country. The good man received our congratulations upon the occasion with tears; and taking a most affectionate leave he retired to his living. The satisfaction we received in our friend's promotion would hardly have made us amends for the pains of parting with him, if an unfortunate accident, and some information that followed it, had not opened our eyes to see that worthy gentleman in his proper character. My wife was busied in her political studies one day, with her Bailey's dictionary before her, when I received a message from above, that my employment was taken from me-I inquired into the meaning of such a procedure, and I was answered, that I was an infamous, ungrateful fellow; one that deserved hanging; and if I did not mend my manners and my wife, the government might possibly take a severer notice of me. With these words the messenger left me; and I retired to my wife's apartment for comfort and advice. That heroic woman, instead of calling my dissimulation a misfortune, gloried in the occasion.-It was now, she said, she would apply to the people for that emolument the enemies of their country had dispossessed me of. That she had long been solicited by the proprietors of certain newspapers to lend her abilities. That she had desired time to consider of their proposals, but was now determined; that she had indeed, for some weeks past, administered helps to Old England, and the London Evening Post, and had occasionally furnished a few papers upon naval affairs in the Fool; but that the writers of those papers were so incorrigibly dull, that her bare intervention was of little use; she therefore declared, as the ministry had provoked her to plan their utter ruin, she would hesitate no longer to undertake the sole direction of them. That the advantages arising from such papers would treble those of the post I had lost; and that I ought to look upon myself as the happiest of men in having a head to my family, who knew how to secure the emoluments of a husband by the very means that must save her dearer country from destruction. My heart was overflowing with comfort at these assurances, when the visit of a friend interrupted the discourse. He condoled with me in the kindest manner for the loss of my place; but, how, Mr. Trott-Plaid, shall I express my astonishment, when he assured me, upon his own knowledge, that my friend the clergyman, that friend I so dearly loved, was the person to whom I was indebted for this obligation! He told me, that the business of this viper, during the time of his stay with us, was to pay his court to the administration, in which he so well succeeded, as to obtain a promise of preferment. That to perfect this promise, and to remove any suspicions they might possibly entertain of his principles, he had made a voluntary sacrifice of my wife and me; concluding, that I was an avowed Jacobite, and my wife the writer of every scurrilous pamphlet that had infested the public. I own to you, Mr. Trott-Plaid, upon this discovery I began to be ashamed of the part I had acted. It occurred to me that the principles of this man might possibly be as false as his friendship; but my wife conceived a different opinion.-Bad practises, she said, were no proof of bad principles; her's she knew were right; and however ill her friend might have treated her, his name and memory deserved respect, as by his means she was become a pillar of support to a falling nation. I will not tire you, Mr. Trott-Plaid, with my wife's arguments, or my own submissions.-The newspapers above-mentioned have been ever since under her direction; but, whether from a want of taste in the public, or from a knowledge that they are the writings of a woman, the proposed advantages have fallen short, even of common subsistence.-It is impossible to represent to you the distresses we have struggled with: but, what is the worst of all, I have the concern to see my children. taught treason as soon as they can speak; and my little boy, just eight years old, the hopes of my family, is turned poet, and writes the verses, as he calls them, in the London Evening Post; he has just sent some lines on the eclipse to the press. Dear Sir, advise me what to do; for though my wife hates you, and has often abused you in print, I am, Your affectionate friend, And most humble servant, SIMON SUPPLE. *Note, these were printed in the London Evening Post of Saturday last, and are well enough for such a child. |