number of cattle and sheep annually sold in Smithfield during the following periods of five years each :

Cattle.

143,453

149,017

156,258

174,250

Sheep.

1,180,004

1,252,940

1,227,688

1,338,742

In addition to the above,' about 21,000 calves and a quarter of a million pigs are annually sold. The cattle-market is on Mondays and Fridays, but the great market-day for cattle and sheep is Monday, or rather Monday morning; and we shall ask the reader to accompany us to this scene of bustle, confusion, and uproar. We will suppose the period of the year to be near Christmas, when the number of cattle brought to the market is probably above 5000 head, and the number of sheep above 26,000. At other periods of the year there have been nearly 40,000 sheep in the market, but the number of cattle is proportionally smaller.

4

There are two great thoroughfares by which the cattle are brought to London-from the north by Highgate Archway, and from the eastern counties by the Whitechapel Road, and large quantities are also brought by the Birmingham Railway. They reach the outskirts of London on Sunday, and about nine o'clock are driven into the city, and continue arriving in Smithfield from that hour until the morning. In this large irregular area, comprising about three and a half acres enclosed by houses, the scene on a foggy, wet, and wintry morning is one of which few persons not living in the immediate neigh

bourhood, or whose business does not require their attendance in the market, have an accurate conception. The drovers are furnished with torches to enable them to distinguish the marks on the cattle-to put the sheep into pens, and to form the beasts into "droves." There is not room to tie up much more than one-half of the cattle sent for sale, and the remainder are formed into groups of about twenty each, called "rings" or "off-droves," each beast with its head to the centre of the drove. This is not accomplished without the greatest exertion; and about two o'clock in the morning the scene is one of terrific confusion. To get the "beasts" into a ring, to enable purchasers to examine them more readily, the drovers aim blows at the heads of the animals, in endeavouring to avoid which they keep their heads towards the ground. Should they attempt to run backwards, a shower of blows forces them to remain in their position. The process of forming these "rings" or "off-droves" has, however, been described before a parliamentary committee by a competent witness:-"Supposing a salesman to have twenty beasts (which could not be tied up), he will have them all with their heads in and their tails out; they form a ring; and, in order to discipline them to stand in that manner, the drovers are obliged to goad them behind and knock them upon the nose. They strike them with great force upon the nose, and goad them cruelly behind, by which means they form themselves into a ring. At length the cattle will stand in that manner so perfectly disciplined that at breakfast-time there shall be twenty or thirty rings' of this kind standing in the middle of the market. If the ring' is broken by any means, they are all in the greatest anxiety to get in again; and when the drovers are obliged to separate these rings,' and drive the cattle away, they have a great deal of trouble, and the labour of the men is excessive to get one single beast out. Indeed, if you can conceive first getting the cattle into a ring, as I have stated, and if one is sold out of the ring at eleven in the day, the beast is ordered to be driven through fifteen hundred cattle, whichever way he goes out of the market, and the man is goading that beast all the way-if you can conceive men compelled to exercise this cruelty, they will not be very delicate as to the manner in which they make use of it after a time." And another witness examined before the same committee details the difficulty of getting a beast out of the market when it has been sold out of one of the "rings." He says:-"Perhaps more than an hour's violence has been exercised towards the cattle to get them to stand about twenty in each circle. *** The great cause of the inhumanity described arises from this circumstance, that when a bullock is driven, perhaps from the centre of the market, by the butchers' drovers, that bullock will run into five, six, seven, eight, or nine of the droves before he gets out of the market. Perhaps in every one of the droves that bullock is beat about the head for ten minutes before he can be got out of it again, and then he runs to another drove, from the circumstance of having been so beat about in the early part of the morning. Consequently, perhaps, this bullock is beat out of ten droves before he gets out of the market." The deterioration of the meat from this barbarity has been calculated at no less a sum than 100,000l. per annum-all this would be avoided if there were room to tie up the beasts. The exertions to prevent different flocks of sheep from mixing with each other are not so great, but here the drovers' dogs are useful. The lowing of the oxen, the tremulous cries of the sheep, the barking of dogs, the

rattling of sticks on the heads and bodies of the animals, the shouts of the drovers, and the flashing about of torches, present altogether a wild and terrific combination; and few, either of those who reside in the metropolis, or who visit it, have the resolution to witness the strange scene.

