--“I am aware that some of my readers of a higher class of society, may feel, or seem to think, that I have introduced a little too much of the _slang_; but I am anxious to render myself perfectly intelligible to all parties. Half the world are _up_ to it; and it is my intention to make the other half _down_ to it. LIFE IN LONDON demands this sort of demonstration. A kind of _cant_ phraseology is current from one end of the Metropolis to the other: indeed, even in the time of Lord Chesterfield, he complained of it. In some females of the highest rank, it is as strongly marked, as in _dingy_ draggled-tail SALL, who is compelled to dispose of a few sprats to turn an honest penny: and while the latter, in smacking her lips, talks of her _prime jackey_, an _out-and-out_ concern, a _bit of good truth_, &c., the former, in her dislikes, tossing her head, observes, it was _shocking_, _quite a bore_, _beastly, stuff_, &c. The Duchess, at an Opera, informs the Countess of a ‘_row_’ which occurred on the last evening with as much _sang-froid_, as CARROTTY POLL mentions to a _Costardmonger_ the _lark_ she was engaged in, at a gin-spinner’s, and, in being turned out of the _panny_, got her _ogles_ taken _measure_ of for a _suit of mourning_. Therefore, some allowance must be made for an author who is compelled to write under a subdued tone of expression--in order to keep his promise made to the public in the PROSPECTUS issued by him prior to the publication of the work. In fact in many instances, the language of real Life is so very strong, coarse, and even disgusting, that, in consequence of keeping the above object in view, the points of many a rich scene are in great danger of being nearly frittered away; nay, of being almost reduced to tameness and insipidity. My ingenious friends, ROBERT and GEORGE CRUIKSHANK, whose talents in representing “the living manners as they rise” stand unrivalled in this peculiar line, feel as strongly impressed with the value of _delicacy_ as I do. But if some of the plates should appear rather _warm_, the purchaser of ‘LIFE IN LONDON’ may feel assured, that nothing is added to them tending to _excite_, but, on the contrary, they have most anxiously, on all occasions, given the preference rather to ‘_extenuate_’ than to ‘set down aught in malice.’ All the Plates are the exact representations, as they occurred of the various classes of society.”