alleviation of the loss of friends, and rational tranquillity in the prospect, of our own dissolution, can be received only from the promise of him in whose hands are life and death,, and from the assurances of another and better state, in which all tears will be wiped from our eyes, and the whole soul shall be filled with joy. Philosophy may infuse stubbornness, but religion only can give patience. Sam. Johnson. Letter from a repentant Highwayman to a Lady whom he had robbed. Madam, TH HE crime which I have committed is so unworthy my birth and education, and the confusion which I suffer in the reflection thereon so great, that I hope you will excuse my concealing from you my name and situation in life. You must undoubtedly have discovered, madain, from the violent agitation of mind I was under, when I stopped your coach, on Saturday evening, that it was my first attempt. I was withheld from presenting my pistol, both from my unwillingness to frighten you, and also from the apprehension lest my excessive tre mor should have done you that mischief accidentally, which, I can assure you, was very far from the purpose of my heart: for both my weapons were destined against myself rather than any one else; and were worn as bosom friends, which, if I had been closely pursued, might have been my last resource to rescue me from the disgrace of public execution! After I had committed the desperate act of robbing you, I made a feint, as if I was going from town, but returned soon after with the design of sheltering myself in London. Having changed my dress to prevent discovery, and being asked at the turnpike, "whether I had been robbed," I found that you had given the alarm, and that there would shortly be the strictest search after me. I made haste to London, and came in sight of your carriage just as it was entering town; and, as there was something so singularly humane and tender-hearted in the compassion which you showed for my miseries, and those friendly admonitions which the sense of my danger awakened in your mind, I was prompted to dismount, and follow the coach at a distance, that I might discover where that ladydwelt who expressed so much benevolence and good-nature towards one so entirely undeserving of it; and I was reflecting within myself, that it would be very severe upon me to forfeit my life for one single act of imprudence, to which nothing but the most pinching necessity prompt. ed me. I was induced to make this application, from the hopes that the same reflection might operate suffici eatly on the goodness of your heart to check the pursuit of me; or, if it should be my lot to be apprehended, to withhold you from appearing against me to take away my life. I will not lay open to you the dismal scenes of misery I labour under, nor go through the series of misfortunes which have been working my ruin, and heaping up wretchedness upon wretchedness. Such a representation might, I fear, give you some uneasy thoughts, and disturb that peace of mind which it is my earnest prayer that Heaven may ever preserve uninterrupted to you. I shall only add, that, if you can but conceive even the faintest idea of those sharp agonies which the sense of guilt awakens in me, you will think that I have already suffered more than death; and if your forgiveness of me is as hearty as my repentance is sincere, you will be led to pity the man, though you detest the crime. I beg a thousand pardons for trespassing so much upon your goodness, and for the liberty which I have taken of enquiring your name, which I was obliged to do, not knowing any other method of making this application to you without running the greatest hazard of detection. Permit, madam, the most unfortuate of men, in testimony of his gratitude, for those good wishes which you expressed for him, to subscribe himself, your most highly obliged, and most obedient humble servant. From the Gentleman's Magazine. Mr. Urban, A's Nov. 7. S peace is now (as good as) concluded between Great Britain and France, it may be a proper time to consider how we may best allay intestine commotions. Peace abroad is an imperfect blessing without peace at home. It is notorious that a war has been carried on for some years in this country, between the sexes, occasioned by a contest for superiority. At the commencement of this unhappy dispute, the fair sex maintained that they were our equals in point of genius and talents; and that what was termed sex was merely a nomi, 1 nal difference in compliance with the customs of the world, or, as some asserted, in compliance with the tyrannical prejudices of man. On the other hand, we insisted that the superiority of talents was on our side; that there was not only a nominal but a realdifference between men and women; and that it was insulting to suppose that anyof us could arrive at the years of discretion without knowing the existence of such a difference, what it proceeded from, and to what it led. The flames being thus kindled, war broke out; and animosities fierce and implacable raged from one end of the kingdom to the other. Such confusion of sex took place, that the most discerning could not say, "Where ends the woman, or begins the man." Abundance of the best ink in the kingdom was shed in the various engagements between the contending parties. The republic of letters felt the dreadful shock, and trembled under the horrors of war. The groans of the press were lamentable to hear: booksellers and bookbinders became poor and needy, while stationers and trunkmakers, like contractors and commissaries, accumulated immense wealth. "Their equipages shone like meteors, and their palaces rose like exhalations." Philosophers in petticoatsbrandished the pen; and were followed into the field of battle by historions, novelists, and poets, clad in muslins and tippets, threatening destruction to man-kind, and the reestablishment of the Amazonian age. trepid heroines, deserted by their followers, perished by their own pens: others were tried by the monthly courts- martial, and broke: and some deserted to the enemy, enlisted as wives, or mistresses, and were never more heard of. The contest, however, although apparently ended, as far as regards more public engagements, is still carried on in private skirmishes. I should with a very bad grace propose terms of peace, if I did it not with the true spirit of peace; and I am un> willing, therefore, to recur too often or too pointedly, to the original causes of the dispute; yet what follows will not be easily understood, if I do not mention that one cause of the rupture was an assertion, that the men occupied all the places which women were intended to fill; that they usurped the province of milliners, mantua makers, &c., &c., and while they insolently complained of the idleness of the fair sex, at the same time deprived them of all means of industry. I could have wished this complaint had been properly attended to. It had certainly some foundation, and a complaint which is not "unreasonable, is a fair subject for redress. Instead of resisting it, we ought to meet it half way. All history proves, that when a reasonable request is refused, the plaintiff's are driven to demand those which are unreasonable. I say, sir, it