ADVERTISEMENT. THE following pages contain the earliest productions of their Author, written from time to time to meet the exigencies of a Newspaper or a Magazine. They were originally published in two series; the first in two volumes, and the second in one. Several editions having been exnausted, both are now published together in one volume, uniform with the "Pickwick Papers," and "Nicholas Nickleby." London, May 15, 1839. THIS American edition contains "The Public Life of Mr. Tulrumble," and "The Pantomime of Life," by Boz,sketches published by the Author since the above collection was issued. Philadelphia, August, 1839 CONTENTS. SEVEN SKETCHES FROM OUR PARISH. SKETCHES BY BOZ. OUR PARISH. CHAPTER I. THE BEADLE THE PARISH ENGINE-THE SCHOOLMASTER. How much is conveyed in those two short words "The Parish!" And with how many tales of distress and misery, of broken fortune and ruined hopes, too often of unrelieved wretchedness and successful knavery, are they associated! A poor man, with small earnings, and a large family, just manages to live on from hand to mouth, and to procure food from day to day; he has barely sufficient to satisfy the present cravings of nature, and can take no heed of the future. His taxes are in arrear, quarter day passes by, another quarter day arrives: he can procure no more quarter for himself, and is summoned by-the parish. His goods are distrained, his children are crying with cold and hunger, and the very bed on which his sick wife is lying, is dragged from beneath her. What can he do? To whom is he to apply for relief? To private charity? To benevolent individuals? Certainly not-there is his parish. There are the parish vestry, the parish infirmary, the parish surgeon, the parish officers, the parish beadle. Excellent institutions, and gentle, kind-hearted men! The woman dies she is buried by the parish. The children have no protector-they are taken care of by the parish. The man first neglects, and afterwards cannot obtain, work-he is relieved by the parish; and when distress and drunkenness have done their work upon him, he is maintain ed, a harmless babbling idiot, in the parish asylum. The parish beadle is one of the most. perhaps the most, important member of the local administration. He is not so well off as the churchwardens, certainly, nor is he so learned as the vestry-clerk, nor does he order things quite so much his own way as either of them. But his power is very great, notwithstanding; and the dignity of his office is never impaired by the absence of efforts on his part to maintain it. The beadle of our parish is a splendid fellow. It is quite delightful to hear him, as he explains the state of the existing poor laws to the deaf old women in the board-room-passage on business nights; and to hear what he said to the senior churchwarden, and what the senior churchwarden said to him; and what "we" (the beadle and the other gentlemen,) came to the determination of doing. A miserable looking woman is called into the board-room, and represents a case of extreme destitution, affecting herself-a widow, with six small children. "Where do you live?" inquires one of the overseers. "I rents a two-pair back, gentlemen, at Mrs. Brown's, Number 3, Little King William's-alley, which has lived there this fifteen year, and knowe me to be very hard-working and industri ous, and when my poor husband was alive, gentlemen, as died in the hospital." 1 Well, well," interrupts the overseei, taking a note of the address, "I'll send Simmons, the beadle, to-morrow morning, to ascertain whether your story is correct; and if so, I suppose you must have an or |