330 THE COACHING AGE. 



had good interest only could get into excellent 

 Government situations. A pecuniary consideration, 

 sub rosa, frequently formed an important element in 

 obtaining an appointment ; but being illegal, the 

 transactions required to be conducted with great tact 

 and some mystery. 



It happened that occasionally advertisements 

 appeared in the newspapers somewhat enigmatically 

 worded, but nevertheless sufficiently clearly intimat- 

 ing that the advertiser was in a position to obtain a 

 Government situation for anyone disposed to render 

 it worth his while. 



A shady individual, who passed by the designation 

 of ' Ensign ' — I forget the exact name — livfed in 

 London, and, as his subsequent history disclosed, 

 seemed to subsist by getting hold of young men with 

 money, some of which he managed to obtain by 

 card-playing, gambling, bills of exchange, etc., 

 not omitting the plan of advertising in the manner 

 I have mentioned, without, however, having the 

 slightest power to carry out his part of the bar- 

 gain. 



Not having a very lucrative position as clerk in the 

 wine-merchant's counting-house. Young Green was on 

 the look-out to what is usually called ' better himself,' 

 and thus he chanced to hit upon the Ensign's ad- 

 vertisement in one of the "daily papers. Perhaps it 