The nuisance of holding a market for cattle in the heart of London is not confined to Smithfield. There it is endured for the sake of the profit which it brings to the shops, coffee-houses, inns, and other places of accommodation; and yet a person who resided in Smithfield stated before the parliamentary committee that he had lived there for fourteen years, and found it impossible to sleep in the front of his house on the Sunday night. But the evil extends to all the thoroughfares leading to the market; and there is danger as well as inconvenience in driving bullocks and sheep through crowded streets, exposing passengers to accident, and keeping the neighbourhood in a state of confusion once a-week during the entire year. The attempt to remove the market to the outskirts of London, which was made a few years ago, signally failed, although the experiment was made on a scale which it might have been expected would have ensured its success. The opulent projector of the new undertaking expended 100,000/.; and the proposed cattle-market was calculated to contain nearly double the number of cattle usually exhibited in Smithfield. It occupied an area of twenty-two acres, situated in the Lower Road, Islington, on the high road for the northern and eastern parts of the country, whence the principal supplies of cattle come to the London market. The accommodations were in every respect judicious, and combined advantages which are altogether impracticable in Smithfield. The immense space was enclosed by high walls, surrounding which was a continuous range of slated sheds, extending eight hundred and thirty yards in length, and supported by two hundred and forty-four Doric pillars. The sheds were subdivided into numerous compartments, with lairs enclosed in front by oak-paling; and the beasts might either be fastened or left at liberty, being in either case equally convenient for persons who wished to examine them. Wells were sunk on the premises, and water was conveyed by pipes into troughs in each lair. The sheep-pens were calculated to hold forty thousand of these animals; and there were pens for calves and pigs in a separate part of the market. Everything which could simplify the arrangements, and prevent confusion and irregularity, was an object of attention. The offices for salesmen and clerks of the market were not less conveniently arranged. It was also proposed to erect abattoirs adjoining the market for slaughtering cattle, in which persons might either be accommodated with private slaughter-houses, or have their cattle slaughtered under inspectors at the usual rates. Nor was this all. Persons having business here would have found a market-tavern, with stable-yard, stables, and sheds; and shops were to have been opened for the supply of all the most ordinary wants. But, as we have before stated, this vigorous and even magnificent experiment signally failed. Mere attachment to old habits, or the mere power of monopoly on the part of the corporation of the City of London, could not of themselves have prevented the removal of Smithfield Market. It must possess many real advantages to enable it to resist the powerful attempts which have at different times been made to remove it to a less populous site. Even the City has been foiled in the attempt. Between

1802 and 1810 the City twice attempted to remove the market; they made six applications to Parliament for power to enlarge it; and three applications were made for acts for its better regulation. The bill for removing the market was opposed by the Trustees of the Rugby Charity, the Butchers' Company, the Foundling Hospital, the Trustees of the Highgate Roads, Bartholomew's Hospital, the inhabitants of Smithfield, and the cattle salesmen. The site to which it was proposed to remove the market was a field near Sadler's Wells. Another time, when a bill was brought in for the purpose, the site intended was near the north end of Gray's Inn Lane. Many of the objections which apply to Smithfield might now be equally urged against the two sites above mentioned, as they are both surrounded by houses. The gross revenue which the City derives from the present market is about 6000l. a-year, and the expenses amount to 30007., leaving only a net revenue of about 30007. The risk of splitting one great market into several smaller and inferior ones is not to be overlooked. In the great market all the purchasers, be they large or small, have equal advantages; and the man who has a few pounds in his pocket can suit himself as well as he who comes to lay out hundreds, or even thousands. At present the nearest cattle-market to Smithfield is the one at Southall, a few miles west of London.

