ons; but, in present Real life,
you will find them quite the reverse, unless they find it necessary
to assume a disguise in order to nibble a queer cove who proves shy of
their company'; but among Gentlemen, none are so stylish, and at the
same time so accommodating--you are served with the process in a
private and elegant way, and if not convenient to come to an immediate
arrangement, a gig is ready in the highest taste, to convey you from
your habitation to your place of retirement, and you may pass through
the most crowded streets of the city, and recognise your friends,
without fear of suspicion. Upon some occasions, they will also carry
their politeness so far as to inform an individual he will be wanted
on such a day, and must come--a circumstance which has the effect of
preventing any person from knowing the period of departure, or the place
of destination; consequently, the arrested party is gone out of town for
a few days, and the matter all blows over without any injury sustained.
This is the third time since I have been in the house that the tandem
has started from the door, and returned with a new importation."

By this time, the gig having been discharged of its cargo, was
reascended by the Master and his man, and bowl'd off again in gay style
for the further accommodation of fashionable friends, whose society was
in such high

1 See Bum-trap), page 166.

~374~~ estimation, that no excuse or denial could avail, and who being
so urgently wanted, must come.

"'Tis a happy age we live in," said Merry well; "the improvements are
evident enough; every thing is done with so much facility and gentility,
that even the race of bailiffs are transformed from frightful and
ferocious-looking persons to the most dashing, polite and accommodating
characters in the world. He however, like others, must have his
assistant, and occasional substitute.

"A man in this happy era is really of no use whatever to himself. It
is a principle on which every body, that is any body, acts, that no one
should do any thing for himself, if he can procure another to do it for
him. Accordingly, there is hardly the most simple performance in nature
for the more easy execution of which an operator or machine of some
kind' or other is not employed or invented; and a man who has had the
misfortune to lose, or chuses not to use any of his limbs or senses,
may meet with people ready to perform all their functions for him, from
paring his