good-breeding render it, in general, imperceptible; and, as one may well fay, He that has pride, not fhewing that he's proud, Let me not know it, he's not proud at all, one may alfo affirm, with truth, of the Briith nobility, that he who has no pride at all cannot thew lefs than they do. They treat the meaneft fubject with the greatest affability, and take pains to make every perfon they converfe with forget the diftance that there is between him and them. As the younger brothers, and other near relations of the nobility, have the fame education and the fame example, ever before their eyes, one might expect to fee in them the fame affable behaviour, the fame politeness. But, ftrange as it is, nothing is more different than the behaviour of iny lord, and my lord's brother. The latter you generally fee proud, infolent, and overbearing, as if he poffeffed all the wealth and honour of the family. One might imagine from his behaviour, that the pride of the family, like the eftates in fome boroughs, always defcended to the younger brother. I have known one of thefe young noblemen, with no other fortune than this younger brother's inheritance, above marrying a rich merchant's daughter, because he would not disgrace himself with a plebeian alliance; and rather choose to give his hand to lady Betty, or a lady Char1tte, with nothing but her title for her portion. I know a younger brother in a noble family, who, twelve years ago, was fo regardless of his birth, as to defire my lord his father to fend him to a merchant's counting-houfe for his education; but, though he has now one of the beft houfes of bufinefs of any in Leghorn, and is already able to buy his father's cftate, his brothers and fifters will not acknowledge him as a relation, and do not fcruple to deny his being their brother, at the expence of their lady-mother's reputation. It always raifes my mirth, to hear with what contempt thefe younger brothers of quality fpeak of perfons in the three learned profeffions, even thofe at the top of each. The bench of bishops are never diftin. guished by them with any higher appella. tion, than-thofe parfons: and when they fpeak of the judges, and those who hold the first places in the courts of justice, to a gentleman at the bar, they fay-your lawyers and the doctors Heberden, Addington, and Afew, are, in their genteel dialect,called-thefe phyfical people. Trade 4 is fuch a difgrace, that there is no differ ence with them between the higheft and lowest that are concerned in it; they rank the greatest merchants among common tradefinen, as they can fee no difference between a counting-houfe and a chandler's fhop. They think the run of their father's or their brother's kitchen, a more genteel means of fubfiftence than what is afforded by any calling or occupation whatsoever, except the army or the navy; as if nobody was deferving enough of the honour to cut a Frenchinan's throat, but perfons of the firit rank and diftinction. As I live fo far from the police end of the town as Bedford-row, I undergo much decent raillery on that account, whenever I have the honour of a visit from one of thefe younger brothers of quality: he wonders who makes my wigs, my cloaths, and my liveries; he praifes the furniture of my houfe, and allows my equipage to be handfome: but declares he discovers more of expence than tafte in either: he can difcover that Hallet is not my upholsterer, and that my chariot was not made by Butler: in fhort, I find he thinks one might as well compare the Banqueting-house at Whitehall with the Manfion-houfe for elegance, as to look for that in Bedford-row, which can only be found about St. James's. He will not touch any thing at my table but a piece of mutton: he is fo cloyed with made dishes, that a plain joint is a rarity; my claret too, though it comes from Meff. Brown and Whitefoord, and no otherwife differs from my lord's than in being bought for ready money, is put by for my port. Though he politely hobs or nobs with my wife, he does it as if I had married my cook; and fhe is further mortified with feeing her carpet treated with as little ceremony as if it was an oil-cloth. If, after dinner, one of her damafk chairs has the honour of his lordly breech, another is indulged with the favour of raifing his leg. To any gentleman who drinks to this man of fashion, he is his moft obedient humble fervant, without bending his body, or looking to fee who does him this honour. If any perfon even under the degree of a knight, fpeaks to him, he will condefcend to lay Yes or No; bnt he is as likely as Sir Francis Wrong head to fay the one when he fhould fay the other. If I prefume to talk about any change