On 22 June poor Haydon, the painter, committed suicide. He was extremely egotistical, and nothing could persuade him that he was not the best painter of his time. His fixed idea was that he was without a peer—but no one else thought so. His diary is very sad reading. Here is an entry (Ap. 13) relative to the exhibition of his picture, “The Banishment of Aristides”: “Receipts £1 3s. 6d. An advertisement of a finer description could not have been written to catch the public; but not a shilling more was added to the receipts. They rush by thousands to see Tom Thumb. They push—they fight—they scream—they faint—they cry ‘Help!’ and ‘Murder!’ They see my bills and caravans, but do not read them; their eyes are on them, but their sense is gone. It is an insanity—a _rabies furor_—a dream—of which I would not have believed Englishmen could have been guilty.” He even wrote to the _Times_ about it: “GENERAL TOM THUMB, last week, received 12,000 people, who paid him £600; B. R. HAYDON, who has devoted 42 years to elevate their taste, was honoured by the visits of 133½, producing £5 13s. 6d., being a reward for painting two of his finest works, ‘Aristides and Nero.’ HORACE VERNET, LA ROCHE, INGRES, CORNELIUS, HESS, SNORR, and SCHEFFER, hasten to this glorious country of fresco and patronage, and grand design, if you have a tender fancy to end your days in a Whig Union.” CHAPTER XXVIII. The last Post Office Bellman—The “Corn Law” Act—Sir Walter Scott’s monument—The Irish famine—The Duke of Wellington’s statue—Gun cotton—Introduction of ether—Model dwelling houses—Baths and Wash-houses—Smithfield Cattle market—“The Bull Fight of Smithfield”—The first submarine telegraph. _The Illustrated London News_, of 27 June, gives us “THE LETTER CARRIER’S LAST KNELL.—We have just lost another of what poor Thomas Hood called, ‘Those evening bells.’ The Postmaster General having issued his fiat for the abolition of ‘ringing bells’ by the Letter Carriers, the last knell was rung out on the evening of Wednesday last; and, as a memorial of the departure of what appeared to most persons, a very useful practice, our artist has sketched a Letter Carrier, on his last evening call at our office; and another hand has appended the following lament: The Dustman was first to forego his brass clapper, The Muffinboy speedily followed his shade; And, now, ’tis the Postman—that double-tongued rapper— Must give up his Bell for the eve’s promenade. “_Tantæ Animis_?’ sage Legislators! Why rage against trifles like these? Prithee tell, Why leave the solution to rude commentators, Who say, that at home, you’ve enough in one _Belle_?”