from all this, he is to find them chairs, candles, he refused to take the advice of his parents, and liquors, and all other necessaries that company pursued the bent of his inclination; he played at may ask for he is likewise to provide them with cards, dice, and every necessary for gaming.

"IV. There shall be no fixed hour for coming or going away; it is enough for a person to appear in the assembly.

"V. Every one shall be free to sit, walk, or game, as he pleases; nor shall any one go about to hinder him, or take exceptions at what he does, upon pain of emptying the great eagle (a pint bowl full of brandy); it shall likewise be sufficient, at entering or retiring, to salute the company.

"VI. Persons of distinction, noblemen, superior officers, merchants and tradesmen of note, head workmen (especially carpenters), and persons employed in chancery, are to have liberty to enter the assemblies; as likewise their wives and children. "VII. A particular place shall be assigned the footmen, except those of the house, that there may be room enough in the apartments designed for the assembly.

"VIII. No ladies are to get drunk under any pretence whatsoever; nor shall gentlemen be drunk before nine.

cards on Sundays; called himself a gentleman; fell out with his mother and laundress; and even in these early days his father was frequently heard to observe, that young The.-would be hanged.

As he advanced in years, he grew more fond of pleasure; would eat an ortolan for dinner, though he begged the guinea that bought it; and was once known to give three pounds for a plate of green peas, which he had collected over-night as charity for a friend in distress: he ran into debt |with every body that would trust him, and none could build a sconce better than he; so that at last his creditors swore with one accord that The.— would be hanged.

But as getting into debt by a man who had no visible means but impudence for subsistence, is a thing that every reader is not acquainted with, I must explain that point a little, and that to his satisfaction.

There are three ways of getting into debt; first, by pushing a face; as thus: "You, Mr. Lutestring, send me home six yards of that paduasoy, damme; -but, harkee, don't think I ever intend to pay you IX. Ladies who play at forfeitures, questions for it, damme." At this the mercer laughs heartand commands, etc. shall not be riotous: no gen-ily, cuts off the paduasoy, and sends it home; tleman shall attempt to force a kiss, and no person nor is he, till too late, surprised to find the genshall offer to strike a woman in the assembly, tleman had said nothing but truth, and kept his under pain of future exclusion." word. Such are the statutes upon this occasion, which The second method of running into debt is called in their very appearance carry an air of ridicule fineering; which is getting goods made up in such and satire. But politeness must enter every country by degrees; and these rules resemble the breeding of a clown, awkward but sincere.

ESSAY VIII.

a fashion as to be unfit for every other purchaser ; and if the tradesman refuses to give them credit, then threaten to leave them upon his hands.

But the third and best method is called, "Being the good customer." The gentleman first buys some trifle, and pays for it in ready money; he comes a few days after with nothing about him but bank bills, and buys, we will suppose, a six

SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN BY THE ORDINARY OF penny tweezer-case; the bills are too great to be

NEWGATE.

changed, so he promises to return punctually the day after and pay for what he has bought. In this MAN is a most frail being, incapable of direct-promise he is punctual, and this is repeated for ing his steps, unacquainted with what is to happen eight or ten times, till his face is well known, and in this life; and perhaps no man is a more mani- he has got at last the character of a good cusfest instance of the truth of this maxim, than Mr. tomer: by this means he gets credit for something The. Cibber, just now gone out of the world. considerable, and then never pays for it. Such a variety of turns of fortune, yet such a persevering uniformity of conduct, appears in all that happened in his short span, that the whole may be looked upon as one regular confusion: every action of his life was matter of wonder and surprise, and his death was an astonishment.

In all this, the young man who is the unhappy subject of our present reflections was very expert ; and could face, fineer, and bring custom to a shop with any man in England: none of his companions could exceed him in this; and his very coinpanions at last said, that The.—would be hanged. This gentleman was born of creditable parents, As he grew old he grew never the better: he who gave him a very good education, and a great loved ortolans and green peas as before; he drank deal of food learning, so that he could read and gravy-soup when he could get it, and always thought write before he was sixteen. However, he early his oysters tasted best when he got them for nodiscovered an inclination to follow lewd courses; thing, or which was just the same, when he bought

