There's the argument, programme, or fable. Now for the characters; they are all drawn from the life by the English Spy (see plate), under the amusing title of 'Morning, and in Low Spirits, a scene in a Lock-up House;' a very appropriate spot for a lament to the past, and

"'Tis past, and the sun of my glory is set.
How changed in my case is the fortune of war!
With no money to back, and no credit to bet,
No more in the Fancy I shine forth a star.

"Accursed be the day when my bargeman I brought
To fight with Jos. Hudson!—the thought is a sting.
I sighing exclaim, by experience taught,
Farewell to Tom Cannon, farewell to the ring!
"By the Blackwater vict'ry made drunk with success,
Endless visions of milling enchanted my nob;
I thought my luck in: so I could do no less
Than match 'gainst the Streatham my White-headed Bob.
"I've some reason to think that there, too, I was done;
For it oft has been hinted that battle was cross'd:
But I well know that all which at Yately I won,
With a thousand en outre at Bagshot I lost.
"At Warwick a turn in my favour again
Appear'd, and my crest I anew rear'd with pride;
Hudson's efforts to conquer my bargeman were vain,
I took the long odds, and I floor'd the flash side.
"But with training, and treating, and sparring, and paying
For all through the nose, as most do in beginning
Their fancy career, I am borne out in saying,
I was quite out of pocket in spite of my winning.
"So when Bob fought old George, being shortish of money,
And bearing in mem'ry the Bagshot affair,
In my former pal's stakes I stood only a pony,
(Which was never return'd, so I'm done again there).
"To be perfectly safe, on the old one I betted;
For the knowing ones told me the thing was made right:
If it had been, a good bit of blunt I'd have netted;
But a double X spoilt it, and Bob won the fight.

"But the famed stage of Warwick, and Ward, were before me—
I look'd at Tom Cannon, and thought of the past;
I was sure he must win, and that wealth would show'r o'er me,
So, like Richard, I set all my hopes on a cast;
"And the die was soon thrown, and my luck did not alter—
I was floor'd at all points, and my hopes were a hum;
I'm at Tattersall's all but believed a defaulter,
And here, in a spunging house, shut by a bum.
"'Mid the lads of the fancy I needs must aspire
To be quite au fait; and I have scarcely seen
Of mills half a score, ere I'm fore'd to retire—
O thou greenest among all the green ones, Pea Green!
"And what have I gain'd, but the queer reputation
Of a whimsical dandy, half foolish, half flash?
To bruisers and sharpers, in high and low station,
A poor easy dupe, till deprived of my cash.
"All you who would enter the circle I've quitted,
Reflect on my fate, and think what you're about:
By brib'ry betray'd, or by cunning outwitted,
In the Fancy each novice is quickly clean'd out.
"For me it has lost its attractions and lustre;
The thing's done with me, and I've done with the thing:
The blunt for my bets I must manage to muster,
Then farewell to Tom Cannon, farewell to the ring!"

The reading of this morceau produced, as might have been expected, considerable merriment on the one hand, and some little discussion upon the other; the angry feelings of the commander in chief and his pals overbalancing the mirthful by their solemnly protesting against the exposure of the secrets of the prison house, which, in this instance, they contended, were violently distorted by some enemy to the modern accomplishment of pugilism. In a few moments all was chaos, and the stormy confusion of tongues, prophetk: of the affair ending in a grand display and milling catastrophe; the apprehensions of which induced John Long, and John Long's man, to be on the alert in removing the service, en suite, of superb cut glass, which had given an additional lustre to the splendour of the dessert. The arrival of other characters, and the good humour of the count, joined to a plentiful supply of soda water and iced punch, had, however, the effect of cooling the malcontents, who had no sooner recovered their wonted hilarity, than old Crony proceeded to particularize, by a comparison of the past with the present, interspersing his remarks with anecdotes of the surrounding group. "These are your modern men of fashion," said Crony; "and the specimen you have this day had of their conduct and pursuits an authority you may safely quote as one generally characteristic.

'To support this new fashion in circles of ton. New habits, new thoughts, must of course be put on; Taste, feeling, and friendship, laid by on the shelf, And nothing or worshipp'd, or thought of, but—self.'

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"It was not thus in the days of our ancestors: the farther we look back, the purer honour was. In the days of chivalry, a love promise was a law; the braver the knight, the truer in love: then, too, religion, delicacy, sentiment, romantic passion, disinterested friendship, loyalty to king, love of country, a thirst for fame, bravery, nay, heroism, characterized the age, the nation, the noble, the knight, and esquire. Mercy! what 'squires we have now-a-days! At a more recent date, all was courtliness, feeling, high sentiment, proud and lofty bearing, principle, the word inviolable, politeness at its highest pitch of refinement: lovers perished to defend their ladies' honour; now they live to sully it: the nobility and the people were distinct in dress and address; but, above all, amenity and good-breeding marked the distinction, and the line was unbroken. Now, dress is all confusion, address far below par, amenity is a dead letter, and as to breeding, it is confined to the breeding of horses and dogs, except when law steps in to encourage the breeding of disputes; not to mention the evils arising from crossing the old breed; nor can we much wonder at it, when we reflect on the altered way of life, the change of habits, and the declension of virtue, arising from these very causes.