every other inftance, we have gone back a century, and catches flourish in the reign of George the Third. There is a club, compofed of fome of the firft people in the kingdom, which meet profeffedly to hear this fpecies of compofition: they culti vate it, and encourage it with premiums. To obtain which, many compofers, who ought to be above fuch nonfenfe, become candidates, and produce fuch things,

"one knows not what to call,

"Their generation's fo equivocal."

Sometimes a piece makes it appearance, that was lately found by accident, after a concealment of a hundred and fifty years. When it is approved, and declared too excellent for thefe degenerate days, the author fmiles and owns it. I fcarce ever faw one of thefe things that did not betray itfelf, within three bars, to be modern. It is as difficult to imitate antient mufic, as antient poetry; a few fquare notes are not fufficient for the one, nor will two or three biloms and ekes do for the other. And yet, in this laft inftance, a few affected antique fpellings have been thought, by one half of the world, fufficient to weigh again modern phrafeology, modern manners, and even modern facts. Surely it requires no great difcernment to discover, that whet has exifted may be imitated; but nothing less than the gift of preícience can dive into futurity. If it is improbable that an uneducated boy fhould be able to produce what are called Rowley's Poems, it is impoffible that Rowley could write in a dyke, and allude to facts of after-times.-Forgive me this digretion; but indeed I have nearly finished my fubject and letter.

I profefs 1 never heard a catch fung, but I felt more afhanted than 1 can exprefs. I pretend to no more delicacy than that of the age I live in; which is, very properly, too refined to enddre fuch barbarifms.-I was afhamed for myfelf-for my companyand if a foreigner was prefent, for my country.

It has just occurred to me that you like catches, and frequently help to fing them ;-revenge yourfelf of the fiberties I have taken, by compelling me to hear fome of thefe pleafant ditties; when, perhaps, I may be forced to fing in my own defence.

Adieu.

P. S. If you thould have a defign to convert me, take me to a catch club. I confefs, and honour, the fuperior excellence of its performance, while I lament that fo noble a fubfcription fhould be lavished for to poor a purpofe as keeping alive malical falfe wit, when it might fo powerfully fupport and encou rage the best flyle of compofition; and rather advance our tafte, by anticipating the improvements of the coming age, than force

it back to times of barbarifm, from which it has cost us fuch pains to emerge.

SIR,

ON GIVING

ADVICE.

To the PRINTER,

HE errors and vices of a near relation of mine, called

Tforth fome time fince a reproof from me, which I thought

tempered with moderation, though founded in friendship and juice. I have in confequence incurred the difpleasure of a very wealthy man, for delivering fome truths, and he is still proceeding in the career of diffipation.-This leads me to confider the nature of giving a reproof, and the general effects of it. Moft certainly it requires a greatnefs of foul to reprove without pride, and to receive it without indignation.Among private men it destroys friendship; and among the great, whoever attempts to undeceive them, runs the hazard of their displeasure. Cambyfes, fon and fucceffor to the great Cyrus, was of a towering genius, but uncultivated-gave way to drunkenness, and often engaged in debauches. He had a favourite bred up with him, fome years older than himself; who, from a fervice of many years, imagined that nothing he would fay could be offenfive; he therefore modeftly reprefented to him the bad confequence of his drunken frolics.- Cambyfes replied," Though I drink hard, my lord, it never drowns my fenfes." Some nights after, at an entertainment, Cambyfes fat late, and drank deep. Towards the end of his caroufal, he called his favourite, bid him bring his only fon, and reach his bow and quiver. The lad being placed against the door, he drew his bow and shot him through, and, cutting him up, fhewed the father the arrow in his heart. "You fee, my lord, (fays he,) wine neither makes my arm faake, nor dims my fight."

Philip of Macedon, whofe virtues rendered him as confpicuous as his crown, going cut on an expedition, was ftopped by an old woman, who demanded him to rehear in what she had been injured. Go, woman," faid he, "I am not at leifure.” "If you are not at leifure to do juftice," replied fhe, "why do you not lay afide being king ?"-Philip ftopped, examined the aair, and redreffed her grievances.

A Spanish merchant on the coaft of Africa, having been plundered by one of Muley Molach's alcaydes, threatened to

demand

demand juftice, but was obliged to take refuge among the woods. Some months after, Muley paffed that way with his court: the merchant went directly to the road, feized the bri dle of the emperor's horfe, and demanded juftice against the alcayde that had wronged him. Molach, aftonifhed at his boldnefs, afked him if he knew who he was?" I know (faid the Spaniard) that thou art emperor of Morocco; and I know, therefore, that it becometh thee to do me right."-Muley called for the alcayde, and, finding him guilty, condemned him in ftantly to be beheaded, and ordered the merchant to receive a triple recompence out of his effects; and as he was withdraw. ing, the emperor reproached the meanness of his courtiers' fpi rits, by faying to them, Behold a man !

Numerous are the other inftances which could be adduced upon this fubject; but, upon the whole, I believe it will appear evident that reproof is an act of imprudence in a dependent, as my cafe has turned out; and that, if men must be cenfured, it only can in general be borne from the mouth of a fuperior, be caufe a Philip of Macedon, or a Muley Molach, are not the productions of every day.

