Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/190

174 . Hence upwards there ascend gradations of guilt, as variously featured as the actors in them are numerous; but is it not a little extraordinary that the makers of forged notes are never found out? The engraver! the paper-maker! the rolling press! all are buried in the obscurity of night, and bid fair to leave old Patch-Price, the single instance of a combination of the triple talent in one man. Forty-seven prosecutions ayear, upon an average of twelve years, are brought by the Bank against the tools and agents of the forgers, but not one in thirty years against the principals. How! and why is this?

Not one of these forgeries ever met my eye, that I was not convinced I could have discovered of my own accord; but although there were any positively bad in my hands or those of my friends, I have the means of passing them safely, in such a way, that the Bank never prosecute, for they never discover them from their own.

How few give their right name and residence on changing notes at the Bank!



Infest the doors of decent people of every degree in society, and some of them press forward even to your study, and infringe upon your retirement.

