294 THE ADVENTUKES OF A GENTLEMAN 



give them validity. It has been held in the case of 

 Hutton V. Warren, 2 Meeson and Welbj, that the 

 custom of trade may be given in evidence against a 

 written contract. 



To return from this digression on the subject of 

 evidence : it may be inferred from all these cases, 

 that the gist of the action of deceit is a wilful mis- 

 representation, whereby the purchaser is put off his 

 guard, and induced to make a contract into which 

 he would never have entered with his eyes open; 

 but it must not be inferred that he is at liberty to 

 release himself from a contract on the mere plea 

 that his eyes were not open ; they must have been 

 shut by the seller, and not closed by natural in- 

 firmity. Every man who goes into the market to 

 buy an article is presumably cognizant of the nature 

 of the article which he wants, as much so as the 

 seller is presumed to understand the article that he 

 sells; he cannot afterwards plead his own ignorance 

 as an excuse for repudiating the contract. Hence, 

 if a man enters the bazaar, or the manufactory, to 

 buy a carriage with mail boxes, and purchases one 

 in which the nave hoop is closed up with an iron 

 plate, as is the case with boxes of that description, 



