182G.] The Art of getting iyilo Debt. 2b!i 



These, I apprehend, are articles of good soHd property — property, too, 

 which is subject to none of the disadvantages attaching to all others ; 

 subject to no taxes, and defying, by their very nature, any attempt at 

 seizure or confiscation. 



Tliis property, the author apprehends, may be estimated at 32,000 

 francs, upon a very moderate calculation ; and he adds, fairly enough, 

 that there are many peers of France, and old marchionesses, who would 

 be glad to buy them at a much higher rate. The education of an 

 Homme comme iljhut is estimated at 68,000 francs ; and his temper, for 

 the management of which some sensible, but obvious, directions are 

 laid down, is supposed to be worth 100,000 — the total thus making a 

 capital of 200,000 francs, the interest of which amounts annually to 

 10,000 francs. 



Now this, to the comprehension of an Englishman, is but a sorry con- 

 clusion. Ten thousand francs — four hundred pounds a year — this, only, 

 to be the result of so much ingenuity, so many natural qualifications, 

 so many excellent accomplishments, as are necessary to furnish forth a 

 real Homme comme il faui ! It may do very well for Paris : but here in 

 London, a banker's clerk, or one of the subaltern scribes in a govern- 

 ment-office, can achieve more without once coming within reach of the 

 statutes. Make it four thousand pounds a year, and it may be worth a 

 man's while : but even then, one who knew his business would not give 

 a-fig for the qualifications. 



It must be confessed that in England we do things upon a grand 

 scale, and the extent of credit is among the most striking of the proofs 

 which abound of our national superiority. Our tradesmen are men of 

 more liberal minds — our Hommes comme il faut have more enlarged 

 ideas. The good easy author of the " Art of getting into Debt," 

 although he has gainecf some reputation in his own country, would stare 

 and blush at his old-fashioned notions if he should come here. What 

 would he say to a j^outhful breeches-maker, without sixpence in the 

 world, keeping horses and equipage, losing thousands at play, enter- 

 taining noblemen, ruining tradespeople, and, in short, doing all that sixty 

 years ago could be expected from a prince of the blood ? What would 

 he say to a banker's clerk keeping two mistresses at once, and an 

 establishment for each ? — to a peddling stock-broker having running 

 horses — to an attorney living like a Nabob for half a-dozen years, and 

 being allowed to walk off with £30,000 of other people's money in his 

 pocket ? What could he say, when he was told that all these people 

 had managed, during the whole of their several careers, to keep out of 

 the reach of the criminal laws ? He could say nothing : he must go 

 home, and, having burnt his book, he must hang himself, or retire to 

 La Trappe. 



If, however, he fell in our way, we should like, from the respect we 

 have for ingenious persons, and a little from the pride which is so com- 

 mon to an Englishman with regard to the social institutions of his 

 own country, to walk with him through some of the fashionable streets, 

 and show him a few of the curiosities, in this particular branch of science, 

 which they contain. We should like to show him some of those " per- 

 sons of wit and honour about town," whose lives are an illustration of 

 the sj'stem of ci'edit which prevails universally, and a direct contradic- 

 tion of the narrow ideas which he entertains. For instance, we would 

 point out to him, as examples of great luck, a tavern-keeper, who by a 



