ment; they feeing one of the field-pieces left with a few men at a distance behind the reft, galloped up, and cutting down the men, got poffeffion of it; but perceiving the battle loft, they did not venture to carry it off: nevertheless they did not immediately quit the camp, where they were foon after joined by feveral other bodies of cavalry, encouraged by their example; but the Englifh artillery in a few rounds obliged them to retire again, and they followed the reft of the fugitives, who were retreating towards Seringham by the pafs of Mootachellinoor. It was fome hours before the whole got into the island, for the throng confifted of 30,000 men of all forts on foot, and 16,000 horfe, befides a great number of oxen, camels, and elephants. The Tanjorines were ordered to fet out in pursuit of the French troops, who were taking flight, difperfed on all fides over the plain; but they could not be prevailed on to quit the fpoil of the camp, which they were very bufy in pludering. (To be continued.) The Landlord. profound reading, and a philofophical turn of mind, chofe principally to refide in the country, for the pleasure of uninterrupted contemplation. He had not only learning and probity, but philanthropy, and was equally celebrated in his neighbourhood for his generofity as his wifdom. It happened that one of his tenants, although he rented the smallest farm, and had a very large family depending on its cultivation, was by far the most cheerful and well difpofed. His cottage was dreffed by the hand of neatnefs; frugality and fimplicity attended upon his happy family. All fituations, and all feafons, from the beginning of spring to the end of winter, were rendered delightful by the happy bias of a conftitutional benignity, which enabled him to turn all events to advantage. In forrow he was humiliated, in profperity he was grateful. He had lived as a tenant when the father of Adraftus firft took poffeffion of that cftate, of which it was a part; nor had he ever made a failure in the payment of his rent, nor at any time had a quarrel in the parish. His toil was fweetened by the pleafing thought of providing for his offspring; and his conftant employment not only infpired health, but did not allow him leifure to indulge the whimfical wants of imagination; at the fame time that it protected him from all improper, impertinent, or vicieus paffions. He had, in his time, put many alienated hands together; reconciled many petty peevifh differences; fettled many family breaches; fuggefted, while he was church-warden, many a little scheme for the benefit of the poor; and never felt one emotion of env at furveying the poffeffions of the rich Thele unaffuming, though folid virtues gained him fuch a reputation in the country wherein he refided, that he obtained, as it were proverbially, the appellation of the Contented Cottager; he was, in truth, like Goldfmith's Priest, Palling rich with forty pounds a-year. to An account of him was tranfmitted Adraftus, who went to pay him a vifit, in order to fee how true report had charactered him; for though Adraftus lived and did much good in the country, yet his abftracted philofophical and fedentary fituation made him perfonally but little acquainted with even his own tenants, who were generally turned over to the steward for the converfation and bufinefs of quarter-day.---A man of the Contented Cottager's difpofition was, however, too important an object not to excite the curiofity of a philofopher; and accordingly he fet apart an evening for this entertainment.-Adraftus arrived at the farm about half an hour after fun-fet; when twilight grey Had in her fober livery all things clad. The farmer, whose name (if you please, reader) fhall be Matthew Mendland, was fitting at the door of his little cottage, fmoking his pipe, and furrounded by his children.——His wife was leaning over the fire, preparing a decent and wholefome fupper. The tenant knew his landlord perfon ally; and rofe as to a fuperior, offering him the best feat in his homely cottage. Here your honour finds me (faid the farmer) in a fmall but happy place.-I have liv'd upon your ground thefe many days; and if you think good to renew my leafe, which expires at Michaelmas, I fhall most likely end my life in your fervice.