fon, whofe notions of honour and juftice are thofe of a young foldier, who, in defiance of the law, will be judge in his own caufe, and the avenger of injuries, which Heaven only should punish. I have written to him upon this occafion, in all the agony of a fond mother's diftreffes. But, O! I have fatal forebodings that my letter will come too late. What is this honour, and what this juftice, that prompts men to acts of violence and blood, and either leaves them victims to the law, or to their own unwarrantable rafhnefs? As forcibly as I was able in this diftracted condition, I have fet his duty before him; and have charged him, for his own foul's fake, and for the fake of thofe he moit tenderly loves, not to bring utter ruin on a family whofe diftreffes already are near finking them to the grave. The only glimmering of comfort that opens upon me, is the hope that your publication of this letter may warn the wretch who has undone us of his dangery and incline him to avoid it. Fear is generally the companion of guilt, and may poffibly be the means of preferving to me the life of a fon, after worfe than death has happened to a daughter. If you have pity in your nature, I beg the immediate publication of this letter, which will infinitely oblige, Sir, your greatly diftreffed, but most faithful humble fervant. N° CXLV. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1755. SIR, TO MR. FITZ-ADAM, T is with great pleasure that I fee you I will not give him a merit which he does not want, that of intending my happinefs only, and of railing me to a rank which neither my perfon nor fortune gave I frequently doing justice to the age you me any pretensions to: on the contrary, I live in, and not running into that vulgar and ill-natured prejudice that the prefent times are worfe than the past. We are certainly better in every refpect than our forefathers; and it is right we should be told fo, to encourage us in our progrefs towards the fummit of perfection. I could give a thousand inftances of the virtues of thefe times; but fhall at prefent content myself with one, which I do not remember that you have hitherto fo much as touched upon. It is the extreme conftancy and difintereftedness of the men in affairs of love and marriage. I am a woman, Mr. Fitz-Adam, and have lately experienced this truth, in a degree that would bring upon me the imputation of ingratitude, if I neglected to do this public juftice to the molt conftant and generous of all lovers. It is now upwards of a year fince I received the addreffes of this gentleman. He is a man of fortune and family; ferfectly agreeable in his perfon; witty and engaging in his converfation; with a heart the most tender, and manners the molt foft and amiable that can be imagined. Such as I have defcribed him, you will not wonder that I gave him my whole heart, and waited with the utmost impatience to be united to him for ever. was young and handsome, and in the opinion of the world, one whofe alliance could bring as much honour into my lover's family, as he could reflect on mine. Nor, indeed, did I ever with that there fhould be any fuch obligation on either fide; having generally obferved, that the most equal matches are the most productive of happiness. But I only mention this circumftance, as it may ferve to do honour to his behaviour fince. The time was now approaching which was to make us infeparably one. What his fentiments were upon the occafion may be feen by the following letter, which, among a thoufand of the fame kind, I fhall here transcribe. IT is as impoffible for me to rife, and not write to my angel, as to lie down and not think of her. I am too happy. Pray ufe me a little ill, that I may come to a right state of mind; for at prefent I can neither eat nor fleep: yet I am more good-humoured than all the world; and then fo compaflionate, that I pity every man I fee. My dearest loves only me, and all other men must be miferable. I wonder that any body can laugh befides myself: if it be a man, he makes me jea lous; I fancy that he entertains hopes of my my charmer; for the world has nothing elfe in it to make him chearful. And now, my life! I have done with all my doubts; the time approaches that will change them into happinefs. I know of nothing (fickness and death excepted) that can poffibly prevent it. Our pleafures will lie in fo narrow a compass, that we fhall always be within reach of them. To oblige and be obliged will be all we want: and how fweet it is to think, that the bufinefs of our lives, and the delight of our hearts, will be the fame thing! I mean, the making each other happy. But I am doomed to be more obliged than I have power to oblige. What a wife am I to have! Indeed, my love, I shall think myself the worft, if I am not the very best of all husbands. Adieu! Upon my making a vifit of a few days to a friend near town, where I defired him not to come, he wrote me as follows THIS lazy penny-poft, how I hate I it! It is two tedious days that I must wait for an answer to what I write. I will fet up a poft of my own, that shall go and come every two hours; and then, upon condition that I hear from you by every return of it, I will obey your commands, and not think of feeing you. wonder you have not taken it into your head to bid me live without breathing. But take care, my love, that you never give up the power you have over me: for if ever it comes to my turn to reign, I will be revenged on you without mercy. I will load you fo with love and kind offices, that your little heart fhall almost break in ftruggling how to be grateful. I will be tormenting you every day, and all day long. I will prevent your very withes. Even the poor comfort of hope fhall be denied you; for you fhall know, that none of your to-morrows fhali be happier to you than your yesterdays. Your pride too fhall be mortified; for I will out-love you, and be kinder to you than you can poffibly be to me. All these miferies you thall fuffer, and yet never be able to wish for death to relieve you from them. So, if you have a mind to avoid my crueltics, refolve not to mary me; for I am a tyrant in my nature, and will execute all I have threatened, How tender and obliging were thefe expreffions! I own