it has obtained fuch a currency, that it is no longer a fraudulent, but a legal payment.

A fkilful negociator will moft carefully diftinguish between the little and the great objects of his bufinefs, and will be as frank and open in the former as he will be fecret and pertinacious in the latter.

He will, by his manners and addrefs, endeavour, at leaft, to make his public adverfaries his perfonal friends. He will flatter and engage the man, while he counterworks the minifter; and he will never alienate people's minds from him, by wrangling for points, either absolutely unattainable,or not worth attaining. He will make even a meritof giving up what he could not or wouldnot carry, and fell a trifle for a thousand times its value.

If a minifter refufes you a reasonable requeft, and either flights or injures you, if you have not the power to gratify your refentment, have the wifdom to conceal it. Seeming good-humour on your part may prevent rancour on his, and, perhaps, bring things right again: but if you have the power to hurt, hint modeftly, that, if provoked, you may poffibly have the will too.. Fear, when real, and well found ed, is, perhaps, a more prevailing motive at courts than love.

At court, many more people can hurt that can help you please the former, but engage the latter.

Awkwardners is a more real difadvantage than it is generally thought to be; it often occafions ridicule, it always leffens dignity.

A man's own good breeding is his beft fecurity against other people's ill manners.

Good-breeding carries along with it a dignity, that is refpected by the mo petulant. Ill-breeding invites and authorifes the familiarity of the most timid.. No man ever faid a pert thing to the duke of Marlborough. No man ever faid a civil one (though many a flattering one) to Sir Robert Walpole.

When the old clipped money was called in for a new coinage in king William's time, to prevent the like for the future, they ftamped on the edges of the crown pieces thefe words, Et decus et tutamen. That is ex actly the cafe of good breeding..

Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments only give luftre ; and many more people fee than weigh.

Moft arts require long ftudy and application; but the most useful art of all, that of pleafing, requires only the defire.

It is to be prefumed, that a man of common fenfe, who does not defire to pleafe, defires nothing at all; fince he muft know that he cannot obtain any thing without it.

A foreign minifter, who is concerned in great affairs, mult neceffarily have fpies in his pay; but he must not too eafily credit their information, which is never exactly true, often very falfe. His beft fpies s will always be those whom he does not pay, but whom he has engaged in his fervice by his dexterity and addrefs, and who think themselves nothing lefs than fpies,

There is a certain jargon, which, in French, I fhould call un perfiflage d'affaires, that a foreign minifter ought to be perfectly mafter of, and may ufe very advantageoufly at great entertainments, in mixed companies, and on all occafions where he muft fpeak, and fhould fay nothing. Well turned and well fpoken, it feems to mean fomething, though in truth it means nothing. It is a kind of political badinage, which prevents or re moves a thousand difficulties, to which a foreign min- ! ifter is expofed in mixed converfations.

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If ever the volto fciolto, and the penfieri ftretti are neceflary, they are fo in thefe affairs. A grave, dark, rerved, and myfterious air, has fænum in cornu. even, eafy, unembarraffed one, invites confidence, and leaves no room for gueffes and conjectures.

A foreign minister fhould be a moft exact econom ift; an expence proportioned to his appointments and fortune is neceffary: but, on the other hand, debt is inevitable ruin to him. It finks him into difgrace at the court where he refides, and into the mof fervile and abject dependance on the court that fent him. As he cannot refent ill ufage, he is fure to have enough of it. The duke de Sully obferves very justly, in his Memoirs, that nothing contributed more to his rife than that prudent economy which he had obferved from his youth; and by which he had always a fum of money before-hand, in cafe of emergencies.

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It is very difficult to fx the particular point of economy; the Leit error of the two is on the parlimonious fide. That may be corte Red,the other cannot. The reputation of generofity is to be purchased Potty ch it does not depend fo much man's general opinto, as it does upon his giving handfomly where it is proper to give at all. for inftance, who fhould give a fervant four fhillings, would pafs for covetous, while he who gave him a crown would be reckoned generous fo that the difference of thofe two oppofite characters turns upon one filling. A man's character, in that particular, de pends a great deal upon the report of his own fervants; a mere trifle above common wages makes their report fivourable.

Take care always to form your establishment fo much within your income, as to leave a fufficient fund for unexpected contingences and a prudent liberality. There is hardly a year, in any man's life, in which a fmall fum of ready money may not be employed to great advantage.

MAXIMS of the Cardinal de RETZ.

A MIDDLING understanding, being susceptible

of unjuft fufpicions, is, confequently, of all characters, the least fit to head a faction-As the most indifpenfable qualification in fuch a chief is, to fupprefs, on many occafions, and to conceal in all,even the best grounded fufpicions.

2. Nothing animates and give ftrength to a commotion fo much as the ridicule of him against whom it is raised.

3. Among people used to affairs of moment, fecrecy is much lefs uncommon than is generally believed. 4. Defcending to the little is the fureft way of attaining to an equality with the great.

5. We are as often duped by diffidence, as by confidence.

The greatest evils are not arrived at their utmost period, until thofe who are in power have loft all fenfe of fhame. At fuch a time, thofe who fhould obey fhake off all refpect and fubordination. Then is lethargic indolenceroused; but roused by convulfions. 7. Timorous minds are much more inclined to deliberate than to refolve.

8. It is more difficult for the member of a faction olive with thofe of his own party, than to act against thofe who oppofe it.

9. Violent measures are always dangerous; but, when neceffary, may then be looked upon as wife.. They have, however, the advantage of never being. matter of indifferency; and, when well concerted, must be decifive.

10. Every thing in this world has its eritical m ment; and the height of good conduct confifts i Luowing, and feizing it.

11. Profligacy, joined to ridicule, form the m 1 minable and moft dangerous of all characters. 12. Weak minds never yield when they oug

13. Examples taken from past times have i 1 more power over the minds of men than any age in which they live. Whatever we fee, g miliar; and perhaps the confulfhip of Caligul might not have aftonished us fo much as we a i imagine.

14. Weak minds are commonly overpow c clamour.

15. We ought never to contend for what we Clikely to obtain.

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16. The inftant in which we receive the m vourable accounts, is just that wherein we ough double our vigilance, even in regard to the most f circumftances.

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17. It is dangerous to have a known influend the people; as thereby we become responsible e an what is done against our will.

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A: 18. One of the greateft difficulties in civil that more art is required to know what should b M cealed from our friends, than what ought to b against our enemies.

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yo 19. The poffibility of remedying imprudent a is commonly an inducement to commit them.

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20. In momentous affairs no ftep is indifferent 21. Nothing convinces perfons of a weak under mo ing fo effectually, as what they do not compreh 22. A certain degree of fear produces the fan fects as rafhnefs.

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23. In affairs of importance, the choice of wo of as much confequence as it would be fuperflu those of little moment.

WCL 24. During thofe calms which immediately fu violent ftorms, nothing is more difficult for min than to act properly; because, while flattery incr fufpicions are not yet fubfided.

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