Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=. THE ADVENTURES OF A BLACK COAT. CONTAINING A SERIES of Remarkable Occurrences and entertaining Incidents, That it was a Witness to in its Peregrinations through the Cities of London and Westminster, in Company with Variety of Characters. As related by ITSELF. Qui mores hominum multorum vidit. HOR. DUBLIN: Printed for ROBERT BELL, Bookseller and Auctioneer, at his great Auction-Rooms on _Cork-Hill_, opposite to _Lucas’s Coffee-House_. M DCC LXII. [Price sewed 1s. 1d. bound 1s. 8d.] [Illustration] THE [Illustration: PREFACE.] The necessity which custom has intailed upon authors, of prefixing an apology to their performances, makes it requisite for me to say something on introducing the following sheets to the public; and as long prefaces are in general of little estimation amongst the readers of books of entertainment, I will trespass as little upon their patience as possible. To excite virtue, depress vice, and ridicule folly, is as much the business of the Novelist, as it is the design of the Drama; and though the former cannot, like the dramatic-writer, represent his scenes to the _Senses_, yet it is in his power to set his characters in such a light, as to strike the _Minds_ of his readers, in a very forcible manner, with the virtues he would have them imitate, or the errors he would wish them to amend.—But our present novel-writers seem to have little else in view than to amuse their readers; or, if they have any design to instruct them, they _gild_ the pill so very thick, that all its latent good qualities are destroyed, or its effects prevented. To mix pleasure with instruction, is certainly the most efficacious method a writer can take, to render his labours agreeable to his readers. All I shall say of the following _petit_ performance is, that I have endeavoured to make the _Author_ less conspicuous than the _moral_. If a blush should arise on the cheek of conscious vice, or a sense of shame be awakened in the bosom of folly, on perusing any of the characters exhibited in this performance, my intentions will be answered, and there are hopes that such are not incurable. In this age of _Magazines_ and _Chronicles_, the _Cacoethes Scribendi_ hath infected the town so much, that almost every _shop_, or _work-room_, harbours an author; and _gentlemen_ of the _file_, now leave their more useful labour at the _vice_, and toil to _polish periods_. When such _gentlemen_ assume the pen, I hope it will not be deemed vanity, if I decline standing as candidate for literary fame, and declare myself not desirous of sharing with them the _honours_ that may be bestowed on their labours: but though I profess myself careless of fame, I am not callous to contempt; and should be pleased to hear critics say, that though the _performance_ claims no panegyric, yet the _design_ of it merits some praise.