fenfes at a fashionable vifit. For hiftorians and antiquaries fome allowance likewife may be made, as they dig fo much among ruins and rubbish I would not, however, permit any of them to reject the innovations which a clever laundrels might introduce in their antient buck-baskets, unless he could prove fome affinity to a Camden or a Dugdale. As for Projectors of my own race, it becomes me to fpeak with deference; there are, I am afraid, few of us who can claim to be exempted from whatever may ferve to fet us off to the beft advantage. For my own part, it was not till a confiderable time after Mr. Urban accepted my fervices that I began to forget what the fcraper of a door was placed there for; and even now I very much question whether I have popularity enough to make a flock laft more than a day. As, therefore, i have fo little prefumption in myfelf, I truft I am qualified to fpeak with the more feverity to others; aud, having feen fome approaches to the following affectation in certain of my brethren, I muft fay, that no man ought to be permitted the greafy wig and black worfted ftockings of Johnfon, who cannot prove that he has written two Ramblers per week, and has made fome progrefs in a Dictionary of the English Language.

But as fome add to flovenlinefs other kinds of neglect and difregard of the common forms of focial life, it may be neceffary to include them alfo in this law. I know a man who has endeavoured to pafs for a very great wit merely because he comes into company as late as the noted BRINSLEIUS, and as frequently forgets his engagements altogether. I have only to fay to this imitator, that his claim fhall be allowed, and he permitted to fpoil as much dinner-cookery as he pleafes, when he can produce two of the best comedies of modern times. Similar indulgences may also be extended, in cafes of neglect, flovelinefs, late hours, idle habits, and certain roughnefles of fpeech and manner, as foon as the parties claiming thein fhall become poffeffed of the fituations in which thefe oddities have been privileged.

It is no doubt pleafing to the ambitious, that they can by any means be thought to refemble men illuftrious for wifdom; but they are

be difcovered by an attack upon our fenfes. If they imagine that fingularity, is a merit, let it appear in something lefs common than difcoloured linen, and more difficult than a cropt head. It furely militates against the common fenfe of mankind, that fcience and foap fhould be averfe to each other; and it will be impoflible, by any procefs in the art of reafoning, to make out a clear connexion betwixt philofophy and flovenlinefs, or to find out what there is particularly facetious in a pair of dirty boots. If the wit has no reafons of a more preffing nature, he may be affured that his repartees will lofe none of their point, were he occafionally to confult his taylor, or employ his laundrefs.

Upon the whole, it appears in vain to fuppofe, that because drefs was formerly made to exprefs riches and rank, it might now be fo contrived as to exhibit genius and talents. It feems paradoxical, that what is old and tattered, or rufty and greafy, fhould denote certain qualities of the mind, and prove certain exertions of the intellect. They muft have an imagination of a very extenfive range who can bring together comparisons of things fo remote. Far be it from me to deny the ingenuity of that ufeful body of men, whose bufinefs it is to clothe the naked; but a taylor muft have wonderful abilities who can give a philofophic cut to a coat, or can meafure the fkirts with a poetical turn. There is much of wild fancy and extravagance in the celebrated fyftem of Lavater; and fome, I am told, have even attempted to discover the mind of a man in his hand-writing. Yet, perhaps, in neither cafe is the inprobability fo great, as when others pretend to connect talents with articles of drefs, and think that learning is moft confpicuous where delicacy is moft offended. We muft have a new fyftem of phyfiognomy to detect a poetical genius in the lappel of a coat, or to difcover the fkill of a logician in the depth of a collar; and we must form new affociations in cur minds before we can fet it down as a rule, that the moft flovenly man in company is always the most ingenious, and that no man can be independent in his mind, original in his conceptions, or brilliant in his expreffions, who has not previoutly emancipated himfelf from the

mistaken far as that the refemblance is only to

fworn perpetual enmity againft wather

women

Mr. URBAN,

ITTLE I think

Sept. 27.

drawing

L' myfelf the anger of Mr. Britton in what I fent you refpecting a Hiftory of Cornwall; and if that gentleman will re-perufe p. 136, he will eafily. fee that nothing was intended for him. I had feen, and I fancied, writing from memory, that it had been in the notice at the end of Mr. Britton's very entertaining book, the Beauties of England (which I hope he will continue), that Mr. Polwhele had printed one volume of his Hiftory of Cornwall and part of another. It is very true that Mr. Britton did not fay fo much, and I acknowledge my mistake but Mr. Britton fays enough to juftify the cenfure which I do not fcruple to admit I meant to convey on a gentleman, who, receiving fubfcriptions for a Hiftory of Devon, leaves that work imperfect, engages in a Hiftory of Cornwall, and is actually printing it (for Mr. Britton acknowledges, p. 718, that he faw feveral fhects printed fo long ago as January, 1802, and it is highly probable that when I wrote, in February, 1803, a volume might be finished), when the fubfcribers to Devon cannot get their books.

That I did fee the notice to the extent I mentioned I am most perfectly confident, though, as it is not carried fo far in Mr. Britton's book, I cannot recollect where I faw it; but, as before obferved, Mr. Britton fays enough to juftify a call on Mr. Polwhele, as a refpectable writer, a clergyman, and an Old English Gentleman, to account for the treatment which his fubfcribers to Devon have met with. I hope he will answer it in the most fatisfactory manner, by delivering the books. Q.

Paris, was offered by Sir Sidney Smith recommendation to the very individual who nobly and refolutely refused to become the agent of his general in this abomiable tranfaction. On his arrival at Paris, he availed himself of was mult kindly received. Among his countryman's introduction, and' other fubjects of converfation, the expedition to Egypt had a place, and the French furgeon obferved fignificantly, that Buonaparte wanted to preScribe for his patients, "which," faid he, "I did not think proper to permit.'

This fame French medical gentleman is now in high favour with Buonaparte, and courted by him with particular obfequioufnefs, the motive of which is, I prefume, too obvious to require explanation. But, what is worfe, he is engaged to write fome account of the Egyptian campaign, under the aufpices and patronage of Buonaparte, the motive of which patronage cannot be lefs obvious. The anecdote of courfe will not find a place; and, as it will not appear in an hiftorical document, written by the man who is alone able to bear perfonal teftimony to its truth, it may in time cease to be believed. This, beyond all doubt, is the motive of Buonaparte's conduct in the affair; and the refult above mentioned may be expected from the ordinary operations of the human mind.

The fact itfelf, however, is certain beyond all poflibility of difpute; and your infertion of this letter may help to keep alive our deteftation of the man who could be capable of fuch cowardly and deliberate barbarity.

Mr. URBAN,

E. O. E.

O&.3.

So much has been faid of the de

ftruction of turneps by a fly, and fo little has the exiftence of the fly been proved, notwithstanding, the frequent, and now recent, failure of crops, that I am tempted to offer a little informa tion on the fubject.

About three or four years fince, a confiderable farmer near Bath, obferving the turneps in one of his fields ftrongly attacked by fomething, difcovered by an accident that the enemy was really a flug, and immediately prevented farther damage by well rolling the whole field, which killed all the lugs. That he made a very handfome fum by communication is rather foreign to my pur pofe. In this year, and laft month, a farmer near Columbton, faved his tur

neps