C.
"Oh, I've been to countries rare;
Seen such sights, 'twould make you stare."
[Illustration: page223]
"That last chapter of yours, Blackmantle, on John Long and John
Long's customers, will long remain a memorial of your scrutinizing
qualifications, and, as I think, will prevent your taking your port,
punch, pines, or soda-water in Bond-street for some time to come, lest
'suspicion, which ever haunts the guilty mind,' should in the course of
conversation convict you; and then, my dear fellow, you would certainly
go off pop like the last-mentioned article in the above reference to
the luxuries of Long's hotel." ~224~~"Bravo, Bob Transit!" said I; "this
comes mighty well from you, sir, my _fidus achates_.--'_A bon chat bon
rat_'--the _fidus and audax_ satirists of the present times. And who,
sir, dares to doubt our joint authority? are we not the very spies o'
the age?
'Joint monarchs of all we survey;
Our right there is none to dispute.'
From the throne to, the thatched cottage, wherever there is character,
'there fly we,' and, on the wings of merry humour, draw with pen and
pencil a faithful portraiture of things as they are; not tearing aside
the hallowed veil of private life, but seizing as of public right on
public character, and with a playful vein of satire proving that we are
of the poet's school;
'Form'd to delight at once and lash the age.
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