of industry and activity pervades, I am told, every village in the kingdom! I dwell upon the fubject with pleasure, because I think it a glorious leffon to mankind. Never did a nation attempt to recover its liberty under circumstances more difcouraging. Their leaders were a few worthy individuals, fcarcely known; and they had to contend with a penfioned peerage, and a House of Commons as venal as our own. But had their enemies been a thousand times more numerous, they could not have refifted the virtuous ardour that infpired every other breaft! And from the great talents and patriotifm of those who direct this noble spirit, we may expect to fee, in that island, our admirable.conftitu tion revived in its utmost perfection. Liften not to the mean fuggeftions of envy, nor to the contracted idea of an exclufive right to freedom. It is a fure mark of the decadence of a free flate, when fuch ungenerous notions prevail. Confer then, on this example of exalted virtue, the praife it deferves; and learn, from it, what refolution and unanimity may effect in a purfuit that is honourable! Hitherto it has been fuppofed that Great Britain produced men who loved liberty, and deferved to enjoy it. Let not this age be the first that degrades its character. The northern part, I am fure, will not. Scotland has begun her affociations, and fhe is too wife to do fo without a caufe, and too brave and refpectable to drop them without fatisfaction. She fuffers at leaft as much as England, from the inequality of reprefentation, and feptennial parliaments; and when her fpirit fhall be roused, depend upon it, her good fenfe will lead her to petition with firm-. nefs for the redrefs of thofe grievances. ་ ་ ་ ་ It is far from my intention to encourage irreverence to your lawful magiftrates: they are, for your good, vefted with authority; and even when you demand your rights, you thould do it with respect. Befides, the fervants of the crown are not now our opponents: if profeffions, can be credited, the firm friends of the conftitution are in the cabinet of our gracious fovereign, and will cherish and applaud your zeal for reftoring that beauti ful monument of antiquity. The more you contemplate, the more perfect it will appear; and what your reafon muft approve and admire, I trust your fpirit and virtue will recover. It was purchased by the best blood of thousands of your ancestors, and left in truft to the remoteft of their defcendants. It is then the duty of every age to tranfmit it to the fucceeding, unimpaired either by negligence or violence. This grecharge is now de-. pofited with us; and we fhall deferve the contempt of man-, kind, and, what is horrid to exprefs, the execrations of our children children, if through fupineness, cowardice, or corruption, we deprive them and their posterity of fo invaluable a birthright. THOMAS YEATES, SECRETARY. CHARACTERS from CECILI A. M R. Monckton, who was the younger fon of a noble family, was a man of parts, information, and fagacity. To great native ftrength of mind, he added a penetrating knowledge of the world; and to faculties the most skilful of in reftigating the character of every other, a diffimulation the molt profound in concealing his own. In the bloom of his youth, impatient for wealth, and ambitious of power, he had tied himself to a rich dowager of quality, whofe age, though fixty-feven, was but among the fmaller fpecies of her evil properties, her difpofition being far more repulfive than her wrinkles. An inequality of years fo confiderable, had led him to expect that the fortune he had thus acquired, would fpeedily be releafed from the burthen with which it was at prefent encumbered; but his expectations proved as vain as they were mercenary, and his lady was not more the dupe of his proteftations, than he was himself of his own purposes. Ten years he had been married to her, yet her health was good, and her faculties were unimpaired: eagerly he had watched for her diffolution, yet his eagernefs had injured no health but his own. So short-fighted is felfish canning, that in aiming no farther than at the gratification of the prefent moment, it obfcures the evils of the future, while it impedes the perception of integrity and honour. His ardour, however, to attain the bleffed period of returning liberty, deprived him neither of spirit nor inclination for intermediate enjoyment. He knew the world too well to incur its cenfure by ill-treating the woman to whom he was indebted for the rank he held in it. He faw her, indeed, but feldom; yet be had the decency, alike in avoiding as in meeting her, to fhew no abatement of civility and good-breeding: but having thus facrificed to ambition all poflibility of happinefs in domeftic life, he turned his thoughts to thofe other methods of procuring it, which he had fo dearly purchafed the power of effaying. The refources of fure to the poffeffors of wealth, are only to be cut off by the fatiety of which they are productive; a fatiety which the vigorous mind of Mr. Monckton had not yet U 2 fuffered fuffered him to experience: his time, therefore, was either devoted to the expenfive amufements of the metropolis, or spent in the country among the gayeft of its diverfions. The little knowledge of fashionable manners, and of the characters of the times, of which Cecilia was yet miftrefs, fhe had gathered at the houfe of this gentleman, with whom the dean, her uncle, had been intimately connected; for as he prefaved to the world the fame appearance of decency he fupported to his wife, he was every where well received; and being but partially known, was extremely refpected; the world, with its wonted facility, repaying his circumfpect attention to its laws, by filencing the voice of cenfure, guarding his character from impeachment, and his name from reproach. Cecilia had been known to him half her life: fhe had been careffed in his houfe as a beautiful child, and her prefence was now folicited there as an amiable acquaintance. Her vifits, indeed, had by no means been frequent, as the ill-humour of lady Margaret Monckton had rendered them painful to her; yet the opportunities they afforded her of mixing with people of fafhion, had served to prepare her for the new scenes in which she was foon to be a performer. Mr. Monckton, in