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1775.

Genuine Letters from the late Rev. Mr. L. Sterne to his Wife, before their Marriage. Now firft published by his Daughter, Mrs. Medalle.

YE

LETTER I.
To Mifs L

ES! I will teal from the world,
and not a babbling tongue shall tell
where I am-Echo fhall not fo much as
whifper my hiding place-suffer thy ima-
gination to paint it as a little fun-gilt cot-
tage on the fide of a romantic hill-doft
thou think I will leave love and friendship
behind me? No! they shall be my compa-
nions in folitude, for they will fit down,
and rife up with me in the amiable form of
my
LWe will be as merry,and as in-
nocent as our first parents in Paradife, be-
fore that arch fiend entered that undefcri-
bable scene.

The kindest affections will have room to fhoot and expand in our retirement, and produce fuch fruit, as madness, and envy, and ambition have always killed in the bud.-Let the human tempelt and hurricane rage at a diftance, the defolation is beyond the horizon of peace.My L. has feen a Polyanthus blow in December-fome friendly wall has sheltered it from the biting wind.-No planetary influence shall reach us, but that which prefides and cherishes the fweeteft flowers.-God preferve us, how delightful this profpect in idea! We will build, and we will plant, in our own way-fimplicity fhall not be tortured by art-we will learn of Nature how to live-fhe thall be our alchymift, to mingle all the good of life into one falubrious draught.-The gloomy family of care and diftruft shall be banished from our dwelling, guarded by the kind and tutelar Deity-we will fing our choral fongs of gratitude, and rejoice to the end of our pilgrimage. Adieu, my L. Return to one that languishes for thy fociety.

LETTER

L. Sterne.
II.

To the fame. YOU bid me tell you, my dear L.how I bore your departure for Ś, and whether the valley where D'Eftella ftands retains ftill its looks-or, if I think the rofes or jeffamines fmell as fweet, as when you left it-Alas! every thing has now loft its relish and look! The hour you left D'Eftella I took to my bed-I was worn out with fevers of all kinds, but molt by the fever of the heart, with which thou knoweft well I have been wafting thefe two years and fhall continue waiting till you quit S. The good Mils

S, from the forebodings of the best
of hearts, thinking I was ill, infifted upon
my going to her.-What can be the
caufe, my dear L. that I never have
been able to fee the face of this mutual
friend, but I feel myself rent to pieces?
She made me ftay an hour with her, and
in that fhort fpace I burit into tears a
dozen different times-and in fuch affec
tionate gufts of paffion that he was con-
ftrained to leave the room, and sympathize
in her dreffing-room-I have been weep-
ing for you both, faid the, in a tone of
the fweetest pity--for poor L's heart I have
long known it-her anguish is as sharp as
yours-her heart as tender--her conftancy
as great-her virtues as heroic-Heaven
brought you not together to be tormented.
I could only anfwer her with a kind look
and a heavy figh-and returned home to
your lodgings (which I have hired till
your return) to refign myfelf to mifery-
Fanny had prepared me a fupper-she is
all attention to me-but I fat over it with
tears; a bitter fauce, my L. but I could
eat it with no other-for, the moment the
began to spread my little table, my heart
fainted within me.-One folitary plate,
one knife, one fork, one glass !—I gave a
thousand penfive, penetrating looks at the
chair thou hadft fo often graced, in those
quiet and sentimental repasts-then laid
down my knife and fork, and took out
my handkerchief,and clapped it across my
face, and wept like a child.-I do fo this
very moment, my L. for, as I take up my
pen, my poor pulfe quickens, my pale face
glows, and tears are trickling down upon
the paper, as I trace the word L-
O thou! bleffed in thyfelf, and in thy
virtues-blessed to all that know thee-to
me moft fo, because more do I know of
thee than all thy fex.-This is the philtre,
my L. by which thou haft charmed me,
and by which thou wilt hold me thine,
whilft virtue and faith hold this world to-
gether. This, my friend, is the plain and
fimple magic by which I told Mifs

