, for whom the Radical had
done, on a particular occasion, work of a particular kind. So, though
the place was given to a quack, and the whole affair a very pretty job,
it was one in which the Tories had certainly no hand.

In the meanwhile, however, the friendly Radical did not drop the writer.
Oh, no! On various occasions he obtained from the writer all the
information he could about the country in question, and was particularly
anxious to obtain from the writer, and eventually did obtain, a copy of a
work written in the court language of that country, edited by the writer.
A language exceedingly difficult, which the writer, at the expense of a
considerable portion of his eyesight, had acquired, at least as far as by
the eyesight it could be acquired. What use the writer's friend made of
the knowledge he had gained from him, and what use he made of the book,
the writer can only guess; but he has little doubt that when the question
of sending a person to . . . was mooted in a Parliamentary
Committee--which it was at the instigation of the Radical supporters of
the writer's friend--the Radical, on being examined about the country,
gave the information which he had obtained from the writer as his own,
and flashed the book and its singular characters in the eyes of the
Committee; and then of course his Radical friends would instantly say,
"This is the man! there is no one like him. See what information he
possesses; and see that book written by himself in the court language of
Serendib. This is the only man to send there. What a glory, what a
triumph it would be to Britain, to send out a man so deeply versed in the
mysterious lore of . . ., as our illustrious countryman; a person who
with his knowledge could beat with their own weapons the wise men of . . .
Is such an opportunity to be lost? Oh, no! surely not; if it is, it
will be an eternal disgrace to England, and the world will see that Whigs
are no better than Tories."

Let no one think the writer uncharitable in these suppositions. The
writer is only too well acquainted with the antecedents of the individual
to entertain much doubt that he would shrink from any such conduct,
provided he thought that his temporal interest would be forwarded by it.
The writer is aware of more than one instance in which he has passed off
the literature of friendless young men for his own, after making them a
slight pecuniary compensation, and deforming what was originally
exce