1786. French Edit on Gold and Silver. this our fand, who, deflitute of means to outain fbfilence, perifa in the merciless į jaws of want, perhaps too in a loathfome prifon! View the industrious pair, the fport of wywud fortune. Every effort fails; they Arive in vain, the current runs ftrong against then, and they are hurried into the gulph of c. Bufinefs fails them, their falfe friends forfake them, no kind hand to help, of heart to pity them; deflitute of friends, of houfe, of home, they wander forth forIra, while hungry want attacks their very als. Their lifping offspring raife their balow eyes, and afk the food their parents cannot give. The tender mother, unable to fuftain her woes, farinks from the fight into the arms of death! The frantic father, overcome with grief, enraged at his accumulated diftrefs, with rath impatience ends his own exiftence, and leaves his helplefs Estes unguarded, unprotected in a world of Turn then, you who revel in the gifts of fortune, and liften to the dictates of humanity: while you furround the feftive board, and gaily quaff the flowing bowl, liftening to the viol's pleafing found, how many are tre who pine with hunger, their mufic Eghing! and to thefe your fuperfluity would Remarkable Inflances of Longevity. Anonymous, Yorkshire, 140, and his fon, 100, were both living, and attended to give evidence at York affize, in 1664. F. Sagar, Lancashire, died Jan. 1668, aged 112. Henry Jenkins, Yorkshire, died Dec. 8, $10, aged 169. Robert Montgomery, Yorkshire, living in 1670, aged 126. Countess of Defmond, Ireland, aged 140. fhire, lived 100 years in Ireland, and died in Dublin, 1727, aged 125. Mr. Ellis, Surry, dicu about 1748, aged› 137. Simon Sack, Trionia, died May 30, 1764, aged 141. Col. Thomas Winfloe, Ireland, died Auguft 12, 1766, aged 156. Francis Confit, Yorkshire, died January 168, aged 150. Francis Bons, France, died Feb. 6, 1759, v aged 124. Chriftopher Jacob Drakenberg, Norway, a boatfwain in the Danish navy, died June 24, 1770, aged 146. Margaret Fofter, Cumberland, 136, and her daughter, 100, were both living in 1770, John Tice, Worcestershire, died March 1774, aged 125. : John Mount, Scotland, died February 27, 1776, aged 136. A Coldfmith, France, died June 1776, aged 140.. Mary Yates, Shropshire, died 1776, aged 128, John Brookey, Devonshire, living 1777, aged 134. Mifs Ellis, daughter of Mr. Ellis, Surry, died 1781, aged 104. Mr. Froome, Holms-Chapel, Cheshire, died May 1785, aged 125. Mary M'Donnald, County, of Down, Ireland, died June 16, 1785, aged 118. Mary Cameron, Inverneisfhire, died July, 1785, aged 130.00 Gen. Oglethorpe, ---- died Auguft, 1785, aged 103. t Mifs Ellis, daughter of Mr. Ellis, Richmond, Surry, living August 16, 17859 aged 105. Mr. Rowe, Nutwell-houfe, Scotland, died August 1785, aged 105. Donald M'Keen, Argylefire, died September 1783, aged 109.. William Morton, at Dalzell, near Hamilton, Scotland, died about fourteen years ago, aged 179. It is remarkable, that feveral years before his death he ordered one Archi bald Brownlie, carpenter, to make his coffin; and, to prove his affection, he would never fleep without it placed on the top of his bed. His dog, named Barti, affifted at the fune-1 ral, which, brought his grey bairs with for row to the grave. A French Edit on Gold and Silvr. been published, dated Fontainbleau, DECLARATION of the King has Cober 30, and registered at the Mint on the 21ft of November following, relative to fixing the value between gold and filver, and the proportion between the money of the one and the other metal, ordering, at the fame time, a new coinage of gold monies. Th The object of the faid declaration is to reeftablish the proportion between the gold and filver monies in fome degree corresponding to what it is in other nations, preferving, at the fame time, to the new money the fame nominal value, and the fame ftandard of fineness, and only to make a difference in weight, which is to be reduced to a ju pro portion. Thus there will be no profit in exporting the coin, nor any gain by melting it, nor will any confufion arife the circulation, or any difference in the price of provifions, and the poffeffors of the old fpecie will be griners by bringing them to the Mint. Each mark of fine gold of 24 carats fhall be worth 15 marks and a half of fine filver, of 12 deniers, and fall be received and paid in the Mints, and exchanges for the fum of 828 livres 12 fous, the value of the said 15 marks and a half of fiver, at the prefent price of 53 livres nine fous and two deniers per mark, fixed by the rates of the Mints in 1773. All the gold coins current at prefent, viz. louis, double louis, and half louis, fhall ceafe to be current from the 1ft of January next, and fhall be paid into the Mints, &c. from the day of the publication of this declaration, to the 1ft of April next, at the rate of 750 livres per mark, or 25 livres for every louis that weighs its full weight, and