-If your honour likes me, I like you; your dues are always ready to the hour; and I have no more reafon to complain of my landlord than I trust he has of his tenant. And fo---' Adraftus interrupted him, by defiring to see the leafe, and to have a pen and ink for the purpose of renewing it upon the fpot. As to pen and ink, Sir, (replied the farmer), I have no ufe for them; and fo I never keep any by me: I never write, I cannot read; and fo fuch things are of no fervice; but if your honour wants to write, I can fend to the shop for paper and ink, and one of my boys can go to the green to pick up a quill; or if your honour is in a hurry, Tom fhall borrow feather from the cld gander, who is, I fee, juft waddling to his bed.' It don't fignify at prefent, farmer (faid Adraftus); I'll fign it another time-But I actually thought you was a scholar; that you gathered your no 137 1786. Letters addreffed to the Lord Mayor of London. tions of economy, induftry, and paternal propriety, from hiftoric examples, or traditionary annals. No, really, Sir, not I (faid the farmer); I am a very illiterate man, and no fcholar at all. My father could not afford to give me an education, and I have had neither time nor opportunity ance. Nature and my eyes have been my only inftructors; and if I have been able to live reputably to the age of threefcore, and even to rear up my children foberly, cleanly, and virtuously, I owe it merely to them Indeed, to fay the truth, my business as a farmer threw in my way a thousand inftructive objects. My yard is flocked with improvement. At the end of that small flip of a garden, I have a bit of a bee-hive, filled with little induftrious animals, who tell me whas a fhame it would be to lead the life of a drone. My maxim upon this is, Sir, that he who don't make fome honey, ought to eat none; and fo this made me indefatigable to earn my meal before I fat down to it. Nay, in this part of my duty, I was farther intructed by the little creatures who inhabit the mole-hill: I have refted upon my fpade, Sir, on purpose to look at their labours; and then I have gone to work again, left they should have the fenie to chide me for minding other people's bufinels more than my own. I have an old houfe dog, your honour,-Here---Honefty!-Honeity !Where are you, Honefty? ---There, Sir, that aged animal has kept my clothes by day and my cottage by night, till he has not got a tooth in his head; and he does for me what I would do for one Thomas Trufty, whom I have loved fince I was a brat no higher than my hand: he once did me a piece of fervice when it was moft wanted, and while I have breath I fhall never forget it. He, Sir, who has no gratitude has no nature; and an unnatural man is better dead than alive, you know; because, when a perfon does no good to his neighbour, he has no farther buline's here. We are all born to do fomething; and he who does a kindnefs deferves to be well remembered. To this dear old dame I have been lawfully married forty-fix years, and I can't think what great folks are about: I find a pleature in my conftancy, that I am fure I could not receive from its reverfe; and the fmiles of a good woman are a rich reward. With regard to the love I bear to thefe little ones, I ar taught the duty, Adraftus was aftonished at his fimplicity of manner, and at the foundness of his fenfe, as well as the propriety of his remarks.Farmer (faid he), you have distressed me as well as delighted me. I came prepared to offer you aflistance, and you have left me nothing to bestow. I have nothing that you have not but a greater proportion of money; and you are fo truly happy as you are, that any addition would perhaps difconcert the economy of your plan. You are a happy farmer and a natural philofopher, without the ufe eithr of large fyftematic folios, or the toil of a fedentary life. Give me, however, the leafe, that may put it in my pocket; I will tear the leafe, and How, your honour! (faid the poor alarmed farmer) Tear my leafe inftead of renewing it? Has then my freedom or my happinefs offended you?' 'Yes, Mr. Mendland (replied Adraftus), I will tear the leafe, becaufe you have no farther ufe for it.-The little fpot of ground you have fo long enriched by your care, fhall henceforth be a patrimony to your inheritance; you are the proprietor of it from this day call on me to-morrow morning, and the writings of furrender fhall be made out for you: for the time to come, I must be confidered not as your landlord but as your friend. Let me often fee you at my table and in my garden; in fhort, as frequently as the bufinefs of your family will permit. Let me get that wildom and underftanding, which furpaffeth mere mechanical fcience, in the fociety of the Contented Cottager.'— - The farmer would have dropt upon his knecs, but Adraftus prevented him, saying, Rife, Mr. Mendland, the obligation is on my fide: I have been obliged, in exchange for a few acres for which I have no occafion: you have given me a fet of maxims and sentiments that are the purified thrice-refined gold of Ophir, and fhall never depart from me. From this moment Adraftus and the farmer were intimate companions.-Ye landlords and tenants! go ye, and do so likewife !" Letters adtreffed to the Lord Mayor of London. (Continued from page 76.) which as a father I owe to them, by every T living thing around me: the wren that LETTER XIII. MY LORD, HE fituation of an Englishman must be allowed to be a very extraordinary one, when we confider him as living in the land of liberty. By the conftitution of his country, he can command a check over his reprefentatives, the nobles, and even the King himself. If any of these injure him, he has protection; he fleep in fafety, dreading nothing that they can ន do & do: he knows they dare not infringe on his liberty, and he, exults in the name of member of a free ftate, But how is his greatnefs to be weighed, when we confider him as regardless of the power of King, lords, or Commons, yet the flave the abfolute, the tame flave of the very loweft and vileft of his fpecies, and as coolly fubmitting to this flavery? In what refpect is he free? Is his houfe protected? No The one may be robbed, and the other mangled at the pleasure of men fo contemptible that he would not admit them into his fociety.