in the ministry before him, he discovers great furprize at my ignorance, and wonders that we, at this end of the town, fhould differ fo much from the people people about Grofvenor-fquare. We are abfolutely, according to him, as little alike as if we were not of the fame fpecies; and I find, it is as much impoffible for us to know what paffes at court, as if we lived at Rotherhithe or Wapping. I have very frequent opportunities of contemplating the different treatment I receive from him and his elder brother. My lord, from whom I have received many favours, behaves to me as if he was the perfon obliged; while his lordship's brother, who has conferred no favour on me but borrowing my money, which he never intends to pay, behaves as if he was the creditor, and the debt was a forlorn one. The infolence which is fo much complained of among nobleman's fervants, is not difficult to account for: ignorance, idlenefs, high-living, and a confcioufnefs of the dignity of the noble perfon they ferve, added to the example of my lord's brother, whom they find no lefs dependent in the family than themfelves, will naturally make them arrogant and proud. But this conduct in the younger brother muft for ever remain unaccountable. I have been end cavouring to folve this phenomenon to myself, ever fince the following occurrence happened to me. When I came to fettle in town, about five-and-twenty years ago, I was strongly recommended to a noble peer, who promifed to aflift me. On my arrival, I waited upon his lordship, and was told by the porter, with an air of great indifference, that he was not at home; and I was very near receiving the door in my face, when I was going to acquaint this civil perfon, that I had a letter in my pocket for his lord: upon my producing it, he faid I might leave it; and immediately fnatched it from me. I called again the next day, and found, to my great furprife, a fomewhat better reception from my friend the porter, who immediately, as I heard after wards, by order from his lord, introduced me into the library. When I entered, I faw a gentleman in an armed chair reading a pamphlet, whom, as I did not know him, I took for my lord himfelf, efpecially as he did not rife from his chair, or fo much as offer to look towards me, on my entering. I immediately addreffed myfelf to him with -"My lord"—but was inftantly told by him, without taking his eyes from the pamphlet, that his brother was dreffing: he read on, and left me to contemplate the fituation I was in, that if I had been treated with fo much contempt from the porter and my lord's brother, what mult I expect from my noble patron? While I was thus reflecting, in comes a gentleman, running up to me, and taking me cordially by the hand, faid, he was heartily glad to fee me. I was greatly diltreffed to know how to behave. I could not imagine this to be his lordship, who was fo affable and courteous, and I could not fuppofe it was any body who meant to infult me. My anxiety was removed by his pulling out the letter I had left, and faying, "He was very happy that "it was in his power to comply with the "contents of it;" at the fame time introducing me to his brother, as a gentleman he was happy to know. This younger brother arofe from his chair with great indifference; and, taking me coolly by the hand, faid, "He thould be proud of fo "valuable an acquaintance;" and, refuming his feat, proceeded to finish his pamphlet. Upon taking leave, my lord renewed his former declaration; but his brother was too intent on his reading to observe the bow made to him by the valuable ac quaintance he a few minutes before profes fed himfelf fo proud of. I am not ignorant, however, that there are many younger brothers to peers, who: acknowledge, with much concern, the truth of what has been faid, and are ready to al-low, that, in too many families of diftinc-. tion, the younger brother is not the finer gentleman. I am your humble servant, &c. § 133. Perfons of Quality proved to be Traders. I always reflect with pleafure, that strong as the fondnels of imitating the French has been among people of fashion, they have not yet introduced among us their contempt for trade. A French marquis, who has nothing to boaft of but his high birth, would fcorn to take a merchant's daughter by the hand in wedlock, though her father should be as rich as the Bufly of the Eaft Indies; as if a Frenchman was only to be valued, like a black-pudding, for the goodnefs of his blood; while our nobiliiy not only go into the city for a wife, but send their younger fons to a merchant's counting-houfe for education. But, I confefs, I never confidered, till very lately, how far they have from