the honour of dining with some worshipful brothers of
the quorum, men as profoundly ignorant of the law as any of
the unpaid magistracy need to be, but who, having seen
canals, knew well enough what locks were. Our Athenian took
an early opportunity of adverting to the proposed "cut," and
introduced his newly-acquired learning in the following
terms: "Ah! Measter Fletcher, it's a foine thing a lock;
yo' know'n I loike to look into them theere things; a lock
is a perpendicular slop level, which, being let into the
sea, is revealed into boards, that raises it to the
declivity of the sea above!"--As it is the province and
privilege of the ignorant to laugh at a greater degree of
ignorance than their own, it may be supposed that their
worships enjoyed a hearty laugh at the expense of their
Attic brother.

~257~~whole district of English barbarians by one action, and, what is
more, they have never ventured to trot with any one of our fraternity
since."

The conversation now took a turn relative to the affairs of trade; and
if any one had been desirous of knowing the exact degree of solvency in
which the whole population of the county of Gloucester was held by
these flying merchants and factors, they might easily have summed up the
estimate from the remarks of the company. They were, however, a jovial
party; and my friend Bob and myself had rarely found ourselves more
pleasantly circumstanced, either as regarded our social comforts, or the
continued variety of new character with which the successive speakers
presented us. As the evening approached our numbers gradually
diminished, some to pursue their journeys, and others to facilitate the
purposes of trade. The representative of the house of Blackstrap and
Co., his friend Sable, the timber merchant, our inviter the bookseller,
and the two interlopers, remained fixed as fate to the festive board,
until the chairman, and scarce any one of the company, could clearly
define, divide, and arrange the exact arithmetical proportions of the
dinner bill. After a short cessation of hostilities, during which our
commercial friends despatched their London letters, and Bob and the
English Spy, to escape the suspicion of not having any definable
pursuit, emigrated to the High Street; we returned to our quarters, and
found the whole party debating upon a proposition of the bon vivants, to
have another bottle, and make