OF KEEPING ACCURATE ACCOUNTS. Bechanics' Oracle and Domestic "Let thine Eye descend "To trace with patient Industry the page "Of Income and Expense."-Shenstone. By Dr. Kitchiner. (Continued from page 335.) "Who buys Had need of a Hundred Eyes; For him that Sells the Stuff." For the BAKER some Housekeepers keep Card Checks, and when they receive a Loaf give a Check in returnthese are returned by the Baker with his weekly Bill. The BREWER also receives such a Ticket Receipt for each Cask of Beer that he brings-this Plan easily and entirely prevents all Mistakes and Disputes about articles which are in constant request, and which those that will not take this trouble must suffer. WEIGHING OF GOODS is frequently intrusted to Ignorant and Careless people, who quite unintentionally make Mistakes; therefore, now and then careful Housewives order their Cook when Meat, Butter, Sugar, &c. is brought home to Re-weigh it, and compare it with the Bills of Parcels sent with it-the honest and most careful may sometimes make a mistake-if you find a trifling deficiency in Weight, do not notice it the first time you discover it, but if it happens again, the next time desire the person who brings the article home, to stop and see it weighed —if it is short-let him take it back; and his testimony of its deficiency will prevent any Dispute. "With the same Measure that ye mete withal, it shall be Measured to you again. Good Measure, pressed down and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. Luke, iv. 38. On TUESDAY Morning examine the Weekly bills and the Cook's Book of the Sundries which she has purchased during the Week-compare these with the Bills of Parcels on the Files, and if you find any Mistake, have it rectified Immediately. File your Weekly Bills, and on the Termination of each Four Weeks call upon the Tradesmen, or desire them to call upon you, and pray and CAST UP EVERY BILL 351 PAY EVERY ACCOUNT YOURSELF. This is your only effective protection against those extravagant Impositions, which persons who are not so careful frequently suffer from combinations between their Servants and their Purveyors, as a douceur to secure their Custom. "Out of Debt out of Danger.” MRS. LIBERAL, to whom the Editor acknowledges himself indebted for many of the Hints herein given-told him that she was quite astonished at the different expense of her establishment and that of MRS. LAVISH, although her Equipage always appeared in better order, and her table was as elegantly and plentifully supplied as that Lady's was-Yet on comparing notes with MRS. LAVISH about the expense of Housekeeping, &c. she found that Lady's expenses exceeded her own by more than One Third: "I can't conceive," said MRS. LAVISH, "how this can happen, MRS. LIBERAL, for I am sure your Dinners are much handsomer than mine, and you keep more Company.""Indeed, my dear Madam, I cannot tell, replied Mrs. LIBERAL, unless it is that my Place enables me to do it."-" Dear me, MRS. LIBERAL," Place!-Why have You tho'?-Why I said MRS. LAVISH, "have you got a never heard that You had got a Place! -Why you don't say so ?-Why bless me, MRS. LIBERAL, why what Place can it be !!" "My dear MRS. LAVISH, I am my things, and Pay for All Myself!!!" own Housekeeper, and I Purchase many 66 Why dear me, MRS. LIBERAL, why, keeper too,-Aye that I will,—Every bless me then, I'll be my Own House. Mistress of a Family whose Income is be her Own Housekeeper!-and do as under Five Thousand a Year ought to for all, to be sure.-Why, and all who you do, purchase most Things, and Pay hear your account of the advantages of doing so will. Why, certainly they will LIBERAL!!!” -to be sure, to be sure they will, MRS. oUT TAKING A RECEIPT or you may NEVER PAY THE SMALLEST SUM WITHReceipt for a Sum exceeding 39 shillings have to pay the same Bill twice:-A is of no use if it is not upon a proper Stamp. (To be continued.) Essence of Anecdote and Wit. "Argument for a week, Laughter for a month, and a good Jest for ever."-Shakspeare. JOSEPH II. THE Emperor Joseph II. of Austria, when travelling, having reached a stage before he was expected, found no horses prepared. The post-master, not recognising the emperor, begged the gentleman to wait the return of his horses, because they were all sent out to fetch his friends and relations invited to the christening of a son, whith whom his wife had just presented him. Joseph offered to stand godfather, and the postmaster thought the strange gentleman would be a more eligible godfather than his cousin, the farmer, who was expected. The ceremony commenced, the priest required the name of the godfather. "Joseph !" said the stranger. 66 Joseph-and your family name?"Joseph is enough."-"Joseph and nothing else?" said the priest." Well, put Joseph the Second."-"Well, Jo. seph II. but what is your condition, profession, employ, or occupation?""Say," replied the unknown Joseph II. Emperors'' Here the priest and the assistants turned pale. The post-maste fell at his feet; and the emperor consoled them for their fright, by leave. ing proofs of his generosity, and a promise not to forget his godson. SEEING NOT BELIEVING. The Abbé Reynier was making a collection at the French Academy to defray the funeral expences of one of their members. A pistole was to be collected from each person one of the academicians, who might have served as a type, or at least a copy, of Moliere's "Miser,' slid his money into the abbe's hat without his perceiving it: he therefore asked him again for his contribution; the miser protested he had already given. "I believe it, Sir," said Reynier, "but I did not see it."