Genre:

Extract, Miscellaneous, Drollery

Publications extracted:

New Monthly Magazine

Subjects:

Education, Class, Steam-power, Political Economy

    The writer presents miscellaneous 'opinions' on a range of subjects. He or she writes: 'As for Mechanics' Institutions, I am afraid you have not quite made up your mind, my readers, whether they are, or are not, a conspiracy against social order; but I don't think you will chip off a man's nose for advocating them, provided it be moderately and with good discretion'. Another passage reflects the opinion that Walter Scott is, and then that he is not, the 'great unknown', concluding: 'it is beginning to pass current that the great unknown is—a steam engine'. (44) Reflecting on comments made in the Court of Common Pleas by William D Best respecting the fashionable and licentious Harriette Wilson, the opinion is given that 'a seat on the bench is an indisputable title to an intuitive knowledge of political economy and the nature of things' (45).