The smaller retail butchers do not buy in Smithfield, unless it may be now and then a few sheep. They prefer purchasing from the carcass butchers, who kill to a large extent. The carcass butchers are to be found principally in Warwick Lane, Newgate Market, Leadenhall Market, and in Whitechapel. Some of them are slaughtermen, and kill on their own premises; but the business of killing is also carried on as a separate occupation. There are slaughtermen who kill above a thousand sheep and several hundred beasts in a week. Many of the places in which they perform their operations are the most horrible dens which can be conceived, being literally underground cellars, down which the sheep are precipitated and immediately butchered. There are slaughtermen who kill sheep only. It is stated that the London slaughtermen perform their work with a knack and handiness which the country slaughterers cannot attain; and the charge for killing, skinning, and preparing an ox for the wholesale butcher, and delivering the carcass, is not more than four shillings. The London Jews have a different system of slaughtering from the other butchers: instead of knocking down the animal with an axe, they kill it with a knife, and a seal is put upon the carcass by a Jewish inspector, in proof of its having been slaughtered according to the mode prescribed by the Jewish religion.

In addition to the supplies obtained at Smithfield, large quantities of “countrykilled meat" are sent up by steam-boats and railways to London, principally to the carcass butchers of Newgate and Leadenhall Markets. It is packed in dry straw and cloth, and in cold weather is equal to the meat killed in the metropolis; but in the summer season this trade is almost entirely suspended. The railways have not as yet had much effect in increasing the supply of countrykilled meat, but they have had some influence on the trade. A flock of sheep, instead of being driven to some town twenty or thirty miles from the grazier's farm, and then slaughtered and sent by waggon fifty, sixty, or seventy miles, are killed at the homestead, properly packed, and taken in the owner's waggon to the nearest railway station. But this does not affect the total supply of killed

meat; and any increase will not so much arise from the facility of reaching London in a shorter space of time as from the diminished cost of conveyance-a desideratum which has not yet been attained. A grazier living one hundred and fifty miles from London has the choice of neighbouring markets as well as the London market; and prices are so nearly equalised in the present day, for different parts of the country, and the London market is always so abundantly and regularly supplied, as to offer little or no inducement for him to turn his attention to London in preference to the neighbouring country markets. Unless the demand of London be very much extended, or the markets of the manufacturing districts decline while the London market remains unaffected, it is not likely that we shall very soon see any great increase in the supply of country-killed meat. The railways might be put in requisition for the conveyance of a greater quantity of killed meat if a proportionate diminution took place in the arrivals of live stock at Smithfield; but this is not likely to occur, as in the one case the supply must be disposed of, however disadvantageous the state of prices may be, while the live animals, if not disposed of with a profit in the Monday's market, may be held over until Friday, when the demand may be more active. At Mr. Laycock's cattle lairs at Islington every facility is offered for arrangements of this kind, and many hundred cattle may be comfortably accommodated for a moderate sum. Some of the London butchers have fields, into which the cattle which they purchase at Smithfield are turned before being slaughtered.

If a man were to speculate over his dessert on the extensive chain of interests of which the demand for his "chop" or "steak" was the last link, he would find himself engaged in a far more extensive inquiry than he might at first have supposed. It would lead him from a London hotel, and the cook and waiter who prepared and laid before him the principal item of his repast, to the mountains of Sutherlandshire and its plaided shepherds; but what a variety of stages have to be passed between these extreme points! Taking the average age at which oxen are brought to the market to be about four years, and of sheep about two, there are always in existence about 700,000 or 800,000 of the former, and about 3,000,000 of the latter, which are destined for the Smithfield market; and perhaps we might put down the number of cattle at 1,000,000, and of sheep at 4,000,000-that is, about an eighth of all the cattle and sheep bred in Great Britain. This immense demand enables land to pay a rent which would otherwise be a mere waste, dedicated only to the wildness of nature, instead of figuring in the rent-roll. On land of this character neither cattle nor sheep can be fattened, and after the herds and flocks have obtained a scanty livelihood for a year or so, they are driven to the great trysts or fairs, where they are purchased in immense numbers by dealers, who drive them farther south, and again sell them at fairs, where they are bought by farmers for the purpose of being made profitable consumers of the produce of their land; and after being fed in the straw-yard during the winter, or improved in condition by turnips or other nourishing food, they are again disposed of, and are, perhaps, next to be found on the pastures of Lincolnshire, the salt marshes of Essex, or on Romney Marsh, or other similar places, where they are finally fattened for the market. Others are fattened on turnips and other artificial food instead of the natural grasses of the pasture. The poor farmer, whose means do not enable him to fatten cattle for the butcher,