in proportion in cafe they are not weight, After the 1st of April they are not to be received but at the rate of 742 livres to fous per mark, or 24 livres 15 fous per louis. Gold, either in ingots or foreign monies, brought to the Mint, fhall, be paid for in proportion to its finenefs, after the rate of 828 livres 12 fous per mark fine, and 34 livres To fix deniers per carat, conformable to the rate annexed to the declaration. The melting down and recoining the Iouis fall be carried on at the Mints of Paris, Lyons, Metz, Bourdeaux, and Nantes only; they are to have a new impreflion, and the other Mints are not to coin any till further orders. The new Louis are to be of the fame fineness of the old, but there are to be 32 in a mark. We think it our duty to put fuch of our readers on their guard, as may have Louis d'ors in their poffeffion, and intend to fend them to France, in order to gain the additional livre upon each, offered by the late edict; people might be induced from the file of the edict to think, that for every Louis d'or offered for exchange at the Mint, the owner will get in return 25 livres, tho' the current value does not exceed 24: but this is a mistake; for the officers of the Met in Paris have received orders not to give 25 livres for a Louis d'or, unless it is full weight; and to make a deduction where it falls fhort of the ftandard, in proportion to the defidency; fo that poffibly the feller may in fome cafes, where his gold is very light, get more than 20 livres for his Louis d' This regulation had like to have occafion a very ferious riot in Paris, where, and their country by their agents, many moni fpeculators had brought up gold at the ra of 24 livres and half for each Louis d' without attending to the weight. The ra they fell into, when they difcovered t cheat, is not to be expreffed; they were f pulling down the Hotel des Monnies ( Mint) about the ears of the officers, an had not the French guards been called in preferve the peace, no one knows where th tumult might have ended. Dr. Johnson's Character of Burke an R. Young. D. Johnfon faid, he did not grudg Memoirs Jan. rate the and Memoirs of Mrs. Catharine Clive. Memoirs of Mrs. Catharine Clive. THIS HIS excellent actrefs was born in the year 1711; fhe was the daughter of Mr. William Raftor, a gentleman born at Kiemy, in the kingdom of Ireland, by Mr. Daniel, the daughter of an eminent tram on Fish street-hill. Her grandfather was poffeffed of a confiderable paternal ef tate in Ireland, but Mr. Raftor, the father, having attached himself to the unfortunate a 13 King James II. he loft his property at the Revolution, and it never could be recovered to the family. This gentleman, we are told, was bred to the law, but on King James's coming into Ireland, he quitted his profeffion and entered into the fervice of his fovereign, whofe fortunes after the decifive battle of the Boyne he followed into France. In that kingdom he remained fome time, and obtained a captain's commiffion under Lewis XIV; but foon afterwards having gained his pardon, he returned to England, where he married and continued until his death. arrd W25 her He Mr. Clive, we are told by Chetwood, difovered an early attention to the ftage. Her propenfity to this profeffion led her to look on the principal performers as entitled to particular notice, and having for one of ber companions Mifs Johnfon, afterwards the first wife of Theophilus Cibber, (a rifing genius who died in 1733 very young) it is probable that they each encouraged the other in their fondness for the ftage. In Company with this young lady, Mrs. Clive aften faid the ufed to tag after the celebrated Mr. Wilks whenever they faw him in the freets, and gape at him as a wonder. The marriage of her friend to 1 hcophilus Cibber, feems to have led the way to her reception into the theatre. By Cibber and by Chetwood fhe was recommended to the elder Cibber, then one of the managers, who, as foon as he had heard her fing, put ker down on the lift of performers at twenty fhillings a-week. Her firft appearance was in the year 1728 at Drury Lane theatre, in the play of Mithridates. The part the performed was that of Ifinenes, the page of Dr. Ziphores, in boy's cloaths, in which character a fong proper to the circumftances of the fcene was introduced, which the executel with great fuccefs. At this period, the pightlinefs and vivacity of her difpofition, and an appearance fcarce more than infanthe, pointed her out as the proper reprefentative of parts in which youth and fimpicity were to be perfonated. In the firft feafon of her theatrical life, the performed Phillida, in Cibber's Love in a Riddle, a play which the enemies of the author had determined to condemin without hearing. We are, however, informed that when our Hib. Mag. Jan. 1786. பால் ofef man. made aud actress appeared, the clamour which had been outrageous fubfided, and à person in the ftage-box was heard to call out