vain feek a parallel in the annals of readiness and ingenuity.

As he was one day prowling' for his prey in the ways of the metropolis, his eye encountered a diftant multitude, to which, as to the field of victory, he triumphantly advanced. Urging his paffage through the prefs, he dimly difcovered in the centre a gentleman who had dropped in fudden death. He fprung forward with agonized impatience, gazed with affected horror on the pallid vifage of the apoplectic victim, and "Great God! my uncle! my uncle!" was the bursting exclamation which drew on him the wonder. and compaffion of the furrounding throng. "In the name of mercy," continued the hypocrite of Kildare, "in the name of mercy, procure me a hackney or other conveyance, that I may bear away and honour with the laft gloomy offices of unperishing affection the remains of the brother of my father." His urgent entreaties were humanely complied with; and the dead and the living entered at once into the chariot, while to the charioteer the latter of the two, with faltering accents, notified the place of his melancholy destination.

We have already feen that to the collector of Ireland a voyage or a journey was not, as to others, an interval of relaxation; the precious moinents were now devoted to the luerative labour of ftripping from the carcafe of his filent uncle, his now needlefs appur tenances; and the handkerchief of the defunct was made the receiver of the perfonal property of the abrupt expirer. Scarce completed was the fpoliation, ere the chariot and the charioteer arrived at the gates of a chirurgeon, to which he had clandeftinely directed the fon of Jeha. A purloiner of the ordinary rate of ability would have remained exultingly content with having thus far facceeded in his mighty machinations but not in these imperfect, depredations do I. recognife:

the:

the Son of Waldron. It was referved for the pickpocket of Ireland, after having feigned the ties of affinity with an unknown carcafe, and forced from it an illegal inheritance, to round this mafter-stroke of chicane, by configning the body, for a ftipulated purchafe, to the blade of the anatomift.

But the most brilliant fucceffes of the felon only lead to a confidence that terminates in difcovery; and the plain of Enfield was deftined, perhaps, to be the laft fcene of his violations of property upon English. ground. A palpable detection of his hand in invading the fob of an English Commoner, occafioned primarily his feizure, and finally his conviction. As his fpirit never funk with his circumstances, he incurred not the fentence of tranfportation without vigorous efforts for its prevention; and as eloquence was not lefs eminently his talent than manual dexterity, he neglected not, when fummoned to his defence, toappeal to the paffions of the jury and his auditors. Eloquence, the fubftitute of honesty, decks itself in its robes of purity only to confummate its impofitions; and Barrington imagined, by his rhetorical efforts, to hoodwink with a new bandage the eye of Justice. But his oratory turned against itself; and he forgot, in his hour of affliction, that he was provoking till further the clamours of an indignant public, by evineing the poffeffion of thofe powers, a more politic diFection of which might have tranfplanted him from the bar of the culprit to the bench of the bishop,

The Recorder of England's capital, whofe fombrous lips were the vehicle of his fentence, omitted not to impress on the mind of the offender this deep aggravation of his criminality; and a rumour went forth, that the tears of the penitent pickpocket of Kildare were wiped with a cambric trophy of former achievements. At this hour I mentally defcry him in the Bay of Botany, either realizing the profeffions of contrition

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contrition which he held forth in his defence, and a faint among his fallen afsociates, or employing the interval of his feptennial exile in devifing new forms of fraud, new artifices of concealment, or new immunities from juftice.

Thus in one dark day was crumbled into duft the grandeur of the Hero of Hibernia; and as he moved along, melancholy and flow, the hall of justice, there ran along the dome a collective figh, that ftole from the bofoms of maids, and wives, and widows-a defponding host-while it was the common consent of all who affifted at the spectacle, that the forrowing Son of Waldron had more the appearance of an emiffary fent forth on the pious errand of propagating the gospel, or a new bishop on his way to the facerdotal throne, with the prelatical nolo in his mouth, than the culprit of Kildare, tranfported by the Recorder of the capital of Albion, to the realm of rogues in the Southern Main.

