Omn. Ay, ay, read it, read it.
To his most Equitable & Satyrical Worship, Seignior Pasquin. Censor of Great Britain.
The humble Petition of Lord Love-Play, in Behalf of Himself and many others.
Sheweth.
“That your Petitioners were, by Descent, the lawful Inheritors of very great Fortunes; But, by the Arts and Combinations of the Noted Hunt-Bubble, and the Knot— And, by what is commonly called Playing all the Game, Your Petitioners have been stript of their large Possessions to the utter Ruin of themselves and their distressed Families.
“That your Petitioners, who once made the most Splendid Appearance at New Market, Whites, Georges, Bath, Tunbridge, and all Public Places, are now in the most deplorable Condition.
“From these Premises, Your Petitionors humbly pray that Your Equitable Worship will take their distress’d State into Consideration, and Decree such Redress as to Your Satyrical Worship shall seem meet—
“And your bubbled Petitioners shall ever pray.”
Com. Mr. Pasquin, your bringing such Men to Iustice, is a Public good, and deserves Public Thanks. They are Charactors that all Men destest, and that all Men wish to See punish’d.
Pas. Sir you don’t know half the Villany of these Men. Play, in its most Honourable Commerce, is a pernicious Vice, but as Luxury, Fashion and Avarice, have improved it all over Europe, It is now become an avow’d System of Fraud and Ruin. The virtuous and Honourable, who Scorn Advantage, are a constant Prey to the vicious and dishonourable, who never Play without one. nor does the Vice Stop here: For the Sharper having Stript his Bubble of his Estate, he next Corrupts his Mind, by making him a Decoy-Duck, in Order to retrieve his Fortune as he lost It. And, from an indegent Virtuous Bubble, the Noble Youth becomes an Affluent vicious Sharper.