It may naturally be supposed that this vice is more expensive than any other, and is the vortex that engulphs the property of men, whose acquaintance are astonished at the mode of their getting rid of their fortunes. I remember a man, who had a place of great emolument, a considerable sum of ready money, and thirty thousand pounds, the fortune of an ill-fated woman whom he married; all of which vanished, without a trace of its destination;—he was reduced to the necessity of continually raising small sums by the most unworthy means: but I am now satisfied of the means by which he squandered away his property.—I think he is dead, as I observe another gentleman filling his situation; his memory and his crimes shall never be disturbed by me: and there cannot be any doubt but that many men under the same circumstances are brought to beggary by similar pursuits. The reader will recollect that I declared myself an advocate for the oppressed of every description; a declaration I shall elucidate in the close of these pages, and which will be found to originate in Cook’s anxiety to expose the parties implicated in the atrocious scenes related: and it must be lamented, that in this instance, as in all others where indigence has to combat with wealth, this man has raised a host of powerful enemies; for there is scarcely any description of men, but some individual is comprehended in the associates of this vice; even men in the sacerdotal garb have descended from the pulpit to the gully-hole of breathing infamy in Vere-street, and other places for similar vice: but I must spare myself and my readers the ungracious task of pursuing, in detail, circumstances that almost chill the blood to think of, and afflict me with the same sensation that a crimping knife on my side would create.—I will therefore briefly consider the origin and progress of this crime, which is so detestable, that the law of England blushes to name it; and in all legal process, treats it as a crime not fit to be named among Christians; a silence, which is also preserved by the edict of Constantius, and others. Indeed, the express law of GOD dooms the offender to death; and of the verity of this Divine declaration we have a signal instance, long before the Jewish dispensation, by the destruction of two cities by fire from heaven, so that this is a universal, and not a provincial or local precept; and our ancient laws seem implicitly to have followed this divine decree, by commanding such miscreants to be burnt to death; though Fleta says they should be buried alive:—both these punishments were inflicted by the ancient Goths.