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(15) preſerve your peace and property. Be not fond of making new acquaintance with perſons whoſe characters you are ſtrangers to, however genteel in appearance and behaviour; for many a Sharper lurks under the diſguiſe of our modern fine gentlemen, as daily experince fatally ſhews.

all the vices, frauds, and cheats, related and exhibited, the is not one that has been more ſucceſsful, and of old ſtanding, than that of ſwindling; which, like the plague, ſtill rages thro' theſe kingdoms with devaſtation, to the great wrong and injury of multitudes, both in town and country. To expoſe their pernicious practices, and the bad effects produced thereby, may, in ſome meaſure ſtop the progreſs of this growing evil, and tend to cruſh the hydra before it has power to do further miſchief: I ſhall therefore be as exact as poſſible in relating one or two of the moſt glaring and flagrant deceptions practiſed on the unwary, in order to give the reader an inſight into the nefarious and audacious proceedings of Swindlers, that they may be