time to time departed from this French folly in their efteem for trade; and I find, that the greatest part of our no bility may be properly deemed merchants, if not traders, and even fhopkeepers. In the first place, we may confider many of our nobility in the fame light as Beaver or Henfon, or any other keepers of repofitories. The breeding of running-horfes is become a favourite traffic among them; and we know how very largely perfons of the first fashion deal this way, and what great addition they make to their yearly income by winning plates and matches, and then felling the horfe for a prodigious fum. What advantages mult accrue to them, if they have a mare of blood to breed from! But what a treasure have they if they are poffeffed of the ftallion in fashion! I can therefore fee no difference between this occupation of my lord and that of any Yorkshire dealer whatsoever: and if his lordship is not always fo fuccefsful in his trade as the jockey of the North, it is not becaufe he does not equally hold it fair to cheat his own brother in horfe-flesh. If a duke rides his own horfes on the courfe, he does not, in my judgment, differ from any other jockey on the turf; and I think it the fame thing, whether a man gets money by keeping a ftallion, or whether he gets it by keeping a bull or a boar for the parish. We know of many perfons of quality whofe paffion for trade has made them dealers in fighting-cocks; and I heard one declare to me lately, that there was no trufting to fervants in that business; that he fhould make nothing of it, if he did not look after the cocks himself; and that, for a month before he is to fight a match, he always takes care of and feeds them himfelf; and for that purpose (trange as it may feem) he lies in a little room clofe by them every night. I cannot but admire this industry, which can make my noble friend quit his lady's bed, while tradefmen of a lower rank neglect their business for the charms of a kept miftrefs. But it must be allowed, that these dealers in live fowl are to be confidered as poulterers, as well as those who fell the deer of their park are to be ranked among the butchers in Claremarket; though the latter endeavour artfully to avoid this, by felling their venifon to pastry-cooks and fishmongers. What fhall we fay of those who fend venifon, hares, pheasants, partridges, and all other game, to their poulterer and fifhmonger in London, to receive an equivalent in poultry and fifh in winter, when they are in town?-Though thefe fportf 2 men do not truck their commodities for money, they are nothing less than higlers and huektters, dealers and chapmen, in the proper fenfe of the words; for an exchange was never denied to be a fale, though it is affirmed to be no robbery. I come now to the confideration of those who deal in a much larger and more extenfive way, and are properly filed merchants, while thofe already mentioned are little more than traders in the retailing bufinefs: what immenfe fums are received by thofe electioneering merchants, whose fortunes and influence in many counties and boroughs enable them to procure a feat in parliament for any that will pay for it! How profitable has nurfing the estates of extravagant perfons of diftinction proved to many a right honourable friend! I do not mean from his fhewing himself a true fteward, but from the weight and intereft he has got by it at a general election. What Jew deals larger than many of our nobility in the flocks and in lottery tickets? And, perhaps one should not find more bulls and bears at Jonathan's than at Arthur's. If you cannot, at this laft place, infure your house from fire, or a flip from the danger of the feas, or the French, you may get largely underwrit on lives, and infure your own against that of your mother or grandmother for any fum whatsoever. There are thole who deal as greatly in this practice of putting one life against another as any under writer in the city of London: and, indeed, the end of infuring is lefs answered by the latter than the former; for the prudent citizen will not fet his name to any policy, where the perfon to be infured is not in perfect health; while the merchants at St. James's, who infure by means of bets inftead of policies, will pay you any fum whatsoever, if a man dies that is run through the body, fhot through the head, or has tumbled off his chair in an apoplexy, for as there are perfons who will lay on either fide, he who wants to infure need only choose that which answers his purpose. And as to the dealings of these merchants of fashion in annuities upon lives, we often hear that one fells his whole eftate, for his life, to another; and there