that were hanged, and was seen to dig holes in | the ground, to mutter some conjuring words, and bury pieces of the flesh after the usual manner of witches. The third was accused for a notorious piece of sorcery, long practised by hags, of moulding up pieces of dough into the shapes of men, women, and children; then heating them at a gentle fire, which had a sympathetic power to torment the bowels of those in the neighbourhood. This was the sum of what was objected against the three ladies, who indeed had nothing to say in their own defence but downright deny the facts, which is like to avail very little when they come upon their trials. port; and admiral Byng was suddenly expected. Their squadrons being joined, they designed to sail directly for Final, to transport the reinforcements lodged in those parts to Barcelona. They write from Milan, that count Thaun arrived there on the sixteenth instant, N. S. and proceeded on his journey to Turin on the twen ty-first, in order to concert such measures with his royal highness, as shall appear necessary for the operations of the ensuing campaign. Tourneau, and the valley of Queiras. That general has also been at Marseilles and Toulon, to hasten the transportation of the corn and provisions designed for his army. Advices from Dauphiné say, that the troops of the duke of Savoy begin already to appear in those valleys, whereof he made himself master the last year; and that the duke of Berwick applied himself with all imaginable diligence to secure the passes of the mountains, by ordering But the parson of our parish, a strange re-intrenchments to be made towards Briançon, fractory man, will believe nothing of all this: so that the whole town cries out Shame, that one of his coat should be such an atheist!' and design to complain of him to the bishop. He goes about very oddly to solve the matter. He supposes, that the first of these ladies keeping a brandy and tobacco shop, the fellows went out smoking; and got drunk towards evening, and made themselves beasts. He says, the second is a butcher's daughter, and sometimes brings a quarter of mutton from the slaughter-house over-night against a market-day, and once buried a bit of beef in the ground, as a known receipt to cure warts on her hands. The parson affirms, that the third sells gingerbread, which, to please the children, she is forced to stamp with images before it is baked; and if it burns their guts, it is because they eat too much, or do not drink after it. Letters from Vienna bearing date May the twenty-third, N. S. import, that the cardinal of Saxe Zeits and the prince of Lichtenstein were preparing to set out for Presburg, to assist at the diet of the States of Hungary, which is to be assembled at that place on the twenty-fifth of this month. General Heister will shortly appear at the head of his army at Trenchin, which place is appointed for the general rendezvous of the imperial forces in Hungary; from whence he will advance to lay seige to Newhausel. In the mean time reinforcements, with a great train of artillery, are marching the same way. The king of Denmark arrived on the tenth instant at Inspruck, and on the twenty-fifth at Dresden, under a triple discharge of the artil lery of that place; but his majesty refused the ceremonies of a public entry. These are the answers he gives to solve those wonderful phenomena; upon which I shall not animadvert, but leave it among philosophers: and so, wishing you all success in Our letters from the Upper Rhine say, that your undertakings for the amendment of the the imperial army began to form itself at Etlinworld, I remain, dear cousin, your most affec-gen; where the respective deputies of the clectionate kinsman, and humble servant, EPHRAIM BEDSTAFF.' 'P. S. Those who were condemned to death among the Athenians were obliged to take a dose of poison, which made them die upwards; seizing first upon their feet, making them cold and insensible, and so ascending gradually, until it reached the vital parts. I believe your death, which you foretold would happen on the seventeenth instant will fall out the same way, and that your distemper hath already seized on you, and makes progress daily. The lower part of you, that is, the advertisements, is dead; and these have risen for these ten days last past, so that they now take up almost a whole paragraph. Pray, sir, do you endeavour to drive this distemper as much as possible to the extreme parts, and keep it there, as wise folks do the gout for if it once gets into your stomach it will soon fly up into your head, and you are : a dead man.' St. James's Coffee-house, May 27. We hear from Leghorn, that sir Edward Whitaker, with five men-of-war, four transports, and two fire ships, were arrived at that tor Palatine, the prince of Baden Durlach, the bishoprick of Spires, &c. were assembled, and had taken the necessary measures for the provision of forage, the security of the country against the incursions of the enemy, and laying a bridge over the Rhine. Several vessels laden with corn are daily passing before Frankfort for the Lower Rhine. Letters from Poland inform us, that a detachment of Muscovite cavalry, under the command of general Instand, had joined the confederate army; and the infantry, commanded by general Goltz, was expected to come up within few days. These succours will amount to twenty thousand men. Our last advices from the Hague, dated June the fourth, N. S. say, that they expected a courier from the French court, with a ratification of the preliminaries, that night or the day following. His grace the duke of Marlborough will set out for Brussels on Wednesday or Thursday next, if