to you, Mr. Fitz Adam, that I answered them all in an equal train of fondnefs. But, in the midit of this sweet intercourfe, he was unhappily taken ill of the fmall-pox. The moment he was fenfible of his diftemper, he conjured me, in a letter, not to come near him, left his apprehenfions for me (as I had never had it) thould prove more fatal to him than the difeafe. It was indeed of the most dangerous kind; but how was it possible for me to keep from him? I flew to him when he was at the worst, and would not leave him till they took me away by force. The confequence of this vifit was, that I caught the infection, and fickened next day. My diftemper was of the confluent fort, and much worse than my lover's, who in lefs than three weeks was in a condition to return my vifit. He had fent almost every hour in the day to enquire how I did; and when he faw me out of danger, (though totally altered from my former felf) his tranfports were not to be told or imagined. I cannot resist the pleasure of tranferibing the letter that he fent me at his return home that evening WHAT language fhall I invent to happy this vifit has made me! To fee tell the charmer of my foul how you restored to health was my heart's only with; nor can my eyes behold a change in that face (if they can be fenfible of any change) that will not endear it to me beyond the power of beauty. be confidered by me as a love-mark, that Every trace of that cruel distemper will will for ever revive in my foul the ideas of that kindness by which it came. Lament not a change, then, that makes you lovelier to me than ever: for, till pen) I will be only and all your foul changes, (which can never hapYours. This letter, and a thousand repetitions of the fame engaging language, made me 'look upon the lofs of my beauty as a trivial lofs. But the time was not yet come, that was to fhew me this generous and difinterefted lover in the most amionly child I was, and who had engaged able of all lights. My father, whofe to give me a large fortune at my marriage, and the whole of his eftate at his death, fell ill foon after; and, to the furprize of all the world, died greatly involved, and left me without a fhilling to my portion. My lover was in the country, when I acquainted him with this fatal news. Indeed, I had no doubt of his generofity; but how like a divinity he appeared to me, when, by the return of the poft, he fent me the following letter! THINK not, my foul, that any ex ternal accident can occafion the leaft change in my affections. I rather rejoice that an opportunity is at last given me of proving to my deareft creature that I loved her only for herself. I have fortune enough for both; or, if I had not, love would be fufficient to fupply all our wants. This cruel bufinefs, how angry it makes me! But a very few days, my life, fhall bring me to your arms. O! how I love you! Thofe are my favourite words, and I am fure I fhall die with them; or, if I fhould have the mifery to out-live you, they will be only changed to-O! how I loved her!" But the How, my dear, is not to be told; your own heart must teach it you. When is it that I fhall love you beft of all? Why, the last day of my life, after having lived many, many years, your obliged, and happy husband. How truly noble was this letter! But you will think me dwelling too long upon my own happiness; I shall therefore only add, that it is now a week fince he wrote it; and that yesterday I received the undoubted intelligence that my lover was married the very next day to a fat widow of five-and-fifty, with a large jointure, a fine houfe, and a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, at her own dif, pofal. I am, Sir, your most obedient fervant, M. B. N° CXLVI. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1755. Have so tender a regard for my fair congratulate them upon the approaching meeting of the parliament, which I confider (and I believe they do fo too) as the general gaol-delivery of the several counties of the united kingdom. That beautiful part of our fpecies once engroffed my cares; they ftill fhare them. I have been exceedingly af fected all the fummer with the thoughts of their captivity, and have felt a fympathetic grief for them. In truth, what can be more moving, than to imagine a fine woman of the highest rank and fashion torn from all the elegant and refined pleasures of the metropolis; burried by a mercilefs hufband into country captivity, and there expofed to the incurfions of the neighbouring knights, fquires, and parfons, their wives, fons, daughters, dogs, and horfes? The metropolis was at once the feat of her empire, and the theatre of her joys. Exiled from thence, how. great the fall! how dreadful the prifon! Methinks I fee her fitting in her dreffing room at the manfion-feat, fublimely tullen, like a dethroned eattern momarch; fome few books fcattered up and down, feem to imply that she finds no confolation in any. The unopened knotting-bag fpeaks her painful leifure. Infenfible to the proffered endearments Her for being fo abominably noisy. drefs is even neglected, and ber complexion laid by. I am not ashamed to own my weakness, if it be one; for I confels, that this image ftruck me fo ftrongly, and dwelt upon my mind so long, that it drew tears from my eyes. The prorogation of the parliament laft fpring was the fatal forerunner of this fummer captivity. I was well aware of it, and had fome thoughts of prepar ing a fhort treatife of confolation, which I would have prefented to my fair coun try-women, in two or three weekly papers, to have accompanied them in their exile: but I must own that I found the attempt greatly above my ftrength; and an inadequate confolation only redoubles the grief, by reviving in the mind the caufe of it. Thus at a lofs, I fearched (as every modeft modern fhould do) the ancients, in order to fay in English whatever they had faid in Latin or Greek upon the like occafion; but far from finding any cafe in point, I could not find one in any degree like it. I particularly confulted Cicero upon exile which he bore fo very indifferently himfelf; but, to my great furprize, could not meet with one fingle word of confolation, addreffed or adapted to the fair that and |