THE CJTY AS IT WAS AND IS. 139 



measures, I look to men, Sir ; that was the old principle, and to it I 

 will adhere. 



THOMPSON. As to men, Mr. Oliver, I really think we possess 

 men of as patriotic feeling as you can name amongst those of the 

 olden time. 



OLIVER. Aye, there is who rows forward but looks 



backward j favours one party with his speech and another with his 

 vote, and labours to convince the world of the propriety of adopting 



that which he himself rejects. Then you have alderman , 



who liberally transfers East Retford into Yorkshire, by easy geogra- 

 phical mutation ; talks imposingly of " the grave-digger, bellman., 

 and other dignitaries of his parish ;" and when he demands their 

 votes, awfully observes to them, " recollect, the eyes of the country 

 are upon you." Item, an East India director, who, generously dis- 

 regardless of ordinary notions of regal descent, mentions the Com- 

 pany's charter as " having been derived from William III., and hopes 

 that William IV. will imitate his great ancestor !" 



THOMPSON. These errors are scarcely so egregious, Oliver, as 

 " the triple R reading, writing, and 'rithmetic ;" " a speedy peace 

 and soon," &c. &c. of the olden times. 



OLIVER. Ah ! the men of my day, if a little out at elbows on 

 minor points, always contrived to make themselves understood. 

 They had none of that outlandish yahoo gibberish which is now in 

 vogue. Every thing eatable has been robbed of its good name. 

 Soup is converted, in the aspiring vocabulary of the quondam cit, 

 into potash; fish has become poison; the crimson honours of the 

 ancient joint have faded down to buff ; and the goose is announced, 

 in the manner of Cooper's Indian heroes, by the expressive " wagh !" 

 Then, Sir, as to style and manners ; an alderman sends the following 

 note, doubled down at the end, to a prince of the blood : " Sir, 



hopes that His Royal Highness the Duke of takes his 



dinner at the Mansion-house to-day ;" and when, in despite of this 

 easy suggestion, he has royalty by his side, he descants on the four 

 graces supporting the epergne. Another arbiter of the destinies of 

 London declares from his seat of office, " that no decision of his'n had 

 ever been reversed." A lord mayor, we were not long since in- 

 formed, entertained " an exclusive party of nobility." A common 

 councilman, with a predilection for politics, has gravely asserted, that 

 " it was the intention of the Roman Catholics of Ireland to place a 

 Stuart on the throne of Great Britain ;" and a deputy, on St. Tho- 

 mas's day, after having gravely declared, that to stand before the 

 assembled ward of Farringdon Without was a task to damp the spirits 

 and paralyze the utterance of any ordinary man, spoke with the great- 

 est fluency for two hours and a half ! Then again, glance at a modern 

 gazette ; consider the number of insolvents ; look at the swindlers. 

 Ah, Sir ! times are strangely altered. The honest British merchant 

 of my time, Sir 



THOMPSON. By the bye, Mr. Oliver, to change the subject, 

 oblige me with the continuation of that anecdote which you were 

 telling me when Jobling so unexpectedly joined us yesterday. It 

 was about an early mercantile friend of your's. 



