more of the effusions of his muse during the progress of my "FARRAGO."

I

Owing to the visit of the Commissioners of the Crown to our College, who expelled all the Members I had the honour to number amongst my acquaintance, unfortunately lost many of my promised assistants. I have made diligent researches for them in the Attic Lodging Rooms of St. Thomas's, but, unfortunately, without success. I do not however despair. At all events I look to the Gentlemen to whom I have addressed this Preface and hope I shall not be disappointed. I wish them to conceal their names, even from me and my Printers; because I mean to exert the full powers of my judgment in my editorial capacity, and will not, if I can avoid it, be biased in any way as to the admission or rejection of the Articles sent to

me.

Every Composition I receive on subjects that are likely to have a libellous tendency, which may endanger my own or my Printers' ears, will be strictly examined by myself, clothed in all the majesty of Wig-that Wig which has so often excited the admiration of Undergraduates in St. Mary's Church, the Schools, and the Town-Hall; no risk, therefore, can be incurred, for my talents as a Counsellor

are known throughout the University. I conclude my long Preface in the language of the Lottery— "Delays are dangerous. The Numbers to be drawn on the 17th will be rapidly bought up. Repair, therefore, with all possible expedition, and leave your orders with Messrs. Munday and Slatter, on Carfax ; PRINTING-OFFICE over their door in large cha

P.S. Enjoying my short pipe, (a present from our worthy HEAD) and wrapt up in cogitation on the sublimity of my favourite Hermes, I was suddenly awakened from my reverie by the abrupt appearance of a patriotic Cordwainer, who has always shewn much friendship towards me. In one hand he held a pair of shoes; in the other a paper. The shoes he begged me to accept, as a mark of gratitude for the pleasure he had experienced in reading the first Number of my Lamentations; but hinted that he expected something more from me. After a little prelude, he unfolded the wet paper he held in his hand, and begged me to read with attention what he called the most gross LIBEL that ever yet appeared in print. I took the sheet from him and discovered it to be "Il Vagabondo," No. 2. I read over the passage which he called a Libel, and told him I could not say much on the subject, as I had very little to

do with Oxford Tradesmen, in consequence of my pro viding all the things I wanted from-it's no matter from whence-but if he would take my chair, (I am not fond of the incumbrances of useless furniture) and state to me what he had to say on the subject, it should appear on Monday next, by way of Postscript to my Address. After a few hems and ha's, and begging that I would put it into a proper style, he began-" You see, Mr. Counsellor, by this here paper."-I beg the reader's pardon, I am to put it into my own language; therefore I will begin again-" You see, Mr. Counsellor, by this paper, that all Oxford Tradesmen are scoundrels; in fact not only scoundrels, and the epitome of impudence and cunning, but huge poisonous Spiders, ever on the watch to devour the poor unfortunate, simple Flies, called Freshmen, who happen to drop from Chaise, Coach, Curricle, Gig, or Pony, upon this devoted spot of the globe, called Oxford. As soon as they alight øn Terra Firma, these poor Flies are unmercifully clutched in the fangs of the Spider Tradesmen, dragged to their dens, wrapt round and entangled in the black web of endless ruin; or if ever the least remorse should enter the bosoms of the venomous Spiders, the Freshmen Flies are at last liberated; but so deeply empoisoned by the wounds inflicted on them, that they are inevitably doomed to spend the remnant of their days in disappointment, misery, and regret. Now, Mr. Counsellor, I'll tell you my opinion of the Vagabonds, who wrote this lying Libel ;-they did it for the sole purpose of sending it to their Fathers or

Guardians, by way of excuse for so frequently writing for supplies of money, for certain purposes, without enclosing their Tradesmen's receipts in their letters.

"In my turn I will give a little advice and information to Freshmen, through the medium of your book, Mr. Bickerton-Members of the University may, by the mere exertion of their common sense, spend as little in Oxford as in any other place in the kingdom. They can purchase their clothes of every description, their provisions, their books, in fact all that they should have, as cheaply as elsewhere; even if they do not pay ready money. If they are determined to be extravagant, they may be so most certainly; and where is the place in which they cannot? If they will run into the way of incurring heavy Surgeons' bills, which leave many a wreck behind; pay a guinea or two per day for a tandem or a hunter; have constant wine-parties; instead of dining in the College Refectories, procure their dinners from Inns or Coffee-houses; run up enormous bills for pies, tarts, soups, and sugar plums; and enter into various nameless extravagancies, which must be paid for with their ready money; their after years of life will, most probably, be embittered; constant irritation of mind must be engendered; and they (and their parents also) will feel disposed to curse the day when their names were entered on the college books of Oxford. Mr. Counsellor, I speak strongly, but I speak the truth.

"The observations in the Vagabond respecting the facility of running into debt, I cannot controvert. I wish I

could. Were it more difficult I should be much richer We Oxford men are much like those of other towns, very fond of ready money when we can get it; and if the learned wights who clubbed their wits together one week to puzzle, and the other to libel, would devise a scheme for abolishing Day Books and Ledgers, I would be the first to open a subscription for erecting a monument to their memory. But, alas! I am afraid we must still go on in the same way; indeed I doubt very much if these great writers themselves are guilty of the dd bore of paying their bills at sight.

"Were the Oxford Tradesmen proved to be the villains represented in the Vagabond, and proof might be easily obtained if the charge be true, justice may instantly be done to the Members of the University. The Vice-Chancellor's Court can crush the offending parties with the utmost facility; the wretches may be discommoned, or in other words, banished from the place, and the evil put an end to as soon as discovered. 1, Mr. Bickerton, have lived long in this place. I have observed very few Tradesinen get rich in it. In other places they retire upon a decent independence after labouring for twenty years or less; but here that seldom occurs; indeed the poverty of Oxford Tradesmen is almost proverbial, and in no place I ever visited, have I observed less extravagance amongst men in business, or so few horses, gigs, or other equipages kept by the Trades

men.

“There are, undoubtedly, in this as well as in other places,