OF foreign fruits, the oranges and nuts supply by far the greater staple for the street trade, and, therefore, demand a brief, but still a fuller, notice than other articles.

Oranges were sold in the streets at the

Oranges are brought to this country in cases or boxes, containing from to oranges. From official tables, it appears that between and of oranges and lemons are now yearly shipped to England. They are sold wholesale, principally at public sales, in lots of boxes, the price at such sales varying greatly, according to the supply and the quality. The supply continues to arrive from October to August.

Oranges are bought by the retailers in Duke'splace and in Covent-Garden; but the costermongers nearly all resort to Duke's-place, and the shopkeepers to Covent-Garden. They are sold in baskets of or ; they are also disposed of by the , a half- being the smallest quantity sold in Duke's-place. These hundreds, however, number , containing double "hands," a single hand being oranges. The price in December was , , and the . They are rarely lower than about Christmas, as there is then a better demand for them. The damaged oranges are known as "specks," and the purchaser runs the risk of specks forming a portion of the contents of a basket, as he is not allowed to empty it for the examination of the fruit: but some salesmen agree to change the specks. A month after Christmas, oranges are generally cheaper, and become dearer again about May, when there is a great demand for the supply of the fairs and races.

Oranges are sold by all classes connected with the fruit, flower, or vegetable trade of the streets. The majority of the street-sellers are, however, women and children, and the great part of these are Irish. It has been computed that, when oranges are "at their best" (generally about Easter), there are persons, including stallkeepers, selling oranges in the metropolis and its suburbs; while there are generally out of this number "working" oranges — that is, hawking them from street to street: of these, attend at the doors of the theatres, saloons, &c. Many of those "working" the theatres confine their trade to oranges, while the other dealers rarely do so, but unite with them the sale of nuts of some kind. Those who sell only oranges, or only nuts, are mostly children, and of the poorest class. The smallness of the sum required to provide a stock of oranges (a half- being or ), enables the poor, who cannot raise "stock-money" sufficient to purchase anything else, to trade upon a few oranges.

The regular costers rarely buy oranges until the spring, except, perhaps, for Sunday afternoon sale—though this, as I said before, they mostly object to. In the spring, however, they stock their barrows with oranges. man told me that, or years back, he had sold in a day oranges that he picked up as a bargain. They did not cost him half a farthing each; he said he "cleared by the spec." At the same period he could earn or on a Sunday afternoon by the sale of oranges in the street; but now he could not earn

A poor Irishwoman, neither squalid in appearance nor ragged in dress, though looking pinched and wretched, gave me the subjoined account; when I saw her, resting with her basket of oranges near Coldbath-fields prison, she told me she almost wished she was inside of it, but for the "childer." Her history was common to her class—

I was brought over here, sir, when I was a girl, but my father and mother died two or three years after. I was in service then, and very good service I continued in as a maidof-all- work, and very kind people I met; yes, indeed, though I was Irish and a Catholic, and they was English Protistants. I saved a little money there, and got married. My husband's a labourer; and when he's in full worruk he can earn 12s. or 14s. a week, for he's a good hand and a harrud-worruking man, and we do middlin' thin. He's out of worruk now, and I'm forced to thry and sill a few oranges to keep a bit of life in us, and my husband minds the childer. Bad as I do, I can do 1d. or 2d. a day profit betther than him, poor man! for he's tall and big, and people thinks, if he goes round with a few oranges, it's just from idleniss; and the Lorrud above knows he'll always worruk whin he can. He goes sometimes whin I'm harrud tired. One of us must stay with the childer, for the youngist is not three and the ildest not five. We don't live, we starruve. We git a few 'taties, and sometimes a plaice. Today I've not taken 3d. as yit, sir, and it's past three. Oh, no, indeed and indeed, thin, I dont make 9d. a day. We live accordingly, for there's 1s. 3d. a week for rint. I have very little harrut to go into the public-houses to sill oranges, for they begins flying out about the Pope and Cardinal Wiseman, as if I had anything to do with it. And that's another reason why I like my husband to stay at home, and me to go out, because he's a hasty man, and might get into throuble. I don't know what will become of us, if times don't turn.

On calling upon this poor woman on the following day, I found her and her children absent. The husband had got employment at some distance, and she had gone to see if she could not obtain a room a week cheaper, and lodge near the place of work.

According to the Board of Trade returns, there are nearly millions of oranges annually imported into this country. About - of these are sold wholesale in London, and - of the latter quantity disposed of retail in the streets. The returns I have procured, touching the London sale, prove that no less than are sold yearly by the street-sellers. The retail price of these may be

The street lemon-trade is now insignificant, lemons having become a more important article of commerce since the law required foreignbound ships to be provided with lemon-juice. The street-sale is chiefly in the hands of the Jews and the Irish. It does not, however, call for special notice here.