There was a W-d-m likewise, not badly dreffed; but, being a little too pugnacious in the lobby with a fmith and other fellows, he entered with both eyes fewed up, as his fighting friends call it. This humbled him fo much, that he was contented to take up with an obfcure corner, where we overheard him difcourfing on the pleasure that bulls take in being baited, and cocks in being thrown at with fticks, especially when tied to the ground. He faid, they might laugh as they pleafed; but upon his honour the beating he got gave him the most delightful fenfation in the world.

We are confident that Mr. Wilb- -ce was never at a masquerade in his life; yet fuch is the extravagance of mankind, that they muft needs drag him in, with a mafk as large as his whole body. We have no pleasure in ftating thefe follies. We fhould have had the lefs objection, had the mask, after his pious exhortation, immediately withdrawn; but to fee him afterwards running after the women, and drinking with profane companions, was intolerably indecorous, uncouth, and unnatural.

Probably it was in imitation of the ingenious gentleman who perfonated the renowned Cardinal Caprara at the Union Masquerade, that we had here feveral ecclefiaftical masks. We are far from juftifying this mode of reprefenting even Catholic churchmen; but with regard to divines of our own church, it is fhameful in the highest degree. We enter upon no detail; but we must just hint to a certain gentleman, that B- -P Hy is not the intolerant, illiberal, bigoted, and meddling priest that he takes him for. If this does not fatisfy him, let him turn, to his writings and his Speeches.

Lord H-k-y, with his ten-league boots for the march to Paris, was a tolerable mafk; and the Duke of Pd was executed with wonderful exactnefs.But we confefs it gave us no pleasure to see a noble

man,

man, once refpected at the head of an illuftrious party, exhibited as the dependant and trencher-scraper of every Minifter in his turn.

We have thus been free in our cenfure of what we thought amifs in this fplendid exhibition; which we think will be more useful than dwelling, as we could do with pleasure, on the masterly portraits with which it abounded.

Aug. 17.

THE ADDINGTON AND THE WET DOCKS. [From the Morning Chronicle.]

MR. EDITOR,

BEING very much a friend to the profperity of this country, and interefted in every undertaking by which it is promoted, I went a few days ago to fee the Wet Docks at the Isle of Dogs; and, though I have no fhare in the stock of this company, or any thing connected with it, I felt no fmall degree of pride, that, as a bit of a traveller, I had seen nothing like it in any part of the world.

I

After having viewed every thing to be feen, and admired every thing I faw, in returning by Blackwall, I fell into converfation with our waterman on the fubject of the Docks, the when and how of opening, &c. &c. He told me that there was a veffel lying in the river called the Henry Addington, which, in honour of our prefent respectable Premier, was to be the first to enter the grand basin. "God help us, honeft Jack," faid I; the directors of thefe Wet Docks feem more anxious to do honour to the Minister, than to their own undertakings."-"Look at this veffel," rejoined the waterman; "the can hardly keep her head above water, yet the is of no depth, there is nothing in her; her timbers are rotten. In a word, the is. fuch a veffel as the pilot might be expected to

fteal

fteal away from, after he had run her among rocks and quickfands." God help thee, Henry Addington, again thought I, the wind and the tide have drifted thee through, when better fhips would have perished! "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which leads to fortune"-" The race is not to the fwift, nor the battle to the ftrong;" and fifty more faws of the fanie kind, came into my mind in a moment.

I could not but reflect on the converfation I had had with the honeft waterman. Being withal very much inclined to the Shandean fyflem of names, I was forry to think that the Wet Docks fhould be opened with a name that never did (and I am afraid will never do) any thing great in this world. To begin the career of the Wet Docks with fuch a name, is not to give them fair play. I am fatisfied that Mr. Shandy would have afcribed the breaking in of the Coffer Dam folely to the hand Mr. Pitt had in the concern, from the old idea, that thofe that dig a pit shall perish therein. If, now, Mr. Henry Addington is to have the initiative in the Docks, I conceive it as fatal as if your fon were to be baptized by the name of Nic, which is the Devil.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

A LOVER OF GOOD NAMES.

