event happened about 21 or 22 years fince, fubfequent to which the father of Mrs. died; but the mother and brother are ftill living at Stuttgardt, upon a penfion which he has fettled upon them for their lives, and which is fully adequate to their wishes and fta tion. The brother purchafed his difcharge, and continues at Stuttgardt in an independent fituation; and Mr. who has long been returned to Europe, is refident in fome part of Ger many, having been many years married to another woman, by whom he has a numerous family, and being, it is faid, fill affifted by Mrs.

Since the great turn in the affairs of that lady, attempts have been made to prove that he is defcended from the ancient and refpectable family of Chapufette in France; and the Chargé des Affaires from the Court of Versailles to that of Stuttgardt was, applied to by Mrs. 's brother, and doubtlefs at her inftigation, to fearch into the annals of that family, and draw out proofs of the alliance; but, although every pioper fearch was made, no traces could be found of there ever having been any alliance or connexion between that faIt mily and the family of Mrs.

furnished by the parents of the boys who are fent thither, for from them the mifchief fprings; and, till this mean be employed, the mafters will be unjustly blamed. What have ever been the irri

tamenta malorum, are found to be fo ftill; they are the pieces of precious metal which thefe boys are fuffered to bring to fchool with them in their poc kets, and, of late, in a plenty bevond all example of former times. These draw to them, as a honey-pot does wafps, vermin with ftings more veno. mous than wafps, and give them a difrelifh for their bufinefs, till their sweets, with their bloom, to the cruel detriment of their budding manhood, are fucked away. Let not the boys be abridged of any indulgences which they ought to have; and which a mafter, a private tutor, or any other proper perfon, may be empowered to fupply. But let them not know the ufe of money. That knowledge will come faft enough when they are of age to provide for their wants themselves. But who, it may be afked, shall be the first to infringe a deeply-rooted cuftom, howmuchfoever it may be more honoured in the breach than the obfervance? The answer is obvious--the fathers of the prefent is faid that, foon after that lady's arriyoung nobility at Weftminster and Eval in London, her mother came over ton. Let them confer amongst themto fee her, but that Mrs.'- would felves; which if they will condefcend to no fuffer her to come to her house, and do, they will want no perfuafion to fo only faw her twice at an inn, where the falutary a meafure: or let but a dozen promifed to provide for her, upon con- of them do fo, determine that, after the dition of her quitting England directly. next Christmas holidavs, their fons fhall This condition being complied with, carry no money with them to their Mr. Meyer, the miniature painter, a fchool, and authorize you, Sir, to no native of the Duchy of Würtemberg, tify that determination in your Magawas fent over to Stuttgardt as agent to zine to be published on the firft of JaMrs. and arranged the fettle-nuary, and I am perfuaded that their ment of the mother and brother much example will be eagerly followed throughto their fatisfaction. This arrangement out the kingdom, which will blefs them was accompanied by a picture of Mrs. for the happy Revolution it will make. which her relations are not a lit- Sublata caufa, &c. SOPHRON.

P. S. I have faid nothing of the illiberality to which tender minds are more or lefs betrayed by their early anxiety for that money which is in ge neral fo viciously and dangerously, or at beft, idly expended, nor of other arguments that might be urged against a cuftom, becoming continually more hurtful, and of which the feelings both of patriotifm and parental affection ftrongly dictate the abrogation.

** Imagining we Bould meet the wishes of the writer of the following letter, we communicated it to Mr. CROFT; who defires us never to befitate about printing any thing which apparently finds fault with him or his Dictionary; as he is perfuaded, that no writer wili wan sanly abufe one, who gives fo much of his time and his money to the publick, without, as yet, the leaf encouragement but approbation; or, if any writer bould, that fuch abufe is a species of encouragement. Mr. URBAN,

I

WAS moft agreeably furprized to find that Dr. Johnfon's famous Dictionary is at laft likely to be fupplanted by what will, I hope, really merit that epithet; and the letter from the future editor, p. 91, in answer to various correfpondents, with the account he gives of his meditated plan, appears to me no bad prognoftic of it. That Dr. Johnfon's Dictionary fhould, I was almost going to fay, have been endured for fo many years, has long been matter of aftonishment to me. What then, that it fhould have had encomiums lavished upon it, nay, and from writers of no fmall eminence in the literary world! Strange but no, Mr. Urban, nothing is ttrange with creatures whom Nature happens to have made with difpofitions to put their opinions and judgements in other hands than their own; who judge a work from the man, not the man from the work; who, from pre-fuppofing that a writer of great general eminence (and who greater, who almoft to great, as the late Dr. Johnfon!) will be great in a new undertaking (not much matter, perhaps, het) conclude he bas been fo when that work is produced, then to be examined fo independently of the writer, that he should, if poflible, be forgotten, and when even the work itfelf thews that he has not been fo great. Were it not, Mr. Urban, for the reSpectable letter from the editor of the new Dictionary, and perhaps as much from one of your correfpondents of the next month, who figns himfelf A. B. D. I fhould fcarcely have hazarded fuch a letter as this to you. It would in that cafe certainly have met with the di'regard, to ufe no ftronger term, that perbaps it may fill only merit. Be that as it may, thoughts are free; and I venture on thefe for the treatment of your own at free difcretion.

The critic I allude to, as well as the propofed writer Mr. H. Ciott, has forenalled many of my objections to the Doctor's Daionary, as well as remarked on others that may have clcaped

my inferior notice: and let any man, I will only fay of common fenfe, reflect on what thofe particularized objections are! Will not fuch a perfon, will not every reader, who now at laft, it is prefumed, will be fo good (that is, to himfelf) as to open his eyes, fomewhat wonder that even any compiler of a Dictionary fhould have rendered himself liable to the imputation of them? I will be bold to fay, that no man of the most common intelligence can open Dr. J's fmall Dictionary (I have never feen any other), in any part of it, without fiading more than one infiance of defect of fome kind or other. Both Mr. Croft and A. B. D. give instances, or general affertions, of defective particulars, both of commiffion and omiffion, in Dr. Johnfon: I have neither of thofe writer's letters just now before me, fo that I do not recollect exactly what ei ther marks, or points at but no matter, if I repeat any particular of either, nay the double remark in any inftance will ferve to enforce it the stronger.The letter-writer, I remember," fays, that he had enumerated, I think, fome hundreds of Latin words Anglicized, that no English writer, or, at leaft, none of any tafte, had ever made ufe of. I think too, one or both july remarks, that it is not enough that a precedent or quotation be produced, as ftamping a valid authority for its ufe, for, as already faid, even a good writer, in general, may deviate into an unwarrant able peculiarity or adoption. It is the business of the Dictionary-writer (I beg the Door's pardon, the Lexicographer,) to attend to the language, if not folely, primarily and chiefly indeed, and himfelf, from general obfervation of the beft writers, to mark the most eli gible words or phrafes: but Dr. John. fon not only quotes continually the leaft refpectable of our modern writers, for his authorities, indifferently with the beft, but even the old and obfolete ones. In short, Mr. Urban, it feems endlefs to point out the detects of this great man's Dictionary, and I have of ten pitied the poor foreigners who were to learn their English from it, and more especially their ftyle. I remember, fome years ago, a young lady's writing a let ter to a friend of hers, from words picked out from Johnson's Dictionary, and very fairly picked, in order to di veit and puzzle her friend; in which, it will be eafily imagined, he did not fail. The friend did not underftand a full-ble of what was written to her. A. B. C. (To be continued.)