them upon tick; thus the old man kept up the ject of the same tame and timid disposition, Magvices of the youth, and what he wanted in power na Charta (to use the coarse phrase of Oliver he made up by inclination; so that all the world Cromwell) would be no more regarded by an amthought, that old The.-would be hanged. bitious prince than Magna F―ta, and the liber And now, reader, I have brought him to his last ties of England expire without a groan. Opposi scene; a scene where, perhaps, my duty should tion, when restrained within due bounds, is the have obliged me to assist. You expect, perhaps, salubrious gale that ventilates the 'opinions of the his dying words, and the tender farewell he took people, which might otherwise stagnate into the of his wife and children; you expect an account most abject submission. It may be said to purify of his coffin and white gloves, his pious ejacula- the atmosphere of politics; to dispel the gross vations, and the papers he left behind him. In this pours raised by the influence of ministerial artifice I can not indulge your curiosity; for, oh! the mys- and corruption, until the constitution, like a mighty teries of Fate, The.-was drowned! rock, stands full disclosed to the view of every in"Reader," as Hervey saith, "pause and pon- dividual who dwells within the shade of its protecder; and ponder and pause; who knows what thy tion. Even when this gale blows with augmented own end may be !"

ESSAY IX.

violence, it generally tends to the advantage of the commonwealth; it awakes the apprehension, and consequently arouses all the faculties of the pilot at the helm, who redoubles his vigilance and caution, exerts his utmost skill, and, becoming acquainted with the nature of the navigation, in a little time learns to suit his canvass to the roughness of the sea and the trim of the vessel. With

I JAKE the liberty to communicate to the public a few loose thoughts upon a subject, which, though often handled, has not yet in my opinion been fully discussed: 1 mean national concord, or unanimity, out these intervening storms of opposition to exerwhich in this kingdom has been generally consider- cise his faculties, he would become enervate, neglied as a bare possibility, that existed no where but gent, and presumptuous; and in the wantonness in speculation. Such a union is perhaps neither of his power, trusting to some deceitful calm, perto be expected nor wished for in a country, whose haps hazard a step that would wreck the constituliberty depends rather upon the genius of the peo- tion. Yet there is a measure in all things. A ple, than upon any precautions which they have taken in a constitutional way for the guard and preservation of this inestimable blessing.

moderate frost will fertilize the glebe with nitrous particles, and destroy the eggs of pernicious insects that prey upon the infancy of the year; but if this There is a very honest gentleman with whom I frost increases in severity and duration, it will chill have been acquainted these thirty years, during the seeds, and even freeze up the roots of vegetawhich there has not been one speech uttered bles; it will check the bloom, nip the buds, and against the ministry in parliament, nor struggle at blast all the promise of the spring. The vernal an election for a burgess to serve in the House of breeze that drives the fogs before it, that brushes Commons, nor a pamphlet published in opposition the cobwebs from the boughs, that fans the air and to any measure of the administration, nor even a fosters vegetation, if augmented to a tempest, will private censure passed in his hearing upon the strip the leaves, overthrow the tree, and desolate misconduct of any person concerned in public af- the garden. The auspicious gale before which the fairs, but he is immediately alarmed, and loudly trim vessel ploughs the bosom of the sea, while the exclaims against such factious doings, in order to mariners are kept alert in duty and in spirits, if set the people by the ears together at such a deli- converted to a hurricane, overwhelms the crew cate juncture. At any other time (says he) such with terror and confusion. The sails are rent, the opposition might not be improper, and I don't cordage cracked, the masts give way; the master question the facts that are alleged; but at this crisis, eyes the havock with mute despair, and the vessel sir, to inflame the nation!-the man deserves to be founders in the storm. Opposition, when confined punished as a traitor to his country." In a word, within its proper channels, sweeps away those according to this gentleman's opinion, the nation beds of soil and banks of sand which corruptive has been in a violent crisis at any time these thirty power had gathered; but when it overflows its years; and were it possible for him to live another banks, and deluges the plain, its course is marked century, he would never find any period, at which a man might with safety impugn the infallibility of a minister.

by ruin and devastation.

