of the
unhappy Sufferers, who would have flown to their Assistance, were
ignorant of their Distress till it was too late to do them Service;
and also that most of the said Watchmen, on other Occasions, are
very negligent, whence it happens that many Robberies, Burglaries,
and other Offences, which their Care might prevent, are committed;
and that even some of them are in Fee with common Harlots and
Streetwalkers, whom they suffer at unseasonable Hours, unmolested
to prey on the Virtue, Health and Property of His Majesty's Liege
Subjects: Be it known to the said Watchmen, and their Masters,
that, having taken the Premises into Consideration, I intend
whenever I set out from _Spring Gardens_ with my _invisible Cap_,
my _irradiating Lanthorn_, and my _Oken Staff_ of correction, to
take the City of _London_, under Leave of the Right Hon. the Lord
Mayor, into my Rounds, and to detect, expose, and punish all
Defaulters in the several Stands and Beats: Whereof this fair
Warning is given, that none may be surprized in Neglect of Duty, I
being determined to shew no Favour to such Offenders."

Euston Square, 12th Dec. 1849.

_Aelfric's Colloquy_.--Permit me to correct a singular error into which
the great Anglo-Saxon scholars, Messrs. Lye and B. Thorpe, have been
betrayed by some careless transcriber of the curious _Monastic Colloquy_
by the celebrated Aelfric. This production of the middle ages is very
distinctly written, both in the Saxon and Latin portions, in the Cotton
MS. (Tiberius, A 3, fol. 58_b_.) Mr. Lye frequently cites it, in his
_Saxon Dictionary_, as "_Coll. Mon._," and Mr. Thorpe gives it entire in
his _Analecta Anglo-Saxonica_. The former loosely explains _higdifatu_,
which occurs in the reply of the shoewright (_sceowyrhta_),
thus--"Ca_l_idilia, sc. vasa _quoedam.--Coll. Mon._"--and Mr. Thorpe
prints both _higdifatu_ and _ca_l_idilia_. _Higdifatu_ is manifestly
vessels of hides, such as skin and leather bottles and buckets. The _ig_
is either a clerical error of the monkish scribe for _y_, or the _g_ is
a silent letter producing the quantity of the vowel. "I buy hides and
fells," says the workman, "and with my craft I make of them shoes of
different kinds; leathern hose, flasks, and _higdifatu_." The Latin word
in this MS. is _casidilia_, written with the long straight _s_. Du Cange
explains _capsilis_ to be a vessel of leather