reflection upon how little he deserved from so excellent a father, reformed the young man, and made Edward from an arrant rake become a fine gentleman.

St. James's Coffee-house, April 29.

Letters from Portugal of the eighteenth instant, dated from Estremos, say, that on the sixth the Earl of Galloway arrived at that place, and had the satisfaction to see the quarters well furnished with all manner of provisions, and a quantity of bread sufficient for subsisting the troops for sixty days, besides biscuits for twenty-five days. The enemy give out, that they shall bring into the field fourteen regiments of horse, and twenty-four battalions. The troops in the service of Portugal will make up 14,000 foot, and 4000 horse. On the day these letters were dispatched, the Earl of Galloway received advice, that the Marquis de Bay was preparing for some enterprize, by gathering his troops together on the frontiers: whereupon his Excellency resolved to go that same night to Villa Viciosa, to assemble the troops in that neighbourhood, in order to disappoint his designs.

Yesterday in the evening Captain Foxton, aid. de-camp to Major-General Cadogan, arrived here express from the Duke of Marlborough. And this day a mail is come in with letters from Brussels of the sixth of May, N. S. which advise, that the enemy had drawn together a body, consisting of 20,000 men, with a design, as was supposed, to intercept the great convoy on the march towards Lisle, which was safely arrived at Menin and Courtray, in its way to that place, the French having retired without making any attempt.

We hear from the Hague, that a person of the first quality is arrived in the Low Countries from France, in order to be a Plenipotentiary in an ensuing treaty of peace.

Letters from France acknowledge, that Monsieur Bernard has made no higher offers of satisfaction to his creditors than of 351. per cent.

These advices add, that the Marshal Boufflers, Monsieur Torcy (who distinguished himself formerly, by advising the Court of France to adhere to the treaty of Partition), and Monsieur d'Harcourt (who negotiated with Cardinal Portocarrero for the succession of the Crown of Spain in the house of Bourbon), are all three joined in a commission for a treaty of peace. The Marshal is come to Ghent; the other two are arrived at the Hague.

It is confidently reported here, that the Right Honourable the Lord Townshend is to go with his Grace the Duke of Marlborough into Holland.

**Mr. Bickerstaff has received the epistles of Mrs. Rebecca Wagstaff, Timothy Pikestaff, and Wagstaff, which he will acknowledge farther as Occasion shall serve.

No 10. TUESDAY, MAY 3, 1709.

Quicquid agunt homines

nostri est farrago libelli.

JUV. Sat. I. 85, 86

P.

Whate'er men do, or say, or think, or dream,

Our motley paper seizes for its theme.

By Mrs. JENNY DISTAFF, Half-Sister to
Mr. BICKERSTAFF.

From my own Apartment, May 1.

My brother Isaac, having a sudden occasion to go out of town, ordered me to take upon me the dispatch of the next advices from home, with liberty to speak in my own way; not doubting the allowances which would be given to a writer of my sex. You may be sure I undertook it with much satisfaction; and I confess, I am not a little pleased with the opportunity of running over all the papers in his closet, which he has left open for my use on this occasion. The first that I lay my hands on, is a treatise concerning "the empire of beauty," and the effects it has had in all nations of the world, upon the public and private actions of men; with an appendix, which he calls, "The bachelor's scheme for governing his wife." The first thing he makes this gentleman propose is, that she shall be no woman; for she is to have an aversion to balls, to operas, to visits; she is to think his company sufficient to fill up all the hours of life with great satisfaction; she is never to believe any other man wise, learned or valiant; or, at least, but in

a second degree. In the next place, he intends she shall be a cuckold; but expects, that he himself must live in a perfect security from that terror. He dwells a great while on instructions for her discreet behaviour, in case of his falsehood. I have not patience with these unreasonable expectations, therefore turn back to the treatise itself. Here, indeed, my brother deduces all the revolutions among men from the passion of love; and in his preface answers that usual observation against us, "that there is no quarrel without a woman in it;" with a gallant assertion, that "there is nothing else worth quarrelling for." My brother is of a complexion truly amorous; all his thoughts and actions carry in them a tincture of that obliging inclination; and this turn has opened his eyes to see, that we are not the inconsiderable creatures which unlucky pretenders to our favour would insinuate. He observes, that no man begins to make any tolerable figure until he sets out with the hopes of pleasing some one of us: no sooner he takes that in hand, but he pleases every one else by the bye; it has an immediate effect upon his behaviour. There is Colonel Ranter, who never spoke without an oath, until he saw the Lady Betty Modish; now, never gives his man an order but it is, "Pray, Tom, do it." The drawers where he drinks live in perfect happiness. He asked Will at the George the other day, how he did? Where he used to say, "Damn it, it is so;" he now "believes there is some mistake; he must confess, he is of another opinion; but, however, he will not insist."

Every temper, except downright insipid, is to be animated and softened by the influence of beauty; but of this untractable sort is a lifeless handsome fellow that visits us, whom I have dressed at this twelvemonth; but he is as insen

sible of all the arts I use, as if he conversed all that time with his nurse. He out-does our whole sex in all the faults our enemies impute to us; he has brought laziness into an opinion, and makes his indolence his philosophy; insomuch that, no longer ago than yesterday in the evening he gave me this account of himself: "I am, Madam, perfectly unmoved at all that passes among men, and seldom give myself the fatigue of going among them; but when I do, I always appear the same thing to those whom I converse with. My hours of existence, or being awake, are from eleven in the morning to eleven at night; half of which I live to myself, in picking my teeth, washing my hands, paring my nails, and looking in the glass. The insignificancy of my manners to the rest of the world, makes the laughers call me a Quidnunc; a phrase which I neither understand, nor shall ever enquire what they mean by it. The last of me each night is at St. James's coffee-house, where I converse; yet never fall into a dispute on any occasion; but leave the understanding I have passive of all that goes through it, without entering into the business of life. And thus, Madam, have I arrived, by laziness, to what others pretend to by philosophy, a perfect neglect of the world." Sure, if our sex had the liberty of frequenting publick-houses and conversations, we should put these rivals of our faults and follies out of countenance. However, we shall soon have the pleasure of being acquainted with them one way or other; for my brother Isaac designs, for the use of our sex, to give, the exact characters of all the chief politicians who frequent any of the coffee-houses from St. James's to the Exchange; but designs to begin with that cluster of wise heads, as they are found sitting every evening from the left side of the fire, at the Smyrna, to