is no other form of conveyance used between the buyer and feller, than by fhuffling a pack of cards, or throwing a pair of dice; but I cannot look upon this fort of traffic in any other light than that, when a condemned felon fells his own body to a furgeon to be anatomifed. After After all, there is no branch of trade that is ufually extended fo far, and has fuch a variety in it, as gaming; whether we confider it as carried on by cards, dice, horfe-racing, pitting, betting, &c. &c. &c. Thefe merchants deal in very various commodities, and do not feem to be very anxious in general about any difference in value, when they are striking a bargain: for, though fome expect ready money for ready money when they play, as they would blood for blood in a duel, many, very many, part with their ready money to those who deal upon truft, nay oftentimes to those who are known to be incapable of paying. Sometimes I have feen a gentle man bet his gold with a lady who has earrings, bracelets, and other diamonds to anfwer her flake: but I have much oftener feen a lady play against a roll of guineas, with nothing but her virtue to part with to preferve her honour if the loft. The markets, in which the multiplicity of bufinels of this kind is tranfacted, are very many, and are chiefly appropriated to that end and no other, fuch as routs, affemblies, Arthur's, Newmarket, and the courfes in every county. Where thefe merchants trade in ready money only, or in banknotes, I confider them as bankers of quality; where, in ready money against trust, and notes of hand of perfons that are but little able to pay, they must be broken merchants: and whoever plays with money against a lady's jewels, fhould, in my mind, hang out the Three Blue Balls in a private alley; and the lady who takes her virtue for gold, fhould take the house of a late venerable matron in the Piazza, to carry on her trade in that place. But it is with pleasure I fee our werchants of quality neglecting feveral branches of trade that have been carried on with fuccefs, and in which great fortunes have been raised in former times by some of their ancestors. What immenfe fums have, we know, been got by fome great inen in the fmuggling trade! And we have heard of large profits being made by the fale of commiffions in the army and navy; by procuring places and penfions; and vast fums received for quartering a lord's fifter, nephew, or natural fon on any one who holds a profitable pot under the government. Smuggling, furely, fhould be left to our good friends on the fhores of Kent and Suffex; and I think, he who fells commiffions in the navy or army, the free-gifts of the prince, fhould fuffer like a deferter, To display the least symptom of learning, or to feem to know more than your footman, is become an offence against the rules of politenefs, and is branded with the name of pedantry and ill-breeding. The very found of a Roman or a Grecian name, or a hard name, as the ladies calt it, though their own perhaps are harder by half, is enough to difconcert the temper of a dozen counteffes, and to ftrike a whole afembly of fine gentlemen dumb with amazement. This fqueamishnefs of theirs is owing to their averfion to pedantry, which they underftand to be a fort of muftiness that can only be contracted in a reclufe and a ftudious life, and a foible peculiar to men of letters. But if a ftrong attachment to a particular fubject, a total ignorance of every other, an eagerness to introduce that fubject upon all occafions, and a confirmed habit of declaiming upon it without either wit or difcretion, be the marks of a pedantic character, as they certainly are, is belongs to the illiterate as well as the learned; and St. James's itself may boat of producing as arrant pedants as were ever fent forth from a college. I know a woman of fashion who is perpetually employed in remarks upon the weather, who obferves from morning to noon that it is likely to rain, and from noon to night that it fpits, that it milles, that it is fet in for a wet evening; and, being incapable of any other discourse, is as infipid a companion, and just as pedantic, as he who quotes Ariftotle over his tea, or talks Greek at a card-table. A gentleman of my acquaintance is a conftant attendant upon parliamentary bu finess, and I have heard him entertain a large circle, by the hour, with the fpeeches that were made in a debate upon mum and perry. He has a wonderful memory, and a kind of oratorical tune in his elocution, that ferves him instead of an emphafis. By thofe means he has acquired the repu tation of having a deal to fay for himself; but as it confils entirely of what others have faid for them:felves