NEW DIET FOR WRITERS,

MR. EDITOR,

AS

[From the Morning Chronicle.]

S a friend to peace, I could not but take a very lively intereft in the alarming apprehensions entertained within this fortnight, of a rupture between France and Great Britain. Yet I must own the circumftances of the cafe very much perplexed my poor brain. I had read much of, the wars between France and England; and by the help of good hiftorians, I

had

had made myself acquainted with the origin of these dreadful contests; but in no inftance had I ever found that hoftilities had begun in the newspapers, and that the refpective Cabinets of two great nations had gone to war for paragraphs and essays.

However this may be, the Moniteur has founded the alarm; and our Minifters are told in very plain terms, that they muft either curb the zeal of newspaper writers, or, like the all-powerful ftatefmen of France, write themfelves. Scarcely had this fhocking alternative been prefented, when the Editor of the Clef du Cabinet (who by the name feems to be a fort of turn-key in the ftate, or the baffe cliffe of the national organ), this ingenious gentleman, I fay, comes forward, and lays open to the wonder and admiration of all Europe, the true caufes of all the differences that have arifen, or are likely to arife, between the two countries.

This difcovery, for it is no lefs, is of fuch importance in literature, that I beg leave to examine it with fome degree of attention*; and I have no doubt, Mr. Editor,

Why do the English papers utter fo much abuse against the French people?

It is, that a great deal concerning the French people, which could not be faid in France without danger, may be faid by the English papers.

It is because it is an old cuftom with the English to abuse every body; they have attacked the greatest perfonages in England, and the crowned heads of Europe. What have they not faid against Louis XVI. and above all against his Queen, in the time of their power?

The English love to read libels, as they do to look at caricatures; they wish to fee a libel, where we should only permit an epigram; and a print, where our delicacy would hardly allow an allufion.

The English have not, like the French, a hatred for libels, for the fame reason that they have not, like the Italians, a love for music. Montefquieu fays, in his Spirit of Laws-" I have feen the operas in England and in Italy; they confift of the fame pieces and the fame performers. But the fame mufic produces effects fo different in the two nations, the one fo calm, and the other fo tiansported, that it appears inconceivable.

"The

Editor, that you and every perfon concerned in the prefs will cheerfully accompany me in the inveftigation.

This fagacious gentleman reduces the matter to the following caufes, which feparately or collectively are neceffary to the production of an English newspaper, that is not enamoured of the French government.

First, Beer. He afks whether a people who drink beer can relifh a Confular government? Secondly, he ftates that beef is naturally hoftile to a dumb and power. lefs Senate; Thirdly, he thinks that coal-fires are unfriendly to banishment without judge or jury; Fourthly, the air we breathe, being heavy, humid, and cold, unfits us for abfolute defpotifm; Fifthly, that our paffing half our life at fea does not qualify us for half a Pope and two thirds of a church; and Laftly, that, as we do not converfe freely with the women, except in the parlour, we can never expect to make a figure in the field.

Perhaps, Sir, fome objections might be made to one or two of thefe pofitions; particularly to the laft: but I would rather wave little matters, and allow the gentleman the full force of his difcovery; and, having done fo, I would fain afk in what manner we are to

"The taste of the nation does not lie there, but obferve why they muft abufe people."

Can you then pretend that a people, who chiefly drink porter, who always eat beef, who obtain warmth from coals taken from the earth, and infpire a heavy air and of inconftant temperature, who pafs-one half of their lives on the fea, and never fee women but in the parlour, feel as lively and delicate a fentiment with respect to all these rela tions, as a nation, where wine is generally drunk, who eat bread, who receive warmth from clean and foft fires, who infpire a brifk and pure air, and who at all times enjoy a familiar and respectful in tercourfe with lively and agreeable women-free, yet decent, and receiving every where fresh leffons of tafte and decorum?

But, how impotent are the invectives of the English papers! They are fo elaborate, fo languid, fo ill compofed, that they are no where read but in England, and even there are held in very low eftimation! --Clef du Cabinet.

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