words about
the goodness of the wares; there was the garbler's seal to vouch that
they were marketable and good, and if they were otherwise, the garbler
was answerable.

This respected some particular sorts of goods only, and chiefly spices
and drugs, and dye-stuffs, and the like. It were well if some other
method than that of a rattling tongue could be found out, to ascertain
the goodness and value of goods between the shopkeeper and the retail
buyer, that such a flux of falsehoods and untruths might be avoided, as
we see every day made use of to run up and run down every thing that is
bought or sold, and that without any effect too; for, take it one time
with another, all the shopkeeper's lying does not make the buyer like
the goods at all the better, nor does the buyer's lying make the
shopkeeper sell the cheaper.

It would be worth while to consider a little the language that passes
between the tradesman and his customer over the counter, and put it
into plain homespun English, as the meaning of it really imports. We
would not take that usage if it were put into plain words--it would set
all the shopkeepers and their customers together by the ears, and we
should have fighting and quarrelling, instead of bowing and curtseying,
in every shop. Let us hark a little, and hear how it would sound between
them. A lady comes into a mercer's shop to buy some silks, or to the
laceman's to buy silver laces, or the like; and when she pitches upon a
piece which she likes, she begins thus:

_Lady_.--I like that colour and that figure well enough, but I don't
like the silk--there is no substance in it.

_Mer._--Indeed, Madam, your ladyship lies--it is a very substantial
silk.

_Lady_.-No, no! you lie indeed, Sir; it is good for nothing; it will do
no service.

_Mer._--Pray, Madam, feel how heavy it is; you will find it is a lie;
the very weight of it may satisfy you that you lie, indeed, Madam.

_Lady_.--Come, come, show me a better piece; I am sure you have better.

_Mer._--Indeed, Madam, your ladyship lies; I may show you more pieces,
but I cannot show you a better; there is not a better piece of silk of
that sort in London, Madam.

_Lady_.--Let me see that piece of crimson there.

_Mer._--Here it is, Madam.

_Lady_.--No, that won't do neither; it is not a good colour.

_Mer_.--Indeed, Madam, you lie; it is as fine a colour as can be dyed.

_Lady_.--Oh fy! you lie, indeed, Sir; why, it is not in grain.

_Mer_.--