statement, that as to the pleasure of a segar, none but those who used them ought to express an opinion upon the point—­that to appeal to experience, tobacco was in more universal use among nations than bread corn—­that it had been known to stay the plague, and was the friend and companion of rich and poor.  These statements were met with undisguised contempt, and it was retaliated, that the practice of using tobacco either by smoke or snuff, was a nuisance to others, thus infringing the very primary principles of civil liberty—­that it led to drunkenness and debauch—­that snuff spoiled the complexion—­stopped the nose to the perception of odours—­and that as to the ladies, they would positively spurn any approach of familiar friendship from a snuff-taker.  This raised the concealed anger of the snuff-takers, who had hitherto maintained a stubborn neutrality while the argument was kept to smoke.  They replied both by wit and invective—­they affirmed snuff to have a moral use—­“Dust to dust”—­would remind them of the brevity of life—­that the king and ministers patronized the habit, and gave away L10,000 worth of snuff-boxes in every year—­that as to the nose being blockaded, that was a happy circumstance to London residents, and enabled them to acquire the French accent more naturally—­that as to the assumed yellowness of complexion complained of, it was only studious and Werter-like—­and that as to the ladies refusing to be saluted by snuff-takers, that was a thing which modesty and prudence required them to sneeze at.  The historian might add by way of reflection, that nothing could more clearly show the national freedom from anxious cares, when it was thought that the public took interest in the comparative merits of blackened teeth or a snuffy pocket-handkerchief.—­The Inspector.

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FASHIONABLE NOVELS.

Of the slip-slop reading, under this denomination, with which the town has lately been inundated, the following is a fair specimen:—­

Hyde Nugent.—­The book is made up completely of the gossip of drawing-rooms, hotels, dinners, and balls.  As to the hero, if any one has a grain of curiosity about him—­gratify it.  Hyde is the son of a man of family and fortune; he goes to Oxford, fights a duel, and is expelled—­prevails upon a marquess to break the matter to the father—­falls in love with the marquess’s daughter—­goes large and loose about town—­is every where introduced—­and one of every party.  Notwithstanding certain warnings, and his own disgusts, he frequents Crockford’s—­gets plucked, and moreover deeply involved with the Jews.  In the meanwhile he does not neglect the marquess’s daughter.  They soon come to an understanding.  He is irresistible—­she is an houri.  But the consciousness of his embarrassments press heavily upon him, and he is on the point of taking some desperate step, when he is summoned to attend a friend in a duel, who kills his antagonist; and he and Hyde are obliged to fly.  This rescues him from his gaming associates; though he gets among others at Lisbon, and narrowly escapes assassination.  On his return to England, his sister has married a duke’s eldest son, and all the family visit the said duke’s, and there also assemble the aforesaid marquess and his beautiful daughter.