terary men are not lickspittles, whether in
Italy or Spain, or, indeed, upon the Continent; it is only in England
that all--'

'Come,' said I, 'mind what you are about to say of English literary men.'

'Why should I mind?' said the man in black, 'there are no literary men
here. I have heard of literary men living in garrets, but not in
dingles, whatever philologists may do; I may, therefore, speak out
freely. It is only in England that literary men are invariably
lickspittles; on which account, perhaps, they are so despised, even by
those who benefit by their dirty services. Look at your fashionable
novel-writers, he! he!--and, above all, at your newspaper editors, ho!
ho!'

'You will, of course, except the editors of the --- from your censure of
the last class?' said I.

'Them!' said the man in black; 'why, they might serve as models in the
dirty trade to all the rest who practise it. See how they bepraise their
patrons, the grand Whig nobility, who hope, by raising the cry of
liberalism and by putting themselves at the head of the populace, to come
into power shortly. I don't wish to be hard, at present, upon those
Whigs,' he continued, 'for they are playing our game; but a time will
come when, not wanting them, we will kick them to a considerable
distance: and then, when toleration is no longer the cry, and the Whigs
are no longer backed by the populace, see whether the editors of the will
stand by them; they will prove themselves as expert lickspittles of
despotism as of liberalism. Don't think they will always bespatter the
Tories and Austria.'

'Well,' said I, 'I am sorry to find that you entertain so low an opinion
of the spirit of English literary men; we will now return, if you please,
to the subject of the middle classes; I think your strictures upon them
in general are rather too sweeping--they are not altogether the foolish
people which you have described. Look, for example, at that very
powerful and numerous body the Dissenters, the descendants of those
sturdy Patriots who hurled Charles the Simple from his throne.'

'There are some sturdy fellows amongst them, I do not deny,' said the man
in black, 'especially amongst the preachers, clever withal--two or three
of that class nearly drove Mr. Platitude mad, as perhaps you are aware,
but they are not very numerous; and the old sturdy sort of preachers are
fast dropping off, and, as we observe with pleasure, are generally
succeeded by frothy coxc