ponsibility. The princes of Africa are poor, her cities hamlets, her palaces huts. That the wealth of Asia should be irresistibly attractive to European adventurers can excite no surprise; but here ambition will find fewer allurements, and avarice none. It cannot be denied that exclusive companies are very favourable to both the encouragement and shelter of delinquency, and much of our ancient maladministration in India may justly be imputed to this cause. The direction of our African establishments, however, being committed to the crown, will, of course, be regularly subjected to Parliamentary investigation. And last, though not least, this country is now become so wakeful to all her interests, foreign as well as domestic, the number of our political citizens so large, and general opinion so powerful, that neither public nor private rapacity are likely to escape without correction. These are some of the arguments which bear on this question. Its determination must be left to those who are willing to speculate, and bound to decide. Desultory Remarks on FASHION. To the Censor. SIR, who have indulged so much in pro miscuous thought, and who feel such delight in following the dictates of erratic impulse, that it forms a bias in the mind, and mars all their projects: Altho' favoured with a sphere of exertion and talents fitted for earning success, some unlucky whim interposes and decoys away the mind, so that it shall fly off at a point where, by adhering to the centre of motion, they might have given a successful finish to the work. Being at present under the influence of one of these centrifugal powers, I shall state one point that has occurred to me in the course of my reading, and which forms the incentive for addressing you. I have noted, that all who have gone before you in the Herculean task of reforming the age, have been as much, if not more, obliged to Correspondents, than to their own industry. This has had good effects, for by presenting different views of life, or different scales of opinion, a greater latitude for discussion has been given than perhaps the plan of the most extensive periodical Monitor could otherwise have afforded. So much do I approve of this mode of instruction, that I think if an author finds nobody to enter the lists, he ought to contradict himself at one period, and at another balance the question, thus setting things in a truer and stronger light.. Eighteen months have almost crept by since you assumed your office. MORALISTS are often led into a In this period little has been done, train of thinking, from the observation of very minute appearances; incidents trifling when classed among the great mass of occurrences, and even involuntary turns of thought, have often formed the germs of the most successful undertakings. A great proportion of those beings named authors owe all their eminence to chance, and as an adequate number of their readers too often happen to be whimsical, their works are conceived, and attain eminence by the magic agency of a whim. Some persons there are very little in unison with my expectations, which have been fostered all the while by a persuasion, that for an office highly suited to our city, there appeared a fruitful and extensive line of exertion. Not only have you refrained from a gratuitous exertion of your enviable functions, but altho' complaints have been made, and cases stated, you have not once condescended to commune with your astonished readers. I stile your office enviable, and for the propriety of the epithet I appeal to your impatient readers: where is the C the Cynic who would not dip his pen" gall, and laurach forth the unpalatable potion? Does there exist a prude who sighs not for the scope of only he paper? How many fair readers pant for the privilege of vending reprobation concocted over "the scandal potion," under the guise of a female Censor! Some of the disappointed complainants now wish for the gift of silence. They are disposed to conceive, that if untroubled by them you would have pursued "the tenor of your way," and at least have astonished Trade, wealth and fashion, ask you still to bleed, "And holy men give Scripture for the deed." Pleas. of Hope, Part 1st, line 483, -Ye who, borne about "In chariots and sedans, know no fatigue "But that of idleness, and taste no scenes "But such as art contrives, possess ye still "Your element; there only can ye shine." Task, Book 1. about to investigate, is the great mover Fashion, the effects of which we are of the views and happiness of a considerable number of mankind, and the world at your faculty of writing preliminary papers, at which you seem 10 possess a more happy knack than at carrying on your work. Other parties take different views of the case. I am informed that the association of according to the ideas which certain may be defined thus: it is a mode of living agreed upon as the standard of propriety, by those who are supposed to have a correct judgement upon such matters. Its influence is variable ber take sufferers mentioned in your third numa very vehement part in the general discontent: they have unanimously voted you guilty of malversation in office. You will now be convinced of the existence of this cravag spirit among your readers, and as a moment's reflection ought to be sufScient to convince you of the plausibiity of addressing us in person, we hope o farther delay will ensue. Among the croud of expectants, I may humbly look forward, and in the discernng mind of the Censor will no doubt meet a reward commensurate with the ure of my services. Consider, Sir, the effects of such an explosion as the