Zanga might here, with propriety, retort upon Young the very words which were put into his mouth in addressing Alonzo: "Christian, thou mistakest my character."

For these symptoms of repentance and regret which he here discovers, in acknowledging his having gone too great lengths in his pursuit of revenge, and that he had followed vengeance too far, are totally out of place, and unnatural; they are against the tenets of that religion which he is supposed to profess, and the practice and example of his country, which consider a contrary conduct as eminently meritorious. The plain rule of Horace should certainly, to have completed the piece, have been here strictly adhered to:

-Servetur ad imum

Qualis ab incepto processerit, aut sibi constet.

C.

HEADLEY.

No. XVII.

SATURDAY, JULY 7, 1787.

Est natura hominum novitatis avida.

THAT with respect of news, as well as of liquors, Man is a thirsty soul, we are taught in the words of my motto, at the very first entrance on our ele

mentary studies. Curiosity is the appetite of the mind: it must be satisfied, or we perish.

Among the improvements, therefore, of modern times, there is none on which I find more reason to congratulate my countrymen, than the increase of knowledge by the multiplication of newspapers.

With what a mixture of horror and commiseration do we now look back to that period in our history, when, as it is said, a written letter came down once a week to the coffee-house, where a proper person, with a clear and strong voice, was pitched upon to read it aloud to the company assembled upon the occasion! How earnestly did they listen! How greedily did they suck down every drop of intelligence that fell within their reach! Happy the man who carried off but half a sentence! It was his employment, for the rest of the evening, to imagine what the other half might have been. In days like these, there was, indeed, (if we may use the expression) "a famine in the land;" and one wonders how people contrived to keep body and soul together.

The provision at present made for us is ample. There are morning papers for breakfast; there are evening papers for supper;-I beg pardon-I mean dinner; and, lest, during the interval, wind should get into the stomach, there is, I believe, I know there was a paper published by way of luncheon, about noon. That fanaticism may not overwhelm us, and that profane learning may be duly mingled with sacred, there is, also, a Sunday gazette; which removes one objection formerly urged, and, surely, not without reason, against the observation of the day,

Some have complained, that to read all the newspapers, and compare them accurately together, as it is necessary to do, before a right judgment can be formed of the state of things in general, is grown to be a very laborious task, which whoever performs properly, can do nothing else. And why should he? Perhaps, he has nothing else to do; perhaps, if he had, he would not do it; or, perhaps, if he had not this to do, he would be in mischief: the complaint springs from a very criminal indolence, the child of peace and wealth. No man knows what may be done within the compass of a day till he tries: fortune favours the brave: let him buckle to the work, and despair of nothing: the more difficulty, the more honour. The Athenians, we are told, spent their time only" in hearing or telling some new thing." Would he wish to spend his time better than the Athenians did?

It has been thought, that tradesmen and artificers may spend too much of their time in this employment, to the neglect of their own respective occupations: but this can be thought only by such as have not considered, that to an Englishman, his country is every thing. Self is swallowed up, as it ought to be, in patriotism; or, to borrow ecclesiastical language, the constitution is his diocese ; his own business can only be regarded in the light of a commendam, on which, if he cast an eye now and then, as he happens to pass that way, it is abundantly sufficient.

The spirit of defamation, by which a newspaper is often possessed, has now found its own remedy in the diversity of them: for though a gentleman may read that he himself is a scoundrel, and his

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wife no better than she should be to-day, he will be sure to read that both of them are very good sort of people to-morrow. In the same manner, if one paper, through mistake or design, kill his friend, there is another ready to fetch him to life; nay, if he have good luck in the order of his reading, he may be informed that his friend is alive again before he had perused the account of his death.

The expense of advertising in so many different newspapers, may, perhaps, be deemed a hardship upon authors: but then they have, in return, the comfort of reflecting, what benefactors they are to the revenue; besides, how easy is it for them to balance the account, by printing with a large type, due space between the lines, and a broad margin ! Great advantage may be obtained by throwing their compositions into the form of letters, which may be as short as they please; and a reader of delicacy thinks, the shorter the better. A letter of six lines is a very decent letter: it may begin at the bottom of one page, and end at the top of the next; so that eight parts in ten of what the reader purchases, consist of blank paper: his eye is agreeably relieved; and if the paper be good for any thing, he has, upon the whole, no bad bargain.

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That the vehicles of intelligence, numerous as they are, yet are not too numerous, appears, because there is news for them all, there are purchasers for all, and advertisements for all: these last not only afford aid to government, and are pretty reading, but sometimes have an influence upon the important affairs of the world, which is not known, or even suspected.

No event, of latter times, has more astonished mankind, than the sudden downfall of the Jesuits; and various causes have been assigned for it. I am happy that it is in my power, by means of a correspondent at Rome, who was in the secret, to furnish my readers with a true one-an anecdote, which, I believe, has never before transpired.

It was owing, then, to an advertisement in an English newspaper, which passed over to the continent, and, by some means or other, found its way to the Vatican. I remember, perfectly well, to have read the advertisement at the time, and to have noted it down in my adversaria, as I am wont to do when any thing strikes me in a particular manner. It ran thus:

"John Haynes, of St. Clements, Oxford, begs leave to inform the public, that he alone possesses the true art of “making leather breeches fit easy.”

As the newspaper containing the advertisement, came from Oxford, his Holiness and their Eminences immediately saw, that in these last words was conveyed a keen though covert satire upon the loose casuistry of the sons of Loyola. A consistory was called, and Ganganelli formed his resolution : what followed, all the world knows.

I thought it but justice to my worthy friend Haynes, to mention thus much; and, as by the introduction of fustian, his trade has long been upon the decline, I would hope that every good protestant will forthwith bespeak a pair of leather breeches (and pay for them when brought home) of a man who has given such a blow to popery, and had the address to effect what the Provincial Letters attempted in vain.