of words, letters, and figures, and stretching
quite across two pages of volume number
one hundred and thirty-seven.

It was evidently a bad case. The real
name of "the party" was pointed out; he
had given us one of his favourite aliases. He
had been, according to Mr. Perry's detective
ledger, a clerk in the Post-Office, was
discharged for dishonesty which could not be
legally proved, had been in the Gazette in
one thousand eight hundred and forty-one,
and again in one thousand eight hundred and
forty-eight, his entire estate and effects
sufficing to offer to his creditors exactly nothing
in the pound. He had been insolvent more
than once, and made his second bow to the
Commissioners for the Relief of Insolvent
Debtors on the very day before he obliged us
with his first order. He had been, according
to the Police Book, concerned in a cloud of
swindling transactions, chiefly comprised
under the head of obtaining money or goods
under false pretences; but had always proved
himself "too many" for the swindled, for the
police, and for the magistracy. I thanked my
informant sincerely, and congratulated
myself on our fortunate escape. "Yet why," I
asked, "did he pay for the first order?" Ah,
a lure; a bait; a sprat to catch a whale.

I of course enrolled our firm amongst
the subscribers to the institution, and found
our names coming after no fewer than
twelve thousand others, bankers, merchants,
solicitors, traders, agents, secretaries of public
companies, and, strange to say, clergymen!
What could clergymen want Mr. Perry to do
for them? I felt puzzled, and wondered if
they were ever troubled with insolvent
churchwardens, bankrupt vestry clerks, or
fraudulent sextons. He explained that clergymen,
of all other classes, need the most advice
and protection in money-matters. They are
so easily misled, so little acquainted with
the most ordinary business transactions, that
money-lending sharpers always found them
the easiest and readiest of their dupes.*

See " A Clergyman in Difficulties;" Household Words,
vol. ii., p. 606

Only a week or two ago a curate from
the vicinity of the metropolis had sought
Mr. Perry's assistance in what was by no
means an uncommon case. The reverend
gentleman being in want of sixty or seventy
pounds for some immediate purpose, answered
one of the many tempting advertisements in
the newspapers, wherein the public are
informed that loans of money to any amount will
be granted on the slightest possible security.
He had an interview with the very liberal
advertiser, at what appeared to be an office,
in a quiet street. The most minute inquiries
were made in regard to the clergyman's
references; great caution having been professed
by the capitalist; and, when all the pretended
scruples were quieted, the borrower was told
that seventy pounds was much too insignificant
a sum for people of the enormous
capital which the lender had at command
to think of; but that if the borrower would
make it two hundred, or even one hundred
and fifty, the transaction might be effected.
The clergyman hesitated; but at length
yielded, and placed his name to a bill at
short date for one hundred and fifty pounds.
He could of course repay the amount when it
suited him. The financier left his victim to
bring the money; but, in the course of ten
minutes, returned with a very long face;
and, pointing to a sheet of paper in his
hand quite bathed in ink, told him with
many expressions of regret, that he had
accidentally upset his inkstand over the
document, and would have to trouble him to
sign a fresh paper. The clergyman made no
objection. The inky paper was burnt before
him, and another bill for a hundred and fifty
pounds was signed. Again the capitalist
left the acceptor anxiously waiting for the
money; but neither man nor money was
forthcoming.

At the date of maturity, the distressed
curate was called upon to meet two bills
amounting together to the sum of three
hundred pounds. Chancing to hear of the
Bankrupt Register Office, the victim sought
the advice of Mr. Perry; who, without any
difficulty traced out the swindler and his
confederates' complete identification; gave him
their history, and sent him to a respectable
solicitor; who, by dint of threats of exposure,
succeeded in obtaining peaceable possession of
the bills. This Mr. Perry assured me was
only one out of innumerable cases of a
similar character.

Before taking my leave of this Registrar-
General of misdeeds and misfortune, I learned
that as subscribers to his establishment we
were entitled to receive every week a copy
of a paper printed for circulation amongst
his clients, and called the Bankrupt and
Insolvent Gazette: a periodical which has
now attained its twenty-ninth year. In it
are chronicled not only every event of the
previous week connected with bankruptcy
and insolvency, but every meeting or official
occurrence happening during the week ensuing
in every part of the United Kingdom.

I joined my brother full of the news I had
gathered, and we both congratulated
ourselves on the narrow escape we had had.
Our customer did not inquire for his goods;
and we learnt shortly afterwards that he had
left his premises rather suddenly, forgetting
to settle many heavy accounts, and altogether
omitting to mention to a single neighbour
where he might be found.

On other occasions we have consulted
our friend of King's Arms Buildings, and
always with satisfactory results. Sometimes
suspicions we entertained of new customers
were happily dissipated by Mr. Perry.
Gentlemen have sent us orders soon after we
knew they had undergone bankruptcy; but
our Registrar-General was able to give us