THE ADAMS-RUSSELL CORRESPONDENCE.

WHAT would be said if any member of our Legislature should propose a law to make a bootmaker responsible, in a second degree, for any breach of the peace incurred by a gentleman who, at the time of the offence, was shod in a pair of boots of his making? What would be said if, besides the natural inquiry into the solvency of his customer, the shoemaker was required to investigate his character, his morals, his temper, what sort of company he frequented, and what were the usual measures to which he resorted when carried away by passion or excitement?

What would be said if, besides all these, the bootmaker was obliged to ascertain with what object his customer ordered the toes to be pointed, and the soles heavy? Had he, the customer, any secret intentions of violence? Was he compassing to kick somebody? and were these directions of his given

in evil-mindedness and malice prepense? What would be said if the bootmaker was not merely to occupy himself with the details of his business, but was bound to see that in no possible eventuality could any work of his hands ever come into the possession of choleric people, or be diverted from the peaceful paths in which good citizens love to walk?

And what would be said if, with the knowledge that two neighbours were living on bad terms, constantly jarring, and in all likelihood coming to overt acts of violence, he, the bootmaker aforesaid, was legally obliged to refuse boots for either of them of more than average strength, lest by any accident they should employ them in personal encounter?

Would not the effect of all this cumbrous legislation be, that a bootmaker would have very little time left him to make boots, but would have to devote his days, and probably his nights, to all the difficult and nice contingencies in which his unhappy business might involve him, ever speculating whether he were legally safe in that strong upper leather, or what disastrous consequences might ensue to him from those heavy nails in the heel?

Would it seem very unnatural and unreasonable in him to say, "I am a bootmaker, not a police constable. I manufacture shoes for my customers, but I do not pretend to guide the footsteps. My busi

ness is, that they be well shod. I have no pretension to take care that they be well mannered. I may be sincerely sorry that Mr Such-a-one is on bad terms with the gentleman next door, but I feel in no way bound to reduce the thickness of his soles, or round off the toes of his boots, as a measure of precaution in the event of his kicking him. Nor do I feel called upon to detain the last pair he has ordered, on the impression that they are stronger than gentlemen ordinarily wear, and convey a suspicious notion that they are meant for something besides walking."

This, in a brief space, is the sum and substance of that dispute in which Lord Russell and Mr Adams are now engaged, and with which our newspapers are filled-a very dreary correspondence, restricting the space that might have been so pleasantly occupied by the cattle disease and that interesting controversy as to whether bagmen should drink wine. Nor is the analogy complete without adding that the unhappy bootmaker, after having served one customer for years, is suddenly informed that this gentleman has quarrelled with another, and he, the bootmaker, is thereby debarred from ever obtaining that other gentleman's custom, because his former client desires heartily to see him go barefoot; or if that be impossible, that he should never have anything thicker than dancing-pumps.

I don't want to pretend that our excellent bootmaker, Mr Laird of Liverpool, was in ignorance that two of his customers were at loggerheads, and exchanged kicks whenever they met. I only assert that his business limited itself to the fact that the boots they kicked with should be good strong serviceable boots, and that whoever paid best should have the strongest soles and the heaviest nails.

Mr Adams-the wordiness of his despatch removed, and its numerous Gallicisms omitted, writes thus:-"You behaved ill, because, when you saw that we had a hold of that gentleman by the nose, and that he was tugging at our hair, you exclaimed, 'These parties are fighting.' This was unbecoming; it was unfriendly; it was indecent. Your experience ought to have taught you that it was only a shindy; that when we had mauled each other to our mutual satisfaction, some one would have suggested a third party we could both have fallen upon, and in this way our dispute would have been amicably arranged, and we would have gone hand in hand to Canada or Cuba, or Heaven knows where. You might have known that, though we have no objection to hard knocks, we like dollars better, and it would have been far more friendly on your part not to call your neighbour to the window to look out at the row, and make him also say-as the French Emperor did

say I declare they are fighting.' This alone made the row serious; indeed, neither of us stripped to the fight till we saw we were looked at.

"Secondly, when you saw we were at it, you were just as ready to supply shoes to the other party as to ourselves; strong shoes, with nails at the toes, that you well knew meant mischief.

"It is perfectly clear to us, that if you had left us to our own shoemakers, who work up second-hand materials, and turn out what is called shoddy, we might have kicked each other till doomsday, and never hurt our shins. It was your confounded strong soles did all the harm, and you've got to pay the bill for it now."

So far Adams. Russell now loquitur. "It may have been a delusion on our part; we were a long way off, and didn't see the thing very clearly; but, on my honour as a gentleman, we thought you were fighting.

"As to the boots, we make them for everybody. We make them for people of all persuasions, according to order; and such thorough tradesmen are we, we have made them for Russia when she wanted to kick our own shins, and very sharp knocks did she give us of our own manufacture. In fact, of late we care very little whether we do not go barefoot ourselves, so that we drive a thriving trade with others,