GRIEVANCE, AND PROPOSITIONS,

LONDON, 1823.

THAT man would deserve well of his country, more directly of his town, who should introduce a mode of silencing, or even of subduing the horrific noise of wheels, rattling upon the stones of our streets. Perhaps, amidst the towns of high distinction, in Great-Britain, the beautiful and regularly augmenting one of Cheltenham supplies the only instance of entire exemption from this overwhelming and merciless disturbance: where firm and well-kept spacious gravel road, instead of paving-stones; or, what is usually termed, pitching, forms the carriage and horse ways; whence the comfort of tranquillity is at once consulted and secured.

Great are the praises due to the attentions of its police, on this single account : but they stop not here: and, were this a place for going into panegyric on the

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circumstances of Cheltenham, the office might be performed with perfect facility by the present writer, the occasional visitor of that town; because the objects of his praise would severally present themselves without any labour of recollection; without the trouble of research; and would justify the highest commendation, apart from any misplaced, and as it frequently happens, unconscious partiality.

But we must now revert to the dreadful conflict of iron and stones: a conflict the most distracting, most confounding, most overwhelming, of all that is known to pour upon the ear, and to assail the brain of man. It banishes recollection: it annihilates idea. The man who sets off from his door with much to perform, with several commissions to execute ; when exposed to an unremitting roll and row of coaches, and chariots, and curricles, and waggons, and carts, meeting, overtaking, passing, and crossing, may well be excused if he not only omits three-fourths of his engagements, but if he also forgets whence he came, and whether or not he had any business at all in prosecution. If he is walking in company, he cannot speak to them, or they to him; at all events, both

he and they might as well let it alone, because neither party can hear a word that is said: indeed, the effort of loud speaking, and the half cork-screw twist of neck, and inclination of head towards the ear of. our company, if happily they may catch a syllable from our lips, frequently induce such a spasmodic affection of those parts, as renders a poor man unequal to the future labours of the day; until by a preservation of easy posture, accompanied, it may be, by the refreshment of the pillow, the twist shall have been made straight, and the inclination upright.

But, how is this dreadful noise to be disposed of? Can the geologist, that man of stones and strata, give us any assistance? We know that the stones can be taken away, or that our streets can be covered with gravel, laying the former for a foundation. But, then, the exposure to dust, during the summer season, forms an objection to the practice; yet surely not an insurmountable one; because, where water is not uncommonly scarce, the remedy is at hand; and that, too, at a cost not exceeding the means of the inhabitants; especially now that half the assessed taxes are lopped off, in every article-as long ago might cha

ritably, and properly, have been done→ while several of them are entirely abolished. If, therefore, this easy and obvious remedy of so formidable an evil, as that of which we are complaining, be adopted, none other can be required: the stones would be removed; and gravel, regularly watered, when circumstances called for this observance, would form the happy change. But, this is not done: such comfort and accommodation are rejected. What a perverse and untractable animal is man!-even social and civilized man!!

And now, what more can be thought of, for a deliverance from this coarse and incessant torment: this rude uproar; this palpable assault on human feelings, made and continued by the violent collision of iron and stones? To get rid of it by any alteration in the quality and surface of our streets, as appears from the foregoing observations, is hardly to be expected. The progress of improvement is commonly slow it is met and stopped by the stupid but strong guards of indolence and obstinacy, no less effectually, than are the mighty efforts at destruction, in a prizering, by the towering courage, the science, and the dexterity of a combatant.

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