ON THE ABUSE OF THE TITLE OF ESQUIRE.

THAT

HAT the honours of nobility may, even by creation, as well as natural defcent, fall upon unworthy perfons, is a fact which it would be foolish to deny, because it would be impoffible; and which it would be weak to repine at, because it is the fate of all inftitutions not to be able to exclude certain abuses. A profeffion is not leffened in the eyes of a fenfible man, because an unworthy perfon has been admitted into it; and with all the faults of individual noblemen, it will be found, that the inftitution of the peerage has been the nurfe of patriotifm and public virtue, and impreffes the mind with a kind of fuperior caution against vice, cowardice, and perfidy, which the general mass of mankind are without. It is not, however, my intention, in the following obfervations, to interfere at

all

all on fpeculative questions on the advantages or difadvantages of created or hereditary nobility; but to point out the abfurd abuse of a title, which, from vanity and foolish complaifance, has been fo generally extended, as to lofe its dignity, and become almost a term of reproach.

The title I mean is that of Efquire, appended to the name by the common abbreviation Efq. Let us confider what this title was originally, and what it legally is, and we shall foon be convinced, that the indifcriminate ufe of it is totally without foundation upon any known law, or fource of honour. In this part of my fubject, I am principally, though not altogether, affifted by the learned author of "Commentaries on the Laws of England."

Efquires are faid, by Camden, to confift of four claffes: 1. The eldest sons of knights, and their eldest fons in perpetual fucceffion. 2. The eldeft fons of younger fons of peers, and their eldest fons in like perpetual fucceffion; both which fpecies of efquires," Sir Henry Spelman entitles armigeri natalitii. 3. Esquires created by the king's letters patent, or other investiture; and their eldest fons. 4. Efquires by virtue of their office; as juftices of the peace, and others, who may bear any office of truft under the crown.

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thefe may be added the efquires of the knights of the bath, each of whom conftitutes three at his installation; and all foreign, and even Irish peers; for not only thefe, but the eldest fons of peers of Great Britain, though frequently titular lords, are only efquires in law, and must be so named in all legal proceedings. It may be observed, however, that the first two dif tinctions or claffes, enumerated by Camden, have long ceafed to exift; for the title of knight gives not the title of efquire to the eldest fon, who may perhaps be a common, and often a low mechanic, and muft, accord

ing to the ftatute 1 Hen. V. c. 5. be defignated by his mystery or trade, in all writs, &c.

Efquires and gentiemen are confounded together by Sir Edward Coke, who obferves, that every efquire is a gentleman, and a gentleman is defined to be one qui arma gerit, who bears coat-armour, the grant of which' adds gentility to a man's family. "It is indeed,' fays Blackstone, "a matter fomewhat unsettled, what constitutes the distinction, or who is a real efquire; for it is not an eftate, however large, that confers this rank upon its owner. But to the lift given above, the following may be added: mayors of towns, counsellors at law, ferjeants of the feveral offices of the king's court, and other officers of note. These are all entitled to be called efquires, and none others."

The title of Efquire, therefore, like all other titles, proceeds directly, or indirectly, from the king as the fountain of all honour, and it can be conferred by no other person, nor affumed by any perfon from vanity. or caprice. But if this be the law, how ftrangely dif ferent is the practice of modern times! Tradefmen and mechanics, of all defcriptions, confer this title upon each other; and many do not even fcruple to write efquire to their names in books of fubfcription. But no individual in this kingdom (his Majesty only excepted) can confer any title; and if foolith custom or complaifance allow men to dub each other efquires, an equally foolish and equally well-founded cuftom may, in time, induce them to prefix the title honourable to their names. If caprice is to govern in one thing, it may in all; for caprice is boundlefs, and human vanity will always furnifh it with an apology.

But mechanics and tradefmen are not the only per fons who affume the title Efquire without the right to it. The higher orders of commercial men, fuch as merchants and bankers, affume it with no better title; nor can the landed intereft prove that they have a fu