ge 
262 
| For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the~apvantaces.tuken by PAWN- 
BROKERS. 
NUE rapidity with which Pawn- 
; brokers scrape together, in the 
course of a few years, enough money to 
retire to a country-box, and to keep a 
chaise, and to give their girls a little of 
what they call eddycation ; the rapidity, 
I say, with which all this is done, ex- 
cites our surprise, and the modes prac- 
tised for the end kindle our indignation, 
“) inasmuch as their gains are all derived 
from the slender purses of the needy, or 
of those labouring under temporary 
want, their business of necessity lying 
with this class of persons. I shall now 
show some of.the nefarious practices 
they make use of; but I shall previously 
say, that the interest they réceive for 
their money, is four shillings a-year for a 
\ pound, which is: equal to 20l. per cent. 
perannum! This ts, indeed, 5]. per cent. 
below the !1beral profit ‘supposed. to be 
received by tradesmen; but these money- 
lenders always keep a shop for the sale 
of goods, and they thus receive a twos 
fold advantage, which makes their profit 
far exceed that of other tradesmen. 
1. They have ashameful practice of lend-. 
ing uneven sums of money, and refusing to 
lend those which can be easily computed ; 
for instance, the interest of half-a-crown 
is, according to the statute, sixpence a 
year, and, though this is a sum expressly 
mentioned therein, they have the assur- 
ance to say, that it is one they never 
lend; that the borrower may have two 
shillings, for which they charge interest as 
if for two shillings and sixpence; thus they 
are paid for the use of money they do not 
lend. If the article to be pledged be 
worth it, three shillings may be advanced, 
and for this additional sixpence, so 
kindly lent, they receive half as much as” 
they do for the halj-crown! They adopt 
the same plan, in’ preferring to lend six 
or seven shillings, instead of seven shil- 
lings and sixpence ; and they love to lend 
eight shillings and sixpence, for which 
they receive interest as iT for ten shil- 
lings: these oliservations hold good, how- 
ever large the sum may be. - : 
2, When the calendar month is ex- 
ceeded a single week, the. borrower is 
‘charged for the whole of tha month. 
' 3, In their apprenticeship, they are 
taught. to lend far below what. mighr, 
with safety, be advanced on the article, 
with a view, in case of its non-redemp- 
tion, of obtaining it So cheap as to be 
enabled to make an enormous profit 
when they have it to dispose of, 
2 
2 Advantages taken by Pawn-brokers. - 
[Oct. 1, | 
4, A person wishing to separate and 
redeem a part of a pledge, and to-re- 
pledge the remainder, is told,, that the 
article to be taken away is» worth more 
than «ll the others put together, that, 
indeed, the rest are of no value, and 
would have not been taken in ofa 
stranger. The plan which naturally sug- 
gests itself to avoid this cheat, is to feign. 
a desire of wanting the things which are 
not really wanted, which, we suppose, 
will lower the value of those we intend © 
to take; but here we should be egregi-. 
ously mistaken, fur the wary pawn-broket . 
‘would, upon this, shift his ground, and, 
by a logic, which I have not capacity 
enough to understand, would enforce the 
money he wanted. . 
I maintain, Sir, that it is the duty o 
Parliament, ever watchful of the rights of 
the subject, to new-model the pawn- 
brokers’ statutes; for, at present, like 
the regulations concerning the proprie- 
tors of hackney coaches, they are most 
shamefully in their favour, so much so, 
that one would be led to think, that some 
pawn-broker and hackney-coachman had 
been the legislators. These harpies 
should be restrained from laying their 
fangs upon the necessitous, sand thus 
squeezing from them what enables them 
to adorn with tinsel finery the minds 
and persons of their children, who, it 
seems, are all now young ladies and gen- 
tlemen. <a 
I shall conclude these remarks,. which 
spring from a motive of humanity, and 
which, Dam certain, will, on this account, 
have your attention, with the words 
of Horace— | 
Beafus Wile qut spa oe tee 
e ° o e s e . ~si e 
Solutus omni fenore : teh 
Your's, &c. BENEVOLENS.. 
Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, : ati) 
S your valuable Publication is read 
by numerous persons fond of bio- 
graphical memoirs, I presume, an ac 
count wilj not.be unacceptable, of that 
celebrated statesman and poet, Sheffield; 
Duke of Buckingham, the builder and 
possessor of the Queen’s House, St: 
James’s. Park, 
-John Shetield, Duke of Buckingham, 
born 1649, was the fourth Earl of Mul- 
grave, being the son of Edmund, third 
Earl, by Lady Elizabeth Cranfield, daugh- 
ter of Lionel, Earl of Middlesex, and 
which 
lady afterwards married John © 
Benuet, first. Earl of’ Arlington; ‘and — ye 
father — 
