368 The Jew Slopseller: [APRIL, 



enemy, even by the weapons which you were to use against him : your 

 strength avails you not with him. What are the deep-set grinders and 

 the rigid muscles of the bull-dog against the tortuous faculty of the worm ? 

 The brute may startle wolves from their dens, and tear into powder the 

 hard earth beneath it, whilst the reptile glides through a crevice, arid 

 evades pursuit. It is almost melancholy to observe the unsuccessful 

 trials of the sailor to look cunning and business-like ; his features are rebel- 

 lious, and will not submit to order whilst he, unconscious man ! believes 

 them to be admirably disciplined. An elephant, inquiring into the legiti- 

 mate construction of a sixpence, is, we think, a ludicrous object : no less 

 whimsical is our sailor, attempting to be shrewd. He has, at this time, 

 but one thought security against the Jew ; and this thought runs, dark- 

 ling and confused, within him, like a half-smothered mouse in the body of 

 the elephant just noted. At every turn, he becomes more bewildered; 

 and our Slopselier, gaining strength as the Sailor sinks back again to his 

 accustomed state, in the moment of triumph slips the article of purchase 

 into the half-unresolved hand oF the man of the waters. And, what has 

 Jack purchased ? Of course, a watch one that hath survived a three 

 days' possession by nearly half the seamen of his Majesty's fleet. The 

 first article a sailor purchases, and the last he parts with, is a watch : it is 

 the Alpha and Omega of the alphabet of prize money ; and, even if it 

 does not survive the first winding-up, still the outside looks creditable and 

 land-like; and, long ere Blue Peter is flying at the fore, it is once again 

 duly returned to the Slopselier, with a loss of pounds not to be thought of 

 in the middle-watch. As were the fatal seeds to Proserpine, so is the 

 silver monitor to our tar: having once tasted the fare of our Slopselier, 

 he is wholly and unreservedly condemned to him. 



A fox comes into a farm-yard with a more bold and upright counte- 

 nance than does a Jew Slopselier enter a man-of-war; there is a vile 

 slinking principle curling about his lips a fitful puckering-up of his eyes 

 a thrilling of chicane at the very tip of his nose; presenting, on the 

 whole, a so abject and contemptible being, that, were your dog to leap 

 from your side, and pin down the trader, we fear, instead of punishing the 

 animal, your momentary feeling would be to pat the sides of the brute, 

 and exclaim, " Well done, honesty 1" 



Our Slopselier is not avaricious and grasping by accident he is trained 

 up, deeply educated in the game. When scarcely the height of his father's 

 knee, the watchful parent points out to his offspring the bluff and sturdy 

 defenders of their country, and tells him that on such as they he must in 

 due time thrive and fatten. If any of our readers doubt the fact, let 

 them but glance at the young pigmies of gain, thriving in the Minories. 

 We confess, were we asked to instance a startling contrast of the vastness 

 and majesty of nature, and the subserviency and meanness of man, \ve 

 should incontinently name the wide and wonder-striking ocean, bearing on 

 its top the puny shallop of the Jew Slopselier. Certainly, there maybe many 

 such dealers imbued with overy fair and benevolent feeling in practices of 

 trade with the ignorant and unthinking. We may gather peaches from a 

 holly. J. 