ANTONINUS.

A Comparison between the Years 1750, and 1783.

N the year 1750, hackney coaches were plain, aukward, clumfy things, hung by leathers; at prefent they are taffy, and almost as hand fome as thofe belonging to people of fashion. At that time country gentlemen and their families kept at home, or made a journey once a year with a pair of dock-tailed black horfes; whereas now they fpend all their fortunes in London, and drive hunters of one hundred guineas the pair. Fashions, in the former period, did not reach any place fifty miles from London, 'till they were nearly out; now they travel down in coaches and diligences in a few hours. In the year 1750, farmers daughters carried butter and eggs to market in green Jofephs, faftened round with a leathern girdle; now they wear riding, habits, and plumes of feathers. Formerly citizens wore round wigs, and worfted ftockings; now nothing but queues and filk hofe are worn by their apprentices and porters. In 1750, mutton was three-pence halfpenny per pound; now it is nearer fixpence. Maids' wages at that time were from three to five pounds per annum; they are now from eight to ten. The number of merchants at that time was very fmall, but those were in general wealthy and refpectable; their daughters learned to work and make paftry: now merchants are as numerous as clerks, and their families are emulous in diffipation.

D

On the USE of COSMETICS.

R. WATSON, in his third volume of Chemistry, traces the custom of ufing cofmetics to the time of the Romans; and alfo admonifhes thofe ladies who are diffatisfied with their natural beauty, as follows:

The Roman ladies were well acquainted with the use of ce rufe as a cosmetic. Plutus introduces a waiting woman refufing to give her miftrefs either cerufe or rouge, because, forfooth, in the true fpirit of a flattering Abigail, fhe thought her quite handfome enough without them.

I fuppofe the Chriftian ladies in the days of St. Jerome were given to this Pagan cuftom; for the venerable father inveighs against the ufe of rouge for the lips and cheeks, and of cerufe for the face and neck, as incentives to luft, and indications of unchafte defires.

Without prefuming to explore the arcana of a lady's toilet, or to reveal the arts by which my fair countrywomen endeavour to improve charms naturally irrefiftible, I would add to the admonition of St. Jerome, a caution more likely in these degene rate times to be attended to, the certain ruin of the complexion, to fay nothing of more ferious maladies, which muft ever attend the conftant application of this drug. Nor is the magiftery of bifmuth, or Spanish white, (better known by the name of pearl powder) much lefs pernicious than cerufe, notwithstanding its being in fuch repute in London, that the chemifts can hardly prepare it fast enough to fupply the demand for it. But if, as is moft probable, they will neglect this caution, I warn them, however, to forbear the ufe of fuch powders at Harrowgate, Moffat, and other places of the fame kind, left they should be in the itate of the unlucky fair one, whofe face, neck, and arms were de fpoiled of all their beauties, and changed quite black, by drinking a fulphureous water. Indeed all phlogistic vapours, and even the fun itself, tends to give both the magiftery of bifmuth and cerafe a yellow colour: This obfervation may explain a line in Martial, where a cerused lady is faid to fear the fun.

GRATITUDE REWARDED.

IR William Fitzwilliams being a merchant taylor, and fome

alderman of Broad-ftreet Ward, London, in 1506. He afterwards retired into Northamptonshire, where he kindly received, and fumptuously entertained his former mafter, after he had fal VOL. 11. 28.

F

len,

len, with all his honours thick about him." Being called into the royal prefence, the king afked him how he durft entertain fo great an enemy to the ftate? To which he replied, That he had not contemptuously, or disobediently done it, but merely from a principle of gratitude, as the cardinal had been his mafter, and the means of his greatest fortune.-This answer fo pleafed his fovereign, that he immediately knighted him, and appointed him to the privy council.

USEFUL INVENTIONS.

1

R. Boucheri, director of the Refining-Houfe at Bercy, in France, has difcovered the fecret of making fogar from molaffes (treacle); and has accordingly, after experiments made before feveral members of the Academy of Sciences, &c. obtained a patent for erecting refining-houfes in the French colonies.

Chinese hemp feed has been found to come to great perfectio in England, meafuring more than fourteen feet in height, and leven inches in circumference, growing at different times nearly eleven inches per week. The rough hemp that was peeled from thirty-two plants, when dried, weighed three pounds and a quarter. The directors of the East India company have fent to China for a quantity of feed of this valuable plant.

Mr. James Six has invented a ufeful improvement to the ther mometer, whereby that inftrument afcertains the greatest degre of heat or cold that has happened in the courfe of twenty-four hours, in the abfence of the obferver.

ANECDOTE of the LADY of the PRINCE of NASSAU, the Quixote of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar.

H

ER first husband is alive and well to this day. He is a Polish nobleman of very high birth and confiderable for tune, but, like the Princefs, fond of doing and thinking what nobody ever did or thought of before. After two years spent in perfect harmony, they, in a friendly tete-a-tete, confulted on fome means to make themselves confpicuous. "Why, my lord, let us fue for a divorce," faid the lady. Done," anfwered the lord.-It must be obferved, that a little money and the confent of

the