at Rag Fair, or trusts, like the lilies of the valley, to Providence, for his supply of decencies. And is not cleanliness, as has been well said, next to godliness? It is then but bare justice, that a clean shirt and yellow kids, should have some preliminary credit for the kindred virtues, over a tattered togary, with a face guiltless of soap, and on the worst possible terms with cold water ? When the respectable delinquent, contrary to all probability, does turn out to have been a leetle to blame, when he has knocked up a whole parish with a false alarm of fireknocked off some half-hundred of knockers--and knocked down some half-dozen of police-(are they not paid by the public for being knocked down by the lieges ?)—when he has moreover insulted the magistrate to his face, and laughed the law to scorn-still the prejudice in his favour retains its force; and, such is the virtue of his appearance, that we never heard of his having been sent to the tread-mill, like a vulgar rioter.

We have read of a buck, who, having thrown a tavern-waiter out of the window, ordered him to be put into the bill; and there are persons who attribute the immunity of well-dressed ill-doers, to their being able to pay for the damage they have occasioned. This, we admit, is in the strict constitutional spirit of the good old Saxon law, where every offence had its price; but we nevertheless think that the magisterial lenity proceeds altogether from awe at the transcendental qualities of the quality, the moral elevation of those who are, as our_friends, the gemini of Smiths, so happily expressed it, in their “Rejected Addresses "_"

possessed of ought to give.” Voltaire tells us that in Russia, it was deemed virtuous to imbibe brandy à l'indiscrétion, but sinful to smoke tobacco, because the Scriptures have declared, that what goeth into the mouth does not defile a man, but what cometh out;* and truly we opine that Master Foote's imputed insignificance of the ortolans and champagne, is but a Cossackish piece of casuistry; for, are not our thoughts and actions the children of our humours, and our humours the products of our food ? should not good meat therefore produce good humours, and good humours engender good deeds? But, if so, valet consequentia ; and our magistrates are not so illogical, when they infer the innocence of the accused, who has proceeded from the Clarendon to the watch-house, while they draw an opposite conclusion of him, who has qualified at a beer-shop, or a ginpalace? But, something too much of this, or, as the Latin has it--de his hactenus.

Passing from the general and abstract veneration which the ortolans, &c., inspire towards their consumers, be they whom they may, we proceed to consider the feeling they beget in their relation to those individuals with whom we come into a closer contact; and we think it will not be difficult to show that, of all the virtues, cardinal or uncardinal, wealth is the one quality of the greatest consequence to the observer. It was made matter of complaint against Providence by a Greek writer, that, whereas it had provided ample tests of the fineness of gold, there was no touchstone of virtue applicable, à priori, to the heart of man. Now it is singular enough (if what we have hitherto advanced be exact), that such a touchstone should really exist, and that it should be found in the very object itself of this unjust comparison. Such we believe to be the truth; and, if it be proper, as the moralists tell us, to select the good only for our friends--if friendship between the virtuous be merely conspiracy among the wicked-it surely is a less direct process to study one's acquaintance in the church, than at the Stock Exchange. Honour, honesty, chastity, patriotism, and all that sort of thing, may be feigned ; but if a man's name is inscribed for a good round sum in the three per cents, it is all right, and no mistake. In the former method, there is this defect, that to know a man thoroughly, to be sure of his virtues, you must have long intimacy with him. It is not the conversation of a day that will distinguish the reality from the semblance; but, before you have arrived at the proper degree of familiarity for getting on a man's blind side, and knowing all his ways, the friendship is already formed, and the mischief done; whereas, an acquaintance with his ways and means may readily be obtained at the shortest notice. But it may, perhaps, be urged, that if experience convinces you of an error, if acquaintance shows you that you have mistaken your man,

and that

your

friend's virtues are false jewels, you may give up his friendship, or, in more familiar parlance, cut him without ceremony. From this remedy, however, we are not debarred in the case of an erroneous estimate of our friend's income; on the contrary, nothing is more usual than for a man's friends to fall off and abandon him when he loses his wreath, and when the outward sign of his virtue is proved to have departed from him.

