n the possession of capital himself, or in a position
to command it, he is able to compete with large dealers. He is a
money-lender; and, if security be left with him--a poor woman's marriage
certificate, or her wedding-ring is sufficient--he will enable her to
buy her "little lot." Through him many are able to procure a stock at a
trifling expenditure, who otherwise would be unable to buy in sufficient
quantities to satisfy the original salesman. This class has its peculiar
casualties, and in consequence become chargeable to parishes. Their
habits may be irregular and intemperate. Or a poor woman may have
expended her last farthing in the purchase of a tempting basket of fish.
Her child falls ill, or she herself is unable, from the same cause, or
from an accidental injury, to stand the necessary number of hours in the
drenching rain; and so her stock is spoiled, and she suffers a greater
calamity in her sphere than the brewer whose consignment of ale has
turned sour on an India voyage.

In the vicinity of cathedrals and abbeys, in districts where dowagers
and elderly maiden ladies most do congregate, and in

"Those back-streets to peace so dear,"

there is always to be found a great number of kindly-disposed people,
who have wherewithal to make life flow smoothly, leisure to listen to
tales of wo, and the ability and inclination liberally to relieve. Now
wherever these benevolent persons may be located, there will a troop of
jackals herd, and run them down. Wherever public or private charities
exist, there do these persons thrive. Their organisation, the degree to
which they endure occasional privations and exposure, the recklessness
with which they endanger the health and lives of those connected with
them, is so passing strange, and, if fully expatiated upon, would be a
chapter in the history of man and society, so disgusting, as to be unfit
and morally unsafe to publish. Among the beings who infest these
neighbourhoods, are men and women of keen wit--too keen, in truth--who
have been well educated. Clerks who have been discharged for peculation.
Women who, from the turbulence of their passions, have descended from
the position of governesses, and who possess talent and tact equal to
any emergency. They can write petitions in the highest style of
excellence, as regards composition and penmanship. And they can also
write letters on dirty slips of paper, in such a manner as that the
homely phrase and the supposed i