-"I," said Mr. de Fontenelle, "saw without believing it." supposed it would end at last in not dining "till to-morrow!" A HISSING HOT MISTAKE. Mad. Linguet was an actress of the Italian theatre in Paris: her husband, who was cashier to the theatre, employed a party to hiss every actress but Madame Linguet, and to applaud her to the skies; this went on famously for some time, till the secret was found out by a sad mistake: Linguet, in his instructions to the men, said, “To-morrow night you must hiss the first actress who appears, and applaud the secondnow, mind you make no mistake, hiss the first, and applaud the second." They obeyed orders; but, unfortunately for Madame Linguet, the play was changed, and in the new piece she ap peared first, when she was completely hissed, to the great amusement of all the audience. Monsieur Linguet, to be revenged, ran off with all the money of the theatre in his hands, and took refuge in the Temple, then an asylum where a person could not be arrested. LONDON:-Printed for WILLIAM CHARLTON WRIGHT, 65, Paternoster Row, and may be had of all Booksellers and Newsmen. The Portfolio, Comprising 1. THE FLOWERS OF LITERATURE. II. THE SPIRIT OF THE MAGAZINES, III. THE WONDERS OF NATURE AND ART. IV. THE ESSENCE OF ANECDOTE AND WIT. V. THE DOMESTIC GUID No. 23 of FORMING ALSO No. 124 OF THE HIVE. No.CVII. [or No. 23 of] Vol. IV. LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1825. CUSTOM [28. CUSTOM HOUSE OF THE PORT Including a History of the Building the late accident. How to make a Leg of Mutton last a Anecdote of Louis XIV................. ib. The Compliment repaid. the building was completed in 1817. By consulting Mr. David Laing's architectural plans and descriptions of the New Custom House of London, it appears that borings being taken about the site, the ground was found to consist of a stratum of gravel, which it was at first designed to pile throughout the foundation. This handsome and commodious build-But this plan seems not to have been ing was erected eight years ago. The first stone was laid Oct. 25, 1813; and VOL. IV. HISTORY OF THE BUILDING. carried fully into effect-the piling being more partial than was originally in tended. On this partial piling, in a soil by no means tenacious, the walls and piers, footed on wood, were founded, and the fabric reared up. But not long after it was finished, the floor of the long-room was perceived to settle, and continued to do so, until a few weeks ago it was thought necessary to support this floor by shoring under the groins of the arches in the cellars: but this precaution did not answer the desired purpose, for part of the floor of the long room fell in, on the 26th of January, which drew my attention to the spot, and induced me to visit that building every day since. By examining the whole fabric with care and attention, I perceive that the pillars in the cellars, under the long-room, have all settled, more or less. These pillars are, indeed, so narrow at the base, that they seem better calculated to stamp themselves into the earth, like a die into metal, than to be supported by the materials under them. This depression of the pillars has brought the weight of all the brick-work of the arches of both the cellar, the King's warehouse, and the stone-floor of the long-room, 190 feet by 66 feet, upon the surrounding walls. The partition walls on the East and West ends of the long-room, being supported by the other parts of the building, have stood the pressure; but the South wall having no support, except its own weight, has perceptibly bulged out, and not only rent the arches next the South wall of both the cellars and King's warehouse, for a space of many feet, but it has also drawn out with it (most likely by the connection of the iron stay crossing under the long-room floor,) the opposite wall, and made a rent in the floor of the long passage, which is on the same line as the long-room floor. It has also rent, for a number of yards, the corridors above. These effects are not only, I be lieve, entirely occasioned by the yielding of the piers and the pressure of the abovenamed arches, but increased by the weakness of the girders of the whole of the roofing over the long-room. These girders are by no means deficient in quantity of timber, but the manner and method of cutting, framing, and tying to the walls, does not give strength and support equal to the quantity of materials used. [See Laing's Architecture, p. 22 and 25, plates 27 and 28.] Hence the framing, or girders, of the domes, have expanded laterally, by the weight of timber, &c. above, so as to thrust outward, by the lateral pressure, both the front wall and the upper part of the back parapet-wall, the latter of which has opened at the end of the rafters, and shows a rent of half an inch in width, for 30 or 40 feet in length, on this light parapet-wall on the roof. In the eastern quarter of the cellar, two of the pillars have settled several feet; the pillars above, and dependent on them, in the King's warehouse, have, of course, followed them in their descent, and brought down the arches, along with that part of the floor of the long-room that has fallen in. The side walls in the wings of the Custom House (through which light is given to the anti-rooms that look into the wells), are all twisted a little or bulged out, most likely from the less care that has been taken to found them than to found the outer walls; but these courts, or these well-walls, are in no danger at present, although the corridors adjoining them are a little rent. The north side of the building, and the gable-end walls, show no infirmity but what may have been original; nor does any other part of the building appear to have settled or given way in the least. The quay adjoining the river is also fair and firm. METHOD OF SECURITY. An artist of known talent states it practicable to repair and secure the building as it now stands, without removing either walls or floors; and to accomplish this by undersetting the pillars with inverted arches, and by bracing in the walls that are out of place, or liable to go out of place, by