Page:London spy, or, The frauds of London described (2).pdf/17

(17) and other receivers of ſtolen goods, at about thirty per Cent under value, for ready-money, nay. fifty per Cent. rather than not have the caſh: And, as their ſtay in a place cannot ſafely, be above ſix months, on account of their creditors calling in their debts, and their country notes becoming due, they make all poſſible diſpatch to diſpoſe of the various articles, and evacuate the premiſes before detection. This done, they play the ſame game elſewhere, when, Proteus-like, they change ſhapes, and diſguiſe themſelves ſo, as not to be known, and carry on another houſe, but in a different name and manner; the maſter becomes the rider, the rider the maſter, the clerks deſcend to footmen and porters, the porters and footmen to clerks, and ſo on throughout, till they have drained many parts of town and country, to the ruin of many worthy and honeſt men in buſineſs.

Swindlers have been very artful in evading the law, in negociating the bad notes they had circulated about the country. They are generally done on copperplates, as neatly as the banker's: ſome of them are drawn at ſight, others at a longer or ſhorter date, as ſuits their conveniency; the