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weeks I waited, not without impatience, but received no answer; until one day a person enquired for me by name, and on his entering the room, I beheld the solema figure of friend Rigid, who, with his broad beaver on his head, thus addressed me : Young man, since thou hast been led away by the unbridled desires of thy mind, and hast endeavoured to draw aside our daughter from the strait way in which she walketh, I would have thee to understand that she is not for thee, friend! but shall be given unto one of our own people, even unto Zachariah Zealous, who hath gained the maiden's affections. Farewell.' Having delivered this oration with a face of inflexible gravity, he turned on his heel and departed. The chagrin, occasioned by this disappointment, was not very severe or of long duration; at so youthful an age, impressions of this nature are frequently transient; and the elegant figure and animated countenance of a distant relation, to whom I was shortly after introduced, effaced from my brain every impression of the fair quaker. This young lady was in the bloom of life, and the charms of her person were only equalled by the sweetness of her disposition, and the beauties of a cultivated mind; these, united to polished manners, and a fortune by no means trivial, made her sought for by many; but to my unspeakable delight, as I then fondly imagined, she preferred me to some more apparently advantageous suitors; and I indulged in many a delightful reverie on the happiness that seemed to await me by an union with so amiable a partner; but, alas! these were vain hopes. Narcissa, like her namesake, so pathetically bemoaned by Young, possessed a very delicate frame; she was seized with a severe cold, followed by alarming symptoms of consumption, which rapidly increased, and the interesting fair one, who was lately glowing with health, became, in a few months, the tenant of the tomb!-But I forbear to dwell longer on a subject, which, at this distance of time, affects me but too sensibly.

The alarm which my friends felt for my situation, in consequence of this severe stroke, induced them to advise a tour to the Continent; and, having passed some years abroad, I returned to my native land with greater renovation of health and spirits than might have been expected, though I seemed to have lost what, in my estimation, could alone have given the true zest to life; and am convinced that the tincture of seriousness which my disposition now exhibits, is the consequence of this calamitous event.

Several years now passed, during which, though I felt a general admiration of the virtues and graces of my fair country-women, yet no lasting impression was made on me by any individual. My fiftieth year was approaching, and my heart remained insensible: at length, being invited by an old friend to pay him a visit in Yorkshire, I there met with a lady whose appearance and manners ap

peared

peared to me extremely prepossessing, and I felt rather pleased than otherwise when a second interview occurred. This dame, the Widow Warp, possessed, my friend informed me, a pretty considerable estate from her late husband, a wealthy clothier, and added, that he saw she had already set me down for her second; this raillery I endeavoured to laugh off, yet the widow's company was still agreeable, and I never passed an evening with her without experiencing a sensation of regret when the party broke up; in short, I felt desperately in love, though I wished not to believe it. The lady could not but be sensible of this, and when I was induced to declare myself, she hesitated and afterwards declined my offer with such apparent reluctance, as left me room to hope she would ultimately comply; I therefore redoubled my assiduities, and had begun to flatter myself I should soon carry off my prize, when the widow hinted her intention to pass a few weeks at Scarborough for the improvement of her health, though I must own it seemed to me in no need of such an expedient. As lovers, however, must not contradict their mistress's inclinations, I accordingly offered to escort her; this was politely waved, as she had arranged her plan and was to accompany some female friends; to my request to follow her no objection was made, and we parted, as I supposed, for a few days, but it was for ever. This journey to Scarborough was a mere pretence, for escaping into the arms of an officer of the cavalry, to whom she was married on her arrival at that place, and the intelligence of this event was communicated to me in time to prevent my setting out, and being subjected to a still more mortifying scene.

Such of my readers as have experienced disappointments similar to those which befel me, may possibly conceive my feelings, nor will they be surprized that from unwillingness to expose myself to future mortifications of the same kind, I have determined on a single life.

I am aware that my character for sagacity and penetration may be called in question, in my affair with the widow Warp; but are not the keenest eyes liable to be hoodwinked and obscured by the arts of love? do we not see men, acknowledged wise in all other respects, the most simple and unwary when under the influence of this powerful passion, nor ought it therefore to be wondered at that the discernment of Clement Clearsight should be of no avail, if we call to mind that princes, legislators, and philosophers have fallen victims to female artifice, and that it has been ascertained by experience how unequal the most consummate abilities possessed by our sex prove, when put in competition with those of a cunning and attractive woman, and that woman a widow.

LEISURE

LEISURE HOURS.-No. II.

BY DICK DISTICH.

Discite justitiam moniti.-VIRGIL.
Hear, and be just.

EVERY man is respectable, however humble his station, so long as he continues to follow that road which Providence has marked out for him; but when once he wanders from the proper track and pursues the bent of his inclination in preference to the dictates of his reason, he becomes a fit subject for ridicule, and is fair game for the laughing pen of the satirist.

Would not the world smile to see a stay-maker attempting to improve upon the philosophy of Newton or Locke, and a tailor exchanging his shears for a pair of compasses to solve a problem in Euclid? and is it not equally ludicrous to see a man of moderate capacity, whose learning does not extend beyond the rudiments of a hornbook, sacrifice his trade, his family, and his common sense at the altar of political controversy, and step forward to show the world that he may be a good tradesman, capable of haranguing on the topics of common conversation, but a bad politician to coutend with ministers, and argue the state of the nation?

