Now, what but blind and indiscriminating acrimony could dictate the above remarks? What sagacity was required to narrate facts as clear as noon-day? Or, what _novelty of information_ could arise from describing the domestic occurrences of families in general? The Reviewer dared not say I have falsified a single article; perhaps he would rather I had drawn a _fancied picture_ of present customs, that he might have added a charge of deeper dye against me. The Review of my performance, which has enabled him to earn a dinner, could not have been written if _similar common-place details had not appeared during the last century_. Good Sir, because _you know_ how we _all live at present_, are we not to inform those who succeed us how _we have lived_? Taking the _conclusion_ of sentences as a specimen of the _whole_, is peculiar to a certain description of Reviewers. Now, by referring to the page whence the extract is taken, it will be found I had been describing a family as entertaining their visitors, and naturally concluded by saying, "when alone, it was governed with greater regularity." For once we have an attempt at wit, which originates from my having asserted that the dissipation common _in high life_, and late hours, rendered eating of _breakfast_ a "_languid operation_."--"We do not believe that there is, _in general_, so much _languor_ in _this_ operation of eating, as Mr. M. seems to suppose. But, perhaps, Mr. M. will think that we judge of the morning appetite of others by our own; and that we Reviewers have appetites like wolves, and are ready to _devour mountains of toast_, when they come in our way."--_Mountains of toast_--admirable metaphor! Surely this cannot be called affected, stiff, starched, verbose, or elevated language; it is familiar enough, and will be understood perfectly by the cook or house-maid, when the article which contains it reaches the Kitchen as waste paper. "The author ends his _smooth-papered volume_ (_a fault_ I must transfer to the paper-maker, as I have not had it hot-pressed) with the following sentence: 'Such are the follies of many; but, thanks to Heaven! there are numbers of our nobility and gentry who live and act for the general benefit of mankind. And now, _Vale Londinium!_'--We will add, _Vale_ Mr. M. We have been indebted to you for some information and amusement; but should have been more gratified with the perusal of your work, if you had exhibited more judgment in the selection of the materials, and had not swelled the bulk by a number of futile, irrelevant, and incongruous details." The readers of the first edition of this work, amounting perhaps to some thousands, have completely and decidedly contradicted the objections brought by the Reviewer in _general_ terms, and supported by cavils upon four or six sentences selected from 490 pages. The readers of the present are offered all those cavils for their consideration, and will _judge for themselves_ of their justice.