of that order which you find still lingering amongst the respectable poor. Eighty such quantities, therefore, would have filled eighty of such antediluvian spoons, that is, it would have been the common hospital dose for three hundred and twenty adult patients.” And he adds solemnly, that “without opium, thirty-five years ago, beyond all doubt, I should have been in my grave.” It is not a very easy task to ascertain the full extent of opium indulgence at home; but there is more of truth than fiction in that passage in “Alton Locke,” where the hero, on his way to Cambridge, meets with a ride in the vehicle of a certain yeoman of the Fen country, and enters into conversation with him, in the course of which the following dialogue takes place. “Love ye, then! they as dinnot tak’ spirits down thor, tak’ their pennord o’ elevation, then—women folk especial.” “What’s elevation?” “Oh! ho! ho! Yow goo into druggist’s shop o’ market day, into Cambridge, and you’ll see the little boxes, doozens and doozens, a’ ready on the counter; and never a ven-man’s wife goo by, but what calls in for her pennord o’ elevation, to last her out the week. Oh! ho! ho! Well, it keeps women folk quiet, it do; and it’s mortal good agin ago pains.” “But what is it?” “Opium, bor’ alive, opium!” “But doesn’t it ruin their health? I should think it the very worst sort of drunkenness.” “Ow, well, yow moi say that—mak’th ‘em cruel thin, then, it do; but what can bodies do i’ th’ ago? But it’s a bad thing, it is.” The fact is well known, that in the Fen country, opium is extensively used under the presumption or excuse that it is good for the ague. In Wisbeach, as we ascertained from certain official medical documents, more opium is sold and consumed, in proportion to the population, than in any other part of the kingdom. In other parts of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, large quantities of opium are regularly and habitually sold in small doses amongst the labouring population. In Manchester some years ago, a similar run upon opium was experienced, but _not_ as a cure for ague. Several cotton manufacturers stated to our authority, that their work-people were rapidly getting into the practice of opium-eating; so much so, that on a Saturday afternoon the counters of the druggists were strewed with pills of one, two, or three grains, in preparation for the known demand of the evening. The immediate occasion of this practice was stated to be the lowness of wages, which, at that time, would not allow them to indulge in ale or spirits; hence they adopted opium as a substitute. There was a sin of which we were guilty in the age of Butler, and from which we are not yet freed; probably, it is somewhat of a universal one. Whether or no, there are certainly not a few who— “Compound for sins they are inclined to, By damning those they have no mind to.”