the despatches which are expected from Paris do not alter his resolutions. Letters from Majorca confirm the honourable capitulation of the castle of Alicant, and also the death of the governor, major-general Richards, colonel Sibourg, and major Vignolles, who were all buried in the ruins of that place by the springing of the great mine, which did, it seems, more execution than was reported. Monsieur Torcy passed through Mons in his return, and had there a long conference with the elector of Bavaria; after which, the prince spoke publicly of the treatment he had received from France, with the utmost indignation. Any person that shall come publicly abroad in a fantastical habit, contrary to the present mode and fashion, except Don Diego Dismallo,* or any other out of poverty, shall have his name and dress inserted in our next.' N. B. Mr. How'd'yecall is desired to leave off those buttons.' I CAME hither this evening to see fashions; and who should I first encounter but my old friend Cynthio (encompassed by a crowd of young fellows) dictating on the passion of love with the gayest air imaginable! Well,' says he, as to what I know of the matter, there is nothing but ogling with skill carries a woman; but indeed it is not every fool that is capable of this art; you will find twenty can speak eloquently, fifty that can fight manfully, and a thousand that can dress genteelly at a mistress, where there is one that can gaze skilfully. This requires an exquisite judgment, to take the language of her eyes to yours exactly, and not let yours talk too fast for hers; as at a play between the acts, when beau Frisk stands upon a bench full in Lindamira's face, and her dear cycs are searching round to avoid that flaring open fool; she meets the watchful glance of her true love, and sees his heart attentive on her charms, and selves in good humour with yourselves out of about him, without any purpose in his talk, but I grew mighty curious to know something more of that lady's affairs, as being amazed how she could dally with an offer of one of his merit and fortune. I sent Pacolet to her lodgings, who immediately brought me back the following letter to her friend and confidant, Amanda, in the coun try, wherein she has opened her heart and all its folds. DEAR AMANDA,-The town grows so empty, that you must expect my letter so too, except waiting for a second twinkle of her eye for its you will allow me to talk of myself instead of others you cannot imagine what pain it is, next motion.' Here the good company sneered; after a whole day spent in public, to want your but he goes on. 'Nor is this attendance a slavery, company, and the ease which friendship allows when a man meets with encouragement, and her in being vain to each other, and speaking all eye comes often in his way: for after an evenour minds. An account of the slaughter which ing so spent, and the repetition of four or five these unhappy eyes have made within ten days significant looks at him, the happy man goes last past, would make me appear too great a home to his lodging full of ten thousand pleas- tyrant to be allowed in a christian country. I ing images; his brain is dilated, and gives him shall therefore confine myself to my principal all the ideas and prospects which it ever lets conquests, which are the hearts of beau Frisk into its seat of pleasure. Thus a kind look from and Jack Freeland, besides Cynthio, who you Lindamira revives in his imagination all the know, wore my fetters before you went out of beauteous lawns, green fields, woods, forests, town. Shall I tell you my weakness? I begin rivers, and solitudes, which he had ever before to love Frisk: it is the best-humoured impertiseen in picture, description, or real life: and all nent thing in the world: he is always too in with this addition, that he now sees them with waiting, and will certainly carry me off one the eyes of a happy lover, as before only with time or other. Freeland's father and mine have those of a common man. You laugh, gentle- been upon treaty without consulting me; and men, but consider yourselves (you common peo- Cynthio has been eternally watching my eyes, ple that were never in love) and compare your-without approaching me, my friends, my maid, *This is well known to have been a nick-name given, in the rage of party, to a very respectable nobleman, the earl of Nottingham, who is mentioned under that name in the History of John Bull, in the Examiner,' and in Swift's works, vol. xix. p. 168. and vol. xx. p. 22. and Examiner,' vol. iii. No. 44. or any one about me: he hopes to get me, I be. lieve, as they say the rattle-snake does the squirrel, by staring at me until I drop into his mouth. Freeland demands me for a jointure, which he thinks deserves me: Cynthio thinks nothing high enough to be my value: Freeland therefore will take it for no obligation to have me; and Cynthio's idea of me is what will vanish by knowing me better. Familiarity will equally turn the veneration of the one, and the indifference of the other, into contempt. I will stick therefore to my old maxim, to have that sort of man, who can have no greater views than what are in my power to give him possession of. The utmost of my dear Frisk's ambition is, to be thought a man of fashion; and therefore has been so much in mode, as to resolve upon me, because the whole town likes me. Thus I choose rather a man who loves me because others do, than one who approves me on his own judgment. He that judges for himself in love will often change his opinion; but he that follows the sense of others must be constant, as long as a woman can make advances. The visits I make, the entertainments I give, and the addresses I receive, will be all arguments for me with a man of Frisk's second-hand genius; but would be so many bars to my happiness with any other man. However, since Frisk can wait, I shall enjoy a summer or two longer, and remain a single woman, in the sublime pleasure of being followed and admired; which nothing can equal, except that of being beloved by you.