with an air of fatisfaction, that fhe lighted as many candles as were placed in each window of a great house oppofite, being refolved to equal her neighbours.

From the yells in different freets, and the blaze of light, one might be led to imagine, that, like old Rome, modern London had been fet on fire by fome defcendant of Nero, and that, like him, the incendiary had commanded the wild beafts at the Tower and Exeter Change to be let loofe on the people. The fhrieks and howls, however, were not thofe of calamity,, but triumph; proceeding from the throats of a moft curious affemblage of butchers' fwabs, who feemed to feel pride in the idea that the art of killing was to be exclufively confined to them. Yet, though their vociferations were not dulcet as the warblings of Mrs. Billington, they were much more heartfelt and difinterested. Indeed the public were entertained gratis, while the fymphonious founds of marrow-bones and cleavers formed a concert in unifon with the vocal performers.

Nor were thefe demonftrations of joy confined to the butchers; thoufands of mechanics aud fhopmen fhared the honours of difturbing the public peace by their outrageous hilarity on this jubilant occafion. Several hearty cocks, among the laborious clafs, who were cheered by the profpect of peace and plenty, expreffed their fatisfaction by fpontaneous burfts of Jaughter, which might be called the exuberancy of mirth. Frolicfome young fellows hurried through the erowd, exclaiming, "Don't fhove the ladies!" while they almoft overturned every one that ftood in their way. Others, offended at perfons of a misanthropic difpofition who would not illuminate, broke their windows, thus demonftrating the puiffance of the majefty of the people.

Perfons of a philofophic caft contrived to unite . economy with expenfe. A fishmonger in the Strand

difplayed

difplayed the fkin of a gudgeon as a tranfparency, or rather as a facrifice to departing famine; and a frugal householder in Bloomsbury Square converted his drinking-glaffes, falt-cellars, bafins, &c. into temporary lamps!

The lover of variety had a fine opportunity of gratifying his fancy. The buzz of fuch a multitude of happy people in the ftreets, the humming of barrelorgans, fufpended to the fhoulders of itinerant Savoyards, the reiterated bursts of noife from the discharge of old rufty piftols and firelocks, filled the air with the concord of fweet founds, and evinced our love of peace by preventing our repofe. Such were the nocturnal demonftrations of joy in London; and our treetpaving mufes, commonly called ballad-fingers, are daily delighting our ears with elegant lyric compofitions, humorous, fatirical, and patriotic, on this joyous occafion. May their infpiration, like that of the Sibyls of old, ceafe on the return of Peace and good will to men, and the terms war and famine become obfolete, or expunged from the vocabulary of mankind!

SATIRICUS.

THE ERRORS OF A COUNTRY GENTLEMAN,

[From the Morning Chronicle.]

NOW addrefs you, Sir, in the hope of being able in fome degree to atone for the mifchief I have. done. My errors have been manifold; but when I publicly recant them, perhaps they may be forgiven. Sir, I am one of those deluded men who entertained a high opinion of Mr. W P, and who zealoufly fupported him in all his meafures. You may, perhaps, think that I looked out for a place or penfion. Your fufpicions, though reafonable, are groundlefs. My eftate is large and unencumbered, and I have no defire to rife higher than my ancestors, who were

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plain, honeft, independent country gentlemen. actually believed that we were in danger of a Jacobinical revolution, and that the only thing to make us fecure was the restoration of the Bourbons. I actually believed that Mr. P was of the fame opinion, and that he was the only man to bring about this grand confummation. Need I then mention my fentiments of you and your party?—The leaders of oppofition I reckoned men who wished to erect themselves into Confuls and Directors; and I thought all those who ventured to speak well of them actuated by a hope to partake in the general fpoil. To call in question the juftice or neceffity of the war, with me, was tantamount to treason. I felt its burdens as heavily as moft; two of my carriages I was obliged to lay down, I difmiffed feveral of my fervants, and at last found it neceffary to risk the character of the family for hofpitality by making a great reduction in my table. "But," faid I to myfelf, "France is not yet fubdued; -till the is, Mr. P-fays, that to make peace would be ruinous; therefore, in the language of that great man, I will willingly give up a part, to fave the whole." Even the conduct of the war I would not allow to be called in queftion for a moment. There had been mifcarriages; but these were to be attributed to accident. Upon the whole, our achievements had been brilliant, our acquifitions great, and the war the most glorious and the moft fuccefsful in which this country had ever been engaged.

