The charges that attended this new manner of living were much too great for the income we possessed; insomuch that we found ourselves, in a very short time, more necessitous than ever. Pride would not suffer us to lay down our equipage; and to live in a manner unsuitable to it, was what we could not bear to think of. To pay the debts I had contracted, I was soon forced to mortgage, and at last to sell the best part of my estate; and as it was utterly impossible to keep up the parade any longer, we thought it adviseable to remove of a sudden, to sell our coach in town, and to look out for a new situation, at a great distance from our acquaintance.

But, unfortunately for my peace, I carried the habit of expense along with me, and was very near being reduced to absolute want, when by the unexpected death of an uncle and his two sons, who died within a few weeks of each other, I succeeded to an estate of seven thousand pounds a year. And now, Mr. Fitz-Adam, both you and your readers will undoubtedly call me a very happy man; and so indeed I was. I set about the regulation of my family with the most pleasing satisfaction. The splendour of my equipages, the magnificence of my plate, the crowd of servants that attended me, the elegance of my house and furniture, the grandeur of my park and gardens, the luxury of my table, and the court that was every where paid me, gave me inexpressible delight, so long as they were novelties; but no sooner were they become habitual to me, then I lost all manner of relish for them; and I discovered in a very little time, that by having nothing to wish for, I had nothing to enjoy. My appetite grew palled by satiety, a perpetual crowd of visitors robbed me of all domestic enjoyment, my servants plagued me, and my steward cheated me. But the curse of greatness did not end here.

Daily experience convinced me that I was compelled to live more for others than myself. My uncle had been a great party man, and a zealous opposer of all ministeral measures; and as his estate was the largest of any gentleman's in the county, he supported an interest in it beyond any of his competitors. My father had been greatly obliged by the court party, which determined me in gratitude to declare myself on that side; but the difficulties I had to encounter were too many and too great for me; insomuch that I have been baffled and defeated in almost every thing I have undertaken. To desert the cause I have embarked in would disgrace me, and to go greater lengths in it will almost undo me. I am engaged in a perpetual state of warfare with the principal gentry of the county, and am cursed by my tenants and dependents for compelling them at every election to vote (as they are pleased to tell me) contrary to their conscience.

My wife and I had once pleased ourselves with the thought of being useful to the neighbourhood, by dealing out our charity to the poor and industrious; but the perpetual hurry in which we live, renders us incapable of looking out for objects ourselves; and the agents we intrust are either pocketing our bounty, or bestowing it on the undeserving. At night, when we retire to rest, we are venting our complaints on the miseries of the day, and praying heartily for the return of that peace which was only the companion of our humblest situation.

This, sir, is my history; and if you give it a place in your paper, it may serve to inculcate this important truth, that where pain, sickness, and absolute want are out of the question, no external change of circumstances can make a man more lastingly happy than he was before. It is to an ignorance of this truth, that the universal dissatisfaction of mankind

is principally to be ascribed. Care is the lot of life; and he that aspires to greatness in hopes to get rid of it, is like one who throws himself into a furnace to avoid the shivering of an ague.

The only satisfaction I can enjoy in my present situation is, that it has not pleased Heaven in its wrath to make me a king,

I am, sir,

You must have frequently observed upon the face of that useful piece of machinery, a clock, the minute and hour hands, in their revolutions through the twelve divisions of the day, to be not only shifting continually from one figure to another, but to stand at times in a quite opposite direction to their former bearings, and to each other. Now I conceive this to be pretty much the case with that complicated piece of MECHANISM, a modern female, or young woman of fashion; for as such I was accustomed to consider that part of the species, as having no power to determine their own motions, and appearances, but as acted upon by the mode, and set to any point, which the party who took the lead, or (to speak more properly) its REGULATOR, pleased. But it has so happened in the circumrotation of modes and fashions, that the present set are not

only moving on continually from one pretty fancy and conceit to another, but have departed quite aside from their former principles; dividing from each other in a circumstance wherein they were always accustomed to unite, and uniting where there was ever wont to be a distinction or difference.

I do not know whether I make myself sufficiently understood; but you will easily comprehend my drift, when I tell you that the prevailing mode, in respect of dress, is at present to have no mode at all. There is now no such thing as a uniform among the ladies, no dutiful conformity to the pattern or standard, as heretofore; but the mode is laid open, and there appears the same spirit against a conclusive fashion, as against an exclusive trade. The pride now is to get as far away as possible, not only from the vulgar, but from one another, and that too as well in the first principles of dress, as in its subordinate decorations: so that this fluctuating humour is perpetually showing itself in some new and particular sort of cap, flounce, knot, or tippet; and every woman that you meet, affects independency, and to set up for herself.

Now, as I profess myself to be a stickler for liberty, and against all invidious limitations, as well as a lover of variety, and an encourager of invention, I am therefore not displeased with these fair independents for this notable attempt of theirs to vindicate the honour and freedom of their own fancies and judgments upon this occasion. But as they have wandered away from each other in the several articles of dress, so have they united altogether as happily in a point which cannot fail of recommending itself to such as have a critical ear, and are apt to be offended with any disagreement of sounds, namely in VOICE and ELOCUTION, in which they

maintain a surprising uniformity. A friend of mine, whose ear (as you will perceive from what I am going to relate of him) is not turned for our modern oratory, was introducing the other day some uncourtly observations upon this head, which I shall take the freedom to set down at full length.

The beauty and power of speech,' says he, 'was wont to be the result of clearness and perspicuity, of a distinct and harmonious elocution, of a just and proper cadence, together with a natural and easy diversity of manner and phrase, growing out of the subject, and congenial with it. Conversation is never so pleasing as when it is composed of a well-ordered variety of persons and characters, tempering and recommending each other; where the forward and importunate are qualified and restrained by the diffident and the modest; the bold and peremptory by the more supple and complaisant; where the spirited with the meek, the lively with the sedate, make a happy mixture; and all together go into the composition of an agreeable society. Whereas the conversation of the female world (continues my friend) is at present all out of the same piece: all distinctions are taken away, and the several ranks and orders among them laid into one. There is one line of sentiment, air, manner, tone, and phrase running through the whole, and no discerning, for a few seconds, a young woman, with six or eight hundred pounds to her fortune, from a duchess, especially if she happens to have been allowed to keep company with her betters. I know several of these humble companions, who with no less impropriety than impotence, are ever straining themselves and their throats in company, to get upon a level with their quality friends; and at all other times you shall see them affecting to speak (as the Latins