extremely large and thick sheet of cream-
coloured foolscap, enclosed it in a ditto envelope,
sealed it with an enormous official signet,
rang the bell for the messenger, and
dispatched the document to the Assistant Secretary
of the Lords Commissioners of Her
Majesty's Treasury.

In two hours a reply was returned. This
sufficiently demonstrates the extraordinary
despatch which all matters of this sort receive
at the hands of "my Lords," and at once exhibits
the fallacy and absurdity of the constant
and therefore unreasonable complaints, which
are made by poor widows, orphans, and other
troublesome and disagreeable complainants
concerning the delays which they suppose
that they encounter in getting even the most
reasonable claims attended to.

ROTTEN ROW COMMISSION.

The Treasury minute was acted on, and
this was the first day's work of the Rotten-
Row Commission.

The Ventilator-General, who was thus
instructed to attend to the wishes and directions
of her Majesty's Commission, applied the
next day and Mr. Aigulet formed "a Board"
for his reception. He took a survey of the
office, and declared that all the architectural
arrangements were so utterly erroneous in
principle, as to place it beyond all possible
skill to render the ventilation perfect. He
demonstrated most completely that for the
purposes of ventilation the door ought to
have been precisely where the chimney was,
and that the chimney should have stood
exactly where the window was. The window
itself he proposed to abrogate altogether,
supplying its place either by oil burners, or by a
fan-light opening into a dark passage, neither
of which arrangements would interfere with
the process of ventilation. He suggested, in
addition, "a breathing floor," which he
thought it would be easy to obtain even
in the present ill-constructed edifice; and to
obviate the smoke, he proposed to place a
hot air apparatus under Mr. Slaney's desk,
whereby, he said, the necessity of a chimney
would be dispensed with altogether. A new
shaft, communicating with an apparatus in
the ceiling would, he said, carry off all the
foul gases generated in the room; and if the
height of the shaft outside was such as to injure
the general effect of the building, why, the fault
would not be his so much as that of the architect
who had not adapted the edifice so as
to anticipate this necessary erection. Upon
the whole, his opinion was that the Rotten
Row Commissioners would do well to postpone
their sittings until early in the ensuing
year, in order to enable him, during the
interval, to carry out his designs for
reconstructing the building with a view to its
efficient ventilation.

Had this recommendation been made at
the close of a Session, and the commencement
of the grouse shooting, it is difficult to
say whether the great and important business
of the Rotten Row Commission might not
have stood adjourned for six months, as the
Ventilator-General suggested. But as the
Opera season was still at its height, and as
Mr. Augustus Aigulet had before his eyes
the fear of an awkward question from some
of those busybodies who occasionally interfere
about other people's business in the House of
Commons, the secretary thought it desirable
to recommend the Board to resolve at present
only to adjourn to that day week. Adjourned
accordingly.

This was the Board's second day's work.

On the day of re-assembling, the Hon.
Mr. Augustus Aigulet found the following
official communication from the chief of the
ventilating department.

VENTILATOR-GENERAL'S OFFICE.
[Such a Date.]

The Ventilator-General presents his compliments
to the Hon. Augustus Aigulet, and begs to
inform him of a serious abuse of Mr. Aigulet's
authority, discovered in the office of the Rotten
Row department, this morning.

It is reported to the Ventilator-General that in
the absence of Mr. Aigulet, the clerk of the
department, Mr. Slaney caused the chimney to be
swept, and the window to be thrown open.
The Ventilator-General submits that this is an
interference with his peculiar duty which the
Secretary to the Rotten Row Commission will not
sanction.

It is also reported to the Ventilator-General
that the clerk has had the consummate assurance
to object to the proposed formation of an apparatus
for heating air immediately under his own
desk: an obstruction to the Ventilator-General's
proceedings which calls for marked reprobation.

The Ventilator-General repeats the occurrences
to Mr. Aigulet, in order that the fact may be duly
laid before my lords.

The Commissioners having assembled, their
secretary read the letter, and the Chairman