The opposition necessary in a free state, like that of Great Britain, is not at all incompatible The case is no more than this: my honest friend with that national concord which ought to unite has invested his whole fortune in the stocks, on the people on all emergencies, in which the general Government security, and trembles at every whiff safety is at stake. It is the jealousy of patriotism, of popular discontent. Were every British sub-not the rancour of party; the warmth of candour,

not the virulence of hate; a transient dispute among | fit to bear arms. Now, as we have seen the na friends, not an implacable feud that admits of no tion governed by old women, I hope to make it ap reconciliation. The history of all ages teems with pear that it may be defended by young women. the fatal effects of internal discord; and were his- and surely this scheme will not be rejected as untory and tradition annihilated, common sense would necessary at such a juncture,* when our armies plainly point out the mischiefs that must arise in the four quarters of the globe, are in want of from want of harmony and national union. Every recruits; when we find ourselves entangled in a school-boy can have recourse to the fable of the new war with Spain, on the eve of a rupture in rods, which, when united in a bundle, no strength |Italy, and indeed in a fair way of being obliged to could bend; but when separated into single twigs, make head against all the great potentates of Eua child could break with ease.

ESSAY X.

rope.

But, before I unfold my design, it may be necessary to obviate, from experience as well as argument, the objections which may be made to the I HAVE spent the greater part of my life in mak- delicate frame and tender disposition of the female ing observations on men and things, and in pro-superably averse to the horrors of war. All the sex, rendering them incapable of the toils, and injecting schemes for the advantage of my country; world has heard of the nation of Amazons, who

inhabited the banks of the river Thermodon in

and though my labours met with an ungrateful return, I will still persist in my endeavours for its service, like that venerable, unshaken, and neglect- Cappadocia ; who expelled their men by force of ed patriot, Mr. Jacob Henriquez, who, though of arms, defended themselves by their own prowess, managed the reigns of government, prosecuted the the Hebrew nation, hath exhibited a shining example of Christian fortitude and perseverance. operations in war, and held the other sex in the utAnd here my conscience urges me to confess, that most contempt. We are informed by Homer, that the hint upon which the following proposals are Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, acted as auxbuilt, was taken from an advertisement of the said iliary to Priam, and fell, valiantly fighting in his patriot Henriquez, in which he gave the public to cause, before the walls of Troy. Quintius Curtius understand, that Heaven had indulged him with tells us, that Thalestris brought one hundred armed Amazons in a present to Alexander the Great. seven blessed daughters." Blessed they are, no doubt, on account of their own and their father's Diodorus Siculus expressly says, there was a navirtues ; but more blessed may they be, if the scheme I offer should be adopted by the legislature.

tion of female warriors in Africa, who fought against the Libyan Hercules. We read in the The proportion which the number of females voyages of Columbus, that one of the Caribbee Islands was possessed by a tribe of female warriors, born in these kingdoms bears to the male children, who kept all the neighbouring Indians in awe; is, I think, supposed to be as thirteen to fourteen; but we need not go farther than our own age and but as women are not so subject as the other sex to accidents and intemperance, in numbering country to prove, that the spirit and constitution adults we shall find the balance on the female side. of the fair sex are equal to the dangers and fatigues of war. Every novice who has read the authentic If, in calculating the numbers of the people, we take in the multitudes that emigrate to the planta- and important History of the Pirates, is well actions, whence they never return; those that die at quainted with the exploits of two heroines, called sea, and make their exit at Tyburn; together with Mary Read and Anne Bonny. I myself have had the consumption of the present war, by sea and the honour to drink with Anne Cassier, alias moland, in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, in the Ger-ther Wade, who had distinguished herself among man and Indian Oceans, in Old France, New the Buccaneers of America, and in her old age France, North America, the Leeward Islands, kept a punch-house in Port-Royal of Jamaica. I Germany, Africa, and Asia, we may fairly state the loss of men during the war at one hundred thousand. If this be the case, there must be a superplus of the other sex, amounting to the same number, and this superplus will consist of women able to bear arms; as I take for granted, that all those who are fit to bear children are likewise

have likewise conversed with Moll Davis, who had served as a dragoon in all queen Anne's wars, and was admitted on the pension of Chelsea. The late war with Spain, and even the present, hath produced instances of females enlisting both in the land and sea service, and behaving with remarkable bravery in the disguise of the other sex. And who has not heard of the celebrated Jenny Cameron, * A man well known at this period (1762), as well as during and some other enterprising ladies of North Britain, many preceding years, for the numerous schemes he was who attended a certain Adventurer in all his ex daily offering to various ministers for the purpose of raising peditions, and headed their respective clans in a

money by loans, paying off the national encumbrances, etc. etc. none of which, however, were ever known to have re

ceived the smallest notice.