ong-concocted mass of rebellion you are been giving place to will occasion, not averted by yourself; and forget not the kindly Monitor who has pointed out the rising feud. To althe clamour in a certain degree, d to afford you scope for another amber, allow a space for the followcrude remarks on a subject allied your office. people attach to the word; there are, who make fashion their model in in their every action; their houses and furniture, their equipage and servants, their religion, taste, and opinions, the education of their children; all are unare call Fashionables, or classed as a der the guidance of fashion. These body, the beau monde, and are compo a country. These, with many more, sed of the nobility and rich gentry of are initiated as its followers, soon after attaining intellect enough to be taught that fine cloaths, cut according to the prevalent mode, are the distinguishing marks of superiority. When the obto fine cloaths, they naturally suppose scure see the weight which is attached that, in order to rise in the estimation of the world, they must acquire a fine coat. The methods which are taken to further this pursuit, are not always honourable; this implies a general laxity of moral sense, and let the methods taken be unimpeachably pure, yet the anxiety and labour which are the effects of a wish for notoriety, renFashion is not only the greatest tyrant, and the amor sceleratus habendi, which der its votaries sufficiently miserable, but the greatest impostor." Ed. Mag. 1775. Vol. 1st, p. 79. suits of this nature, often shuts their is the inseparable concomitant of pur ears to the call of distress, and their earnings, which ought to render their families comfortable, are exhausted in dress. But as the serious moral evils of fashion are not designed to be the subject of this essay, we shall take another view of the matter. To describe this many-coloured potentate, would afford scope for an enquiry of no mean magnitude but as what I mean to say upon the subject is intended to be very brief, the ideas which I am to impart must be very general. To wade through the vortex of particulars were to write an elaborate volume. Readers who expect a chain of fine reasoning, with oratory's choicest flowers embossed on every link, will also feel no small share of disappointment. But to proceed : Such is the rage for appearances, that mental merit is out of the question; let a man possess an acute judgement, a fancy the most inventive, and the most refined sensibility; if he is not dressed in the mode of the ton, he is a nonentity, a being of no weight in the eyes of the world. In short, to make yourself agreeable you must be fashionable; be but this, and you become a man fit for society. Would not the indignation of a thinking man burn with volcanic fervour, were he to see the man of worth passing among those callow Fashionables who crowd our public walks, and looked upon with a vacant self-sufficient simper? To realise the feeling, he need only walk a little way along some fashionable lounge. wry faces, or wriggle himself into some unnatural shape, will be patronised and fed; while a man possessing great and useful powers of invention, should he ask the patronage of the man of ton towards some of the efforts of his talent, will be told, that his machine may be very useful, but the gentleman has no leisure to examine it.— Views like these surely gave rise to the elegant plaint of Mr Shee, in his "Remonstrance of a Painter:" "The muse desponding strikes her lyre in vain, "She finds no ear at leisure for the strain; "Art's toiling sons their slighted stores unfold; "Each eye is vacant, and each heart is cold. Rhimes on Art. Part 2. In justice to fashion, I shall acknowledge that her influence is sometimes favourable to the arts; as it often, becomes fashionable to have a good collection of paintings, or a spacious library. The epithets of " Patron of the arts" or "Man of taste," have often other incentive to patronise genius; been lavished upon those who felt no farther than that they praised the one nor possessed ideas of the beautiful, or the other only because it was fashonable. The author of " the Task" has characterised such a man as "The difference of a Guido from a daub, Frequents the crowded auction: stationed there "As duly as the Langford of a shew, "With glass at eye, and catalogue in hand, "And tongue accomplish'd in the fulsome cant, ease; "Oft as the price-deciding hammer fails "He notes it in his book, then raps his box, Such is the superiority which superfluous enjoyments possess over useful" And pedantry that coxcombs learn with arts, that a frizeur of more than ordinary dexterity, or any other of the minions of fashion, will receive more for ministering a few hours to the pleasures of a great man, than an industrious mechanic will gain in a week. The jockey who rides a favorite horse at the race, will receive a remuneration which the labourer would not earn in a month. The fellow who can make "Swears 'tis a bargain, rails at his hard fate "That he has let it pass," &c. Tack, Book VIA Dr Franklin in one of his Essays observes, that in America" people do not enquire concerning a stranger what ishe, but what can he do?" We reverse this rule of judgement; when forming our opinion of a man at first sight our question is what is he? It would be well if solid acquirements, or useful talents, commanded our attention, but we too often judge of the inner man by the quality of a name. Thus, "Accomplishments have taken virtue's "And wisdom falls before exterior grace; stone, Hence an unfurnish'd and a listless mind, "Though busy, trifling; empty, though