AT dinner, the fquire afked him, if he had ever practifed phyfic? "Yes, an' please your honour (faid he), among brute beafts; but I never meddle with rational creatures.”—“I know not whether you rank in that clafs the audience you was haranguing in the court at St James's, but I fhould be glad to know what kind of powders you was diftributing, and whether you had a good fale."-" Sale, Sir! (cried Clinker) I hope I fhall never be base enough to fell for gold and filver what freely comes of God's grace. I distributed nothing, an' like your honour, but a word of advice to my fellows in fervitude and fin."-" Advice! concerning what?" -"Concerning profane fwearing, an' please your honour; so horrid and fhocking, that it made my hair ftand on end."- Nay, if thou canst cure them of that difeafe, I fhall think thee a wonderful doctor indeed." -"Why not cure them, my good mafter? the hearts of those poor people are not so stubborn as your honour feems to think. Make them firft fenfible that you have nothing in view but their good, then they will listen with patience, and eafily be convinced of the fin and folly of a practice that affords neither profit nor pleafure."-At this remark our uncle changed colour, and looked round the company, confcious that his own withers were not altogether unwrung. "But, Clinker (faid he), if you should have eloquence enough to perfuade the vulgar to refign thofe tropes and figures of rhetoric, there will be little or nothing left to diftinguish their converfation from that of their betters."-" But then, your honour knows, their converfation will be void of offence; and, at the day of judgment, there will be no diftinction of perfons."

HUMPHRY going down stairs to fetch up a bottle of wine, my uncle congratulated his fifter upon having fuch a reformer in the family; when Mrs Tabitha declared, he was a fober civilized fellow, very refpectful, and very industrious; and, fhe believed, a good Chriftian into the bargain. One would think Clinker must 'really have fome very extraordinary talent, to ingratiate himfelf in this manner with a virago of her character, fo fortified against him with prejudice and refentment; but the truth is, fince the adventure of Salthill, Mrs

Tabby feems to be entirely changed. She has left off fcolding the fervants, an exercise which was grown habitual, and even feemed neceffary to her conftitution; and is become fo indifferent to Chowder, as to part with him in a present to Lady Grifkin, who proposes to bring the breed of him into fashion. Her Ladyfhip is the widow of Sir Timothy Griskin, a distant relation of our family. She enjoys a jointure of five hundred pounds a-year, and makes shift to spend three times that fum. Her character before marriage was a little equivocal, but at present she lives in the bon ton, keeps card-tables, gives private fuppers to felect friends, and is vifited by perfons of the first fashion.-She has been remarkably civil to us all, and cultivates my uncle with the most particular regard; but the more fhe ftroaks him, the more his bristles feem to rife-To her compliments he makes very laconic and dry returns.-T'other day fhe fent us a pottle of fine strawberries, which he did not receive without figns of difguft, muttering from the Eneid, Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.-She has twice called for Liddy, of a forenoon, to take an airing in the coach; but Mrs Tabby was always fo alert (I fuppofe by his direction), that she never could have the niece without the aunt's company. I have endeavoured to found Squaretoes on this fubject, but he carefully avoids all explanation.

I HAVE now, dear Phillips, filled a whole fheet; and, if you have read it to an end, I dare fay you are

as tired as

Your humble fervant,

London, June 2.

J. MELFORD.

YES

To Dr LEWIS.

ES, Doctor, I have feen the British Museum; which is a noble collection, and even ftupendous, if we confider it was made by a private man, a phyfician, who was obliged to make his own fortune at the fame time; but, great as the collection is, it would appear more striking if it was arranged in one fpacious faloon, instead of being divided into different apartments, which it does not entirely fill.-I could wifh the series of medals was connected, and the whole of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms completed, by adding to each, at the public expence, thofe articles that are wanting. It would likewife be a great improvement, with respect to the library, if the deficiencies were made up by purchasing all the books of character that are not to be found already in the collection.-They might be claffed in centuries, according to the dates of their publication, and catalogues printed of them and the manufcripts, for the information of those that want to confult or compile from fuch authorities. I could also wifh, for the honour of the nation, that there was a complete apparatus for a courfe of mathematics, mechanics, and experimental philofophy; and a good falary fettled upon an able profeffor, who fhould give regular lectures on thefe fubjects.

