Page:London spy, or, The frauds of London described (3).pdf/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 an 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.

These 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;