we deal with people of all Qualities and Professions) you would conclude so indeed: and as the poor mans ability will not carry him high enough to Cheat so much at first, so he attempting it, and being discovered, is quite lost: but if a rich man, or any who had success in _Knavery_ sets upon it to get an Estate, it is soon compassed, and the folly and easiness of many honest borrowers enriches the Knavish lender. Thus we both concluded, as sufficiently evidenced by the Examples he had given me: and therefore I desired him to proceed, which he did in this manner. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------- CHAP. XXI. _He proceeds in discovering several considerable Cheats of his Masters, whereby he grows very rich: also some Cheats of his own, and so concludes._ My Master (continued the Scrivener) being now possessed of a thousand pound in ready money, there fell out an opportunity of good advantage; (and I have observed it, that there is no loss, but profit enough to be gained in keeping five hundred pound alwayes in a readiness in Cash, especially in our Trade, where so many offers for sale of Land and Houses are daily made.). The Landlord of my Masters House was lately dead, and his Son and Heir being a wild blade, soon spent all the ready money his Father left, and all the Debts he could well get in; and now to selling of some of his Houses he must go, and my Master being known to be a moneyed man, and a Scrivener, was thought the best Customer: He therefore propounds borrowing of five hundred pound, but my Master being now possessed of a round sum, and hoping to have a good penny-worth, was very willing to buy. The young man and some friends were unwilling, and could not agree upon terms, and my Master at last consents to lend the money, provided he may have a mortgage of all that estate in that place, which amounted to two hundred pound _per annum_, was worth three thousand pound, and said he, you shall not need to make me an absolute assignment or sale of it all, only a Lease at a Pepper Corn a year for one and twenty years: But to confirm it, and for a Collateral security, you must give me a Statute Staple, to which our young man and his friends consented. The Lease was made, and a Statute for a thousand pound entred into, and the money paid and lent for six moneths only. The noise of this, and my Masters other Trading, brought him into great esteem both with lenders and borrowers, so that his _Name_ being up, he may lie a bed till noon, and yet get money enough. A purchase of Land in the Country was offered, and my Master bought it for a thousand five hundred pound, of which he borrowed upon a Lease of part of it. The six moneths quickly came about wherein his young Landlord was to pay the five hundred pound: but (according to my Masters expectation) he failed,