It is not, however, merely as a sign, that wealth is to be considered in friendship: the quality is in itself important, and for its own uses. Without it, indeed, all our other virtues lose half their efficacy. “ Great as may be the advantages which Nature bestows,” says La Rochefoucauld, it is not she alone, but fortune with her, that makes the hero." Of what use is generosity to a man without a guinea, or hospitality to him without a table? A friend, to be sure, who is not possessed of a farthing, might put his name to your bill; but, then, who would lend upon such a security ? No, no; nature may bestow merit, but it is fortune that calls it into activity. Friendship, as the same great authority has declared, is but an interchange of good offices, a commerce in which both parties look to gain. If this be so, it is as certain, as that twice two make four, that without wealth there can be no gains for any one. “ Où il n'y a rien, le roi perd ses droits ;" and the claims of affection, being unbacked by an act of parliament, can scarcely be available, when those of the tax-gatherer are not. Just, therefore, as it is a part of prudence not to purchase an estate till you are assured that it is clear of incumbrances, just as it is wise to look twice before you trust your account with a banker, so it is equally discreet to inquire how much a-year a man can spend, before you trust him with your friendship. Besides, it is not altogether what you may expect to gain yourself, but what your friend may claim from you, that makes this question advisable. There is nothing so favourable to the growth of a true friendship as mutual confidence; but what confidence can you have in a friend whose circumstances are embarrassed, that he will not desire to borrow your money, or, what is worse,

ask you to go bail for him? Now, I know to a certainty, my good reader, that you are a man of an amiable and tender disposition, and that nothing would give you more pain than to refuse a friend so mere a trifle; but, then, you know, you are bound to your partner not to lend money, or have promised your wife that you will not go bail for any one. It is, therefore, no more than common self-defence, to protect yourself against all such unwarrantable assaults, by maintaining no friendships that are not highly respectable. It is not alone, then, the steward, or the tailor, that is interested in a man's fortune-his friend has the deepest concern in the matter; and, indeed, it is nothing less than a common cant, the reproach which we are for ever hearing against those who regard their friend's misfortunes with indifference; as Macbeth says, " there's no such thing.”

Of all things in the world, true friendship, we are told, is the rarest; and it may be thought that the friend's is a case not worth insisting upon : but the influence of wealth on society extends much further. Even in the instance of our commonest and most casual acquaintances, wealth is not to be despised. In this particular, most persons are sufficiently alive to the noscitur a socio; and are prompt enough to cut the poor devil, when the seams of his coat become a little too apparent, or his hat has lost its brightness and its nap, and is verging towards “ shocking badness.” What can be so reasonable? If a bow from off the back of a blood mare raises you in the eyes of the bystanders, and a recognition from a coroneted carriage stamps you a lord, with all within view of the transaction, who do not know better, the notice of a shabaroon can be nothing less than a hint to your tailor to send in his bill, or a notice to the companion who is walking with you to drop your arm. We, ourselves, are acquainted with a man (friend we will not call him) who is perpetually running in and out of the club-houses and inquiring for fictitious persons of title, to make the porter think that he is a person of consequence, and in hopes that he will be seen by some one he knows in his (usually rather potracted) exit, and mistaken for a member. Who, indeed, ever hears the simplest of men boasting of their friend Tom this, that was bankrupt last week, or their friend Dick t'other, who lives within the rules of the Bench? But “ my friend Sir Marmaduke, whose venison is so good,” or that excellent fellow Jack Such-a-one, the rich banker, is in everybody's mouth, and as common as household words.

It is not vanity alone that finds its account in such acquaintances; the gratification conferred by rich associates is of a much more essential quality. Of what avail is it to a man's intimates, that his heart is good, if his cook is not; that his temper is not sour, if his wines are? Abroad, the sauce to food is ceremony; and, what is to pay you

for gloves and your coach-hire, if it be not a better dinner than you can get at home? How, then, can it be, that the eating of ortolans, and the drinking of French wines, should not recommend the party to your esteem; or that cow-heel or hot alamode from the slap-bang shop, should not lower him in your apprehension ?

Foote, in his estimate, has evidently gone upon the false hypothesis that a rich man will keep his good things to himself; or only dispose of them on Mr. Pitt's principle of reciprocity. This is quite a mistake. There are a thousand reasons for generosity in that particular. Good cheer is not to be enjoyed in solitude; and there are men compelled by circumstances to give dinners, in the strictest sense of the word; as well as there are persons in rerum natura glad to accept of them. Besides, how many enjoyments does wealth afford, which cost nothing in the distribu

