One word to my old friends the booksellers under number three of my dedication. This publication it is to be expected will tend to excite some degree of mirth in them. Conscious that I have often been the cause (however unintentional on my part) of exciting less pleasing sensations in them, I will readily allow them full scope; however, according to the well known adage, "let them laugh who win," I hope they will indulge me in the same propensity of laughing, if not at them, at least with them.

As a proof of my friendly disposition, I shall here add a piece of advice, which I do not hesitate to pronounce will, if attended to, entitle them to promotion in my first class of booksellers, and eventually prove more beneficial than a constant perseverance in the mode of conduct they have hitherto pursued, and those who have children will, I hope, see the propriety of inculcating the same doctrine to them for their future benefit; and as I flatter myself my advice will prove equally productive of benefit to great numbe.'s of the community at large as to booksellers. It is this:

If they observe any person by industry and application endeavouring to obtain an honest livelihood in that line for which his talents or disposition have qualified him, never to attempt, by dark inuendoes, sly hints, and false aspersions, to injure him; as, if he happens to be a man of becoming spirit, such conduct will only tend to increase his exertions and render him still more cautious to obtain a good character. In so doing their weapons will recoil on themselves, and they will have the mortification to see him flourish whilst they become objects of contempt in the eyes of the public, and will of course be avoided by them.

But I forget myself, from debating whether a preface was really necessary or not. If I proceed thus, I shall produce one as long as my book, as indeed some of my seniors in authorship have done before me, though not altogether consistent with propriety.

I will therefore conclude with a wish, that my readers may enjoy the feast with the same good humour with which I have prepared it. They will meet with some solid though not much coarse food, and the major part, I hope light and easy of digestion; those with keen appetites will partake of each dish while others, more delicate, may select such dishes as are more light and better adapted to their palates; they are all genuine British fare; but, lest they should be at a loss to know what the entertainment consists of, I beg leave to inform them that it contains fortyseven dishes of various sizes, which (if they calculate the expense of their admission tickets) they will find does not amount to two-pence per dish; and what I hope they will consider as immensely valuable (in compliance with the precedent set by Mr Farley, a gentleman eminent in the culinary science,) a striking likeness of their Cook into the bargain.

I have also prepared a bill of fare at the end of the volume. Ladies and gentlemen, pray be seated; you are heartily welcome, and much good may it do you.

PREFACE

TO THE

SECOND AND SUBSEQUENT EDITIONS.

""Tis nothing new, I'm sure you know,
For those who write, their works to show;
And if they're prais'd, and render'd vain,
"Tis ten to one they write again :
And then they read it o'er with care,
Correcting here, and adding there."

MRS SAVAGZ,

THE first edition of my Memoirs was no sooner published, than my old envious friends, mentioned in the third class of my dedication, found out that it was "d-d stuff! d-d low!" the production of a cobler, and only fit to amuse that honourable fraternity, or to line their garrets and stalls; and many gentlemen, who are my customers, have informed me that, when they ask for them at several shops, they received for an answer, that they had already too much waste paper, and would not increase it by keeping Lackington's Memoirs: and some kindly added, You need not be in haste to purchase, as in the course of the Christmas holidays, Mr Birch in Cornhill will wrap up all his mince-pies with them, and distribute them through the town for the public good.

Thus

"With all the eunuch's melancholy spite,

They growl at you, because they cannot write;
A gloomy silence, envy's pang imparts,

Or some cold hint betrays their canker'd hearts."

But the rapid sale of this Life soon caused them to alter their stories; and I was very much surprised to hear that several of those gentlemen, who had scarce done exclaiming, "Vile trash! beneath all criticism!" &c. began to praise the composition; and on looking into the English Review, I found that the editors had filled seven pages in reviewing these Memoirs, and had bestowed much praise on the author. I was then ready to conclude, that their generous and manly impartiality had, in a miraculous manner, effected the conversion of others. But I was soon convinced, that meanness can never be exchanged for generosity; and that those who had been "unclean were unclean still;" or, as Churchill says,

"That envy, which was woven in the frame
At first, will to the last remain the same.
Reason may drown, may die, but envy's rage,
Improves with time, and gathers strength from age."

It seems that several of those liberal-minded men, being prodigiously mortified at the increasing sale of my Life, applied to different authors in order to get one of them to father my book: but those authors, either from principle, or from knowing that my manuscript was kept in my shop for the inspection of the public, or from some other motive, refused to adopt the poor bantling: and not only so, but laughed at, and exposed the mean contrivance, to the very great disappointment of those kind and honest-hearted friends of mine.

""Tis hard to say, what mysteries of fate,
What turns of fortune, on poor writers wait;
The party slave will wound him as he can,
And damn the merit, if he hates the man.'

W. HARTE.

That I might not be justly charged with ingratitude, I take this opportunity of thanking my friends, customers, and the public, for their candid reception of my volume; the sale of which, and the encomiums I