return, had always been a welcome guest at the deanry. His converfation was to Cecilia a never-failing fource of information, as his knowledge of life and manners enabled him to start thofe fubjects of which he was most igno rant; and her mind, copious for the admiffion, and intelligent for the arrangement of knowledge, received all new ideas with avidity. Pleafure given in fociety, like money lent in ufury, returns with intereft to those who difpenfe it; and the difcourfe of Mr. Monckton conferred not a greater favour upon Cecilia, than her attention to it repaid. And thus the speaker and the hearer being mutually gratified, they had always met with complacency. and commonly parted with regret. This reciprocation of pleafure had, however, produced different effects upon their minds. The ideas of Cecilia were enlarged, while the reflections of Mr. Monckton were embittered. He here faw an object, who, to all the advantages of that wealth he had fo highly prized, added youth, beauty, and intelligence. Though much her fenior, he was by no means of an age to ren der his addreffing her an impropriety; and the entertainment The received from his converfation, perfua him that her good opinion might with eafe be improved into regard the most partial. He regretted the venal rapacity with which he had facrificed himself to a woman he abhorred, and his wifhes for her final decay became daily more fervent. He knew that the acquaintance of Cecilia was confined to a circle of which he himfelf was the principal ornament; that he had rejected all the propofals of marriage which had hitherto been made to her; and as he had fedulously watched her from her earliest years, he had reason to believe that her heart had efcaped any dangerous impreffion. This being her fituation, he had long looked upon her as his future property: as fuch, he had indulged his admiration; and as fuch, he had already appropriated her eltate, tho' he had not more vigilantly inspected into her fentiments, than he had guarded his own from a fimilar fcrutiny. The death of the dean, her uncle, had, indeed, much alarmed him. He grieved at her leaving Suffolk, where he confidered himself as the firft man, alike in parts and in confequence; and he dreaded her refiding in London, where he forefaw that numerous rivals, equal to himself in talents and in riches, would fpeedily furround her: rivals too, youthful and fanguine, not fhackled by prefent ties, but at liberty to folicit her immediate acceptance. Beauty and independence, rarely found together, would attract a croud of fuitors, at once brilliant and affiduous; and the house of Mr. Harrel, her guardian, was eminent for its elegance and gaiety. But yet, undaunted by danger, and confiding in his own powers, he determined to pursue the project he had formed, not fearing, by addrefs and perfeverance, to enfure its fuccefs." A fine contraft to this moft infidious and specious character is given in that of Belfield, another gentleman who figures confiderably in the ftory of Cecilia : "A tall, thin young man, whofe face was all animation, and whofe eyes fparkled with intelligence. He had been intended by his father for trade; but his fpirit foaring above the occupation for which he was defigned, from repining, led him to refift, and from refifting to rebel. He eloped from his friends, and contrived to enter into the army. But, fond of the polite arts, and eager for the acquirement of knowledge, he found not this way of life much better adapted to his inclination than that from which he had cfcaped. He foon grew weary of it, was reconciled to his father, and entered at the Temple. But here, too volatile for serious ftudy, and too gay for laborious application, he made little progrefs; and the fame quickness of parts and vigour of in agination, which, united with prudence, or accompanied by judgement, might have raifed him to the head of his profeffion, being unhappily affociated with fickleness and caprice, ferved only to impede his improvement, and obftruct his preferment. preferment. And now, with little bufinefs, and that little neglected; a fmall fortune, and that fortune daily becoming lefs; the admiration of the world, but that admiration ending fimply in civility; he lived an unfettled and unprofitable life: generally careffed, and univerfally fought, yet careless of his intereft, and thoughtless of the future; devoting his time to company, his income to diffipation, and his heart to the muses." . The prudence and fagacity of Monckton, enlivened by the genius, and fupported by the integrity of Belfield, would go near to form a perfect character; apart, the one terminated in selfish cunning, and the other in poignant difcontent. The former, when detected, makes a man the abhorrence of others; and the latter, in a careless round of hope and difappointment, makes a man at variance with himself. CURIOUS ANECDOTES, REMARKABLE CUSTOMS, &C. M in RUSSIA. URDERS are fo frequent at Mofcow, that few nights pafs without fome people being found dead in the streets in the morning. The robbers go in ftrong parties, and kill before they rob. This they do with fo little fear, that they often perform it before the perfon's own door; and the terror of thefe ruffians is fo great, that none of the neighbours dare affift the unhappy victim, for fear of being butchered themselves, or at least having their houfes burnt. This obliges people, who have occafion to be in the ftreets in the night, to go in companies together, or have a fufficient guard of fervants on horfeback to attend them. The weapon ufed by those villains is called a dubcin, which is a long flick, with a round knob at one end, and made heavy with iron, with which they knock a man down dead at one ftroke; and if any of them happen to be taken, a good fum of money from the gang they belong to gets them off. It is even affirmed, that gangs of them are protected by fome of the nobility, who partake of the booty. THE Ruffians may not marry any one that is related to them within the fourth generation: thofe of an equz degree of confanguinity call each other brother and fifter, wh the distinction of first, fecond, and so on, to the fourth degree; and those of a lower or higher degree are called uncles, nephews, &c. with the fame |