you, are confiderations of no very trifling nature; and the man, in my opinion, must be something more or lefs than human, wherever they are refifted. As I have not vanity fufficient to pretend to the first, I have fenfe enough to avoid the imputation of the latter; and am content with being nothing more than mortal, provided there are no malicious endeavours to make me any thing lefs. Popularity, my dear friend, is nothing more than a step-ladder for ambition to reach the fummit of place and preferment. We all have our prices; and if it is afked why I continued fo long in an oppofition to the court, my anfwer is this, they did not come up to mine. There is fcarcely a member whofe price I do not know to a fingle fixpence, and whofe very foul I could not almost purchase at the first offer. The reason former minifters have been deceived in this matter is evident; they never confidered the tempers of the people they had to deal with. I have known minifters fo weak as to offer an avaricious rascal a ftar and garter; and to think of bribing a profufe young rogue, who fet no value upon money, with a lucrative employment. I purfue methods as oppofite as the poles, and confequently my adminiftration must be attended with very different effects.

The people of England are, in general, a fet of hot-headed fools, a parcel of fenfible coxcombs, who, though perfectly able to examine the bottom of things, never judge farther than the furface. They know their rights and privileges inviolably fafe, and yet they are never eafy unless they think them in danger. It is no way difficult, therefore, for an afpiring commoner to take an advantage of this difpofition, and to convert their ignorant folicitude for the public emolument entirely to the promotion of his own. A taunch oppofition on two or three questions, right or wrong, to the court, gets him a name; half a dozen impudent unmeaning fpeeches, the admiration; and a treafonable pamphlet, the very fouls of the people. Patriotic barbers toaft him

in ale-houfes, public-fpirited fhoemakers harangue for him in the streets, and free-born chairmen and house-breakers fing forth his praifes in every nightcellar within the bills of mortality. To quiet the minds of the mob, he gets a place. His own intereft then obliges him to join the measures of the court. Upon this, the golden idol turns inftantly to a calf, and leaves the field of preferment to fomebody elfe, who is next to fhare the admiration, and, in due time, the curfes of the vulgar. I remember I never thought my point compleatly carried till they clapped me in the Tower. I looked upon myself then as a made man, and the event fully juftified the warmth of my expectations. In reality, I know no better friends to the conftitution of this country, was it any way in danger, than this fet of imaginary patriots: they struggle very heartily while they are at it, and the moment they are bought off, their preferment infpires others with a view of following their example, in order by the fame means to attain the fame ends; and thus we always find a fucceffion of zealous patriots, who conftantly advance the good of their country, by being fo very trenuous about their own. But, to drop this fubject, know, my dear friend, that the conftitution of this country is fo critically founded, that whatever affects the privileges of the people will, in a little time, endanger the prerogative of the crown: there is no feparate intereft for either to confuit; and, in fuch a cafe, no man of sense will dream that the court can have the leaft notion of encroaching on the liberties of the fubject.

You fee, my dear friend, how freely I deal with myself; but, with me, pa. triotifm goes for nothing. There is not this moment one patriot in the house, nor, indeed, is there the leaft neceffity that there fhould. Do not deprive me, of your good opinion for my candour, but go on to esteem me, and be affured 1 fhall ever remain your most faithful friend,

R. WALPOLE.

יא

you, are confiderations of novery trifling nature; and the man, in my opinion, must be something more or less than human, wherever they are refifted. As I have not vanity fufficient to pretend to the first, I have fenfe enough to avoid the imputation of the latter; and am content with being nothing more than mortal, provided there are no malicious endeavours to make me any thing lefs. Popularity, my dear friend, is nothing more than a step-ladder for ambition to reach the fummit of place and preferment. We all have our prices; and if it is afked why I continued fo long in an oppofition to the court, my anfwer is this, they did not come up to mine. There is fcarcely a member whofe price I do not know to a fingle fixpence, and whose very foul I could not almost purchase at the first offer. The reafon former minifters have been deceived in this matter is evident; they never confidered the tempers of the people they had to deal with. I have known minifters fo weak as to offer an avaricious rascal a ftar and garter; and to think of bribing a profufe young rogue, who fet no value upon money, with a lucrative employment. I purfue methods as oppofite as the poles, and confequently my administration must be attended with very different effects.

The people of England are, in general, a fet of hot-headed fools, a parcel of fenfible coxcombs, who, though perfeetly able to examine the bottom of things, never judge farther than the furface. They know their rights and privileges inviolably fafe, and yet they are never eafy unless they think them in danger. It is no way difficult, therefore, for an afpiring commoner to take an advantage of this difpofition, and to convert their ignorant folicitude for the public emolument entirely to the promotion of his own. A ftaunch oppofition on two or three questions, right or wrong, to the court, gets him a name; half a dozen impudent unmeaning fpeeches, the admiration; and a treafonable pamphlet, the very fouls of the people. Patriotic barbers toaft him