to one of his riotous companions," Zounds, Tom, take care, or this charming little devil will fave all." The part of Phillida was afterwards formed into an after-piece, and continued to be a favourite performance of the public for many years. Continuing to improve in her profeffion, the added both to her falary and her fame, and foon became an actress who contributed greatly to the fupport of the ftage. In 1737 her performance of Nell in the Devil to Pay, fixed her reputation as the greatest performer of her time in that fpecies of character, and for more than thirty years the remained without a rival. From a dedication to the Intriguing Chambermaid, by the celebrated Henry Fielding, we are informed, that it was to him the town were obliged for the first difcovery of her great capacity, and brought her more early forward than the ignorance of fome and the envy of o thers would have otherwife permitted. In the next year, 1732, the united herself in marriage with George Clive, a gentleman of the law, and brother to Baron Clive.This union was not productive of happiness to either party. They foon agreed to feparate, and for the reft of their lives had no intercourfe together. Chetwood hints that the received fome ill usage from her husband, but of what kind, or with whom the blame was to reft, we are not informed. At this juncture fhe had an opportunity of difplaying the integrity of her private character, by refufing to join the male-content performers, who, with young Cibber at their head, revolted from the acting manager, and fet up for themselves in oppofition to him at the Haymarket. Her fidelity to her unfortunate employer was the more laudable, as her abilities would have much contributed to the fuccefs of his opponents, and were in fact his principal fupport *. At *Mr. Fielding in the aforefaid dedication fays, "The part you have maintained in the prefent difpute between the players and the patentees is fo full of honour, that had it been in higher life, it would have given you the reputation of the greatest heroine of the age. You looked on the cafes of Mr. Highmore and Mr. Wilks with compaffion, nor could any promises or views of intereft fway you to defert them; nor have you fcrupled any fatigue (particularly the part which at fo fhort a warning you undertook in this farce) to fupport the caufe of thofe whom you imagined injured and diftreffed, and for this you have been fo far from endeavouring to exact an exorbitant res B Ware At Drury-lane the continued without interruption until the year 1743, ftill increafing in reputation. In 1740 fhe was felected to play in Alfred, acted at Cliefden-house be fore the Prince of Wales; and in the fame year reprefented Celia and Portia, on the revivals of As You like It and The Merchant of Venice. In June 1741 she went to Ireland, and performed a fhort time in Dublin. In 1743 fhe removed to Covent-Garden Theatre; and at the beginning of the seafon of 1744 we find her unemployed,, and publishing a pamphlet, complaining of the manager's treatment of her, under the title of "The Cafe of Mrs. Clive fubmitted to the Public," 8vo. Being unengaged at either Theatre, fhe on the 2d of November had a concert of vocal and instrumental musick at the Haymarket, by command of the Prince and Princess of Wales, for her benefit, at which Mr. Lowe, herself, and Mifs Edwards were performers. The differences between her and the managers feem to have been accommodated before the end of the month, as the then appeared again at Covent-Garden. In 1745 the returned to Drury-Lane, at which Theatre fhe continued until 1769, the time when the entirely quitted the ftage. In 1750 the produced at her own benefit, a farce called The Rebearfal, or Bays in Petticoats, which was altered and reprefented again on the fame occafion in 1753, and a third time with an additional fcene in 1762. At her benefit in 1753 the quitted the fock for the bufkin, and undertook the part of Zara in The Mourning Bride, in which if the derived any advantage, it must have been from the curiofity of the public to fee her in fo uncommon a fituation We remember at the time it was univerfally allowed that the added nothing to her fame, and this folly fhe never afterwards repeated. In 1756 Mr. Garrick complimented her with the first perform ance of his admirable character of Lord Chalkftone in Lethe. In 1760 fhe entertained her friends with another farce, called Every Woman in her Humour; and in 1763 with a third, called The Sketch of a fine Lady's Return from a Rout. In both thefe pieces the only parts which could be commended were her own excellent performances. In 1761 a dramatic piece, called The Ifland of Slaves, was acted at her benefit, but this has been afcribed to the pen of a friend. In 1768 Mrs. Clive's intimate friend Mrs. ward from perfons little able to afford it, that I have known you to offer to act for nothing rather than the patentees fhould be injured by the