1827.] The Travellers Oracle. 39 1 



being convicted thereof by his own confession, or the oath or oaths of one or 

 more credible witness or witnesses, before any justice, &c. shall forfeit and pay 

 a sum not less than 5*. nor more than 4.0s. for every such offence." 



It would not be at all a bad plan, it strikes us, for a man to have these 

 penal acts copied out (the doctor gives a great many more of them in other 

 parts of the work), and so carry them about with him, to be shewn 

 always to guards arid coachmen at the commencement of every journey. 



The arts of hiring and managing servants are treated of with the author's 

 usual particularity and good sense; as well as the advantage of having 

 your stables attached to your house ; so that you can, at all times, enter 

 them when you are least expected. It will be very well, too, we may add, 

 to make use habitually of this power. Servants, in many cases, do not 

 like it : no matter; there are abundance abroad: get those who do. 

 Never permit yourself to be regarded as an intruder in any part of your 

 own domains ; and accustom your domestics to pursue their avocations 

 under your eye: those who don't like this are hot such as you need bo 

 much distressed at losing. 



In the circumstance of livery, our author's taste is grave : 



" < Costly thy Habit as thy Purse 



Can buy, but not expressed in fancy, 



Rich not gaudy : for the Apparel oft proclaims 



The Man.' Shakspeare. 



" We recommend a Blue, Brown, Drab, or Green Livery, the whole of the 

 same Colour. To have a Coat of one Colour, and lined with another, a Waist- 

 coat of another, and the other Clothes of another Colour, claims the Poet's cen- 

 sure it is " Gaudy " unless for a full Dress Livery on a Gala Day." 



We are not quite sure about this ; a good share of the " outward and 

 visible sign" of servitude rather tends perhaps sometimes to keep the bearer 

 in proper remembrance of his condition. We have known very judicious 

 persons who have thought that a footman should always look as much like 

 a jack-pudding as possible. If you are a humourist, there is a comic- 

 ality in giving a man a livery that does not fit him. 



In many passages, servants are schooled and instructed as to their duties. 

 Not in the usual ironical and contradictory style as, " always to lean as 

 li^ht as possible when they rub a table, and as ,hard when they clean 

 a window" " never to wake in a morning without being called : if their 

 masters cannot wake, how should they ?" &c. &c. but always with a due 

 effect of gravity and good sense. As for example touching the shutting 

 of a coach door : 



" Never permit officious Strangers to shut your Carriage Door ; in order to 

 save their own time and trouble, and to accomplish this at once, some idle and 

 ignorant people will bang it so furiously, one almost fancies that they are trying 

 to upset the Carriage, the pannels of which are frequently injured by such rude 

 violence; therefore, desire your Coachman to be on the watch, and the moment 

 he sees any one prepare to touch your Door, to say loudly and imperatively 

 Doitt meddle w'.th the Door P " 



A well-trained coach-dog, by the way, might be taught to seize any per- 

 son whom he saw meditating such an act as this. 



Page 82, the author notices a peculiar grievance to which those who 

 have equipages are subject, and shews the means of remedying it: 



<( Do not permit Strangers to place themselves behind your^ Carriage at any time, 

 or under any pretence whatever. There are innumerable instances of Carriages 

 having been disabled from proceeding, and Travellers robbed and finished, by 



