many grim faces would relax , while grimed hands would stretch forth , and hoarse voices would soften into the accents of content , saying , like the man in scripture , Aha t I am warm , I have seen the fire ! ' Poor , poor people ! they would be called thieves , and treadmilled for the act . What then shall thev be called who rob them ,
for sinister purposes , of the precious birthright of knowledge , having which , neither meat , nor clothes , nor fuel , would be lacking to any one ? Thieves ? They are fiends ! 4 Who steals my purse , steals trash / Who steals my good name , is welcome to it , if he can make
Untitled Article
860 Notes on the Newspapers .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1833, page 860, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2628/page/56/
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