Judge then of the effect produced on me by the London papers of Friday laft. A more fudden revolution did not take place in the Apostle Paul, when a light fhone upon him from heaven on his way to Damafcus, May I imitate his example, and henceforth steadily fupport the cause of truth, which I have fo long and fo cruelly perfecuted! It was fome time before I could perfuade myself that it was real, and I expected every

moment

moment to awake from an unpleasant dream. The fad conviction, however, was at laft impreffed upon my mind, that I had nine years placed my confidence in an idle boafter, a perfidious inflamer of the public mind, a selfish placeman ready to fwear to every thing that would ferve his crooked ends-a man at once obftinate and inconfiftent, arrogant and mean, hot-headed and infincere.

But if he would avoid execration, let him retire into obfcurity. The bubble has burft; and, as all will be eager to charge their misconduct upon him, in his former adherents he will find his bittereft enemies. His humiliation is certain; but he may yet fubtract himself from punishment. I confefs, that from our former conduct he might expect to make us believe almost any thing. But there is a fpecies of craft which even credulity will not credit. There is not a country gentleman in Yorkshire who does not now fee that he has been duped. We cannot confider Mr. P as a traitor; this peace, which has been concluded under bis aufpices, therefore, he cannot believe to tend to the certain ruin of the country. But when a much better peace was within his reach, has he not declared a thousand times, that to come to any terms with France while thus aggrandized, and while thus governed, would be, to fign the death-warrant of our independence? To fave him from the charge of treafon now, we muft, out of mercy to his character, fuppofe him to have been acting then with the groffeft duplicity.

Thus have we been fquandering our treafure, and thus have we been fhedding our blood (my oldest fon was killed in Holland, and my fecond in Egypt), to fupport the efforts of a man acting with the feelings of a gamefter, who, having needlessly rifked his fortune, has loft a great part of it, and who, hoping by every throw to redeem himself, from his extreme unfkilfulnefs in the game, only lofes the more.

Pray,

Pray, what is become of the fuccefs of the war? Since the time of Julius Cæfar, Great Britain never concluded a treaty of peace with a foreign power which placed her in a fituation fo much worfe than that in which the flood when the negotiation began. In the year 1783, after a long courfe of unexampled difafter, we did not give up half fo much. And how is the fuccefsfulness of a war to be determined but by the conditions of the peace?, I, and I can affure you almost all the country gentlemen in this part of the kingdom, moft firmly believed, that if we did not compel France to give up her remaining colonies, we fhould at leaft retain every inch of ground that we had conquered. How elfe fhould we have fupported men who declared that the war had been fuccefsful beyond example, and that we had fecured to ourfelves for ever the monopoly of the commerce of the world? In that cafe we fhould have had fome return for our unparalleled 'expenfe in men and money. As it is, we have been fighting only to exhauft our refources, to abridge our comforts, to excite the ridicule of Europe, and to leffen our weight in the fcale of nations.

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I am now thoroughly convinced that Mr. P-'s internal government deferves no greater praife. He alarmed us about one set of robbers, only that he himfelf might pick our pockets with the greater cafe. We never were in danger of revolution; and from no revolution that could have happened in England would the great mafs of the people have fuffered fo much as from the prefent war. Indeed, a revolution has hap'pened, which though not fo fuddenly, yet as certainly will be productive of mifery, as if it had confifted in the ufurpation of the mob. I and my forefathers have always been friends to liberty; and it was only this bugbear, the French revolution, that ever made me fufpend my propenfities. How bitterly then muft I regret, when I look round me and find the principles of

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genuine