n distraction to their more rational neighbours. It was
by these growling and cantankerous philanthropists that German "Bands of
Three," or even damaged bagpipes, were invited by halfpence to make
hideous noises in quiet back-streets. He merely offered these remarks
for what they were worth, in passing, and he would now proceed to listen
to such fresh evidence as might be forthcoming.

A Nervous Invalid (who was led in tottering, and immediately supplied
with a chair, into which he sank in an exhausted condition) said, in a
feeble voice, that his present shattered state he attributed solely to
the never-ceasing strain to which his nerves had been subjected by the
continuous Babel of street-noises that invaded the suburban quarter in
which he had been induced to take up his residence in the belief that he
was ensuring himself a quiet and snug retreat. (_Sensation._) From the
moment when he was roused from his slumbers in the early morning by
Sweeps who came to attend to somebody else's chimneys--(_cries of
"Shame!"_)--to a late hour, frequently close on eleven at night, when a
loud-lunged urchin bawled out a false alarm of a local murder in the
"latest edition," his whole life was one continual contest with organs,
with or without monkeys or babies, shouting fern-vendors, brass bands,
broken-winded concertinas, Italian brigands, choruses of family beggars,
tearing milk-carts, itinerant twilight ballad-singers, and other
disturbers of the public peace. (_Groans._) And the result, from the
series of shocks his system had now been continually sustaining for
several years, was the condition to which the Commissioner could see he
had been reduced, which he could only characterise as that of one who,
once blithe, gay, happy, and active, was now a complete physical and
mental wreck, to whom if he could see no prospect of coming relief,
the gloom of life appeared to stretch away as a vast wilderness, with a
prospect of such overwhelming depression, that he could only conclude
his evidence with the significant but heartrending warning that he could
face it no longer! The Witness here fairly broke down, and, bursting
into a hysterical fit of weeping, had to be led from the room by a bevy
of sympathising friends.

THE COMMISSIONER (_much moved_). Dear me! this is very distressing! Can
the Police be of no use? (_A Voice. "Not the slightest!"_) Indeed! Ah!
that's very awkward. However, we had better proceed with the evidence.
Is the