prevent their fixing in the joints, by which they will become ufelefs.

6th. It will be very neceffary to go to bed early, even before nine, to accuftom yourself to much fleep, and use yourself to it. 7th. You must use exercise as much as poffible; riding on horfeback is bett, or coach or chair, the more the better; but you must not ride on horfeback in cold, wet, or floppy weather; always be cautious of catching cold.

8th. In cafe the fits of the gout should return and be violent, (which they believe will not,) then a fmall dofe of opium, or laudanum, may be taken, but not oftener than abfolute neceffity requires.

If your lordship finds benefit by these directions, as we make no doubt but you will, you must be very cautious how you leave off this diet; and you muft never expect any flesh meat, but chickens, pullets, eggs, veal, and fometimes a little fish, with plain butter only; no wild fowl whatsoever.

My lord began his milk diet the 2d of July, 1724; from which time his lordship has continued very strict with good refolation, notwithstanding he was very ill for fome time after he began it. In the first place, he drinks a glass of spring water going to bed, and likewife one in the morning, the first thing as foon as he is out of his bed; for breakfaft he drinks chocolate, and eats bread and butter; for dinner he has peafe-foup, with herbs, ftewed with a little falt butter and water, foup meagre, all forts of puddings, as rice, barley, feage, millet, plumbs, dumplings, or apple dumplings, or any that are made without fuet; likewife all forts of tarts, and roots of all kinds, as tornips, carrots, potatoes buttered, or made into pies or puddings, and fish with plain butter and parfley fauce. His lordship drinks at his meals only toast and water, and milk and water, and at other times when he has occafion. His lordship is forbid (neither has he tafted (one drop of wine, ale, or cyder, or any fort of made wine or drams. His lordship, for thefe nine months, has been in perfect health, and walks and rides, which is more than he has been able to do for fo long together for many years. Ripe fruit is allowed to be eat, keeping good hours in going to bed. His fupper is only a pint of milk with bread boiled.

I

A SERIOUS ADDRESS to TEA-DRINKERS..

Tis a fhrewd remark, that he was a bold man who first ventured to swallow an oyfter: but by what name is that man to be diftinguished, who should knowingly make a daily prac

tice of drinking a flow poifon -The world having deemed the former bold, that is, fool-hardy, for eating what he was altoge ther unacquainted with, would undoubtedly fuppofe the latter to be either mad, or determined to end his days by deliberate acts of fuicide.-Thefe reflections occur to me on reading the late accounts in the papers of the feizure of fmouch at different places.From thefe inftances, but more particularly from the voluntary confeffion of fome of thefe offenders, it appears that the trade of fmouch-making is become very extenfive, and is for that reafon the more alarming, fince the pernicious effects muft encrease in proportion to the growing demand for this poisonous ftuff.The art of manufacturing it, though not of long standing, is pretty generally known; therefore little is required to be observed on that head. Let it fuffice, then, to acquaint the uninformed, that fmouch is a compofition of almost every fort of leaves which the woods, trees, and hedges, of this country produce. But as I have no intention to furnish knaves with a receipt for manufacturing it, I fhall only add, that it refembles what is called the black teas, and if properly mixed with reak tea, it requires great difcernment to diftinguish the true from the counterfeit. There is likewife a finer fort, made of young ath leaves, which in colour is not inferior to the beft green tea, This latter fort is generally steeped in, or sprinkled with, water frongly impregnated with copperas, for the purpose of giving it a colour. It is needless to say, that copperas is a deadly poifon, and will difpatch a perfon fooner or later, in proportion to the quantity fwallowed by the unhappy tea drinker.

One of thefe delinquents confeffed he had been employed many years by the wholefale coafting fmugglers to make smouch, and that many hundreds more along the fea coafts got their bread the fame way. On being afked by what means fuch prodigious quantities of it could be difpofed of, he replied, “ A confiderable part is ufed in the home trade, but the greatest part is exported by the coafting fmugglers to Guernsey, Jersey, &c. and perhaps to France, for the purpofe of being there mixed with the French teas, which are afterwards fmuggled into Great Britain and Ireland."-By the home trade, he meant the fmouch which is used by the retail or inland fmugglers and fhopkeepers; many of whom, he faid, he had alfo fupplied, as well as the Imugglers, with this baneful commodity.

From this ftate of facts, which are unquestionably true, it is evident that all smuggled or run teas are, more or lefs, mixed with fmouch.-Thofe who wilfully drink smuggled tea, deferve no compaffion: they knowingly cheat their king and country, and enrich our enemies the French, and therefore deferve to

be

be cheated in their turn, for encouraging so destructive a traffic. But who is fo void of humanity, as not to feel for the honeft teadrinkers, who have frequently the misfortune to buy fmouched tea of fhopkeepers, or, as they are vulgarly called, fair traders. That many of these fair traders have dealt in fmouch, is notorious, from an act made fome few years fince to punish so iniquitous a practice, by inflicting a penalty of 10l. for every pound of fmouch which fhould be found in the poffeffion of any dealer in tea. Befides, it is also well known that most tea-dealers buy the fmuggled teas that are fold at the Custom-Houfe fales; all of which, as before remarked, are smouched in Guernsey, Jerfey, Sc. or France.-This being undoubtedly the cafe, what tea drinker can escape being poisoned ?-Hence, as the faculty admit, arifes among us the great encreafe of nervous complaints, palfies, apoplexies, flow and putrid fevers, r.-However, to fet this alarming affair in a ftill ftronger light, if poffible, and to shew the extent of the evil, let me lay before you a calculation I received from one of the present Directors of the Eaft-India Company, viz. that no more than about 8,000,000 pounds of tea are imported by the Company from India into England, which is not more than about one-third of the quantity that is confumed under the denomination of tea in Great Britain and Ireland; the confumption in both kingdoms, ac cording to the exacteft computation that can be made, being about twenty-four millions of pounds.-This difference between the teas actually imported by the Eaft-India Company, and the confumption in Great Britain and Ireland, is aftonishing, and can be accounted for only two ways, viz. from the introduction of foreign teas by fmuggling, or from the prodigious quantities of fmouch which are conftantly mixed with them, not only by fmugglers, but frequently by dealers in tea themselves. HUMANUS.

