ho, if there was a talk of a statue to the Queen or
the Duke, would come down to the Town All and subscribe their one, two,
three undred apiece (especially if in the neighbouring city of SLOWCOME
they were putting up a statue to the Duke or the Queen)--not of such men
have I spoken, the magnates of the place; but of the humble Sarah Mason
in Jubilee Row--of the Reverend Dr. Bulders the Vicar, Mr. Vidler the
apothecary, Mr. Puff the baker--of Tom Potts, the jolly reporter of the
Newcome Independent, and ------ Batters, Esq., the proprietor of that
journal--persons with whom our friends have had already, or will be
found presently to have, some connexion. And it is from these that we
shall arrive at some particulars regarding the Newcome family, which
will show us that they have a skeleton or two in their closets, as well
as their neighbours.

Now, how will you have the story? Worthy mammas of families--if you do
not like to have your daughters told that bad husbands will make bad
wives; that marriages begun in indifference make homes unhappy; that men
whom girls are brought to swear to love and honour are sometimes false,
selfish, and cruel; and that women forget the oaths which they have been
made to swear--if you will not hear of this, ladies, close the book, and
send for some other. Banish the newspaper out of your houses, and shut
your eyes to the truth, the awful truth, of life and sin. Is the world
made of Jennies and Jessamies; and passion the play of schoolboys and
schoolgirls, scribbling valentines and interchanging lollipops? Is life
all over when Jenny and Jessamy are married; and are there no subsequent
trials, griefs, wars, bitter heart-pangs, dreadful temptations, defeats,
remorses, sufferings to bear, and dangers to overcome? As you and I,
friend, kneel with our children round about us, prostrate before the
Father of us all, and asking mercy for miserable sinners, are the young
ones to suppose the words are mere form, and don't apply to us?--to some
outcasts in the free seats probably, or those naughty boys playing in
the churchyard? Are they not to know that we err too, and pray with all
our hearts to be rescued from temptation? If such a knowledge is wrong
for them, send them to church apart. Go you and worship in private; or
if not too proud, kneel humbly in the midst of them, owning your wrong,
and praying Heaven to be merciful to you a sinner.

When Barnes Newcome became the reigning Prince of the New