-I am, &c.' Will's Coffee-house, May 30. My chief business here this evening was to speak to my friends in behalf of honest Cave Underhill, who has been a comic for three generations: my father admired him extremely when he was a boy. There is certainly nature excellently represented in his manner of action: in which he ever avoided that general fault in players, of doing too much. It must be confessed, he has not the merit of some ingenious persons now on the stage, of adding to his authors; for the actors were so dull in the last age, that many of them have gone out of the world, without having ever spoke one word of their own in the theatre. Poor Cave is so mortified, that he quibbles and tells you, he pretends only to act a part fit for a man who has one foot in the grave, viz. a grave-digger. All admirers of true comedy, it is hoped, will have the gratitude to be present on the last day of his acting, who, if he does not happen to please them, will have it even then to say, that it is his first offence. But there is a gentleman here, who says he has it from good hands, that there is actually a subscription made by many persons of wit and quality for the encouragement of new comedies. This design will very much contribute to the improvement and diversion of the town: but as every man is most concerned for himself, I, who am of a saturnine and melancholy complexion, cannot but murmur, that there is not an equal invitation to write tragedies; having by me, in my book of common places, enough to enable me to finish a very sad one by the fifth of the next month. I have the farewell of a general, with a truncheon in his hand, dying for love, in six lines. I have the principles of a politician, (who does all the mischief in the play,) together with his declaration on the vanity of ambition in his last moments, expressed in a page and a half. I have all my oaths ready, and my similies want nothing but application. I will not pretend to give you an account of the plot, it being the same design upon which all tragedies have been writ for several years last past; and from the beginning of the first scene, the frequenters of the house may know as well as the author, when the battle is to be fought, the lady to yield, and the hero proceed to his wedding and coronation. Besides these advantages which I have in readiness, I have an eminent tragedian very much my friend, who shall come in and go through the whole five acts, without troubling me for one sentence, whether he is to kill or be killed, love or be loved, win battles or lose them, or whatever other tragical performance I shall please to assign him. From my own Apartment, May 30. I have this day received a letter, subscribed Fidelia, that gives me an account of an enchantment under which a young lady suffers, and desires my help to exorcise her from the power of the sorcerer. Her lover is a rake of sixty; the lady a virtuous woman of twenty-five: her relations are to the last degree afflicted and amazed at this irregular passion: their sorrow I know not how to remove, but can their astonishment; for there is no spirit in woman half so prevalent as that of contradiction, which is the sole cause of her perseverance. Let the whole family go, dressed, in a body, and call the bride to-morrow morning to her nuptials, and I will undertake the inconstant will forget her lover in the midst of all his aches. But if this expedient does not succeed, I must be so just to the young lady's distinguishing sense, as to applaud her choice. A fine young woman, at last, is but what is due from fate to an honest fellow, who has suffered so unmercifully by the sex; and I think we cannot enough celebrate her heroic virtue, who (like the patriot that ended a pestilence by plunging himself into a gulph) gives herself up to gorge that dragon which has devoured so many virgins before her. *Colley Cibber says, 'Underhill was a correct and natural comedian; his particular excellence was in characters that may be called still-life, I mean the stiff, the heavy, and the stupid; to these he gave the exactest and Bost expressive colours, and in some of them looked as if it were not in the power of human passions to alter a feature of him. A countenance of wood could not be more fixed than his, when the blockhead of a character required it: his face was full and long; from his crown to the end of his nose, was the shorter half of it, so that the disproportion of his lower features, when soberly A letter directed To Isaac Bickerstaff, composed, threw him into the most lumpish, moping esquire, Astrologer, and Physician in Ordinary mortal, that ever made beholders merry! not but, at other times, he could be awakened into spirit equally to her majesty's subjects of Groat-Britain, with respect,' is come to band. ridiculous.' H THE generality of mankind are so very fond of this world, and of staying in it, that a man cannot have eminent skill in any one art, but they will, in spite of his teeth, make him a physician also, that being the science the worldlings have most need of. I pretended, when I first set up, to astrology only; but, I am told, I have deep skill also in medicine. I am applied to now by a gentlemen for my advice in behalf of his wife, who, upon the least matrimonial difficulty, is