ing hospital,
to lie there a few months at the public expense, while his family are
maintained by the parish. Again, we meet two wives nursing young babes
scared into unnatural silence, clenching their fists in each other's
faces, and with difficulty restrained from acts of more savage violence
by their drunken husbands. Their day's holiday has come to this. In the
metropolis in 1853, the number of public-houses was 5729--the number of
beer-shops 3613. These figures give a total of 9342. If on this night
we suppose on an average one fight in the course of the evening takes
place in each of these drinking shops, we can get some idea of what goes
on in London on a Boxing night. In passing at midnight down Drury-lane,
I see three fights in a five minutes' walk. Enlightened native of
Timbuctoo, will you not pity our London heathens and send a few
missionaries here!

THE MOGUL,

Not the Great Mogul in Thibet, but the Mogul in Drury-lane, is an
increasingly popular place of public amusement. I was there a few years
since, and it was not more than half full. The other night I could
hardly get standing room, though I paid sixpence and went with the
operative swells into the gallery. In these days the test of everything
is success. We speak well of the tradesman who does the largest
business--of the writer whose books sell the most--of the actor or
preacher that draws the largest crowd. We do not stop to criticise the
manner in which that business is done, the influence of the writer, the
doctrine taught by the preacher, or the character of the acting. On the
ordinary principle, then, the Mogul is a creditable establishment, for it
is a successful one. Indeed, in the present state of society, it is
hardly possible to conceive how a place that combines entertainment and
drinking together can well be otherwise. In the course of last summer
Vauxhall was open a few nights; I was credibly informed that on each
night it was supposed not more than half the company paid for admission,
the other half having been admitted by means of orders. It is calculated
the sale of drink and refreshment to the crowd thus collected will yield
a profit sufficient to cover all expenses. Thus it is such places as the
Mogul pay. The entrance fee and the sale of intoxicating drinks must
amount to a sum out of which a proprietor can extract a handsome profit.

Thus at the Mogul you have a double attraction. Are you a gin-drinker