Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/102

86 fortieth part of the penalties incurred, as a compromise. This was a great triumph for the British manufacturer; but none for those who lived by hawking about the like goods for foreign, and selling them as such.

This latter go is more particularly in vogue with regard to Bandana handkerchiefs, which are now made to resemble the best Batavia. The house of P. Johnson & Co. make some heavier than P.T., even sixteen ounces and a quarter, though it must be allowed the company's goods [C.G.] are larger and superior, not being too high-dressed. However, the British is, and must be taken, as a very fair substitute for the "real India."

Of smuggling as well as of smugglers a word or two may not be amiss. The quantity of foreign spirits so introduced to, and used in London, is very small: no one can hope to buy that which pretends to be such, of even tolerable quality; so that the apparent saving of a very few shillings, per gallon is counterbalanced by the evil of swallowing a hot, fiery, ill-cleansed, and consequently ill-flavoured article, made up as it is of spirit obtained from every variety of obnoxious materials.