was a most fatal delusion on our part, to turn contemptuously from such remonstrances. I was one of those who would have fortified Paternoster Row against the inroads of the enemy, but I would have left Bond Street open. I would have opposed the increase of straw bonmeted historians, philosophers in pelisses, and novelists in sprig mus lins; but I could not conscientiously refuse them the "privileges of the most highly-favoured" shop-boards and counters. Thus I argued; and I deprecated the fatal consequences I clearly forsaw what has exactly taken place. I foresaw that, when foiled at one weapon, they would take up another; anger is prolific, and indignation remarkably prone to invention: when disappointed in attacking our impregnables, they would soon sap the foundations of our ingenuity and industry, and effect by slow degrees what was impossible by a coup-de-main. : My fears accordingly have been realized and at this moment I would ask, whether the sex have not monopolized every article of useful manufacture heretofore the constant occupation and exclusive province of men; and whether they do not show an industry in working, as well as ingenuity in inventing, which will soon make us repent our conduct towards them? I am not now speaking of the poor: the poor of both sexes are pretty equal in their labours; but let any man look into genteel life, and see what progress has been lately made by the female branches of the family in all handicraft employments. I pass by music and painting; yet why should I pass them by? why not, by way of digression, felicitate the fathers and mothers of so many female SIR JOSHUAS? what more pleasant than to hear one parent boast of his little Banti, and another bid you listen to a song from his little Billington? What a change, Mr. Urban, in your time and mine! no more working a set of worsted commandments in a sampler! no more clothing the map map of England in purple and fine linen, with a beautiful green silk channel in cross-stitch! No, they who in our days were content to subscribe the belief with a needle and thread, and proud if they made a darn invisible, now prelude like Clementi, and compose like Haydn. But, as already promised, I will pass all this, and come to the more direct interference with male occupations, which is every where visible. If we examine the furniture of a house, we shall find that all the ornamental part at least is the manufactory of fair and delicate hands. Look at the finely-worked bell-ropes in variegated worsted, with rosetassels; the beautiful fire-side carpets and screens; and gilt and painted frames for flower-pots; the fillagree tea caddies; the fruit baskets, &c. &c.; and we shall soon see that injuries inflicted by menmilliners are revenged with a heavy hand on the unoffending upholsterers and cabinet makers. Nor are these the only employments usurped by the fair sex. Would they were restricted to such delicate luxuries as may be dispensed with! But they are advancing step by step towards the more robust articles. I know one lady who is an exceeding good carpenter, and has mended some pieces of furniture in such a manner as to prolong their use beyond all the hopes of the regular trade. Some excel as gardeners; and others are so expert in the exercise of the whip, as to threaten the annihilation of postillions and coachmen. Some have nearly killed themselves with the repairs of their houses; and declare, that if the work could be done in-doors, they never would employ a mason or bricklayer again. These are alarming innovations, Mr. Urban; and deserving our most serious consideration. I may be told, indeed, that the distresses of the times have induced many persons to patch up the old, instead of buying new, and to do themselves what they formerly employed another to do for them. This is plausible, sir: but, if it be allowed its full force, what will it avail? the evil will not end with the return of peace and plenty. There is great reason to doubt whether habits of industry and ingenuity once acquired, from whatever motive, will be so easily shaken off as some people think. When we get into the knack of doing things for ourselves, one certain consequence is, that we think we do them better than any one else could. There is much vanity in beating a man at his own trade; and I never knew one of the female cabinet-makers of my acquaintance. who, after covering a foot-stool, or twisting a bell-rope, was not ready to snap her fingers at Seddons or Oakley. No, sir, I am afraid that as the sex have, in a moment of indignation and resentment, taken up the hammer, the chissel, the pallet, and the trowel, they may not be so easily prevailed upon to lay them down again. In fact, sir, with sorrow I speak it, but why conceal it? I dread a declaration of independence. Permit me now, Mr. Urban, to conclude with a piece of information which was in truth the cause of this whole epistle, and which I have from undoubted authority; and that is, it is now become the fashion for ladies to amuse themselves (amuse, as they call it, which is a mere pretence) with making shoes! These shoes, I am told, are made, that is to say, say, the soles, of them, of flax twisted in a particular manner, which I cannot describe, but which makes a sole at once firm, and repellent of wet. They also purchase leather (they will be tamers next) and cut it out for upper-leathers, and so waxing their thread, &c. they complete the whole process of shoemaking Was there ever a more direct infringement of the rights and privileges of the worshipful company of cordwainers? and where will these things end? besides turning our drawing-rooms into stalls, and substituting cobbling for cardplaying, how easy will the transition be from shoes to boots! and what then remains in the progress upwards, I leave to the candid consideration of every tailor. I have been told, indeed, that a pair of shoes made as above, will require upwards of a month (some say six weeks), and will be no more than eighteen pence under the trade price. This, however, is little calculated to allay the fears of "good men*. All manufactures are slow in their e infancy, and eighteen pence will at least pay an old shilling fare. On the other hand, let us consider the advantages those females will enjoy who bring their awl into notice. They will have for their customers all the gay and gallant young fellows about town; and, as the best things are liable to abuse, perhaps many an abominable intrigue will be found to have no higher origin than a barmless heel tap. I am alarmed into this consideration by the following passage from an antiquary, which I beg leave to transcribe: "It may not be amiss," says mine author, "to observe, that the word cobler had not originally that despicable meaning, that most now understand in it, but signified a coupler, or one who made and sold things by pairs †." I conclude with recommending this passage to gentlemen who may be at present botching up a courtship, or have already been married to shoemakers. EVERY MAN TO HIS LAST. "To shoemakers. Good men may be employed by applying, &c." An advertisement frequently repeated in the papers. † General description of all trades, 1747, 12mo., p. 76. POETRY. |