TRAVELLERS' EXPERIENCES 213 



and absorb the rental: he will not pick a pocket, but, 

 soaring high for nobler game, hungering for a fee, will 

 hy his quirks and quidlebets, his chancery bills and his 

 subtle pleas, corrupt the law; defeat the ends of justice, 

 and drive his miserable beggared client to suicide or the 

 mad-house." 



1st Passenger (greatly excited) — "Name, sir, name. 

 I know no such praditioner in Lincoln's Inn Fields: 

 respe6lab]e men, sir — all respeftable men." 



Sheridan — (with pretended reluftance) — "I do not 

 think I could justify myself in naming the man, /or / do 

 not know him, and I do not wish to know him; but since 

 you desire it, I shall freely give you his name, leaving it 

 to himself to absolve it of the calumny. His name, sir, 

 is Richard Wilson." 



1st Passenger (gathering himself up in insulted 

 dignity) — "I, sir, am Richard Wilson." 



Sheridan — "Indeed ! why then we are quits, for 

 I am Richard Brinsley Sheridan." 



"The devil you are!" roared passenger number three, 

 suddenly seeing the humour of the situation. The others 

 joined in, and laughed immoderately at the neat manner 

 in which Mr. Richard Wilson had been hoist with his 

 own petard. The utmost good fellowship then prevailed 

 for the rest of the journey and, in the lawyer, Sheridan 

 gained a friend who stood by him to the end of his life. 



Very similar was the case of Sydney Smith, who 

 said, "Most people sulk in stage-coaches; I always talk." 

 True to this principle he conversed amicably with a 

 fellow passenger to York, who on nearing the city re- 

 marked: "There is a very clever man, they say, but a 

 d odd fellow, lives near here — Sydney Smith." 



