Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/78

62, who could thus pass over those who, equally in flagrante delictu, were practising the same frauds as their neighbours. The poet did not mention the house in Bury Street, as he ought, nor the name of Oldtield, with proper discrimination, to be understood as guarding the unpractised stranger from entering his house. He could not be aware, indeed, of the subsequent Bow Street examination, at which even the watchman could come out with so much intelligence; nor of the four new establlshments in Pall Mall with the oval panes, where every thing is affected to be done fair and above board.

Furthermore, of what use is the mention of a Smith, or a Hewetson! They can change names as well as appearances and residence; and the unpractised in the ways of town (and indeed, the most practised) shall be deceived by the glittering external of houses and persons, which change with the seasons their Proteus form! It is the practices, the arts, and delusions resorted to, which constitute the danger; and the more finesse that is used, the more is the chance increased of your falling a victim to the snares laid out for your destruction.

How, or in what way, it came to be known, remains yet to be developed, that a young