58 CONFESSIONS or A HOBSE DEALER. 



the note by, and paid it to his spirit merchant, in the 

 usual way of business. In the course of a month after 

 this, the spirit merchant's wife called upon the same 

 draper to make a purchase of some mourning, and paid 

 for it with a ten-pound note, which the draper put by 

 in his cash-box. Some time after this, the draper 

 counted up his money, preparatory to a purchasing 

 tour in the manufacturing districts, but never took 

 the number of his notes ; he, however, made a pur- 

 chase in Manchester, and the cashier took them for 

 him, or rather, for himself; when, lo ! he found two 

 notes of a number, both counterfeits, and evidently 

 from the same plate ; the notes were morally, but not 

 legally traced as having come from the innkeeper, be- 

 cause neither the draper or spirit merchant had taken 

 the numbers and entered them in a book, with the date, 

 and from whom received. It created a great sensation 

 in the place at the time, and among the ill-natured por- 

 tion of the neighbours, the winks and nods were suffi- 

 cient evidence that, if they were a jury, he would have 

 little chance left but to pay the money. 



I have seen a great deal of the world and its ways 

 since then, and have no doubt that the old gentleman 

 with the females, spectacles, and umbrella, and, may-be, 

 a wig of gray hair, was a smasher of the first water, 

 and the other special trainer was a confederate sent by 

 him, after finding out the easy gullibility of the inn- 

 keeper ; for if a man \fill be so foolish as to take notes 

 from strangers, and mix them with others, taken with 