BUT this is all idle fpeculation, which will never be reduced to practice.-Confidering the temper of the times, it is a wonder to fee any inftitution whatsoever established for the benefit of the public. The spirit of party is risen to a kind of phrenzy, unknown to former ages, or rather degenerated to a total extinction of honefty and candour.-You know I have obferved, for fome time, that the public papers are become the infa. mous vehicles of the most cruel and perfidious defamation. Every rancorous knave, every defperate incendiary, that can afford to spend half a crown or three fhillings, may fkulk behind the prefs of a newfmonger, and have a stab at the first character in the kingVOL. VI. Р

dom, without running the least hazard of detection or punishment.

I HAVE made acquaintance with a Mr Barton, whom Jery knew at Oxford; a good fort of a man, though moft ridiculously warped in his political principles; but his partiality is the lefs offenfive, as it never appears in the ftile of fcurrility and abufe. He is a member of parliament, and a retainer to the court; and his whole conversation turns upon the virtues and perfections of the ministers who are his patrons. T'other day, when he was bedaubing one of those worthies with the most fulfome praife, I told him I had seen the fame nobleman characterised very differently in one of the daily papers; indeed, fo ftigmatized, that if one half of what was faid of him was true, he must be not only unfit to rule, but even unfit to live; that those impeachments had been repeated again and again, with the addition of fresh matter; and that, as he had taken no steps towards his own vindication, I began to think there was fome foundation for the charge." And pray, Sir (faid Mr Barton), what steps would you have him take?— Suppofe he should profecute the publisher, who screens the anonymous accufer, and bring him to the pillory for a libel; this is fo far from being counted a punishment in terrorem, that it will probably make his fortune. The multitude immediately take him into their protection, as a martyr to the cause of defamation, which they have always efpoufed-They pay his fine, they contribute to the increase of his ftock, his fhop is crouded with cuftomers, and the fale of his paper rifes in proportion to the scandal it contains. All this time the profecutor is inveighed against as a tyrant and oppreffor, for having chofen to proceed by the way of information, which is deemed a grievance: But if he lays an action for damages, he must prove the damage; and I leave you to judge, whether a gentleman's character may not be brought into contempt, and all his views in life blafted by calumny, without his being able to specify the particulars of the damage he has sustained.

"THIS fpirit of defamation is a kind of herefy, that thrives under perfecution. The liberty of the prefs is a term of great efficacy; and, like that of the Proteftant

religion, has often ferved the purposes of sedition.-A minifter, therefore, muft arm himself with patience, and bear thofe attacks without repining.-Whatever mifchief they may do in other refpects, they certainly contribute, in one particular, to the advantage of government; for thofe defamatory articles have multiplied papers in fuch a manner, and augmented their fale to fuch a degree, that the duty upon ftamps and advertisements has made a very confiderable addition to the revenue."-Certain it is, a gentleman's honour is a very delicate fubject to be handled by a jury, composed of men who cannot be supposed remarkable either for sentiment or impartiality.-In fuch a cafe, indeed, the defendant is tried, not only by his peers, but also by his party; and I really think, that, of all patriots, he is the most refolute, who expofes himself to fuch detraction for the fake of his country.-If, from the ignorance or partiality of juries, a gentleman can have no redress from law for being defamed in a pamphlet or newspaper, I know but one other method of proceeding against the publisher, which is attended with some rifk, but has been practifed fuccessfully, more than once, in my remembrance. -A regiment of horse was represented, in one of the newspapers, as having misbehaved at Dettingen; a captain of that regiment broke the publisher's bones, telling him, at the fame time, if he went to law, he fhould certainly have the like falutation from every officer of the corps. Governor took the fame

fatisfaction on the ribs of an author, who traduced him by name in a periodical paper.-I know a low fellow of the fame clafs, who, being turned out of Venice for his impudence and fcurrility, retired to Lugano, a town of the Grifons (a free people, God wot), where he found a printing-prefs, from whence he fquirted his filth at fome refpectable characters in the republic which he had been obliged to abandon. Some of thefe, finding him out of the reach of legal chastisement, employed certain ufseful instruments, fuch as may be found in all countries, to give him the baftinado; which, being repeated more than once, effectually stopped the current of his abufe