"All _Toms_ are alike," quoth the elegant Pelham; and if we were asked to define the leading idea of him, we should describe a downright honest John Bull, essentially manly, but withal a bit--perhaps a large bit--of a dullard. His masculinity is unquestionable. A male cat, as every body knows, is a _Tom_-cat; a romping boy-like girl is a _Tom_-boy, or a _Tom_-rig; a large nob-headed pin is a _Tom_-pin; and in many provincial dialects the great toe is, _par excellence_, the _Tom_-toe. Last, not {240} least, there is the nectar of St. Giles, the venerable Old _Tom_. In proof of his stupidity we can adduce a goodly show of epithets--_Tom_-fool, _Tom_-neddy, _Tom_-noddy, _Tom_-cull, _Tom_-coney, _Tom_-farthing, &c. We know, indeed, there are people who hold that even in these instances _Tom_ is merely the masculine prefix to distinguish the _he_-fool (_i. e._ the _Tom_-fool) from the Molly or _she_-fool of the ancient mumming. But the race of Toms must not lay this flattering unction to their souls, for the hypothesis won't stand. The very monosyllable itself, like "Sammy," has a strong twang of the bauble in it. An open truth-loving fellow is a _Tom_ Tell-truth; but, on the other hand, all tinkers--a sadly libelled race of men--are invariably _Tom_-tinkers, as all tars have been _Jack_-tars from time immemorial. In some of the old-fashioned country games at cards the knave is called _Tom_; and the wandering mendicants who used to levy black-mail, under the plea of insanity, were Mad _Toms_, or "_Toms_-o'-Bedlam." "Tom all alone" is a northern _sobriquet_ for the Wandering Jew, who, the last time we heard of him, was caught stealing gingerbread nuts at Richmond Fair. In the legendary division there is the notorious _Tom_-Styles--the depredatory _Tom_ the piper's son (legitimate issue of _Tom_ Piper, the musician of the old Morris Dance)--the fortunate _Tom_ Tidler of the original diggings, and that heroic little liege of Queen Mab, the knight of the thumb. _Tom_-Tumbler was a saltatory fiend in the days of Reginald Scott; and _Tom_ Poker still devours little folks in Suffolk, without doubt (thinks Forby) a descendant of the Sui.-G. _tompte poecke_, or house-goblin. As for the ignominious _Tom_ Tiler (North Country for hen-pecked husband) we cannot allow him to belong to the family; for who can imagine a hen-pecked Tom! he must have been a wretched individuality, a suffering, corporeal Tiler.