The cit, a common-councilman by place,
Ten thousand mighty nothings in his face;
By situation, as by nature, great,

With nice precision parcels out the state:
Maintains, ev'n in the very teeth of pow'r,
The same thing right and wrong in half an hour.
Now, all is well; now, he suspects a plot,
And plainly proves, whatever is-is not.
Fearfully wise, he shakes his empty head,
And deals out empires as he deals out thread;
His useless scales are in a corner flung,

And Europe's balance hangs upon his tongue.

The English are never so well pleased as when they hear that they are overburthened with taxes, that their trade is low, their ministers corrupt, their enemies victorious, and their country approaching to speedy ruin; and it is the misfortune of the nation that so many are found to ring these grievances in our ears without the least shadow of a foundation. If we see men rise from a state of obscurity to one of affluence and splendour, how is it to be conceived that the times are so bad as is represented? and yet we find that these are the very men who continually prophesy our downfal, and call aloud for a reform in parliament.

The word reform' has been in such general use of late, that it

GEN. CHRON. VOL. 111. NO. XII.

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is likely to become the worse for wear. It has been discussed in the drawing-room, and canvassed in the kitchen. My Lord has disfigured its meaning over a pint of claret, and John has confounded the word over humble porter. The mania has also travelled into the country, where a few small-beer politicians echo the opinions of their partizans in town, abuse the ministers, and determine the fate of nations over a pipe of Virginia.

Liberty is another favourite expression, which is not a whit better understood, and certainly has a very extensive application. We have long enjoyed the liberty of abusing our betters, but heaven send we may never enjoy it so as to injure our neighbour's character or property with impunity. Libertas et natale solum' is my motto, and let the interests of the one never be separated from those of the other.

I was discoursing with an old gentleman the other day, about the various occurrences of the present times; and, in the course of our conversation, I mentioned the murder of Charles the First. At the word 'murder,' the old man started, and replied, that he could never consider it but as an act of justice, adding, that had he been alive then, he would have signed the warrant himself. I was a little surprised at hearing this declaration, for I never yet read any historian who attempted to justify that execrable deed. That Charles was a tyrant, and a great one too, I will not attempt to deny; that he had betrayed the confidence of his people by his duplicity and court intrigues, is an undoubted fact; and that he had, in some measure, even forfeited his crown by his cruel and arbitrary measures, I admit as a truth; but that he had forfeited his life, is an assertion which no human reasoning can ever justify :

I should have died for shame,

To see my king before his subjects stand,
And at their bar hold up his royal hand;
At their commands to hear the monarch plead,

By their decrees to see that monarch bleed!
What tho' thy faults were many, and were great?
What tho' they shook the basis of the state?

In royalty secure thy person stood,

And sacred was the fountain of thy blood!

. Bred up in a high sense of his prerogative, his opinion was that he derived the crown from the Majesty of Heaven, and not from the choice of his people. But when a king betrays those rights which he solemnly promises to maintain previous to his being invested with his royal authorities; his people have a just right to make him abdicate a throne which he is no longer worthy to fill; and had Charles been treated in the way James was after him, it

would

would have afforded another proof of the noble spirit of the English

nation.

If the nation had not felt what serious inconveniences arose from the want of a monarchical government, would they have patiently submitted, or even submitted at all to the arbitrary reign of his successor? Would they have seen their country impoverished by taxes, their liberties bartered, and their provinces sold, to gratify the boundless luxuriance of a dissipated monarch? Charles the First was a tyrant by education-his son was one by principle; Charles the First was, as Lord Clarendon describes him, the worthiest gentleman, the best master, the best friend, the best husband, the best father, and the best christian, of the age in which he lived.' Charles the Second was a compound of all the vices that debase a human character, yet even this reign was found preferable to a commonwealth; and it was not until a succeeding one, when the people were goaded with evils too heavy to be borne, that they took the right method of delivering themselves: not by another scene of violence and bloodshed, but by those just and equitable measures which heaven has ordained an injured nation should adopt in such an extremity.

Even the execrable Cromwell can find his advocates; a man whom no one ever spoke well of. Cardinal Mazarine calls him 'a fortunate madman;'-Father Orleans styles him a judicious villain;'-Lord Clarendon, a brave, wicked man;'-and Gregorio Leti says, that he was a tyrant without vices, and a prince without virtue.'

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It is said he advanced the country to the highest pitch of national splendour. Our armies were victorious by sea and land, our commerce flourished abroad and at home, our allies were well chosen, and he blended in his character the undaunted warrior, with the profound politician. Admitting all this, his assumption of power was iniquitous and unjust, and totally inconsistent with the forms of a civilized government.

Even the ferocious Richard was the founder of many excellent laws; but this will never excuse the means which he took to possess the crown. Henry the Fourth was an usurper, yet never was a reign more distinguished for wise senators. If then we acquit bad men of their faults, in proportion to the service they may have rendered the state, Buonaparte stands absolved of all his crimes for the bare act of abolishing the inquisition.

Before I quit the present subject, I cannot help remarking, how greatly we may attribute the commencement of the French revolution to the inflammatory speeches of a few individuals, who met for the purpose of discussing public topics. The seeds of disaffection were sown in the minds of the people; they made a desperate

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