refin'd. the influence of friendship. To enforce what has been said, we may subpœna our experience; how often are those friendships which are cultivated at school violated! There is an epoch in the life of every young man who aspires at fashionable notoriety; and this is no other than the period when the honours of his chin acquiring that exuberance which renders scission necessary, and the muscles approximating to the characteristic that constitutes manly might, inform him that he is soon to change his sphere. At this time he is supposed to have formed friendships and attachments among his schoolfellows or others of his juvenile companions. Perhaps there may exist a disparity of birth or situation between him and some of these; as it is not fashionable to entertain love for a poor man or respect for his talents, the young gentleman's connection with all who fall under that class is annihilated. Attachments of a softer kind are often formed at school, and instances where they have resolved into a firmer connection have occurred. We. shall suppose this young man to have testified propensities of this kind, the supposition would not be unpleasant were not a disagreeable reality attached to it, which is, that as the dictates of fashion do not allow scope for those finer ties of attachment, except in cases where a good match may be expected, there are many chances, that a religious adherence to that maxim will have galled for life the feelings of some innocent girl. Fashionable pursuits are dangerous to a youth designed for those of a more solid kind. Many hours, thrown away by our youth in parading to and fro in Prince Street, would redound to the internal happiness of the man, by giving him that knowledge of himself so necessary to happiness in retrospection; and put him in that state of mind necessary to act in future life with discrimination of his duties and his rights. Can we conceive a ve hicle, more eligible for the purposes of the designing man, ambitious of undue influence over the minds or purses of his fellows, than the fool whose chief good lies in the spurious enjoyments of fashion? Can such a man resist an extraordinary inclination to break down the barrier which the moral law lays between virtue and vice? From what we have already distinguished to be arbitral on the subject, we may conclude, that those young men who have any good inclination, or any bias towards laudable employments to lose, lose a great deal by being too much men of fashion. The youthful ardour of a Chatham, a Thomson, a Cooke, -or a Nelson, was never caught in a row of loungers. Never should a statesman, a poet, a man of science, or a hero, be found among the idle and the foolish, if not dissolute. To prove that fashion influences the dispositions of the inhabitants of a country, it is enough to compare the plastic hirelings of the great with those employed in agricultural and mechanical pursuits, whose assimilation with the wishes of a rich man cannot be so habitually great as that of those employed in ministering to his pleasures. Fashion, when viewed in her proper light, is not the evanescent ruler of a season, her influence, tho' shifting, is still the same, and her mandates as binding in one shape as in another. Her subjects are the same, whether a la Paris, a l'Egyptienne, PEgyptienne, a la Russe ou a la Grecque. The political interests of all the countries on the globe are forgotten when competing with with those of fashion; and wherever her loving subjects are, let the seat of her government be where it may, her pretensions to obedience are still the same as if dictated in the city where they reside. The English, whose habits may be supposed to lie as diametrically opposite to those of the French as their shores, obey her commands with the same devotion when sped from Paris as from London. Con vinced as I am of the ridiculous view which might be given of Fashion, I shall not dilate the subject by viewing her in that light, but proceed to state the results of what has been already said, and leave my auditors to form their judgement of fashion. If pursuits are destructive which incapacitate those engaged in thera from being useful to the community, then I think that fashion places many in that situation, and that her influence is so far pernicious to society. Do as others do, but think as you please, is a maxim that generally prevails, but which ought to be exploded as pernicious, and as having effects that undermine the influence of principle. And what is fashion composed of, but the essence of the above maxim? and if that maxim destroys the influence of our principles upon our daily practice, should it not be systematically exploded, and be succecded by a maxim such as this Cultivate a sense of rectitude, and act according to its dictates. Habits or opinions, though harmless in theory, may in practice produce effects interwoven with our most important interests. And if such effects have pernicious influence upon those interests, the eradication of the cause, so far as practicable, ought to ensue. But if there is more danger to be expected from the misapplication of a general feeling than of one more isolated, then I hope to have proved that fashion is often a most dangerous visitor. Fashion is not only interesting to the philosopher, but to the statesmant. Thus there is full scope for another paper on the subject, where the serious attention of those who are disposed to investigate the results of an ad be The encouragement given to Lotteries, &c. may be cited as corroborating proofs that fashion can be made subservient to the plans of the Statesman |