early home to fee his little boy's gums lanced; and, befides, that he intended to give his youngest daughter a cathartic.

This fpeech being delivered in flow time, and in a very folemn tone, neceffarily produced a ftrong impreffion; and it was immediately anfwered by a man of a tawny afpect, with a great wig, who fpread a lean and red hand wide upon his breaft, and fpoke of his own daughters in a way ftill more grave and affecting.

This was fucceeded by a piece of ceremony between two men with very long ears, one of whom was quitting his feat with a glafs of brandy and water in his hand, and the other taking poffeffion of it with his hands in his breeches pockets. I thought they had very filly faces for a Council; but then there might be a great deal in the long ears.

Two others, who had ears too, but had got then cropt, were talking together good-naturedly in a corner, and cracking filberts.

But I was ftruck, most of all, with an old marinerlooking man, who feemed to regard nothing that was paffing, being wholly intent on fea-charts, and plans of harbours, which he had in great numbers before him. I could not but smile at the rough manner in which he handled fome inodels of gun-boats and flatbottomed craft, dashing them in pieces, and exclaiming that he wished he had never been perfuaded to rifk his reputation in fhoal water.

By this time the man in the boot grew impatient, and called aloud for Mafter Shallow, who had been all the while ftalking about on a pair of ftilts, at least fourteen feet high. Shallow inftantly, with loud and fplendid emphafis, began to difcourfe upon the Alps and Appenines, the Pyreneans and the river Po; upon antres, projects and counter-projects, elephants and otters. He then breathed a little, ate a crocodile, and proceeded.

He

He faid, his father had inftructed him early in life, that there were thirteen pyramids in the Lower Egypt, and thirteen counties in Wales, including Chefter; a wonderful coincidence, which had guided him in all his negotiations. "I have taken in Bonaparte, it is true, and all Europe will be making a noise about it ; but am I to be blamed if the republic will commit its affairs to feeble and incapable hands? The truth is, Bonaparte was afraid of my military talents, and freely offered me whatever I chose, either on the continent or in the Indies, provided I would give my word of honour not to march to Paris.

"Now this was a ferious point, for it not only involv.. ed my own fame, but I feared to compromife the renown of Sir John Eamer as a foldier, which promised to be as great as his glory in felling of treacle and fweeping of fhops. The other great volunteer commanders might alfe complain, and justly but upon the whole I thought the national reputation was fufficiently protected by the admiffion of Bonaparte himself, who will at any time own that the affair at Lodi was not to be compared with the expulfion of the Knight Banneret and his hoft from the cellars of the banquetting-houfe*, and that Marengo was not equal to my glorious victory at Tranent."

Here the old feaman arose, apparently displeased, and faid fomething which I could not well hear; but I conjectured it was against Master Shallow, for he concluded with faying, that he could not be accused of depreciating the young man, fince he had always admitted that Mafter Shallow had talents enough, if properly applied, to make an exceeding good fifer.

Upon this, Shallow was wroth, and for a little while every thing was in diforder; when methought the celebrated GR-came in, and gave every one prefent, excepting the feaman, a great kick, to prepare them to re

ceive his master. Inftantly every eye was turned towards the door, not without much anxiety and trepidation. The man in the boot, in particular, fhewed great distress, clinging to the chair with prodigious vehemence, and loudly calling on St. James for affiftance. But the inexorable R, after again kicking him, laid him fprawling on the floor.

Mr. P

then entered; but as the imagination in fleep diftorts and changes every object, fo he appeared altogether ghaftly and deformed. He feemed aiming to reach the chair; but his legs fuddenly dwindled and rotted away. As he called for fupport, a few perfons went to his affiftance; but when they found he could no longer ftand, they cruelly forfook him: and then fuch a horrible odour exhaled from his livid body, that I found myfelf relieved from the moft dreadful horror when a perfon caft a wet blanket over him.

