ight, as even Virtue herself could have dictated. Let the guilt and
the misery attendant upon this desertion of myself be attached to the
real sinners!

I have before said that Brandon was a _top_ sawyer. We must now call
him Mr Brandon--he has purchased a pair of _top_ boots, a swell _top_
coat, and though now frequently _top_ heavy, thinks himself altogether a
topping gentleman. He is now to be seen more frequently in the
skittle-ground, clasping a half-gallon, instead of a quart of beer. He
decides authoritatively upon foul and fair play, and his voice is
potential on almost all matters in debate at the Two Jolly Sawyers, near
Lambeth Walk, just at the top of Cut-throat Lane.

All this is now altered. We look in vain for the Two Jolly Sawyers. We
may ask, where are they? and not Echo, but the Archbishop of Canterbury,
must answer where--for he has most sacerdotally put down all the jollity
there, by pulling down the house, and has built up a large wharf, where
once stood a very pretty tree-besprinkled walk, leading to the said
Jolly Sawyers. Cut-throat Lane is no more; yet, though it bore a
villainous name, it was very pretty to walk through; and its many
turnstiles were as so many godsends to the little boys, as they enjoyed
on them, gratis, some blithe rides, that they would have had to pay for
at any fair in the kingdom. We can very well understand why the
turnstiles were so offensive to the dignitary; in fact, all this
building, and leasing of houses, and improvement of property, and
destroying of poor people's pleasant walks, is nothing more than an
improved reading of the words, "_benefit of clergy_."

CHAPTER THREE.

MY FOSTER-FATHER FORSAKES THE RIGHT LINE OF CONDUCT CHALKED OUT FOR
HIM--I GROW ILL--FIND POT-LUCK AND BAPTISM--GO TO BATH, AND TAKE MY
FIRST LESSONS IN THE ARTS OF PERSUASION.

When I was placed with the Brandons, it was stipulated that they should
remove immediately from Reading; and, whilst I was in their family, they
should return there no more. For this purpose the necessary expenses
were forwarded to them by an unknown hand. To Lambeth they therefore
removed, because it abounded in saw-pits; but this advantage was more
than destroyed by its abundance of skittle-grounds. Mr Joseph Brandon
had satisfied his conscience by coming into the neighbourhood of the
said saw-pits: it showed a direction towards the paths of industry; but
whilst he had, through his wife, for nursing m