action, the promise of reward by furnishing her house! "I would not give, quoth Hudibras, To wind and manage it at will; As you have well instructed me, For which you've earn'd (here 'tis) your fee." Well-who comes next to make oath ? Mr. Daniel Wright, brother to the plaintiff, Mr. Francis Wright!-When Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke was turned up (as the keeping phrase is) by her royal friend, she was indebted to Mr. Francis Wright between five and six hundred pounds; and, on her application to him to credit her for the furniture necessary for her house in Westbourne Place, he refuses, until she tells him she has a friend in view, who, she believes, will be responsible for the payment. This friend was Colonel Wardle. It was impossible for him to have carried his point, without subjecting himself to the pecuniary demands of Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke, under the genteel term of loans; and to have refused attending the haughty dame on her shopping excursions, would have, in like manner, disappointed all his views. He, of course, nods assent to an invitation from her to accompany her to see some furniture which she is about to purchase, and to approve her taste in the choice of the articles. This (as Col. Wardle alleges) is the sole ground of the responsibility charged upon him.-When they arrive in Rathbone Place, Mr. Francis Wright happens to be in his bed, luckily for him, (as he himself observes in his appeal to the public) or he should have lost the evidence of his brother, Mr. Daniel Wright.-Now, without this evidence, so luckily in the way, there would have been nobody to have proved Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke's nods, winks, and hints, the Colonel's giving his opinion on some of the articles she had selected, and the inference of his being the friend, who was to pay for them.-Who does not know that a tradesman, furnishing goods to ladies of a certain description, ought to have, and indeed is very seldom without his eye-teeth about him? but we doubt whether Colonel Wardle's example will not prove a loss to such tradesmen in general, as gentlemen will, in future, be very cautious of accompanying ladies a-shopping, and paying compliments to their taste! "Ideots only will be cozen'd twice; Once warn'd is well bewar'd." DRYDEN, The friend who, according to Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke's hint, was to be responsible for the furnishing of her house in Westbourne Place, was expected, and, no doubt every preparation was made to receive him as a gentleman-a colonel in his majesty's service, and a M. P. A prettier train of evidence could never have been laid to blow up a man. There were a plaintiff, two disinterested witnesses, (one of them the immaculate Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke, who had baffled the fire of the whole ministerial phalanx, including the crown-law-officers) and a defendant with money in his pockets. Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke had so enfiladed the colonel that, if he did not capitulate upon terms, she could oblige him to surrender at discretion. Now for the denouement!-After the investigation, Col. Wardle, in strict conformity with his declaration, that the motives of his visits to Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke were solely for the purpose of bringing public abuses to light, drops all correspondence with her. Enraged at his ungallant behaviour, and, what was more galling, disappointed in her rapacious views, she gets Mr. Francis Wright to make, G. L. Wardle, Esq. M. P. debtor for goods ordered by him for Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke, in Westbourne Place. When the bill is presented, the colonel is astonished, and denies, in the most positive manner, any idea of making himself responsible. He, accordingly, resists the demand, despises the sort of evidence, which is to be brought against him, and, in an over-confidence of victory, sustains a defeat. ་ "Democritus ne'er laugh'd so loud, To see bawds carted thro' the crowd, HUDIBRAS. |