excessively troubled with fits, and can bear no manner of passion without falling into immediate convulsions. I must confess it is a case I have known before, and remember the party was recovered by certain words pronounced in the midst of the fit, by the learned doctor who performed the cure. These ails have usually their beginning from the affections of the mind: therefore you must have patience to let me give you an instance, whereby you may discern the cause of the distemper, and then proceed in the cure as follows: A fine town lady was married to a gentleman of ancient descent in one of the counties of Great-Britain, who had good-humour to a weakness, and was that sort of person, of whom it is usually said, he is no man's enemy but his own: one who had too much tenderness of soul to have any authority with his wife; and she too little sense to give him any authority, for that reason. His kind wife observed this temper in him, and made proper use of it. But, knowing it was below a gentlewoman to wrangle, she resolved upon an expedient to save decorum, and wear her dear to her point at the same time. She therefore took upon her to govern him, by falling into fits whenever she was repulsed in a request, or contradicted in a discourse. It was a fish-day, when, in the midst of her husband's good-humour at table, she bethought herself to try her project. She made signs that she had swallowed a bone. The man grew pale as ashes, and ran to her assistance, calling for drink. No, my dear,' said she, recovering, it is down; do not be frightened.' This accident betrayed his softness enough. The next day she complained, a lady's chariot, whose husband had not half his estate, had a crane. neck, and hung with twice the air that hers did. He answered, Madam, you know my income; you know I have lost two coach-horses this spring -down she fell. Hartshorn! Betty, Susan, Alice, throw water in her face. With much care and pains, she was at last brought to herself, and the vehicle in which she visited was amended in the nicest manner, to prevent relapses; but they frequently happened during that husband's whole life, which he had the good fortune to end in few years after. The disconsolate soon pitched upon a very agreeable successor, whom she very prudently designed to govern by the same method. This man knew her little arts, and resolved to break through all tenderness, and be absolute master as soon as occasion offered. One day it happened, that a discourse arose about furniture, he was very glad of the occasion, and fell into an invective against china, protesting, he would never let five pounds more of his money be laid out that way as long as he breathed. She immediately fainted. He starts up as amazed, and calls for help.-The maids run to the closet.-He chafes her face, bends her forward, and beats the palins of her hands: her convul. sions increase, and down she tumbles on the floor, where she lies quite dead, in spite of what the whole family, from the nursery to the kitchen, could do for her relief. While every servant was thus helping or lamenting their mistress, he, fixing his check to hers, seemed to be following in a trance of sorrow; but secretly whispers her, My dear, this will never do: what is within my power and fortune, you may always command; but none of your artifices: you are quite in other hands than those you passed these pretty passions upon.' This made her almost in the condition she pretended; her convulsions now came thicker, nor was she to be held down. The kind man doubles his care, helps the servants to throw water in her face by full quarts; and when the sinking part of the fit came again, Well, my dear,' said he, I applaud your action; but I must take my leave of you until you are more sincere with me; farewell for ever: you shall always know where to hear of me, and want for nothing.' With that he ordered the maids to keep plying her with hartshorn, while he went for a physician: he was scarce at the stair-head when she followed, and, pulling him into a closet, thanked him for her cure; which was so absolute, that she gave me this relation herself, to be communi. cated for the benefit of all the voluntary invalids of her sex. St. James's Coffee-house, June 1. Advices from Brussels of the sixth instant, N. S. say, his highness prince Eugene had received a letter from monsieur Torcy, wherein that minister, after many expressions of great respect, acquaints him, that his master had absolutely refused to sign the preliminaries to the treaty which he had, in his majesty's behalf, consented to at the Hague. Upon the receipt of this intelligence, the face of things at that place was immediately altered, and the necessary orders were transmitted to the troops (which lay most remote from thence) to move toward the place of rendezvous with all expedition. The enemy scems also to prepare for the field, and have at present drawn together twenty-five thousand men in the plains of Lentz. Marshal Villars is at the head of those troops; and has given the generals under his command all possible assurances, that he will * About this time a fashion of collecting useless pieces for some years at great expense, and to astonishing of china began to be very prevalent. It was indulged degrees. turn the fate of the war to the advantage of his master. They write from the Hague of the seventh, that monsieur Rouille had received orders from the court of France, to signify to the statesgeneral, and the ministers of the high allies, that the king could not consent to the preliminaries of a treaty of peace, as it was offered to him by monsieur Torcy. The great difficulty is the business