concluded that the moft expeditious way of becoming wealthy, would be by going into the fervice of the Eaft-India Company; which, after confulting with Mis. Egerton, and having changed reiterated promifes of fidelity, I refolved to do. My family connections, and the money I could command to begin with, gave me the means of going out in a moft refpectable light; and I embarked, though with an aching heart, not without hopes of returning to enjoy the fruits of my industry and love. I was abroad about three years, during which time I gained a confiderable fund of worldly knowledge, and an infight into the ways, motives, and manners of men. The facts were fome of them not very much to their honour, but they taught me to think more confiftently. I do not mean by this to cenfure the men of the world univerfally: there are many, within my own knowledge, of the ftricteft probity; but thefe, I have obferved, never, unless by fome accident, become fuddenly rich. For my own part, I made but moderate advances; and this flow progrefs, with the letters I received from Mrs. Egerton, and the continual anxiety of fo long an abfence, made me refolve to return. When I arrived in England, I found I had a legacy left me by a relation. This, added to my little flock, made, in the whole, almoft eleven thousand pounds; for I had been as ftri&t an economist, while in India, as the natural warmth of my tem per would permit me to be: but there are weak, indolent, and unfortunate men in all places, that muft ever be a tax on the more induftrious and fuccefsful, who have fome pity, fome generofity, and no exceffive degree of felfifhnefs: among which number I hope I' fhall always remain; for though it is incumbent on every man to be prudent and affiduous, yet, while I feel 1 have many weakneffes myself, I truft I fhall always have philanthropy enough to look with an eye of pity on thofe of others, though I neither with to encourage their's nor my own. [To be continued.] Some REMARKS on the PLAGUE. In a Letter from a Gentleman at EDINBURGH. THE HE fickness that lately appeared at Edinburgh, on board one of the corn veffels that were permitted to difpente with the quarantine, hath fpread fome alarm amongst those who are not well acquainted with pestilential diforders; and hath given rife to fome reflections on the magistracy, as if they had wantonly wantonly endangered the health of the public. But nothing can be more foreign to truth; the lord provoft having acted with much prudence, in his laudable attention' to the public good; and however neceffary a relaxation of the ftrictness of quarantine was, to prevent a want of bread in this city, he did not apply to the privy council for fuch relaxation 'till he had had the opinions of two eminent phyficians, and the approba tion of the town council, and many gentlemen of the law. Nay, we are affured that his lordship did not fail to carry every information that could be procured on the subject. Having been informed there was a gentleman of the faculty, then in Edinburgh, who was intimately experienced in the plague, the lord provoft fent to him, and afked his opinion; which being given, his lordship defired it might be reduced to writing, which was done in the following words: "The Right Hon. John Grieve, lord provóft of the city of Edinburgh, having defired in writing the particulars of the opinion of, concerning the communication of the plague, the following account is laid before his lordship: "The faid- having served as furgeon's mate, and furgeon in the royal navy, from 1745 to 1763; and having been fome years in the Mediterranean and the Levant, and having been at Conftantinople during five weeks of a plague, and attended many peftiferous perfons, hath had thereby many opportunities of knowing the nature and progrefs of that difeafe, the methods cf guarding against it, and of examining fufpected fhips, as ufed by the practic mafters, and in the lazarettos of Leghorn, Venice, and other places; from all which he hath had good grounds for forming an opinion. "That the plague is a contagious and fpeedily mortal dif eafe, arising from a peculiar fpecies of animalcula, of rapid multiplication, which float in the air, and are inhaled with the breath; more especially when within the atmosphere of petiferous perfons. "That the peftilential animalcula not only lodge themfelves, but depofit their eggs, in all foft and highly porous fubftances, chiefly in wool and woollen manufactures, raw filk, cotton, Aax, and hemp, with all goods made of them, (except linen cloth,) and may be thereby conveyed to great diftances, and remain inactive, 'till heat, or other concurring circumftances, do hatch and vivify them; and then they spread the infection. "That grain, iron, and wood, not affording a fit nidus for thofe animalcula and their eggs, cannot convey the infection. "That when any fhips, together with fafe commodities, have alfo on board fufpected goods, then (if the perions on board have been in full health during the voyage) the fafe commodities may be taken out, and thofe which are fufpected placed in a lazaretto to be opened, aired, and properly fumigated, for fourteen days; after which time (if the perfons belonging to the lazaretto remain in health) they may be fafely landed. "That when ships are laden only with fafe commodities, they may be carefully examined by a practic mafter, who is properly acquainted with the mode of examination, (along-fide, not in the fhip,) and ufes fit precautions, then it is the custom of the Levant to admit fuch to practic. "That fhips coming from fufpected places, having clean bills of health, may be admitted to practic directly; and when they come without any bill of health from places wherein no infec tion hath appeared, there can be no reason to refuse them to practic. "However, it would be yet