TWENTY-ONE 145 



Avliicli at that time amounted, in land and houses alone, 

 to between sixty and seventy thousand pounds — and 

 deriving as well a handsome income from a business that 

 was no trouble to him ; living in the enjoyment of every 

 comfort, and keeping his pack of harriers ; should all at 

 once plunge into a concern that required daily applica- 

 tion, a capacity for complications, a mind well tutored in 

 the ways and wiles of the world, and a perfect knowledge 

 of the tricks and chicanery which the Londoners deem so 

 high an attainment, to manage with any degree of comfort 

 to his mind or benefit to his interest. 



In all these qualifications except the first, perhaps, my 

 respected parent was eminently deficient ; consequently 

 he soon became a mark for the designs of an unprincipled 

 set of men within the coachins; circle, and amoncj them 

 the individual whom my father's injudiciously large ex- 

 penditure and liberality had set at liberty was the first 

 to take advantage of his want of penetration and know- 

 ledge of our species — or, to speak more plainly, of the 

 arts and villany of mankind. 



I have dwelt thus long upon the first step towards the 

 ruin of mv hitherto prosperous parent and his family ; 

 and as in the course of this narrative I shall have occasion 

 to revert to this unhappy subject, I will merely observe 

 that when he first entertained the ofter of his professed 

 friend, it is more than probable that a consideration for 

 me and my prospects influenced him to accept it. 



I had now arrived at the age of twenty-one, when 

 young men look for a participation in the advantages 

 their parents may have reaped for them, and have it in 

 their power, without difiiculty or inconvenience, to 



VOL. I. L 