* In the year 1762

military character? That strength of body is often armed with light carbines and long bayonets, with equal to the courage of mind implanted in the fair out the encumbrance of swords or shoulder-belts. sex, will not be denied by those who have seen the I make no doubt but many young ladies of figure water-women of Plymouth; the female drudges and fashion will undertake to raise companies at of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, the fish-women their own expense, provided they like their coloof Billingsgate; the weeders, podders, and hoppers, nels; but I must insist upon it, if this scheme who swarm in the fields; and the bunters who should be embraced, that Mr. Henriquez's seven swagger in the streets of London: not to mention blessed daughters may be provided with commisthe indefatigable trulls who follow the camp, and sions, as the project is in some measure owing to keep up with the line of march, though loaded with the hints of that venerable patriot. I moreover bantlings and other baggage. give it as my opinion, that Mrs. Kitty Fisher* shall have the command of a battalion, and the nomination of her own officers, provided she will

There is scarcely a street in this metropolis without one or more viragos, who discipline their husbands and domineer over the whole neighbour- warrant them all sound, and be content to wear hood. Many months are not elapsed since I was proper badges of distinction. witness to a pitched battle between two athletic fe- A female brigade, properly disciplined and acmales, who fought with equal skill and fury until coutred, would not, I am persuaded, be afraid to one of them gave out, after having sustained seven charge a numerous body of the enemy, over whom falls on the hard stones. They were both stripped they would have a manifest advantage; for if the to the under petticoat; their breasts were carefully barbarous Scythians were ashamed to fight with swathed with handkerchiefs; and as no vestiges of the Amazons who invaded them, surely the French, features were to be seen in either when I came up, who pique themselves on their sensibility and deI imagined the combatants were of the other sex, votion to the fair sex, would not act upon the of until a bystander assured me of the contrary, giv-fensive against a band of female warriors, arrayed ing me to understand, that the conqueror had lain- in all the charms of youth and beauty.

ESSAY XI.

in about five weeks of twin-bastards, begot by her second, who was an Irish chairman. When I see the avenues of the Strand beset every night with troops of fierce Amazons, who, with dreadful imprecations, stop, and beat and plunder passengers, As I am one of that sauntering tribe of mortals, I can not help wishing that such martial talents who spend the greatest part of their time in taverns, were converted to the benefit of the public; and coffee-houses, and other places of public resort, I that those who are so loaded with temporal fire, have thereby an opportunity of observing an inand so little afraid of eternal fire, should, instead finite variety of characters, which, to a person of a of ruining the souls and bodies of their fellow-citizens, be put in a way of turning their destructive qualities against the enemies of the nation.

contemplative turn, is a much higher entertainment than a view of all the curiosities of art or nature. In one of these my late rambles, I accidentHaving thus demonstrated that the fair sex are ally fell into the company of half a dozen gentlenot deficient in strength and resolution, I would| men, who were engaged in a warm dispute about humbly propose, that as there is an excess on their some political affair; the decision of which, as they side in quantity to the amount of one hundred were equally divided in their sentiments, they thousand, part of that number may be employed thought proper to refer to me, which naturally drew in recruiting the army as well as in raising thirty me in for a share of the conversation. new Amazonian regiments, to be commanded by Amongst a multiplicity of other topics, we took females, and serve in regimentals adapted to their occasion to talk of the different characters of the The Amazons of old appeared with the left several nations of Europe; when one of the gentlebreast bare, an open jacket, and trowsers that de- men, cocking his hat, and assuming such an air of scended no farther than the knee; the right breast importance as if he had possessed all the merit of was destroyed, that it might not impede them in the English nation in his own person, declared, that bending the bow, or darting the javelin: but there the Dutch were a parcel of avaricious wretches; is no occasion for this cruel excision in the present the French a set of flattering sycophants; that the discipline, as we have seen instances of women Germans were drunken sots, and beastly gluttons; who handle the musket, without finding any inConvenience from that protuberance.

sex.

As the sex love gaiety, they may be clothed in vests of pink satin and open drawers of the same, with buskins on their feet and legs, their hair tied behind and floating on their shoulders, and their bats adorned with white feathers: they may be

and the Spaniards proud, haughty, and surly tyrants; but that in bravery, generosity, clemency, and in every other virtue, the English excelled all the rest of the world.

