* * * * * ALE-DRAPER.--EUGENE ARAM. (Vol. ii., p. 310.) Your correspondent D. asks whether the word _ale-draper_ was ever in "good use." The only place in which I can find it is Bailey's _Dictionary_, where it occurs thus: "Ale-draper (a humorous name), a seller of malt liquors; an alehouse-keeper or victualler." The humour, I suppose, consists in applying to one kind of occupation that which was commonly given to another; in taking _draper_ from the service of cloth, and pressing it by force into that of _ale_. That it was ever considered as a word of respectable standing, can hardly be imagined. In such writers as Tom Brown it is most likely to occur. 1. With reference to Eugene Aram, D.'s remark about the _over-ingeniousness_ of his defence has been anticipated by Paley, who was present at the trial, and said that Aram would not have been hanged had he less studiously defended himself. That laboured address to the jury must have employed his thoughts for years. I should like very much to know whether anyone has ever attempted to verify the references which he gives to the cases in which he says that bones have been found. The style of the speech has been much praised, but is surely not very surprising when it is considered that Johnson had previously written the _Rambler_. The composition wants ease. 2. Ever since I began to read about Eugene Aram, and that is some years ago, I have had a settled opinion that his attainments, and perhaps his abilities, had been greatly overrated. He was doubtless a man of considerable mental powers; but we cannot but suspect that had he acquired all the learning which is attributed to him, he would have attracted more notice than it was his fortune to obtain. 3. Mr. Scatchard's attempts, and all other attempts, to clear him from "blood-guilty stain," must be equally futile, for he himself confessed his guilt while he was in prison.