THE diet of the Irish men, women, and children, who obtain a livelihood (or what is so designated) by street-sale in London, has, I am told, on good authority, experienced a change. In the lodging-houses that they resorted to, their breakfast, or years ago, was a dish of potatoes— , , or lbs., or more, in weight—for a family. Now half an ounce of coffee (half chicory) costs , and that, with the half or quarter of a loaf, according to the number in family, is almost always their breakfast at the present time. When their constant diet was potatoes, there were frequent squabbles at the lodging-houses —to which many of the poor Irish on their arrival resort—as to whether the potatopot or the tea-kettle should have the preference on the fire. A man of superior intelligence, who had been driven to sleep and eat occasionally in lodging-houses, told me of some dialogues he had heard on these occasions:— "It's about years ago," he said, "since I heard a bitter old Englishwoman say, 'To —— with your 'taty-pot; they're only meat for pigs.' 'Sure, thin,' said a young Irishman—he was a nice 'cute fellow—'sure, thin, ma'am, I should be afther offering you a taste.' I heard that myself, sir. You may have noticed, that when an Irishman doesn't get out of temper, he never loses his politeness, or rather his blarney."

The dinner, or meal of the day— assuming that there has been a breakfast— ordinarily consists of cheap fish and potatoes. Of the diet of the poor street-Irish I had an account from a little Irishman, then keeping an oyster-stall, though he generally sold fruit. In all such details I have found the Irish far more communicative than the English. Many a poor untaught Englishman will shrink from speaking of his spare diet, and his trouble to procure that; a reserve, too, much more noticeable among the men than the women. My Irish informant told me he usually had his breakfast at a lodging-house—he preferred a lodging-house, he said, on account of the warmth and the society. Here he boiled half an ounce of coffee, costing a He purchased of his landlady the of a quartern loaf ( or ), for she generally cut a quartern loaf into for her single men lodgers, such as himself, clearing sometimes a farthing or thereby. For dinner, my informant boiled at the lodging-house or lbs. of potatoes, costing usually or , and fried , or herrings, or as many as cost a penny. He sometimes mashed his potatoes, and spread over them the herrings, the fatty portion of which flavoured the potatoes, which were further flavoured by the roes of the herrings being crushed into them. He drank water to this meal, and the cost of the whole was or A neighbouring stall-keeper attended to this man's stock in his absence at dinner, and my informant did the same for him in his turn. For "tea" he expended on coffee, or on tea, being a "cup" of tea, or "half-pint of coffee," at a coffee-shop. Sometimes he had a halfpenny-worth of butter, and with his tea he ate the bread he had saved from his breakfast, and which he had carried in his pocket. He had no butter to his breakfast, he said, for he could not buy less than a pennyworth about where he lodged, and this was too dear for meal. On a Sunday morning however he generally had butter, sometimes joining with a fellow-lodger for a pennyworth; for his Sunday dinner he had a piece of meat, which cost him on the Saturday night. Supper he dispensed with, but if he felt much tired he had a half-pint of beer, which was farthings "in his own jug," before he went to bed, about or , as he did little or nothing late at night, except on Saturday. He thus spent a day for food, and reckoning extra for somewhat better fare on a Sunday, his board was a week. His earnings he computed at , and thus he had weekly for other expenses. Of these there was for lodging; or for washing (but this not every week); for a Sunday morning's shave; "for his religion" (as he worded it); and for "odds and ends," such as thread to mend his clothes, a piece of leather to patch his shoes, worsted to darn his stockings, &c. He was subject to rheumatism, or "he might have saved a trifle of money." Judging by his methodical habits, it was probable he had done so. He had nothing of the eloquence of his countrymen, and seemed indeed of rather a morose turn.

A family boarding together live even cheaper than this man, for more potatoes and less fish fall to the share of the children. A meal too is

From what I can ascertain, the Irish streetseller can always live at about half the cost of the English costermonger; the Englishman must have butter for his bread, and meat at no long intervals, for he "hates fish more than once a week." It is by this spareness of living, as well as by frequently importunate and mendacious begging, that the street-Irish manage to save money.

The diet I have spoken of is , but not universally, that of the poor street-Irish; those who live differently, do not, as a rule, incur greater expense.

It is difficult to ascertain in what proportion the Irish street-sellers consume strong drink, when compared with the consumption of the English costers; as a poor Irishman, if questioned on that or any subject, will far more frequently shape his reply to what he thinks will please his querist and induce a trifle for himself, than answer according to the truth. The landlord of a large public-house, after inquiring of his assistants, that his opinions might be checked by theirs, told me that in respect there was a marked difference between the beer-drinking of the people. He considered that in the poor streets near his house there were residing quite as many Irish street-sellers and labourers as English, but the instances in which the Irish conveyed beer to their own rooms, as a portion of their meals, was not as in compared with the English: "I have read your work, sir," he said, "and I know that you are quite right in saying that the costermongers go for a good Sunday dinner. I don't know what my customers are except by their appearance, but I do know that many are costermongers, and by the best of all proofs, for I have bought fish, fruit, and vegetables of them. Well, now, we'll take a fine Sunday in spring or summer, when times are pretty good with them; and, perhaps, in the minutes after my doors are opened at on the Sunday, there are customers for their dinner-beer. Nearly -quarters of these are working men and their wives, working either in the streets, or at their indoor trades, such as tailoring. But among the number, I'm satisfied, there are not more than Irishmen. There may be or Irishwomen, but of my barmen tells me he knows that of them—very well-behaved and good-looking women—are married to Englishmen. In my opinion the proportion, as to Sunday dinnerbeer, between English and Irish, may be or in ."

An Irish gentleman and his wife, who are both well acquainted with the habits and condition of the people in their own country, informed me, that among the classes who, though earning only scant incomes, could not well be called "impoverished," the use of beer, or even of small ale—known, now or recently—as "Thunder's thruppeny," was very unfrequent. Even in many "independent" families, only water is drunk at dinner, with punch to follow. This shows the accuracy of the information I derived from Mr. —— (the innkeeper), for persons unused to the drinking of malt liquor in their own country are not likely to resort to it afterwards, when their means are limited. I was further informed, that reckoning the teetotallers among the English street-sellers at , there are among the Irish,—teetotallers too, who, having taken the pledge, under the sanction of their priests, and looking upon it as a religious obligation, keep it rigidly.

The Irish street-sellers who frequent the ginpalaces or public-houses, drink a pot of beer, in a company of or , but far more frequently, a quartern of gin (very seldom whisky) oftener than do the English. Indeed, from all I could ascertain, the Irish street-sellers, whether from inferior earnings, their early training, or the restraints of their priests, drink less beer, by -, than their English brethren, but a larger proportion of gin. "And you must bear this in mind, sir," I was told by an innkeeper, "I had rather have poor Englishmen drunk in my tap-room than a couple of poor Irishmen. They'll quarrel with anybody— the Irish will—and sometimes clear the room by swearing they'll 'use their knives, by Jasus;' and if there's a scuffle they'll kick like devils, and scratch, and bite, like women or cats, instead of using their fists. I wish all the drunkards were teetotallers, if it were only to be rid of them."

Whiskey, I was told, would be drunk by the Irish, in preference to gin, were it not that gin was about half the price. old Irish fruitseller—who admitted that he was fond of a glass of gin—told me that he had not tasted whiskey for years, "becase of the price." The Irish, moreover, as I have shown, live on stronger and coarser food than the English, buying all the rough (bad) fish, for, to use the words of of my informants, they look to quantity more than quality; this may account for their preferring a stronger and fiercer stimulant by way of drink.