Inftantly a hideous clamour invaded my ears, and forward rushed a furious band of drovers, butchers and blackguards, with the cracking of whips, the clafing: of arms, and the noife of dogs. They gave three loud. huzzas, and cried out, "Bull-baiting for ever!" with a. found that portended murder rather than fport. I fhrunk at the fury and cruelty of their afpect yet I could not but fancy that I diftinguifhed fome faces which were familiar to me, and which I should have recognised with fatisfaction had they appeared in more fuitable company.

One in particular, who seemed the very leader of the gang, I imagined I had known when the fagacious only could have forefeen that he should ever have become a r-c-l. He held a bloody hatchet aloft, and urged on his dogs in the courfe of death. Rancour and malignity took place of courage. His reafon feemed perturbed, and even his thin hairs raged, and repelled one another with difcord.

In his train I fancied I faw men whom treason itself could not truft; vigorous ftatesmen foaming with the

anguish

anguish of disappointment; and men disguised in lawn fleeves, trampling under their feet the poor and the helpless.

Thee too, Nicodemus, I could fee, enveloped though thou wert in a long robe of white, the emblem of purity and innocence: yet methought thou hadft a dagger concealed in thy fleeve; and, as the robe edged a little afide-pardon me, dear Nicodemus, but-methought I fpied the legs of a goat."

My heart funk within me when I viewed the mifery that seemed ready to fall on the earth; and earneftly did I pray that feme angel of mercy might defcend to reftrain the wrath of man, and ftay the march of defolation. I faw Peace, but he was clouded with fufpicion and diftruft. I faw Patriotifm, but fhe was mocked and derided. I faw Liberty, but fhe was loaded with calumnies.

"Alas!" quoth I-and I infantly awoke, to ruminate on the vagaries of fancy.

October 8, 1801.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

SIMON SHADOW.

THE PEACE, AND ABOUT IT.

MR. EDITOR,

[From the fame.]

THE fudden surprise of the public, on the news of peace, has been confidered as a merit on the part of the negotiators; I own I cannot fee with what reafon. We are told, indeed, that fecrecy was preferved, in tenderness to the property of perfons concerned in the funds this has a feasible appearance, but fuch perfons are not the majority of the nation. It is alfo faid, that it would have been unwife to divulge the progrefs of the negotiation, left expectations fhould have been raised only to end in the bitterness of difappointment: but how long has this been the fyftem of Minifters, or how

:

many expectations have been raised which have not ended in difappointment? Thofe occafioned by the negotiations at Paris and Lifle not only ended in difappointment, but we were taught to thank God for it; and that by great men, who, if they had gone on thanking God for their failures, would have afforded unprecedented examples of continual gratitude.

Admitting all thefe excufes, however, in full force, it will not follow that Minifters have acted very wifely in bursting upon us with a peace, when not ten men in the kingdom were thinking of fuch an event, and when their own journals were inftructing us to the last moment to confider the negotiation as a mere humbug. They ought to have confidered the state of the feelings of the nation-feelings entirely of their own creation : how long we have been inured to the most rooted, indelible, juft, and neceffary animofities, which have been foftered in fupport of a war for religion, property, and focial order! They ought to have confidered, that men who, for eight long years, have been kept in a fever of hatred, paffion, rancour, and revenge-fet in a state of fermentation by perpetual ftirring, cannot in a moment be lowered down to conciliation and complacency. Were we not taught to cherish an abhorrence of the French, a contempt for the Spaniards, an averfion to the Dutch, and a decent fhare of disrespect for the Pruffians, Swedes, and Danes? What judges of human nature muft they be who think the transition from fighting to embracing fo very easy?

After manufacturing in fpecches, pamphlets, paragraphs, and even fermons, fuch a vast quantity of "hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness," where fhall we find cuftomers to take articles off our hands for which there is no longer a demand, unless perhaps in fmall quantities for families? It is a very ferious confideration, that there is at this moment in the warehoufes of the minifterial writers, a quantity of perfonal abuse,