before him, and if he should be deaf during the feffions, he would certainly be dumb in the intervals, I must needs fet him down for a pedant. But the most troublefome, as well as molt dangerous character of this fort that I am fo unhappy as to be connected with, is a tripling who spends his whole life in a fencing-fchool. This amiable young pedant is, indeed, a moft formidable creature; his whole converfation lies in Quart and Tierces if you meet him in the street, he falutes you in the gymnaftic manner, throws himfelf back upon his left hip, levels his cane at the pit of your ftomach, and looks as fierce as a prize-fighter. In the midst of a difcourfe upon politics, he ftarts from the table on a fudden, and splits himfelf into a monftrous lounge against the wainfcot; immediately he puts a foil into your hand, infits upon teaching you his murthering thruft, and if, in the courfe of his inftructions, he pushes out an eye or a fore-tooth, he tells you, that you flapp'd your point, or dropp'd your aurift, and im putes all the mifchief to the awkwardness of his pupil. The mufical pedant, who, inftead of attending to the difcourfe, diverts himfelfwith humming an air, or, if he speaks, expreffes himfelf in the language of the orchestra; the Newmarket pedant, who has no knowledge but what he gathers upon the turf: the female pedant, who is an adept in nothing but the patterns of filks and flounces; and the coffee-house pedant, whofe whole erudition lies within the margin of a newspaper, are nuilances fo extremely common, that it is almost unneceffary to mention them. Yet, pedants as they are, they fhelter themfelves under the fathionablenefs of their foible, and, with all the properties of the character, generally elcape the imputation of it. In my opinion, however, they deferve our cenfure more than the mereft book-worm imaginable. The man of letters is ufually confined to his study, and having but little pleasure in converfing with men of the world, does not often intrude himself into their company: thefe unlearned pedants, on the contrary, are to be met with every where; they have nothing to do but to run about and be troublefome, and are univerfally the bane of agreeable converfation. I am, Sir, &c. B. Thornton. Sir, $135. A Sunday in the Country. Aug. 8, 1761. As life is fo fhort, you will agree with me, that we cannot afford to lofe any of that precious time, every moment of which fhould be emplo, ed in fuch gratifications as are fuitable to our ftations and difpofi tions. For this reafon we cannot but lament, that the year fhould be curtailed of almoft a feventh part, and that, out of three hundred and fixty-five days, fifty-two of them fhould be allotted, with respect to many perfons, to dullness and infipidity. You will eafily conceive, that, by what I have faid, I allude to that enemy to all mirth and gaiety, Sanday, whofe impertinent intrufion puts a check on our amufements, and cafts a gloom over our cheerful thoughts. Perfons, indeed, of high fashion regard it no more than the other part of the week, and would no more be restrained from their pleafures on this day, than they would keep faft on a fast-day; but others, who have the fame taste and fpirit, though lefs fortunes, are constrained, in order to fave appearances, to debar themfelves of every amufement except that of going to church, which they can only enjoy in common with the vulgar. The vulgar, it is true, have the happy privilege of converting this holy-day into a day of extraordinary feftivity; and the mechanic is allowed to get drunk on this day, if on no other, because he has nothing else to do. It is true, that the citizen on this day gets loofe from his counter, to which he had been faftened all the rest of the week like a bad fhilling, and riots in the luxuries of Ilington or Mile-end. But what fhall be faid of thofe who have no bufinefs to follow but the bent of their inclinations? on whofe hands, indeed, all the days of their life would hang as heavy as Sundays, if they were not enlivened by the dear variety of amufements and diverfions. How can a woman of any fpirit pafs her time on this difmal day, when the play-houses, and Vauxhall, and Ranelagh are shut, and no places of public meeting are open, but the churches? I talk not of thofe in higher life, who are fo much above the world, that they are out of the reach of its cenfures; I mean thofe who are confined in a narrower sphere, fo as to be obliged to pay fome regard to reputation. But if people in town have reafon to complain of this weekly bar put upon their pleafures, how unhappy must they be who are immured in the old manfion-houfe in the country, and cloillered |