of Spain, on which particular his ministers seemed only to say, during the treaty, that it was not so immediately under their master's direction, as that he could engage for its being relinquished by the duke of Anjou: but now he positively answers, that he cannot comply with what his minister has promised in his behalf, even in such points as are wholly in himself to act in, or not. This has had no other effect than to give the alliance fresh arguments for being diffident of engagements entered into by France. The pensioner made a report of all which this minister had declared to the deputies of the states-general, and all things turn towards a vigorous war. The duke of Marlborough designed to leave the Hague within two days, in order to put himself at the head of the army, which is to assemble on the seventeenth instant between the Scheld and the Lis. A fleet of eighty sail, laden with corn from the Baltic, is arrived in the Texel. The states have sent circular letters to all the provinces, to notify this change of affairs, and animate their subjects to new resolutions in defence of their country. From my own Apartment, May 31. The public is not so little my concern, though I am but a student, as that I should not interest myself in the present great things in agitation. I am still of opinion the French king will sign the preliminaries. With that view, I have sent him, by my familiar, the following epistle, and admonished him, on pain of what I shall say of him to future generations, to act with sincerity on this occasion. London, May 31. to be insensible that true fame lies only in the hands of learned men, by whom it is to be transmitted to futurity, with marks of honour or reproach to the end of time. The date of human life is too short to recompense the cares which attend the most private condition. Therefore it is that our souls are made, as it were, too big for it; and extend themselves in the prospect of a longer existence, in a good fame, and memory of worthy actions, after our decease. The whole race of men have this passion in some degree implanted in their bosoms, which is the strongest and noblest incitation to honest attempts: but the base use of the arts of peace, eloquence, poetry, and all the parts of learning, have been possessed by souls so unworthy of those faculties, that the names and appellations of things have been confounded by the labours and writ ings of prostituted men, who have stamped a reputation upon such actions as are in themselves the objects of contempt and disgrace. This is that which has misled your majesty in the conduct of your reign, and made that life, which might have been the most inimitable, the most to be avoided. To this it is, that the great and excellent qualities, of which your majesty is master, are lost in their application: and your majesty has been carrying on for many years the most cruel tyranny, with all the noble methods which are used to support a just reign. Thus it is, that it avails nothing that you are a bountiful master; that you are so generous as to reward even the unsuccessful with honour and riches; that no laudable action passes unrewarded in your kingdom; that you have searched all nations for obscure merit: in a word, that you are in your private character endowed with every princely quality; when all that is subjected to unjust and ill-taught ambition, which, to the injury of the world, is gilded by those endowments. However, if your majesty will condescend to look into your own soul, and consider all its faculties and weaknesses with impartiality; if you will but be convinced, that life is supported in you by the ordinary methods of food, rest, and sleep; you will think it impossible that you could ever be so much imposed on, as to have been wrought into a belief, that so many thousands of the same make with ISAAC BICKERSTAFF, ESQUIRE, OF GREAT BRI- yourself were formed by Providence for no TAIN, TO LEWIS XIV. OF FRANCE. The surprising news which arrived this day, of your majesty's having refused to sign the treaty your ministers have in a manner sued for, is what gives ground to this application to your majesty, from one, whose name perhaps, is too obscure to have ever reached your territories; but one, who, with all the European world, is affected with your determinations. Therefore, as it is mine and the common cause of mankind, I presume to expostulate with you on this occasion. It will, I doubt not, appear to the vulgar extravagant, that the actions of a mighty prince should be balanced by the censure of a private man, whose approbation or dislike are equally contemptible in their eyes, when they regard the thrones of sovereigns. But your majesty has shown, through the whole course of your reign, too great a value for liberal arts, other end, but by the hazard of their very be. ing to extend the conquests and glory of an individual of their own species. A very little reflection will convince your majesty, that such cannot be the intent of the Creator; and, if not, what horror must it give your majesty to think of the vast devastations your ambition has made among your fellow-creatures! While the warmth of youth, the flattery of crowds, and a continual series of success and triumph, indulged your majesty in this illusion of mind, it was less to be wondered at, that you proceeded in this mistaken pursuit of grandeur; but when age, disappointments, public calamities, personal distempers, and the reverse of all that makes men forget their true being, are fallen upon you; heavens is it possible you can live with out remorse? can the wretched man be a tyrant? can grief study torments? can sorrow be cruel? |