ve a considerable respect for their good sense and
independence of character; but pray let me hear your opinion of them.'

'As for the lower classes,' said the man in black, 'I believe them to be
the most brutal wretches in the world, the most addicted to foul feeding,
foul language, and foul vices of every kind; wretches who have neither
love for country, religion, nor anything save their own vile selves. You
surely do not think that they would oppose a change of religion! why,
there is not one of them but would hurrah for the Pope, or Mahomet, for
the sake of a hearty gorge and a drunken bout, like those which they are
treated with at election contests.'

'Has your church any followers amongst them?' said I.

'Wherever there happens to be a Romish family of considerable
possessions,' said the man in black, 'our church is sure to have
followers of the lower class, who have come over in the hope of getting
something in the shape of dole or donation. As, however, the Romish is
not yet the dominant religion, and the clergy of the English
establishment have some patronage to bestow, the churches are not quite
deserted by the lower classes; yet, were the Romish to become the
established religion, they would, to a certainty, all go over to it; you
can scarcely imagine what a self-interested set they are--for example,
the landlord of that public-house in which I first met you, having lost a
sum of money upon a cock-fight, and his affairs in consequence being in a
bad condition, is on the eve of coming over to us, in the hope that two
old Popish females of property, whom I confess, will advance a sum of
money to set him up again in the world.'

'And what could have put such an idea into the poor fellow's head?' said
I.

'Oh, he and I have had some conversation upon the state of his affairs,'
said the man in black; 'I think he might make a rather useful convert in
these parts, provided things take a certain turn, as they doubtless will.
It is no bad thing to have a fighting fellow, who keeps a public-house,
belonging to one's religion. He has been occasionally employed as a
bully at elections by the Tory party, and he may serve us in the same
capacity. The fellow comes of a good stock; I heard him say that his
father headed the High Church mob who sacked and burnt Priestley's house
at Birmingham, towards the end of the last century.'

'A disgraceful affair,' said I.

'What do you mean by a disgraceful affair?' said t