the tension of iron braces, to be passed through and through the building. And to this end I should urge that by no means the arches so firmly concentrated bè taken down, for some of them, now in the act of being removed, I am persuaded are as secure as they can possibly be made, and much more firm than they will be when replaced. I should suggest that, in the first place, two new piers be built, firmly and securely founded on the site of the two that have given way. Secondly, that the ground be trenched, longitudinally, to the width of six feet, and to the depth of the original foundation, in the line of the piers, the whole length of the cellars under the King's warehouse. The bottom of the trench I would cover with strong terrace mortar and hard burnt bricks, making insets on both sides, as this new foundation wall rises, until its breadth be reduced to the diameter of the pillars. On this wall I would found inverted arches, bringing their feet upward against the cap-stones CUSTOM HOUSE OF THE PORT OF LONDON. of the pillars, building all the way with terrace mortar, which will set as hard as stone. The whole of the pillars being thus supported, longitudiually, the planking on which the original piers are planted, if decayed, as report says to be the case, could then be removed, and the pillars erected anew. The whole could then be further supported by another series of inverted arches, similar to the above, placed tranversely between each pillar, and crossing the former at right angles. The timber beneath the foundation of the outer walls, if found to be decayed, could be then removed by little and little, and its place filled up with stones or bricks, covering a larger breadth of surface than before, for the walls to rest upon. Thirdly, that the extreme walls of the buildings be braced together with iron braces in the manner following:-I should make use of four or more straps or braces of iron on the level of the floor of the long-room, one at each extremity, and two others or more, equally spaced, between them. And contiguous to the walls, at each end of the room, I would pass through and through the building, like the former, from the back to front, another strap or brace of iron at the altitude of the floor next above the floor of the long-room; and four other braces, of a similar kind, and in a similar direction from north to south, through the building. I should place about the altitude of the lower part of the domes, one betwixt each dome, and one against the wall of the long-room, on the outward verges of the extreme domes. These braces should all be made of iron, so stout that they would not be liable to stretch, perhaps best of cast-iron, and they should all pass quite through and through the building, horizontally, embracing the opposite walls at the two fronts of the building, and could be drawn up to any pitch by screws or lockings, so as not only to tie the extreme walls effectually together, but to bring the walls, now slightly distorted, into place again. Lastly, I would successively excavate the portions of earth that remained undisturbed amid the inverted arches, down to the bed of those arches, and would fill up the space occupied thereby with shingle, mixed with stone lime. By this process, the penetration of the high tides, and action of land springs, said to percolate the earth on which the building is founded, (and if so it doubtless must, by loosening the ground, have been chiefly instrumental in the damage that has been sustained,) would subse 355 quently lose their pernicious and undermining influence. DETAIL OF THE ACCIDENT. On the 26th of January the long room at the Custom House gave way, by which accident all business was suspended during the day, but we are happy to state that no lives were lost. The round table in the middle of the room entirely disappeared, which caused a general consternation, The rooms contiguous to the one which gave way shook tremendously, so much so that the persons who were in them imagined that the whole building was coming down. Fortunately the brokers who attend in the long room had not arrived, or they would inevitably have been precipitated with it, as several of their desks fell with the floor. Immense crowds immediately collected, and strong apprehensions were entertained for the safety of the remainder of this magnificent building. The greatest agitation and alarm prevailed in the neighbourhood during the day. It was reported that a man had lost his life, but we have every reason to believe that is not the fact. Mr. Wilkinson, a clerk in the Warrant-office, had a narrow escape; he clung to his desk until he was extricated from his perilous situation. Mr. Smirke, the architect, was in attendance immediately after the accident, and as soon as the Commissioners arrived they constituted a Board, at which that gentleman attended. The Secretary of the Customs was present, and issued orders for the entrances to be closed, and adopted measures for the security of the official documents of the house. Strong parties of police were in attendance, to keep off the crowd and protect the property. We understand that the cause of the accident has arisen from there not being sufficient caution used in framing the footing of the piers which receive the ground arches in the King's Warehouse. The injury sustained is of so serious a nature, that the business has been suspended in that part of the building, and will take some time to repair; the expense will be very great. On the flooring giving way, the cousternation became general, and each person seized his books and securities, and conveyed them to the lobbies adjoining. Between three and four hun dred tons of stones, bricks, and rubbish, fell upon the top of the King's ware house, which instantly gave way, and the whole went through to the foundation of the building. In the King's |