and revenge. The folly of individuals, however, in any rank of life, ought not to reflect on the whole body.

But our present race of nobles and even our pr-n-s (it has been faid*) are a profligate fet of jockies and gamblers, extravagant and licentious, and, (what would not be expected) ignorant and illiterate.+

That the age, or rather the nation in general, is extremely diffolute and profufe; and that the wealth, brought into the kingdom by a most extensive commerce, has produced its natural offspring, luxury and every species of vice and extravagance, not only amongst many of our nobility, but amongst all orders and ranks of people, from the prince to the peasant, is greatly to to be lamented.

But

* Hiftory of the Jockey-Club.

I have not been much converfant with our nobility, yet I know perfonally fome few very young men; who, if they would unite in the cause of virtue and form a club in oppofition to the Jockey-Club; and instead of drinking and gambling, would countenance manly converfation and temperate feftivity; I fhould hope, that fuch characters as this author-in his hiftory; or fuch fools as Ch. Sm-th has drawn in her novel, if any now exift, will be deemed abfolutely unnatural in the next generation.

fuch

Have thefe rigid reformers themselves entirely escaped the contagion? and are their lives perfectly immaculate?

But shall the vices and follies of comparatively a few thoughtless individuals, the ebullitions of youth and high spirits, eclipse the luftre of a majority of great and virtuous characters, which conftitute that venerable, and, as it has always been esteemed, that most uncorrupt tribunal, the Houfe of Lords? Such as, without regard to party, we may pronounce a Beaufort, a Portland, and a Richmond: a Camden and a Carlisle; a Thurlow, a Grenville, and a Loughborough; and many more, whom for brevity's fake alone I omit. Shall even the private or the publick vices, which party-rage may impute to individuals, I say, justify any author, in representing that affembly as a pandamonium; or be a fufficient plea for the attempts of diffatisfied demagogues, to overturn the constitution ?

But "virtue" (it has been truly said, and for these fifteen hundred years repeated) "virtue is the only true nobility," the only diftinction which renders one man fuperior to another-and a title, "a mere nickname," and a coronet, a childish bauble, a ring of gold lined with cat-fkin: trifles beneath the attention of a wife man.

True: but the diftinctions, or the privileges at least,' implied by those baubles, and originally bestowed as

* Nobilitas fola eft atq; unica virtus. JUV.

the

4

the rewards of virtue, have been thought no trifles by men of as much sense as Mr. Paine, and others who have repeated those trite remarks: and have been adopted, in some shape or other, by the wifeft nations, as cheap rewards for diftinguished merit.

"Gold and filver are the drofs or fediment of the earth," (as the philofophick Antoninus observes*) but when stamped by authority, they acquire, by the com. mon consent of mankind, a real value; and procure the neceffaries and conveniences of life, which none but a cynick or a madman would despise.

To conclude thefe reflexions. Though I can hardly flatter myself that any person of rank, much less of princely rank, will attend to an obscure recluse; yet, as I profefs myself an enthusiastick friend to fubordination and to established forms, I fincerely hope, that our present young noblemen will reflect, that the dæmon of turbulence and faction is gone forth; and levelling principles are univerfally diffeminated through the world: and it highly concerns them to be carefult of

their

* Meditations, b. ix. §. 36.

"The toe of the peasant comes fo near the heel of the cour ❝tier, that he galls his kibe."

HAMLET.

their conduct.* All eyes are fixed upon them, and they are in fome measure accountable to the community for the privileges which they enjoy; and, as they are so much elevated above their fellow-citizens in rank, they should outshine them in the fplendour of their virtues. They have it in their power, even by their example, to improve the manners of the age, and to make frugality and sobriety fashionable; and, by that means, to render their pre-eminence refpectable, and alfo less painful and invidious than it often is to their inferiors. They should reflect, that, although the Sovereign can entitle them to be called noble, Virtue alone can make them fo. Their titles may procure them a forced respect, but good-nature and condefcenfion alone can make them loved and efteemed.

In short, when those young men can spare a few months from the nocturnal revels of the metropolis, from plundering each other like highwaymen, and with gladiatorial ferocity meditating each other's ruin, in gaming-houses or on the turf; let them, I fay, fpend some part of their time, and of their fortune, at their country

C

* Nothing, I believe, has given greater offence, than the immenfe fums, faid to be fquandered away by fome young perfons of the highest rank; but, by the firmness of the ministry, a more œconomical plan feems to have been adopted, and the publick will not be further burthened on that account.

country-feats, amongst their tenants and vaffals: let them reflect, how small a portion of those fums, which they lavish on unmeaning diffipation, and in " shapelefs idleness," as Shakspeare calls it, would afford them the heartfelt luxury of relieving the neceflities of the poor, industrious labourers, in the neighbouring villages:-They would then appear truly and intrinsically noble, and revive that ancient magnificence, and respectable hospitality, (without the intemperance) for which our English nobility have, at different periods of our history, been so eminently distinguished.

THE SEQUEL;

OR,

FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON THE

EQUALIZING SYSTEM.

HOUGH I acknowledge myself but flightly

THO

verfed in politicks, yet having alluded to the prefent fashionable theory of government, I think it neceffary to say a few words on that subject.

As