-Is his wealth fecured, the profits of an honeft industry, the fupport of a numerous family, who can ill fpare even a moiety? No-Can he travel in fafety?-Can he walk from his neighbour's house in an evening in fafety?-- -Can he enter a place of amufement, or leave it in fafety? No-In all these cafes, the piftol of the highwayman, the dagger of the murderer, or the fupple finger of the pick-pocket lie in wait for him and he who left his friends in the joyous expectation of speedily meeting them in chearfulness and mirth, may be brought home to his wife and family a lifelefs corpfe, with the knife of the affaffin ftill fticking in his heart. In this defcription, my Lord, I have not exaggerated, nor is there a circumftance in the whole that is not ftriking. It would be fuperfluous therefore to fay, how much the fubject of these letters merits the attention of the public, and, although I may not be able to treat it with the ability and the genius, or the precifenefs of a lawyer, I hope that what I have faid, has in fome meafure called a proper attention. Surely it is high time to take fome decifive fteps, when we know that the number of thieves is fo greatly encreased, that were they to unite, it would require the force of a great army to repel them. when combined contribute largely to this great evil, and increase of thieves. Some obfervations ftill remain to be made in this letter, before I proceed to enquire into the means of prevention.Thefe obfervations I fhall divide into three heads:-1. The general profligacy of the times.-2. The increafe of public amufements.-3. The promifcuous intercourse of all criminals while in prison. com ift. The general profligacy of the times.-This is ufually an object of ridicule with the man of the world, who is content to believe, that we are no worse than any who have gone before us; but the increase of all kinds of profligacy, cannot be more clearly proved, than from the immediate fubject of thefe letters.-Was there ever a time when executions were fo frequent? Was there ever a time when the feduction of females was more mon and lefs abhorred? Was there ever a time when gaming prevailed in a greater degree? Are not half of our noble families rained by gaming? Was there ever a time when divorces were more frequent ; and was there ever a time when lefs attention was paid to the religion of the country, to the laws of morality, of fobriety and decorum; I aver that the profligacy of the prefent time is unprecedented in the Hiftory of Great Britain, however we may find fomething like it in the declining days of Rome. It may be faid notwithstanding, my Lord, that this is an evil which comes rather within the province of the clergyman than the magiflrate. As I mention it as a caufe of our prefent mifchiefs, I will add, that where the magistrate and the clergyman co-operate, much may be done, where either or both are neglected, the ftream muft flow. It is a current that cannot be ftopt. It is however, a fubject of too great latitude for this paper, and would involve men in inquiries into education, morality, example, &c. to no end, and perhaps to no purpose. I fhall leave it therefore to confider When I began to write thefe letters, my firft object was to point out the cause of the increase of thieves, by which name I mean fellows of every degree. The caufes I have already difcuffed are of the higheft-There is ufually a very wife argument importance. The number of low alehoufes, where money at times are wafted, in the worst of company, and to the deftruction of reafon and principle. The number of bad women, who mix with the men, and feduce them into every fpecies of daring wickedness The number of receiving fhops, pawnbrokers, &c. affording fafety and encouagement to the thief. In the courfe of treating these fubjects, I have taken occafion to introduce a variety of cafes, and collateral caufes, which adly. The increase of public amufe ufed in the defence of public amusements the people muft have them-and why must they have them? Because they must get rid of that money in amusements which ought to go to the maintenance of their families, and muft confume that time in the encouragement of difgraceful abfurdities, because the little time they have fpared from labour must be never employed in cultivating their minds, promoting health and cheerfulness by the comforts of a family fire fide; and because sobriety and temperance are not confiftent with idleness and extravagance. We have, at prefcat, 1786. Letters