reading Locke upon the Human Understanding; and if I wish to have dinner an hour sooner than usual, she will not stir a step if she gets into the middle of a play of Shakespeare. The house is as dirty as a poet's garret (under favour Sir), and my children are worse clad than parish bastards. Tommy's breeches have hung about his heels all this week, owing to the Revolution in the Low Countries; and Johnson's Lives have nearly starved my youngest daughter at breast. But what is more extraordinary, she seems to read to no purpose, and with no method; for my friend Hildebrand Huggins, who understands such things, tells me that she reads every kind of books, on any subject whatever; breakfasts on Tillotson, dines on the Thirty-nine Articles, drinks tea with Roderick Random, and goes to bed with Humphry Clinker. She has long had a practice of reading in bed, and while I am sleeping by her side, and dreaming of the pleasures of a gold chain, she is in close contest with some hero or other of romance! As this is the case, you cannot suppose she had any very violent attachment to me; and although her affections are no longer mine, it is very hard that I can have no satisfaction. I cannot challenge Pope's Homer for seduction, nor state damages against Tom Jones;

and yet if a man deprive me of my wife's affections, what is it to me whether he be dead or alive? Pray, Sir, say a few good things on this subject; for as my wife reads your paper, who knows but your advice may have a good effect, and work well for,

SIR,

Your's to command,

GAMALIEL PICKLE.

LINES

Written by an Officer (on his being ordered on foreign service) to a Lady whose name was WHITING.

SURE Whiting is no fasting dish,

Let priests say what they dare;

I'd rather eat my little fish,

Than all their Christmas fare.

So plump, so white, so clean, so free
From all that leads to strife;
Happy the man, whose lot shall be

To swim with thee through life.

But Venus, Goddess of the flood,
Does all my hopes deny ;

And surly Mars cries-" D-n your blood,
You've other fish to fry !"

TO THE PRINTER

OF THE

EDINBURGH EVENING COURANT.

December 31, 1792.

WELL, Sir, is the political atmosphere likely to clear !-I am a plain, quiet man, retired from politics, but I find much amusement in reading the newspapers and pamphlets on both sides of the question at present; and yet, after all, I see nothing to make a question about.-An immense burst of loyalty has broken out from one end of the island to the other, and I wished to gather the sentiments of the public from what has been written.-Accordingly, the other evening, by way of amusement, I sat down to abridge the Resolutions and Declarations of the different societies. The aptitude of the style to the different professions was diverting enough. It is at your service; and may save many of your readers much inquiry.-I am, &c.

QUID NUNC, jun.

PROFESSIONAL RESOLUTIONS.

1st, The Physicians were much at a loss to account for the public delirium. It seemed to them that some quacks had been bribed to give poison in place of medicine. They were happy however to observe, that the paroxysms were less violent, which indicated symptoms of approaching convalescence.-The remote and proximate causes they would take time to consider. Without fee or reward they declared, that blisters for the head, and strait-waistcoats, were very necessary precautions in all cases of frenzy.

2d, The Surgeons rejoiced at having felt the pulse of the public, and that every heart beat firmly with loyalty to the King and the constitution. It had often been probed, and it exhibited, in their opinion, the soundest stamina of any constitution they had met with in the course of their practice. Antiphlogistic diet they recommended in all cases of plethora, and it was evident the people were too high fed.

Sd, The Chemists were petrified at the present effervescence. The ebullition that had taken place clearly demonstrated the existence of some lurking, corrosive acid;-but they hoped that

by the application of a mild fixed alkali the mixture would be fully neutralized, without having recourse to supersaturation.

4th, The Tanners declared, that it appeared to them that some people were hide-bound on the present occasion; but for their part they would allow no association (not even of the cow-feeders *) to stroke them against the hair. It was true that some people were disposed to bark at false alarms, but they would curry favour with no such pickles.

5th, The Painters could not draw in too lively colours the blessings they enjoyed as men and citizens. They viewed with abhorrence the outlines of a system which would deface the fairest picture of liberty which mankind had ever framed. The prominent features of the constitution should be made to stand forth from the canvas on the present occasion, for the reformers were but daubers, from the indistinct sketches they had exhibited.

6th, The Musicians were against ill-timed jarring, and wished for nothing so much as harmony in the country. They would heartily join with their fellow citizens, in "De'il tak the

The cow-feeders had published violent resolutions for a reform in government.