contend with. The bill-sticking clause was got
into the Police Act by a member of parliament
that employed me at his election. The
clause is pretty stiff respecting where bills go;
but he didn't mind where his bills went. It
was all right enough, so long as they was his
bills!"

Fearful that I observed a shadow of
misanthropy on the King's cheerful face, I asked
whose ingenious invention that was, which I
greatly admired, of sticking bills under the
arches of the bridges.

"Mine!" said His Majesty, "I was the first
that ever stuck a bill under a bridge!
Imitators soon rose up, of course.—When don't
they? But they stuck 'em at low-water, and
the tide came and swept the bills clean away.
I knew that!" The King laughed. ,

"What may be the name of that instrument,
like an immense fishing-rod," I
inquired, "with which bills are posted on high
places?"

"The joints," returned His Majesty. "Now,
we use the joints where formerly we used
ladders—as they do still in country places.
Once, when Madame" (Vestris, understood)
"was playing in Liverpool, another bill-sticker
and me were at it together on the wall
outside the Clarence Dock—me with the joints—
him on a ladder. Lord! I had my bill up,
right over his head, yards above him, ladder
and all, while he was crawling to his work.
The people going in and out of the docks,
stood and laughed!—It's about thirty years
since the joints come in."

"Are there any bill-stickers who can't
read?" I took the liberty of inquiring.

"Some," said the King. "But they know
which is the right side up'ards of their work.
They keep it as it's given out to 'em. I have
seen a bill or so stuck wrong side up'ards. But
it's very rare."

Our discourse sustained some interruption
at this point, by the procession of cars
occasioning a stoppage of about three quarters of
a mile in length, as nearly as I could judge.
His Majesty, however, entreating me not to be
discomposed by the contingent uproar, smoked
with great placidity, and surveyed the firmament.

When we were again in motion, I begged to
be informed what was the largest poster His
Majesty had ever seen. The King replied, "A
thirty-six sheet poster." I gathered, also,
that there were about a hundred and fifty
bill-stickers in London, and that His Majesty
considered an average hand equal to the
posting of one hundred bills (single sheets)
in a day. The King was of opinion, that,
although posters had much increased in
size, they had not increased in number;
as the abolition of the State Lotteries had
occasioned a great falling off, especially
in the country. Over and above which
change, I bethought myself that the custom
of advertising in newspapers had greatly
increased. The completion of many London
improvements, as Trafalgar-square (I
particularly observed the singularity of His
Majesty's calling that an improvement), the
Royal Exchange, &c., had of late years
reduced the number of advantageous posting-
places. Bill-stickers at present rather
confined themselves to districts, than to particular
descriptions of work. One man would strike
over Whitechapel; another would take round
Houndsditch, Shoreditch, and the City Road;
one (the King said) would stick to the Surrey
side; another would make a beat of the West-
end.

His Majesty remarked, with some approach
to severity, on the neglect of delicacy and taste,
gradually introduced into the trade by the
new school: a profligate and inferior race of
impostors who took jobs at almost any price,
to the detriment of the old school, and the
confusion of their own misguided employers.
He considered that the trade was overdone
with competition, and observed, speaking of
his subjects, "There are too many of 'em." He
believed, still, that things were a little better
than they had been; adducing, as a proof,
the fact that particular posting places were
now reserved, by common consent, for particular
posters; those places, however, must be
regularly occupied by those posters, or, they
lapsed and fell into other hands. It was
of no use giving a man a Drury Lane bill
this week and not next. Where was it to go?
He was of opinion that going to the expense
of putting up your own board on which your
sticker could display your own bills, was the
only complete way of posting yourself at the
present time; but, even to effect this, on
payment of a shilling a week to the keepers of
steamboat piers and other such places, you
must be able, besides, to give orders for
theatres and public exhibitions, or you would
be sure to be cut out by somebody. His
Majesty regarded the passion for orders, as
one of the most inappeaseable appetites of
human nature. If there were a building, or if
there were repairs, going on, anywhere, you
could generally stand something and make it
right with the foreman of the works; but,
orders would be expected from you, and the
man who could give the most orders was the
man who would come off best. There was this
other objectionable point, in orders, that workmen
sold them for drink, and often sold them
to persons who were likewise troubled with the
weakness of thirst: which led (His Majesty
said) to the presentation of your orders at
Theatre doors, by individuals who were "too
shakery" to derive intellectual profit from
the entertainments, and who brought a scandal
on you. Finally, His Majesty said that you
could hardly put too little in a poster; what
you wanted, was, two or three good catch-
lines for the eye to rest on—then, leave it
alone—and there you were!

These are the minutes of my conversation
with His Majesty, as I noted them down shortly
afterwards. I am not aware that I have been