We wonder if anybody ever believed that there was a
city in Greece so luxurious that all cocks were expelled lest they should crow? Boys all read the story, and most of them ridicule it, but we are coming to that in London. On Monday a gentleman appeared in the Hammersmith Police-court to complain that a neighbour had a cock which began crowing at 1 am., and to ask the sitting magistrate for a summons. Mr. l'aget did not quite see his way to grant one, but he quite sympathised with the com- plainant, and agreed to send an officer of the Court to the owner of the bird, to tell him that he must abate the nuisance. How far does Mr. Paget propose to go in the interests of sleep? A cock's crow is shrill, no doubt, but it is not half so bad as a dog's howl, and that is melody compared with the noise of the drunken singers of catches, who in some parts of London pass through the streets at any hour. Would it not be simpler to summon anybody who did not sleep with wool in his ears, as a possible nuisance to overworked Police-courts ?
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