your clean

tion ? Are not your host's comfortable armed chairs, his well-stuffed sofas, his airy, well-ventilated rooms, and his pleasant prospects, as much at his guests disposition as his own ? So also is it with the coolness of his woods, the sweets of his gardens; and, if he be not the merest churl in nature, he cannot ask you to his mansion, without leaving his stream at your disposition, or giving you a good day's shooting. In reference to all such enjoyments, therefore, we have manifold reasons for a curious scrutiny into the wealth of our acquaintance, if it be only to avoid being entrapped into imprudent acceptances, when there is a choice of invitations. Here, we cannot but notice, with pity and disgust, the folly of those dupes, who give priority to their inviters, in the order of the red book, who cut a baronet to dine with a lord, or play false with a countess to sup with a duchess. We could name many who practise this duplicity, and who should know better-who should be aware that rank is an incommunicable attribute, and that, the greater your host, the less are you in the eyes even of the footmen who deliver your undistinguished and vulgar name as you enter, with a sneer, to the groom of the chambers. But it is not so with wealth; rich men do not act now as formerly. There is no longer a difference in the fare of those who sit above and those below the salt. No longer

“ Vilibus ancipites fungi ponuntur amicis,

Boletus Domino ;" nor are the pine-apples handed to the worthier guest,“ quorum solo pascis odore." Whatever is going, is at the disposition of all; so far the spirit of equality has prevailed, and “ a man's a man for a' that.”

The best dining-house is not therefore the most aristocratic, but the most gastronomic; and if an undue preference must be shown to any Amphitryon, it is to him of three courses and a dessert, over the man sufficiently perfidious to ask to a joint and a pudding.

The ancients in many respects were behind the moderns in their moral science; and in few things more so than in their use of their rich friends. Their great object in haunting the rich was to trap them out of a legacy, to get them to disinherit their relations, and leave all to a stranger in blood. Whatever the satirists may have written, this could not be a frequent event; and many hundreds of expectants must have ruined themselves in bait, for one that caught the fish. We therefore wisely bound our desires to sharing with the Cræsus in his life-time, helping him to spend his fortune like a gentleman, and leaving him to blow his brains out, when it is all gone, if he be so disposed. So, also, the parasites of antiquity were much inferior to our led captains, who, so far from submitting to be kicked and cuffed by their feeder, make themselves troublesome to his friends if not to himself. Whether this, however, should be attributed to the better manners of the age, or only to the captain being usually the younger brother of a noble house, or a real half-pay captain, and entitled to all the privileges of the pistol, this deponent saith not.

In the state of advanced civilization at which we have arrived, it were a mere waste of pen and ink to dwell on that other vested interest in the fortunes of others, which arises out of the design of connecting ourselves with their family. The merest old woman in England, provided she (or he) have daughters to marry, has that doctrine at her finger's

very

ends: and every pretty young fellow, with well-curled moustache, and an undeniable pair of shoulders, can tell you the conditions of the whole marriageable female world of London. Nay, there is not a creature so sickly, so frightful, or so poor, who does not think he has a wellfounded claim to make such inquiries, and who is not ready to turn up his petit bout de nez at a paltry five thousand. It is not many years ago

that an honest Hibernian put himself up to be raffled for by twenty ladies, at a thousand pounds the ticket, and, I believe, actually received four or five proposals ; but this was modesty itself, when compared to that of the average Adonis who indulges in a passion at so much per cent., and whose first question is habitually“ how much ?” Of such wretches, we shall only say, that they are almost as respectable as another description of scrutineers, who hunt down young heirs as they come of age, first making sure of the full value of their havings and espectances, and then introducing them to their own set of particular friends, at a gaming-table. Next to these, are a description of querists, who have this year made sone noise upon town, by directing their attention to the quantity of jewels ladies wear at court. What interest they can have in such a matter is best known to themselves; but it is worthy of remark, that the jewels on which they have fixed their attention (like the brebis contés) have for the most part been missed, without any one knowing how they disappeared : le loup les a mangé.

But it were an endless labour to run through all the various ways in which the possessions of others become matter of interesting inquiry to an enlightened moralist. Horace seems to have been aware of this, when he wrote

Quid verum atque decens, curo et rogo, et omnis in hoc sum ;" which we should translate something in this way

I look wholly to wealth, as the one thing expedient ;

Of the true and the decent the only ingredient. We think, however, we have written enough to put our readers on the true scent. A bueno entendor, pocas palabras, sayeth the proverb ; and we should be sorry to pay our friends so poor a compliment as to exhaust a subject, in any doubt of the rapidity of their comprehension. We shall here, therefore, finish, with a clear conscience, in the firm belief that not one who has honoured us with a perusal will wantonly

ignorantly take up with the acquaintance of a single individual (h ever otherwise eligible) who cannot afford ample security for his fitness for entering on that social arrangement; or will hesitate to acknowledge that “the eating of ortolans and drinking French wine" is by much too serious a condition, to be treated under any circumstances with indifference or neglect.