despised her.-Well, Mr. Lounger, I was once happy myself, at least much happier than I am now. We lived in town always, except a month or two in the summer, and even then I did not tire so much as you would suppose; for we visited all our neighbours, and my brothers brought out their companions, and we had dances and parties of pleasure. But when winter came, how charming it was !-To be sure one had vexations now and then. To see other people better dressed, or have better partners, or more tonish matrons, is horrible; but then if one takes pains, and goes every where, they may soon be fashionable. Well, I went about constantly, and flirted, and danced, and played and sung, and every mortal said I was so handsome, and so lively, and so accomplished, and so much the thing-Oh! why do people ever grow older?-Then, as for lovers, I had I don't know how many. All the smart men used to dance with me by turns, invite me to private balls, and tell me how much they adored me: and though they did not just ask me to marry them, yet I thought that question must follow; that there was no hurry, I might divert myself, and perhaps get a better husband than any I had seen yet. It is but fair to say I was not the least romantic. My mother warned me against that, and I had sense enough to be convinced, that if I got a fashionable man and a man of fortune, every thing else was nonsence. I made but one resolution; since my sister had married a baronet, I would have nothing lower, and perhaps insist upon a peer-Good heavens! to think I have got nobody!-now, Mr. Lounger, read what follows, and pity me. For some years I was the moft contented soul alive; but alas! misfortunes at last began to come upon me. Silly baby-faced girls turned fasnionable, and were taken notice of before me. Many of my companions were married,

VOL. XXXVII.

and could talk of their house, and their servants, and their carriage-the fine men turned ill bred fools. In short, I grew every day less comfortable, when to add to all, my father died and left me just 1000l. Then began misery indeed. My eldest brother married, the rest were dispersed ? my mother and I were forced to live alone; we have no carriage, no country house, no large parties; was ever any creature so unfortunate! I find myself more unhappy every day. Assemblies are detestable ; I may sit there two hours before any mortal asks me to dance; and then some brute of a married man says, If I can do no better, he'll be happy to have the honour. The play-house is a degree more tolerable, though the horror of thinking who will hand one out, prevents one from being diverted. · In company, I see every body more attended to than myself. At home I am miserable. What can I do? People talk of friends; one may get plenty of them :-but unless they are fashionable, what the better are you? Besides, if one has no lovers to talk about, except to repeat scandal, and that one can always get, I don't see the use of them; for my part I have tried a great many, but though we were always monstrously fond at first, we very soon tired of one another.

Now, Sir, if you have the least compassion tell me what to do:-Is there any scheme on earth, by which I might be married? To say the truth, I plot for every man I see, but my plots never succeed. If you could assist me, I would be the most grateful creature on earth. No matter who he is, if he is but genteel and decently rich. If I were married I might soon make myself tonish, which is all I wish in the world. Never talk to me of giving up the rage for being so, or of settling my mind, and amusing myself with working and reading. I tell you they don't amuse me. I have worked purses, and

painted trimmings for hours, without being the least diverted. And as for reading, what can I read! History I know perfectly; for we read an hour with the Governess every day; and as for novels, though I get all the new ones, and they are the only books I like, yet, after all they are a provoking sort of reading: they always talk of youth and beauty and lovers; and the men now are so different from what they should be, or what these books represent them, I cannot bear it. Now do, Sir, take pity on me and help me; but pray convey the advice, so that nobody but myself may profit by it: for if the multitude in the same situation were all provided for, the world would grow intolerably good natured, and I would have none to exult over. At present I cry bitterly whenever I hear of a good marriage; it would be divine to think that two hundred were do

ing so at mine.— -Farewell, my dear Sir; forgive this trouble, and believe me your sincere friend, and I hope soon, grateful servant,

JESSAMINA.

N° 54. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1786.

Ils ne tardent pas a obeir a cette maladie generale qui precipite tout la jeunesse de province vers l'abime de corruption. TABLEAU DE PARIS.

To the historian and the antiquary it is matter of curious investigation, to trace the progress of expence and luxury through the different stages of increasing wealth and advancing refinement in a country, and to observe the war which for some time is

carried on between the restraining powers of grave and virtuous legislators, and the dissipated inclinations of a rich and luxurious people. In this contest indeed, the inequality of the parties is easily discernible, and the effects of that inequality readily foreseen. The first sumptuary law that is passed is the signal of that growing opulence which is soon to overturn it; and the weak barriers of successive restraints and regulations are in vain opposed to a force which the progress of time and of manners daily renders more irresistible. Luxury, like a river, is harmless amidst the barren mountains where it first begins to rise; but in the fruitful vallies of its after-course, its size is enlarged, and its power increased, in proportion to the mischief it may cause; and the mounds which were opposed to its encroachments, only serve to mark the desolation it has made. Great cities are the natural stages for luxury and dissipation of every sort. Against great cities, therefore, the lawgiver sometimes, as well as the moralist, has exerted his authority, and endeavoured to hinder people from crowding together, to waste their means, and to corrupt their principles, in that circle of extravagance, of vanity, and of vice, to which a town gives scope and encouragement. In Scotland, at a very early period, attempts were made to controul this abuse, as it was thought, by law. More than three centuries ago, it was statute and ordained, That the Lords should dwell in their castles and manours, and expend the fruit of their lands in the countrie where their lands lay.'—And King James I. of England, when transplanted into the richer soil of our sister kingdom, had not forgotten the wholesome restrictions of his ancestors. In his speech in the Star-chamber, anno 1616, he inveighs against the overgrown size of London, which he declares was become a nuisance to the whole kingdom. After

enumerating many pernicious consequences of which this was the cause, and ascribing the evil in terms rather ungallant as well as coarse, to the influence of the Ladies*, he goes so far as to say, that he would have the new buildings pulled down, and the builders committed to prison.

In these days of liberty and enlarged ideas, the restraints of law, or the recommendations of royalty, are not employed to check abuses of that sort which do not violate the great bonds of society, or openly disturb the good order and government of the state. The law is contented to punish public crimes; private vices and private follies it leaves to the cognizance and the censure of the preacher and the moralist, or to the lighter correction of the satirist or the comedian. These reformers are of that milder class who are satisfied if they can circumscribe, though they do not extirpate the mischief. Indeed it is to be doubted if they desire to extirpate it; or whether they do not, like good sportsmen with foxes, only wish to run down part of the game, and leave a breed, for their own amusement, behind.

Of these hunters of folly and of dissipation, great cities have not failed to attract the notice, and awaken the censure. Rome, Paris, and London, have found Juvenals, Boileaus, and Johnsons, to attack them.. But on this subject in general, I know nobody who has hit on a better idea for exposing them than the author of Tristram Shandy, who in some passage of

* One of the greatest causes of all gentlemen's desire, that have no calling or errand to dwell in London, is apparently the pride of the women; for if they bee wives, then their husbands; and if they bee maydes, then their fathers; muft bring them up to London; because the new fashion is to be had no where but in London, and here, if they be unmarried, they marr their marriages; and if they bee married, they lose their reputations, and rob their husband's purses.'

Works of K. James in folio, p. 567,568.