addressed to the Lord Mayor of London. I remain, my Lord, your's, &c. LETTER MY. LORD, XIV. 139 prefent, my Lord, too many amufements It is, however, abfolutely neceffary, that of that kind which are inviting to the lower that power fhould interfere in the cafe of claffes. Mere amufement is all they want; the laft of them. inftruction they never think of, and, indeed, I know not the public place where infruction is to be found, or which can at all be viewed in a moral light. I know of none of them which do not in a coniderable degree tend to infuse a spirit of idlenefs, while they raife the paffions, and induce thoughtleffnefs.. But, it may be faid, would you entirely prohibit public amufements from the lower clafles! No-not entirely-But I would have public amusements like holidays, to be confined to certain periods, and not continually to hold out their allurements. And my reafon for thus objecting to them is, that they are not calculated to influence the manners of the age otherwife than by corrupting them. There is a degeneracy prevailing in all our public amufements. Even wit, which was the boaft of the English ftage, is banifhed, and in is room abfurdities and groffness, ribaldry and the humour of Bartholomew fair are fubftituted. The pernicious effects of many places of amusement, fitted for the tafte of the lower claffes, appear from the amazing fums of money collected at fuch places. The legislator may perhaps one day feel the force of this argument. Why is it that people grumble, and complain on the leaft tax being impofed? the reafon is plain; they have loft that regard for their country which inclined them to affift it with their industry and their fortunes, and the moBey which a minister thinks he may expect, gees to provide for ftrollers and vagabonds. 3dly. The promifcuous intercourfe of all criminals while in prifon. Your Lordfhips's predeceffors have often been addreffed on this fubject. The intercourfe of felons conftitutes a fchool of infamy of the moft inftructive kind; and the boy who I went into prifon a timid, half refolved 1 pick-pocket, comes out a daring and determined villain, accomplished in all the arts of thievery, of which he had before no idea, and defperately bent, nay, impatient to put them in practice. In a fhort time he is apprehended and imprifoned, perhaps executed. This probably had not been the cafe had pains been taken to make him fenfible of his error, and to keep him from the company of the hardened profligate. The mischiefs arising from allowing this intercourse are fo well known, and fo generally acknowledged, that it is not Receflary for me to enlarge on the subject. I have but juft hinted the above three caufes. The two firft may not, perhaps, be quite in the reach of the civil power. After having at fome length confidered what I take to be the principal caufes of the increase of thieves, I have little more to add on the fubject, but that fome plan be fpeedily fet on foot to ftem the current of this alarming evil, and restore safety and tranquillity to this metropolis, as well as to provide for the many thousands who have no other means of existence than by preying on the public. Perhaps it may be worth while to remark the effects of thofe caufes which we have been confidering.-An univerfal profligacy reigns among the lower claffes, which appears in idlenefs, in bad actions, in the poverty they entail on their families, and in the vast numbers annually committed to prifons for murther, 1obbery, and theft. A total difregard for religion and morality prevails, and that to fuch a degree, that it is very rare that the clergyman who attends capital convicts, can find one of them who has any idea of our ho ly religion; of the few who recollect fomething on the fubject, we find the greater part exhorting the fpectators to beware of fabbath-breaking, to which they have fenfe enough justly to impute all that has befallen them. When, indeed, we fider the fituation of the greater proportion of the poor wreches committed to prifons, it is truly deplorable. To an ignorance beyond that of the poor Indian, they add a hardness of heart which is almoft inconceivable. So little impreffions do the horrors of a prifon make, that they continue the exercife of their profeffion, even while in confinement, and steal from one another; in this refembling certain noxious animals, which, if fhut up three or four togeether for fome time, will prey on one another. con When condemned to die-when brought to a fituation the most dreadful-when all the world deferts them, and nothing is left but an ignominions, an untimely, and perhaps a painful death, when, at the hour of appearance before that Being whofe judgment fhall ftand for ever-what is the frame of their minds? A cool indifference, or a fixed ftupidity, the mixture of ignorance and infenfibility-Nay, fome triumphantly boaft of their fituation, and end their days in what they call heroic courage, that is the madness of defpair.