was always considered, in that assembly, as the speech of the minister.

Sheltering myself, therefore, under this distinction, I cannot refrain from offering a few remarks on a late production, pregnant, as many are of opinion, with much mischief to the community. The reader sees that I mean, "A Proclamation for the encouragement of piety and virtue, and for preventing and punishing of vice, profaneness, and immorality."

That the scheme proposed should be carried into execution, does not, indeed, seem probable. When we consider how long vice, profaneness, and immorality have been increasing among us, what a powerful party they have formed, how much fashion is on their side, and how very strong the tide runs, the attempt may be thought to resemble that of the man, who endeavoured to stop the Thames at London bridge, with his hat, unless the rich and the great would set the example.

I have always been an enemy to pains and penalties. The word punishment is a bad word, and the thing itself is much worse. When once it begins, the wisest man living cannot tell where it will end, or what will become of our liberties: for as the sheep-stealer said, "If a gentleman cannot kill his own mutton, without being hanged for it, I should be glad to know what we have got by the revolution." In short, one must be without a nose, not to smell something here of arbitrary power.

The idea of a Sunday, unenlivened by a little innocent play, is a very dull and dreary one. I know a family in town, that has made the experiment.

The consequence was, that before nine in the evening, the members of it found themselves so cross, peevish, and out of temper, that had it not been for an early supper and a glass of good wine, they could not have gone to bed in Christian charity with each other.

But much more distressful still was the case of a lady, whose husband, being in the commission, had lent his assistance to suppress gaming on a Sunday in a neighbouring public house. It struck him that cards on that day, in a private house, might not, just then, be quite so proper; and he ventured to hiut as much to his lady. She had always apprehended the Gospel to have been designed for the poor; and was astonished to find that any thing in the proclamation could apply to persons of her rank in life. "The party was made, and what could be done?" A thought, however, luckily occurred; and when the company was assembled, after an apology suitable to the occasion, instead of the card tables, she introduced the entertainment of catches and glees. The thing took mightily, and was judged a pretty variety. Otherwise, a disappointment of such a nature, spreading, as it must have done, like an electrical shock, through all the polite circles, might have bred bad blood, and produced a general insurrection.

It fares with religion as with a shuttlecock, which is stricken from one to another, and rests with none. The rich apprehend it to have been designed for the poor; and the poor, in their turn, think it calculated chiefly for the rich. An old acquaintance of mine, who omitted no opportunity of doing good, discoursed with the barber who

shaved him, on his manner of spending the sabbath (which was not quite as it should be,) and the necessity of his having more religion than at present he seemed to be possessed of. The barber, proceeding in his work of lathering, replied, "that he thought he had tolerably well for a barber; as, in his apprehension, one third of the religion necessary to save a gentleman, would do to save a barber."

I mention this, because I have received a letter of considerable length, praying redress of grievances, from a person who lets lodgings in Broad St. Giles's. He speaks of a very snug and comfortable neighbourhood there, which is likely to be broken up and dispersed by the proclamation, and nobody can well tell why.

He himself holds twenty houses by lease, which are let out, ready furnished. Matters are conducted in a manner so perfectly economical, that though there is no more than one bed in each room, there are usually two or three, and sometimes even four occupiers of that one room and bed. That the furniture is of an expensive and luxurious kind, no one can say; as it consists only of a stump bedstead, a flock bed, a pair of sheets, (frequently only one sheet) a blanket or two, a chair or two, (generally without backs) and a grate, but mostly without shovel, tongs, and poker. The sheets are usually marked with the name of the owner; and the words " stop thief!" are added, for private

reasons.

In two adjoining allies are forty more houses, let out in like sort to inhabitants, in number 400, consisting of whores, pickpockets, footpads, house

breakers, and thieves of every description, from all quarters of the town. But what then? They must have lodgings as well as other people; and, if they were to be in the street all night, it would be dangerous for the rest of his majesty's subjects to pass. To avoid suspicion, the houses are continually lighted, and kept open all night; and to show that hypocrisy has no place there, what used to be practised only in private at midnight, is now prac tised in public at mid-day.

To accommodate the poor, there are twopeuny lodging-houses. One man, in particular, makes up, every night, thirty-five beds, and takes in men and women, at twopence or threepence a night; but if a man and woman come in together, he receives one shilling a night for the two.

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No society can be under better regulations than this is. Thus, for instance, when a prostitute has decoyed a man, and robbed him, the mistress of the house has half the pay and the plunder and if one of these ladies intrude upon that beat, and walk, which another regards as her exclusive right, the matter is determined, as much greater matters are, by a battle.

Nor can there be reason to fear, that this society should ever become so numerous, as to be any annoyance to the public; since care is taken, that a sufficient number is hanged every session, to maintain a balance; and some rooms are always reserved for the reception of the dead bodies, which are brought back, after execution, to their old lodgings, till they can be otherwise disposed of.

Such is the substance of my friend's letter, which he desires may be communicated, through

the channel of my paper, to his countrymen, that they may know what they have to expect from the present system of despotism; when a few neigh. bours cannot live peaceably together, without being disturbed and hunted out by proclamations. He hopes all honest men will join with him in a petition for "the removal of evil counsellors ;" and concludes with the old British axiom, "My house is my castle;" under no dread, as it should seem, of the retort courteous once made to such a declaration by a magistrate in Oxford, of arbitrary prin"Then, sir, the castle shall be your

ciples; house."

It is not easy to estimate the loss which the community at large will sustain by the dissolution of this worthy neighbourhood. For if a gentleman be robbed of his watch, it must be replaced by another if his portmanteau be stolen, he must buy new clothes and linen: if his house be broken open, and stripped of its furniture, he must apply to the upholsterer: if he be beaten and wounded, to the surgeon: nay, should he be even killed, the undertaker and the sexton will be the better for it: and if the usual quantity of gin be not consumed, ruin must seize on those who vend it. Trade must stagnate. Thus incontrovertibly doth it appear, that private vices (if, indeed, they may be called vices) are public benefits.

I say, "if they may be called vices;" because I do not see why, should we so please, they may not be called virtues. The nature of things, in themselves, is nothing; our opinion of them is all: and if our opinion alters, the names of things should alter with it: indeed, they do, and must do so.