THE cries of London may be divided into vocal and instrumental. As for the latter they are at present under a very great disorder. A freeman of London has the 'privilege of disturbing a whole ftreet for an hour together ' with the twankling of a brass kettle or a frying-pan. The watchman's thumpat midnight startles us in our beds, as much as the breaking in of a thief. The fow-gelder's horn has indeed something musical in it, but this is fel' dom heard within the liberties. I would therefore propose, that no instrument of this nature should be made 'use of which I have not tuned and licensed, after having carefully examined in what manner it may affect the ears ' of her majesty's liege subjects. 6 The VOCAL cries are of a much larger extent, and indeed ** so full of incongruities and barbarisms, that we appear a ' distracted city to foreigners, who do not comprehend the meaning of finch enormous outcries. Milk is generally fold in a note above Ela, and in founds so exceeding thrill, that it often sets our teeth on edge chimney-fweeper is confined to no certain pitch; he sometimes utters himself in the deepest base, and fometimes in ' the sharpeft treble; sometimes in the highest, and fometimes in the lowest note of the gamut. The fame obfervation might be made on the retailers of small-coal, not ' to mention broken-glasses or brick-düft. In these there'fore, and the like cafes, it should be my care to sweeten and mellow the voices of these itinerant tradesimen, be'fore they make their appearance in our streets, as also to accommodate their cries to their respective wares; and to take care in particular, that those may not make the most noise who have the least to fell, which is very obfervable in the venders of card-matches, to whom I 'cannot but apply that old proverb of Much cry, but little • wool. Some of these last mentioned musicians are so very loud in the fale of these trifling manufactures, that an honest ⚫ splenetic gentleman of my acquaintance bargained with one of them never to come into the street where he lived: but what was the effect of this contract? why, the whole tribe of card-match-inakers which frequent that quarter, passed by his door the very next day, in hopes of being bought off after the fame manner. It is another great imperfection in our London cries, that there is no just time nor meafure observed in them. Our news should indeed be published in a very quick time, because it is a commodity that will not keep cold. It should not, however, be cried with the fame precipitation as fire; yet this is generally the cafe: a bloody battle alarms the town from one end to another in an inftant. Every motion of the French is published in fo great a hurry, that one would think the enemy were at our gates. This likeways I would take upon me to re'gulate in fuch a manner, that there should be fome distinction made between the spreading of a victory, a march, or an encampment, a Dutch, a Portugal, or a Spanish mail. Nor must I omit, under this head, those excessive alarms with which several boisterous ruftics infeft our streets in turnip-feason; and which are more inexcufable, because these are wares which are in 'no danger of cooling upon their hands. THERE are others who affect a very flow time, and are, in my opinion, much more tunable than the former; the cooper in particular swells his last note in an hollow voice, that is not without its harmony; nor can I forbear being infpired with a most agreeable melancholy when I hear that fad and folemn air with which the public are very often afked, if they have any chairs to mend? Your own memory may suggest to you many other lamentable ditties of the fame nature, in which the music is wonderfully languishing and melodious. I AM always pleased with that particular time of the year year which is proper for the pickling of dill and cucumber; but alas! this cry, like the fong of the nightingale, is not heard above two months. It would therefore be worth while to consider, whether the fame air ⚫ might not in some cases be adapted to other words. 6 It might likewife deserve our most serious confideration, how far, in a well regulated city, those humourifts are to be tolerated, who, not contented with the traditional cries of their forefathers, have invented particular fongs and tunes of their own: fuch as was not many years fince, the pastry-man, commonly known by the name of the colly-moll-puff; and such as is at this day the 6 the vender of powder and wash-balls, who, if I am right ly informed, goes under the name of Powder-watt. I MUST not here omit one particular absurdity which runs through this whole vociferous generation, and which "renders their cries very often not only incommodious, but altogether useless to the public; I mean, that idle accomplishment which they all of thentaimat, of crying fo as not to be understood. Whether or no they have learn"ed this from several of our affected fingers, I will not take upon me to say; but most certain it is, that people 'know the wares they deal in rather by their tunes than by their words; infomuch that I have sometimes seen a country boy run out to buy apples of a bellows mender, * and ginger-bread from a grinder of knives and scissars. Nay, so strangely infatuated are some very eminent artists ' of this particular grace in a cry, that none but their acquaintance are able to guess at their profeffion; for who ' else can know, that work if I had it, should be the fignification of a corn-cutter? 6 'FORASMUCH therefore as persons of this rank are feldom men of genius or capacity, I think it would be very proper, that fome man of good sense and found judgment should preside over these public cries, who • should permit none to lift up their voices in our ftreets, 'that have not tuneable throats, and are not only able to * overcome the noife of the croud, and the rattling of coaches, but alfo to vend their respective merchandises ' in apt phrases, and in the most distinct and agreeable founds. I do therefore humbly recommend myself as a ' person rightly qualified for this post; and, if I meet with fitting encouragement, shall communicate some other projects which I have by me, that may no lefs conduce to the emolument of the public. I am, SI R, &c. Ralph Crotchet THE THE INDEX. A A BSENCE of lovers, death in love, N. 241. how to be made eafy, ibid. Abstinence, the benefits of it, Ν. 195. Accompts, their great usefulness, N. 174. Acosta, his answer to Limborch, touching the multiplicity of ceremonies in the Jewish religion, N. 212. Action, a threefold division of our actions, ibid. No right judgment to be made of them, N. 174 Admiration, one of the most pleasing paffions, N. 237. Adversity, no evil in itself, ibid. Advertisement from Mr Sly the haberdasher, N. 187. about the lottery-ticket, 191. Ambition, by what to be measured, N. 188. Many times as hurtful to the princes who are led by it as the people, 200. Most men subject to it, 219, 224. Of use when rightly directed, 219. Annihilation, by whom defired, N. 210. jest of withes, ibid. The most ab Apes, what women so called, and described, N. 244. Appollo's temple on the top of Leucate, by whom frequent ed, and for what purpose, N. 223. Apothecary, his employment, N. 195. Appetites, fooner moved than the paffions, Ν. 208. Argument, rules for the management of one, N. 197. Argumentum bafilinum, what, 239. Socrates his way of arguing, ib. In what manner managed by states and communities, ib. Argus, his qualifications and employments under Juno, Aristanetus his letters, some account of them, N. 238. B B AUDY-HOUSES, frequented by wife men, not Beggars, Sir Andrew Freeport's opinion of them, N. 232. C CAPRICE often acts in the place of reafon, N. 191. wife, N. 198. Charles the Great, his behaviour to his fecretary, who had Children, the unnaturalness in mothers of making them Chinese, the punishment among them for parricide, N. 189. Club: the the-romp club, N. 217. Methods observed by Club-law, a convincing argument, N. 239, Comfort, what, and where found, N. 196. Conftancy in fufferings, the excellency of it, N. 237. temperance, N. 195. Coverley, Sir Roger dé, a dispute between him and Sir An- drew Freeport, Ν. 174. Cowards naturally impudent, N. 231. Credulity in women infamous, N. 190. Cries of London, require some regulation, N. 251. Cunning, the accomplishment of whom, N. 225. Curiofity, one of the strongest and most lasting of our ap- petites, N. 23 237. Gynæas, Pyrrhus's chief minister, his handsom reproof to that prince, N. 180, |