-To fuch men, what the punishmen of hang S 2 ing? ing? -Nothing; it is merely the means to prevent their doing any more mifchief, but it ftrikes no terror, produces no penitence, and its effects on the living are not lefs futile; an execution is a kind of a holiday to the idle thief, and he practifes his art under the gallow's foot-I do not deny that there are fome who fhew symptoms of penitence, but their number is small, and even their penitence feldom appears until all hopes of forgiveness vanish. But whatever the effects of our numerous executions may be on the objects, or to the furviving profligate, the effects to fociety in general are deplorable; on a moderate computation, five hundred men and women are hanged in a year, and we may fafely conclude that five thousand more are ready and deferving of the fame punishment when their time is come. It has been tried to execute them in great numbers by twenties, as in the Old Bailey, but what purpofe has this anfwered-There are twenty more, nay double, or triple the number, there are fortys and fixties ready for the fame punishment, and actually un der the fame fentence. In parts of the country remote from London it has been until late, rare to have an execution at all. In fome parts of the North of England, and in Scotland, the oldeft inhabitant living could not remember an inftance of an execution until of late. In places where it was perhaps common to have one perfon hanged in a year, we now hear of three or four, And, in general, were only one perfon hanged at one time, and at one affize, we read that " following fix, or feven or eight, were ordered for. execution, &c. &c.' As every object becomes familiar from its frequency, fo the frequency of executions deftroys all the impreflions of horror with which they were once attended, and to excite which they were defigned. We hear the untimely end of a dozen of fellow creatures with as much indifference, as if they were fo many beasts designed for our ufe; and if an ignonimous death, on mention, makes fo little impreffion on the decent part of the community, how much lefs muft it make on the profigate, the hardened the infenfible villain! Indeed many of the latter lay their account with it, and are as indifferent about dying by the rope as if they died in their beds; and it is certainly a great proof of their thoughtlefsnefs of the age, that the gallows has become a common jeft in conversation. This ought not to be the cafe; nay never will be the cafe, with that reflecting man, who confiders how many have fuffered in this wav, who one day, as little thought of it as he who now makes it a fubject of ridicule. The early happinefs of a Dodd, a Perreau, a Lee, and a Ryland, was not clouded by the apprehenfion that they, one day, might be as terrible objects of mifery, as juftly entitled to compaffion, as the pilfering vagabond, and midnight robber. The frequency of executions, therefore, is to be confidered as the principal effect of these causes which have been enumerated. If there were any good, purpofe ferved by this; if it really leffened the number of thieves; if it worked penitence in the furviving, and drove them from their wickednefs; if it was an obje of terror, or confidered really as punithment, no remonftrance could be offered againft it. But the reverfe is the truth, it ferves no good purpose; it leffens not the number of criminals, who every day seem to increase in number;-it works not penitence in the furviving, nor inclines them to leavewickedness in which they are hardened; it is not an object of terror even to the immediate who rob, and ftcal, in the awful moment of their fellow-creature, perhaps their affociates, being launched into eternity. Some have blamed the lenity of the throne. "Many, they fay, are pardoned, and it were better to hang all, without mercy." And what would we gain by this? inftead of five hundred, we fhould have occafion to hang perhaps five thousand in the kingdom, in one year-Bleffed circumftance in the hiftory of England! Wẹ might then indeed juftly be confidered as madmen, as fools, as cruel in the extreme; and, what is worfe, even this massacre, if I may use the expreffion, would leave us juft where we were, five thousand more would be ready againft next Affizes. No-while the caufes of the increase of thievs remain, and are untouched by the laws, it is in vain to think floping the effects Sublata caufa, tollitur effectus, is a maxim that muft hold good in this cafe.- In my next, and I fhall not trouble your lordship much farther, I fhall offer fomne hints, by way of preventing the progrefs of the caules mentioned. I am, &c. I Letter the laf. My LORD, AM now to take leave of a fubject, the importance and extent of which would demand further attention; but I have in general endeavoured to proportion the feveral fubjects to my fcanty abilities. There may be full parts to be difcuffed which have omitted, and there may be others on which I have touched but flightly. I have, indeed, principally enlarged on fuch parts as come within the Iphere |