Man about Town." But each, and all of youthe parson, the lawyer, the officer, and the roué-will, I flatter myself, find something useful in the following Treatise. Which of you, fellow-unfortunates, has not suffered, at one time or another, from attacks of that fatal disease, Dun-o-phobia? Which of you has not shrunk with horror from the ominous single tap, and the wafered letter? Which of you has not felt anything but "merry," at the approach of Christmas? True, of late years, some changes have taken place to your advantage; and great ought to be your gratitude to the framer of "The Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt Bill," and to

MY LORD BROUGHAM,

for his still more recent enactment. Steam, also-gigantic steam-has done wonders for you: France-la belle France-with its grisettes, lorettes, and its matchless cuisine, is now within a few hours' reach, and from the deck of the steamer which wafts you to her shores, you may take leave of your

Put his thumb unto his nose, and spread his fingers out."

Yes, Detrimentals, much has indeed been done for you; but still your lot is a dreary one,

Fathers, who forget their own youth, still frown on the fredaines of their younger Hopefuls. Opera-dancers, Hermitage, patent-leather boots and kid gloves, are still expensive; and even the blessed narcotic, which Hudson kindly supplies to soothe the sorrows of Detrimentals, has not only to be smoked, but to be paid for. Fathers, I must affirm, are unconscionable beings. There are indeed some respectable progenitors, who are never weary of paying-whose ears are always open to the Detrimental's distress, and their pockets to the Detrimental's duns; but these are "rare birds, and uncommonly like black swans." I have no compassion for a Governor," and I consider all paternal grievances as originating in the "paternity" himself. If chance and time are to make the fool, perhaps the knave, of the family, an opulent Dives, and the lord of countless acres, while talent and virtue in the junior branches must starve on an ensigncy or a village curacy, for Heaven's sake, let the

66

elder Dives, and the younger Lazarus, be educated according to their several destinies; let the distinction so rationally, naturally, and equitably laid down by the system of "primogeniture" be, for the sake of consistency at the least, put into practice from the very cradle.

Let the first-born feed, learn, and live with reference to the situation he will one day fill, and the fortune he will one day enjoy; and let the younger Pariah be trained, from his youth upwards, to the toil and comparative starvation he is doomed to undergo. An Eldest Son requires but little energy or intellect to fill his place; while, without talent and perseverance, the younger will often be compelled to dine with "Duke Humphrey." The Eldest Son has nothing to do but to slip quietly and cosily into his father's shoes and his father's acres, while the Younger will perhaps find it a hard matter to pay for the boots he wears, or the garret which he rents. The Eldest Son, with

scarcely the trouble of asking, will find Beauty and Elegance ready to drop into his arms, and may almost throw the handkerchief for a highborn and fascinating bride; the "course" of his "love" always "runs smooth," and he dawdles through life to his gilded coffin, having previously taken care to leave behind him an eldest son of his own, to feast, and one or more younger sons to starve, like his own brothers.

The Younger Son, is shunned as a pest by fashionable mothers, and frowned upon by marriageable heiresses; and if he does follow the voice of nature and affection-if he does shun the " strange woman," and induce some fair and gentle girl to share his lot-all, and especially" those of his own father's house," cry shame upon his folly and imprudence. In such a case, if the "imprudent" marriage should end in poverty and a prison, the world, like the considerate jury, who were trying a man for murdering his wife, would coolly and piously