This very learned and judicious remark was

'A celebrated courtezan of that time.

received with a general smile of approbation by all what "countryman he was," replied, that he was the company-all, I mean, but your humble ser- "a citizen of the world." How few are there to vant; who, endeavouring to keep my gravity as be found in modern times who can say the same, well as I could, and reclining my head upon my or whose conduct is consistent with such a proarm, continued for some time in a posture of affect-fession! We are now become so much Englished thoughtfulness, as if I had been musing on men, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Spaniards, or Gersomething else, and did not seem to attend to the mans, that we are no longer citizens of the world; subject of conversation; hoping by these means to so much the natives of one particular spot, or avoid the disagreeable necessity of explaining my-members of one petty society, that we no longer self, and thereby depriving the gentleman of his consider ourselves as the general inhabitants of the imaginary happiness. globe, or members of that grand society which com. prehends the whole human kind.

But my pseudo-patriot had no mind to let me escape so easily. Not satisfied that his opinion Did these prejudices prevail only among the should pass without contradiction, he was deter- meanest and lowest of the people, perhaps they mined to have it ratified by the suffrage of every might be excused, as they have few, if any, opporone in the company; for which purpose, addressing tunities of correcting them by reading, travelling, himself to me with an air of inexpressible confi- or conversing with foreigners; but the misfortune dence, he asked me if I was not of the same way is, that they infect the minds, and influence the of thinking. As I am never forward in giving my conduct, even of our gentlemen; of those, I mean, opinion, especially when I have reason to believe who have every title to this appellation but an exthat it will not be agreeable; so, when I am obliged emption from prejudice, which, however, in my to give it, I always hold it for a maxim to speak opinion, ought to be regarded as the characteristi my real sentiments. I therefore told him, that, for cal mark of a gentleman; for let a man's birth be my own part, I should not have ventured to talk ever so high, his station ever so exalted, or his forin such a peremptory strain, unless I had made the tune ever so large, yet if he is not free from nationtour of Europe, and examined the manners of these al and other prejudices, I should make bold to tell several nations with great care and accuracy; that him, that he had a low and vulgar mind, and had perhaps a more impartial judge would not scruple no just claim to the character of a gentleman. to affirm, that the Dutch were more frugal and in- And, in fact, you will always find that those are dustrious, the French more temperate and polite, most apt to boast of national merit, who have little the Germans more hardy and patient of labour and or no merit of their own to depend on; than which, fatigue, and the Spaniards more staid and sedate, to be sure, nothing is more natural: the slender than the English; who, though undoubtedly brave vine twists around the sturdy oak, for no other and generous, were at the same time rash, head- reason in the world but because it has not strength strong, and impetuous; too apt to be elated with sufficient to support itself. prosperity, and to despond in adversity.

Should it be alleged in defence of national preI could easily perceive, that all the company be- judice, that it is the natural and necessary growth gan to regard me with a jealous eye before I had of love to our country, and that therefore the formfinished my answer, which I had no sooner done, er can not be destroyed without hurting the latter, than the patriotic gentleman observed, with a con- I answer, that this is a gross fallacy and delusion. temptuous sneer, that he was greatly surprised how That it is the growth of love to our country, I will some people could have the conscience to live in a allow; but that it is the natural and necessary country which they did not love, and to enjoy the growth of it, I absolutely deny. Superstition and protection of a government, to which in their enthusiasm too are the growth of religion; but who hearts they were inveterate enemies. Finding that ever took it in his head to affirm, that they are the by this modest declaration of my sentiments I had necessary growth of this noble principle? They forfeited the good opinion of my companions, and are, if you will, the bastard sprouts of this heavenly given them occasion to call my political principles plant, but not its natural and genuine branches, in question, and well knowing that it was in vain and may safely enough be lopped off, without doto argue with men who were so very full of them- ing any harm to the parent stock: nay, perhaps, selves, I threw down my reckoning, and retired till once they are lopped off, this goodly tree can to my own lodgings, reflecting on the absurd and never flourish in perfect health and vigour. ridiculous nature of national prejudice and prepos- Is it not very possible that I may love my own session. country, without hating the natives of other coun. Among all the famous sayings of antiquity, tries? that I may exert the most heroic bravery, the there is none that does greater honour to the author, most undaunted resolution, in defending its laws or affords greater pleasure to the reader (at least if and liberty, without despising all the rest of the he be a person of a generous and benevolent heart), world as cowards and poltroons? Most certainly than that of the philosopher, who, being asked it is; and if it were not-But why need I suppose