The four grand distinctions of the people are these:—(1) The nobility and gentry; (2) the merchants and first-rate tradesmen; (3) the lawyers and physicians; and (4) inferior tradesmen, attorneys, clerks, apprentices, coachmen, carmen, chairmen, watermen, porters, and servants.
The first class may not only be divided into nobility and gentry, but into either such as have dependence on the Court, or such as have none. Those who have offices, places, or pensions from the Court, or any expectations from thence, constantly attend the levées of the prince and his ministers, which takes up the greatest part of the little morning they have. At noon most of the nobility, and such gentlemen as are members of the House of Commons, go down to Westminster, and when the Houses do not sit late, return home to dinner. Others that are not members of either House, and have no particular business to attend, are found in the chocolate-houses near the Court, or in the park, and many more do not stir from their houses till after dinner. As to the ladies, who seldom rise till about noon, the first part of their time is spent, after the duties of the closet, either at the tea-table or in dressing, unless they take a turn to Covent Garden or Ludgate Hill, and tumble over the mercers’ rich silks, or view some India or China trifle, some prohibited manufacture, or foreign lace.
Thus, the business of the day being despatched before dinner, both by the ladies and gentlemen, the evening is devoted to pleasure; all the world get abroad in their gayest equipage between four and five in the evening, some bound to the play, others to the opera, the assembly, the masquerade, or music-meeting, to which they move in such crowds that their coaches can scarce pass the streets.
The merchants and tradesmen of the first-rate make no mean figure in London; they have many of them houses equal to those of the nobility, with great gates and courtyards before them, and seats in the country, whither they retire the latter end of the week, returning to the city again on Mondays or Tuesdays; they keep their coaches, saddle-horses, and footmen; their houses are richly and beautifully furnished; and though their equipage be not altogether so shining and their servants so numerous as those of the nobility, they generally abound in wealth and plenty, and are generally masters of a larger cash than they have occasion to make use of in the way of trade, whereby they are always provided against accidents, and are enabled to make an advantageous purchase when it offers. And in this they differ from the merchants of other countries, that they know when they have enough, for they retire to their estates, and enjoy the fruits of their labours in the decline of life, reserving only business enough to divert their leisure hours. They become gentlemen and magistrates in the counties where their estates lie, and as they are frequently the younger brothers of good families, it is not uncommon to see them purchase those estates that the eldest branches of their respective families have been obliged to part with.
Their character is that they are neither so much in haste as the French to grow rich, nor so niggardly as the Dutch to save; that their houses are richly furnished, and their tables well served. You are neither soothed nor soured by the merchants of London; they seldom ask too much, and foreigners buy of them as cheap as others. They are punctual in their payments, generous and charitable, very obliging, and not too ceremonious; easy of access, ready to communicate their knowledge of the respective countries they traffic with, and the condition of their trade.
As to their way of life, they usually rise some hours before the gentlemen at the other end of the town, and having paid their devotions to Heaven, seldom fail in a morning of surveying the condition of their accounts, and giving their orders to their bookkeepers and agents for the management of their respective trades; after which, being dressed in a modest garb, without any footmen or attendants, they go about their business to the Custom House, Bank, Exchange, &c., and after dinner sometimes apply themselves to business again; but the morning is much the busiest part of the day. In the evening of every other day the post comes in, when the perusing their letters may employ part of their time, as the answering them does on other days of the week; and they frequently meet at the tavern in the evening, either to transact their affairs, or to take a cheerful glass after the business of the day is over.
As to the wives and daughters of the merchants and principal tradesmen, they endeavour to imitate the Court ladies in their dress, and follow much the same diversions; and it is not uncommon to see a nobleman match with a citizen’s daughter, by which she gains a title, and he discharges the incumbrances on his estate with her fortune. Merchants’ sons are sometimes initiated into the same business their fathers follow; but if they find an estate gotten to their hands, many of them choose rather to become country gentlemen.
As to the lawyers or barristers, these also are frequently the younger sons of good families; and the elder brother too is sometimes entered of the Inns of Court, that he may know enough of the law to keep his estate.
A lawyer of parts and good elocution seldom fails of rising to preferment, and acquiring an estate even while he is a young man. I do not know any profession in London where a person makes his fortune so soon as in the law, if he be an eminent pleader. Several of them have of late years been advanced to the peerage; as Finch, Somers, Cowper, Harcourt, Trevor, Parker, Lechmere, King, Raymond, &c., scarce any of them much exceeding forty years of age when they arrived at that honour.
The fees are so great, and their business so engrosses every minute of their time, that it is impossible their expenses should equal their income; but it must be confessed they labour very hard, are forced to be up early and late, and to try their constitutions to the utmost (I mean those in full business) in the service of their clients. They rise in winter long before it is light, to read over their briefs; dress, and prepare themselves for the business of the day; at eight or nine they go to Westminster, where they attend and plead either in the Courts of Equity or Common Law, ordinarily till one or two, and (upon a great trial) sometimes till the evening. By that time they have got home, and dined, they have other briefs to peruse, and they are to attend the hearings, either at the Lord Chancellor’s or the Rolls, till eight or nine in the evening; after which, when they return to their chambers, they are attended by their clients, and have their several cases and briefs to read over and consider that evening, or the next morning before daylight; insomuch that they have scarce time for their meals, or their natural rest, particularly at the latter end of a term. They are not always in this hurry; indeed, if they were, the best constitution must soon be worn out; nor would anyone submit to such hardships who had a subsistence, but with a prospect of acquiring a great estate suddenly; for the gold comes tumbling into the pockets of these great lawyers, which makes them refuse no cause, how intricate or doubtful soever. And this brings me to consider the high fees that are usually taken by an eminent counsel; as for a single opinion upon a case, two, three, four, and five guineas; upon a hearing, five or ten; and perhaps a great many more; and if the cause does not come on till the next day, they are all to be fee’d again, though there are not less than six or seven counsel of a side.