Some Account of MR. JOHN STACIE, the Inventor of a Machine for reducing HARD BODIES to POWDER, eafier than in any Method yet known.

TH

HIS man, fo much deferving of celebrity, and yet fo little known, is the fon of a common labourer in Northamptonshire. From his infancy he fhewed figns of an uncom mon difpofition, which manifefted itfelf in a remarkable power of fixing his attention on any object, in a manner totally unu fual with children.-His father once complaining that his wood

hook

hook would not do fome work he described, the boy, then only nine years old, thought of it day and night, waking his father to ask questions about it, and, in less than a week, gave directions to a blacksmith, and produced a hook fo fuperior to the common, that it was ufed by every perfon in the neighbourhood. A farmer bringing his plough to be altered at the fmith's forge, young Stacie, then twelve years old, was there: he wanted the plough to perform a given work, which the blacksmith did not underfland, and could not execute. The boy flept on it one night, and the next morning went to the fmith, explained the thing, and faw it executed. When the farmer came for his plough, he fhook his head at it; but, taking it to his field, found the performance far beyond his warmest expectations; fo he gave the boy half a crown. He invented a new axe for the carpenter of the village, and a new anvil for the blacksmith. His father, when he was fourteen, put him apprentice (like an ideot) to a wool-comber. The boy ran away, and ferved a watchmaker for nothing; who, finding him endowed with good parts, took him apprentice. His work and invention in that branch were very great: he made a watch without a wheel, in which a lever of the first kind vibrated feconds. When out of his time, his thirst for knowledge made him walk to London, where no-body took any notice of him. He went to Paris, working for his fupport at his trade. At Montmartre, feeing the expence of grinding stone for plafter, he propofed to the furveyor of the work to erect a machine that fhould do it for a fiftieth part of the charge. The academy of fciences appointed D'Alembert to examine the propofition, who reporting favourably, the king ordered the execution, and the work aftonished every body.Stacie had a pention of 100 louis d'ors; upon which he fet off for Italy, where he is at prefent, but intends fettling in France, to the eternal difgrace of England !

A

AN ANECDOTE.

N honeft couple in the county of Cornwall were very fond of having a fmall cafk of home brewed ale in the cellar, and they had a remarkable jug, with an angel painted in the bottom, which was to be their portion, equally divided; but in general the old woman ufed to go to the bottom at her draught; and being called to an account by her husband, her excule was, She did love to fee the ANGEL at the lottom fo much. Upon which he got it ftruck cut, and had the DEVIL put in its stead. Still the old woman found the bottom; and being again upbraided for going fo deep, fhe replied, that he was determined not to leave the DEVIL a drop.

Humourous Week's Journal of a STROLLING PLAYER.

Monday. PLAY

LAYED George Barnwell; part of the audience wanted me hanged; afterwards did the Bailiff in the Apprentice; fhared thirteen-pence half-penny. Tuesday. Played Jachimo in Cymbeline; my arm almoft broke by being put into too fmall a cheft: the farce the Regis ter Office; played Gulwell; fhared one fhilling.

Wednesday. House difmiffed; not charges.

Thurfday. Doubled the Ghoft and Rofincrate in Hamlet, and afterwards played Mago in the Devil of a Duke. A gentleman affronted me, by faying I was the Devil of a Conjuror; fhared one fhilling and fix-pence, and (for the first time) took my two bits of candle.

Friday. The Orphan. The manager had taken Caftalio himfelf, and infifted on my playing Acafto; an ignorant fellow, introduced only to fupport Acafto in the third act, ftanding on the ftage, when I asked where are all my friends, anfwered, "Sir, they are at the George over a mug of ale." We afterwards performed the Padlock without mufic. I played Mungo, and never felt any thing half fo much as the favourite air I wish to my heart me was dead." Shared eighteen-pence and candle. Saturday. Played Macduff, and two or three other parts in Macbeth. One of the witches being drunk, we were obliged to make shift with two. We afterwards performed Mifs in her Teens, and I did the part of Fribble; but the house-barber having gone off in a pet because I could not pay off my week's bill, I was obliged to go on the stage without my hair being dreffed. Shared ten-pence and candle.

A NEW SPECIES of ROBBERY.

A one

Gentleman lately travelling on horfeback through Gloucestershire, one evening, about dusk, found a woman lying by the fide of a road, feemingly in great distress, who demanded his affittance. She told him the had been robbed, and used very ill by footpads, who took away her money, and were going to murder her, when, fortunately, his approach obliged them to make a precipitate retreat, and begged him to help her up, and conduct her to the next village. The gentleman, touched with pity on feeing a poor wretch in fuch a miferable fituation, alighted from his horfe, and offered his hand to affift her in rifing, which he had no fooner done, than the presented a piftol to his breast, and demanded his money. The gentleman, absoVOL. II. 37.

2 K

lutely