prudent that the blankets, rugs, and bedding of the crew, with any cotton fhirts, trowfers, or handkerchiefs, be aired and fumigated in fome lazaretto, before they are admitted on fhore." A fingular Inftance of what MIRACLES RELIGIOUS Το the PRINT e r. SIR, and the young prince their fon, about twenty-two years of age. bead. They came into this village in a miferable chaife; nor did their baggage, trunk, and all they had, weigh above fifty pounds they put up at the beft inn, ordered expenfive dinners, and the beft wines, without making, as is customary on the continent, any agreement; invited people to dine, played at cards, and wetted bis thumb on his lips, when bis bigbnefs dealt; yet it was--who should vifit, dine, and be acquainted with the prince Juftinian? At ten o'clock every morning the curtains were let down, while the two princes and their royal household were a prayers, prayers, which continued for a full hour. At church, or when the hoft went by, nothing was to be feen but the whites of their eyes; and, would you believe it, Mr. Printer, without money to pay for a poft letter, (for his highness's letters of credit were not arrived,) they lived here in a moft expenfive manner for eleven months, and went away openly, in broad day-light, under the eyes and nofes of the gaping inhabitants and creditors of a poor diftreffed village, (for fuch this is,) without the least interruption. They then took up their abode at Liege, where the young prince fell defperately in love with a lady of one of the firft families in the principality; and though her mother was told they were impoftors, yet the piety of thefe people on one hand, and title on the other, carried it. The young prince married the now young princefs, and, after the marriage, the prince's father got himself made a citizen of a small neighbouring republic: but the bishop of Liege, who knew all along what their highneffes' real rank was, turned them out of his principality. His highness was therefore obliged to retire to his own little republic, where he is now carrying on a profecution against the bishop of Liege, for degrading him. I should have obferved, that Juftinian wrote a congratulatory letter to the king of Pruffia on New-Year's-Day, to which he received a polite answer; with that letter, and his affected fimplicity, (though at bottom a fhrewd clever fellow,) this valet de chambre, and the princefs, (who was a cook in Italy, and whose natural fon, the prince, is by her master,) have worked miracles. A WANDERER. P. S. Prince Juftinian's manner of dealing at cards, puts me in mind of a fellow who calls himself a gentleman, and who now lives at Bath. This gentleman had got a circle of Bath beaux about him, and was obferving how wrong it was in the master of the ceremonies to admit fuch low under-bred people into the public rooms, as were daily to be feen there, and then (elevating his elbow) put his nofe between his fore and middle finger, fqueezed out the contents, and wiped it on his coat, and added, Low dogs, quite unacquainted with the manners or addrefs of people of fashion. EXTRAORDINARY ANECDOTE of an ENGLISH SAILOR. HE metempfychofis, or tranfmigration of fouls, is one of the principal doctrines of the religion of the Bramins. To this opinion an English failor was indebted for his life, which the the Indians, on the Malabar coast, were about to take away. Being out a fhooting one day, and unacquainted with the my thology of the country, he killed a bird, which thofe people An Indian faw him, rank among their gods of the first class. -and accufed him of deicide. The inhabitants of the neigh-bouring villages immediately affembled, feized the facrilegious European, and condemned him to death. He had not the leaft hopes of escaping his fentence, as the enraged Indians feemed fully determined to avenge their god; when a Jew, who by chance had heard of the Englishman's misfortune, preffed thro' the croud, and pretended to proftrate himself on the earth, in order to pray. He faid to the prifoner, "You have only one way left to escape death; try it, and fay to thefe people, My father died fome time ago; his body was thrown into the fea, and his foul paffed into the body of a fifh. As I was walking on the fea-fhore, the fish, my father, appeared on the furface of the water. At this inftant, the bird that I killed darted at him, with an intention to devour him before my eyes.-Could I fuffer this!-I fhot him, only to prevent his murdering my father.' The Englishman repeated the above fpeech to the Indians. They were fatisfied with this juftification, and quietly fuffered him to go about his business. ANECDOTE of MR. FOOTE. HAT celebrated wit, being in company, in one of his rural excurfions, with fome gentlemen who fuppofed him ignorant of their acquaintance with his name, they were inclined to jeft with him. For this purpofe, one of them took occafion to animadvert on the great variety of furnames, the fert -nefs, infignificancy, and whimficality of fome, and the length, fullness, and dignity of others; and then propofed, that as the company were unacquainted with each other's names, each fhould difclofe his own, and he who owned the shorteit and mat infignificant, fhould discharge the reckoning. The humourist, aware that they knew him, and confequently apprized of the intended trick, agreed to the propofal; but upon thefe conditions: Their names fhould be written, in the fame fized hand, by the waiter, who was to be a ftranger to the bufinefs, and he whole appellation meafured the leaft, to be the lofer, while the lengeft -fhould entitle its owner to partake of a handsome fupper at the joint expence of the reft. This being premifed, the waiter was fummoned, their feveral names committed to paper, and mafured, when one appeared to be an inch, one an inch and a half, and |