24 MR. HENRY PAD WICK. 



think his terms too high, they can decline them and 

 go elsewhere. The usury laws have long since been 

 abolished, and if the money-lender is not generous, he 

 is, it must be recollected, carrying on business at very 

 considerable risk, and must exercise care in the way 

 he thinks best suited to his own interest, which of 

 necessity precludes any great regard for the interests 

 of others. 



I do not wish to champion in the least a fraternity 

 I dislike. Yet I think it more often happens that 

 men are injured through their own innate stupidity 

 or carelessness, than by the extortionate charges of 

 the usurer. When the friendly banker and family 

 solicitor refuse further advances, then recourse is had 

 to the money-lender, whose timely aid has saved 

 many a one — that is, when the money so raised has 

 been judiciously applied to business purposes. And 

 in such cases, if the extra risk which he runs be taken 

 into account, no one would grudge the lender a little 

 interest beyond the current rate. 



Mr. Padwick had for his clients the shrewd and the 

 simple, the noble and the ignoble ; and though on the 

 whole he must have had the best of his business trans- 

 actions, yet it cannot be doubted that at times he met 

 more than his match ' and caught a tartar.' He 

 assured me that he lost over £17,000 (cash lent) by 

 the late Duke of Newcastle, and much more by other 

 specimens of the august type of borrowers. The 

 part he played in the case of the notorious Lady 



