of five per cent. My overtures being
accepted, I requested my friend to make me out
pawn-tickets for all the trinkets, priced at their
full value, thirty pounds. Having done so, he
then entrusted the tickets to my charge, and
handed me in advance the commission of thirty
shillings.

With a portion of this money I paid for the
following advertisement in a daily paper:

£15 WANTED for ten days by a professional
gentleman. Eight pounds will be paid for the
accommodation, and property deposited worth double
the amount. Address, &c.

From about twenty replies I selected one
with a country post-mark, and in female hand-
writing. After some correspondence with this
lady — a lodging house keeper in a sea-side town
— she was prevailed upon to advance the money
on my terms, which were, Item, my acceptance
at ten days for twenty-three pounds. Item, the
deposit of the pawn-tickets for thirty pounds'
worth of valuable jewellery.

When the acceptance became due, I was
unavoidably called out of town on important
business, and did not return for some days; in fact,
not until the estimable matron, finding the
acceptance dishonoured, had endeavoured to
recover her money by redeeming some of the
pledges. She had taken out goods to the
amount of ten pounds, but considering they
were not worth the money, refused to redeem
any more. The pawnbroker, however, knew as
well as I did that the tickets, being actually in
circulation, would be sure to come back again
some day, and to result in his getting rid of the
property at a very good profit. This in course
of time actually occurred, for the worthy lady on
discovering that the goods were pledged for more
than they were worth, was quite sharp enough
to dispose of the tickets one by one, for a small
premium, among her continually changing
constituency of lodgers; by this means she partially
recuperated the amount she had lost, and carried
out my truly fraternal principle of sharing our
losses as well as our joys and sorrows among our
brethren in the world. Agonising reflection to
a well balanced mind like mine, it cost her four
pounds fifteen. I would have made money by it!

During the hours of my retirement from the
busy scenes of life (at the expense of my country),
I had possessed ample opportunities for
reflecting on the inestimable blessings of a free
press to an enlightened community. I now
proceeded to embody the result of those reflections.

I first of all made friends, at some trouble
and not a little expense for liquor, with a porter
in the employ of Messrs. Danton and Birch,
the celebrated auctioneers in Moon-street, City,
and I ultimately succeeded in prevailing on that
porter, for a handsome consideration, to take
charge of some letters that would be addressed
to me, but to "his care," at his masters' offices.
I impressed upon his mind the necessity of
watchfulness, lest any of these letters should
miscarry into his employers' hands.

Having thus secured one of the most respectable
addresses in London, I next purchased ten
pounds' worth of postage stamps, and then sent
the subjoined advertisement to three daily
newspapers, directing it to be inserted every other
day: three insertions in each paper only:

THE advertiser, being in the enjoyment of
A GOOD THING, is willing to impart it to
a select number of subscribers. This is bonâ fide.
Send thirteen postage stamps and a directed
envelope to "M.," Esq., care of "H. W.," at Messrs.
Danton and Birch, Moon-street, City.

This sort of advertisement being rather a
stale artifice in itself, I depended for its
success, first, on the unimpeachable respectability
of the address, and, next, on the manner in
which I intended to work it.

At the end of a week, my nine advertisements
had brought me one hundred and
eighty-four replies. Each reply contained the
addressed envelope and thirteen postage stamps.
If you think I stole the postage stamps and
bolted, you wrong me — you entirely
mistake the chastening influence of meditation and
retirement on a just and sensitive mind. What
I did was this: — In each of the directed
envelopes, I folded up the thirteen stamps I had
received, together with thirteen more, in a neat
piece of paper containing only these words and
figures:

                       See Genesis xlii. 35.

Imagine the surprise and curiosity of my one
hundred and eighty-four clients, when, on opening
the letter, each found twenty-six stamps
returned for the thirteen he had forwarded, and
had turned up the quotation, "And it came to
pass as they emptied their sacks, behold every
man's bundle of money was in his sack."

I stopped my advertisements for a week.
Still a few straggling applications dropped in,
making the total number of replies two
hundred and twenty-seven.

Now, I knew very well that out of my two
hundred and twenty-seven constituents, each of
whom had received a present of thirteen postage
stamps, there would hardly be one who
would not apply to me again. In a general
way, if a fish take your bait and be not
hooked, he will come back to you. Most of
my fish would reason thus: "I cannot lose
anything, for, being thirteen postage stamps in
pocket, I risk nothing by a second venture."
But I depended most of all on securing in each
of my clients the very best advertising medium
I could desire; for I notice that whereas people
who get stupidly swindled, are apt to hold their
tongues about it, persons successful in matters
of doubtful issue are invariably anxious to
inform their friends how very shrewd they have
been. In a week I resumed my advertisements;
three more insertions.

I had not miscalculated the result. No fewer
than one hundred and ninety-four applications
came from "original shareholders." At the end
of ten days the total number of my subscribers
amounted to seventeen hundred and forty-eight.

You will guess, perhaps, that I now kept all
the stamps. You misjudge me cruelly, and do