2

in ale-houfes, public-spirited shoemakers harangue for him in the treets, and free-born chairmen and house-breakers fing forth his praises in every nightcellar within the bills of mortality. To quiet the minds of the mob, he gets a place. His own intereft then obliges him to join the measures of the court. Upon this, the golden idol turns inftantly to a calf, and leaves the field of preferment to fomebody elfe, who is next to share the admiration, and, in due time, the curfes of the vulgar. I remember I never thought my point compleatly carried till they clapped me in the Tower. I looked upon myself then as a made man, and the event fully juftified the warmth of my expectations. In reality, I know no better friends to the constitution of this country, was it any way in danger, than this fet of imaginary patriots: they struggle very heartily while they are at it, and the moment they are bought off, their preferment infpires others with a view of following their example, in order by the fame means to attain the fame ends; and thus we always find a fucceffion of zealous patriots, who conftantly advance the good of their country, by being fo very ftrenuous about their own. But, to drop this fubject, know, my dear friend, that the conftitution of this country is fo critically founded, that whatever af fects the privileges of the people will, in a little time, endanger the prerogative of the crown: there is no feparate intereft for either to confuit; and, in such a cafe, no man of fenfe will dream that the court can have the leaft notion of encroaching on the liberties of the fubject.

You fee, my dear friend, how freely I deal with myself; but, with me, pa. triotifm goes for nothing. There is not this moment one patriot in the houses nor, indeed, is there the leaft neceffity that there fhould. Do not deprive me of your good opinion for my candour, but go on to effeem me, and be affured 1 fhall ever remain your most faithful friend,

R. WALPOLE.

יא

THE

HE fubject of my correfpondent's letter in a former number, has procured me a very fenfible complaint from an honest buckle-maker near Cornhill; and as it may ferve by way of fupplement, I think it most proper not to poftpone the publication of it.

SIR,

TO THE BABLER.

THE remarks which were made upon the drefs of tradefimen, efpecially thofe of the younger fort, in your paper, from a correspondent I cannot help admiring very much; and the more fo, as they come home to an instance in my own family, which has for a long time given me no little uneafinefs.

You must know, Mr. Babler, that I am a plain pains-taking man, and neither more or less than a buckle-maker, near Cornhill: I have kept fhop thefe twenty years, and brought up my family, confifting of a wife, one fon, and a daughter, decently enough, though I fay it myself; and, may be, have faved a trifle or to in my business; but that does not fignify.

As every thing I have has been made by a clofe application to trade, I do not chufe appearing grander, Mr. Babler, than what becomes a perion of my ftation; fo that I confine myself to a fuit or two of modest cloaths, and never put on my largelt wig or my best ruffled fhirt but of a Sunday. My wife, how ever, who had been formerly a lady's maid in the city, has higher notions; and as I do not chufe to quarrel with her, indulges herself in the gratification of them to as ridiculous a degree as my circumstances can allow. She would not come into the fhop for the world without a fack or a French night-cap; and is fometimes fo loaded with powder and pomatum, that the very smell is enough to take away the breath of my customers. I am never fuffered to walk with her of a working day, because I am not fufficiently fine; nay, I am to efteen it as no trifling favour, if I am permitted to accompany her to the White Conduit Houfe, or Iflington fields, of a Sunday. You may be fure, Mr. Bab

ler, that fo hopeful an example has not efcaped my children without imitation. My daughter, who is about nineteen, will put up with no lefs an appellation than a young lady, and my fon, of course, thinks himfelf equally justified in supporting the title of a young gentleman: he quarrelled with my eldest apprentice the other morning for calling him by the familiar name of Andrew; and my daughter infifted upon turning away our laft maid, because, in fpeaking of her to a third perfon, the did not fay Mis Dolly. My wife's foolish indulgence is a ftill greater means of spoiling them. My daughter is always dreffed out in a manner that renders her above doing any neceffary article in the economy of a houfe, and fuperior to the condefcenfion of ferving in the fhop. If a cuftomer comes in, instead of alking what he wants, the orders the boy to call bis mafier; for he would not ftoop to send for her father to haggle about a twelvepenny knife, or a two-fhilling pair of buckles, If the fits behind the counter, it is with a look of dignity and importance; and, to every new comer-in, puts on a new air, in order to enhance the idea of her confequence. My wife has : lately bought her a pair of ftone shoebuckles; and I am hourly teazed to death about purchafing her a metal watch. My fon, Mr. Babler, is not a whit lefs affected than my daughter. I cannot fee in what refpect he is any way my fuperior; and yet, through his mother's means, he appears in a manner I never durft affume without being laughed at by all my acquaintance. He has his ruffled fhirt on every day, and clean white stockings; has actually got a filk waistcoat with vellum button-holes, and a gold-laced hat, for Sundays. Is there any bearing this, Mr. Babler? But this is not the worft of it: as he im proves in drefs, the more he decreases in his manners; and the better he is.... fupplied with the articles of finery, the lefs refpectful he grows to thofe who provide him with the means. Lord, Sir! he confiders me in no better light than a fort of an upper fervant, who is obliged to confuk the gratification of his pleasures, and to humour every turn.

and