difmiffion of the audience." Pritchard quitted the ftage, and the fucceed ing year the determined to follow her exam ple: fhe could, if the had thought prope have continued feveral years longer to de light the public in various characters adapte to her figure and time of life; for to the la fhe was admirable and unrivalled. He On this occafion we are told, that M Garrick fent Mr. Hopkins the prompter t her, to know whether fhe was in earnest i her intention of leaving the ftage. To thi meffenger fhe difdained to give an answer To Mr. George Garrick, whom he after wards deputed to wait on her on the fam errand, she was not much more civil; how ever, fhe condefcended to tell him, that i his brother wifhed to know her mind, he should have called upon her himself. When the manager met her, their interview was fhort, and their difcourfe curious. After fome compliments to her great merit, Mr. Garrick wifhed, he faid, that fhe would continue, for her own fake, fome years longer on the stage. This civil fuggeftion, fhe answered by a decifive negative. asked how much she was worth? She replied brifkly, As much as himfelf. Upon his smiling at her fuppofed ignorance or mifînformation, the explained herself by telling him that he knew when she had enough, though he never would. He then entreated her to renew her agreement for three or four years; the peremptorily refused. Upon his renewing his regret at her leaving the ftage, the frankly told him that the hated hypocrify; for fhe was fare that he would light up candles for joy of her leaving him, but that it would be attended with fome expence. Every body will fee there was fome unneceffary fmartnefs in the lady's language; however it was her way, as her friend Mrs. Pritchard used to express it. On the 24th day of April, 1769, the ccmedy of The Wonder and Lethe were acted for Mrs. Clive's benefit, and on that evening he took leave of the ftage in the following Epilogue, written by the honourable Mr. Horace Walpole: "WITH glory fatiate, from the bustling ftage, Still in his prime-and much about my age, Imperial Charles (if Robertfon fays true) Retiring, bade the jarring world adieu! "Thus I, long honour'd with your par tial praise, 186 Memoirs of Mrs. Catharine Clive. To private fhades I bear the glorious prize, His mad ambition had disturb'd the globe, When Fow'r's full goblet he forbore That, confcious of benevolence of mind, For thirty years he had but made them "I was that mind with fweet retire- The very cloifter that he fought he teaz'd; Fift giggling, plotting, chambermaids ar- Hoydens and romps; led on by General Clive. Original in fpirit and in case, She pleas'd by hiding all attempts to please: One who had an opportunity of being well that what Colley Cibber faid of Nokes, may with equal truth be applied to her; for Clive had fuch a stock of comic force about her, that the, like Nokes, had little more to do than to perfect herself in the words of a part, and to leave the reft to nature; and if he, by the mere power of his action, kept alive feveral comedies which after his death became obfolete, it may as juftly be faid of her, that, the created feveral parts in plays of which the poet fcarce furnished an outline; and that many dramatic pieces are now loft to the stage for want of her animating spirit to preferve them. A more extenfive walk in comedy than that of Mrs. Clive cannot be imagined;-the chambermaid in every varied fhape which art or nature could lend her; characters of whim and affectation, from the high-bred Lady Fanciful, to the vulgar Mrs. Heidel berg; country girls, romps, hoydens and dowdies, fuperannuated beauties, viragoes and humourifts. To a ftrong and pleafing yoice, with an ear for mufic, fhe added all the fprightly action requifite to a number of parts in ballad farces. She had an inimitable talent in ridiculing the extravagant action, impertinent confequence, and infignificant parade, of the female opera finger; the fnatched an opportunity to fhew her excellence in this ftage mimicry in the Lady of Fafhion in Lethe. Her mirth was fo genuine, that whether it was reftrained to the arch fneer and the fuppreffed half laugh, widened to the broad burft of loud laughter, the audience was fure grin, or extended to the downright honest to accompany her; he must have been more or less than man, who could be grave when Clive was difpofed to be merry. But the whole empire of Laughter, large as it is, was too confined to fatisfy the ambition of a Clive: this daughter of mirth afpired to what nature had denied her; the wished to fhine in thofe parts of high life where elegance of form and graceful deportment give dignity to the female character. When Mr. Fielding brought out The Wedding-Day, he propofed for her the part of a Bawd, which occafioned a difpute between them, and he wrote the following lines upon it: A Bawd! a Bawd! where is this fcoundrel Fine work, indeed! By God, the Town shall poet? know it. |