I have won a place in that heart of thine,
on which I depend fo fatisfied, that time,
or distance, or change of every thing which
might alarm the heart of little men, create
no uneafy fufpence in mine-Waft thou
to ftay in S thefe feven years, thy
friend, though he would grieve, fcorns to
doubt, or to be doubted-it is the only
exception where fecurity is not the parent
of danger-I told you poor Fanny was
fince your departure--
all attention to me
contrives every day bringing in the name
of L. She told me last night (upon giving
me fome hartshorn) she had obferved my
illness began the very day of your depar-
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ture for S; that I had never held up my head, had feldom, or fcar e ever failed, had fled from all fociety-that the verily believed I was broken-hearted, for the had never entered the room, or paffed by the door, but he heard me figh heavilythat I neither eat, or flept, or took pleafure in any thing as before;-judge then, my L. can the valley look fo well-or the rofes and jeffamines fmell fo fweet as heretofore?-Ah me! but adieu-the vefper bell calls me from thee to my God! L. Sterne.

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To the fame. BEFORE now my L. has lodged an indictment againt me in the high Court of friendship--I plead guilty to the charge, and intirely fubmit to the mercy of that amiable tribunal.-Let this mitigate my punishment, if it will not expiate my tranfgreffion-do not fay that I fhall offend again in the fame manner, though a too eafy pardon fometimes occafions a repetition of the fame fault.-A mifer fays, though I do no good with my money today, to-morrow fhall be marked with fome deed of beneficence.-The libertine fays, let me enjoy this week in forbidden and luxurious pleasures, and the next I will dedicate to ferious thought and reflections.-The gamefter fays, let me have one more chance with the dice, and I will never touch them more.-The knave of every profeffion wishes to obtain but independency, and he will become an honeft man. The female coquette triumphs in tormenting her inamorato, for fear, after marriage, he fhould not pity her.

Thy apparition of the fifth inftant, (for letters may almoft be called fo) proved more welcome, as I did not expect it. Oh! my L, thou art kind indeed to make an apology for me, and thou never wilt affuredly repent of one act of kindnessfor, being the debtor, I will pay thee with intereft-Why does my L. complain of the desertion of friends?-- Where does the human being live that will not join in this complaint? It is a common obfervation, and perhaps too true, that married people feldom extend their regards beyond their own fire-fide.-There is fuch a thing as parfimony in esteem, as well as money-yet, as the one cofts nothing, it might be bestowed with more liberality.-We cannot gather grapes from thorns, fo we muft not expect kind attachments from perfons who are wholly folded up in felfifh fchemes.-I do not know whether I moft defpife or pity fuch characters-Nature never made an unkind creature-ill ufage, and bad habits, have deformed a fair and lovely creation.

My L thou art furrounded by all the melancholy gloom of winter; wert thou alone, the retirement would be agreeable.-Disappointed ambition might envy fuch a retreat,and difappointed love would feck it out.-Crowded towns, and bufy focieties, may delight the unthinking and the gay-but folitude is the beft nuife of wifdom.-Methinks I fee my contemplative girl now in the garden, watching the gradual approaches of fpring.-Do'st thou not mark with delight the firft vernal buds? The fnow-drop, and primrose, those early and welcome vifitors, fpring beneath thy feet.-Flora and Pomona already confider thee as their handmaid, and in a little time will load thee with their sweetest bleffing.-The feathered race are all thy own, and, with them, untaught harmony will foon begin to chear thy morning and evening walks.--Sweet this may be, return-return-the bird f Yorkshire will tune their pipes, and .., as melodiously as thofe of Staffordshir

Adieu, my beloved. thine too much for my peace.

LETTER To the fame.

L. Sterne. IV.

I HAVE offended her whom I fo tenderly love!--what could tempt me to it? but, if a beggar was to knock at thy gate, wouldst thou not open the door and be melted with compaffion? I know thou wouldft, for pity has erected a temple in thy bofom.-Sweetest and best of all human paffions! let thy web of tenderness cover the penfive form of affliction, and soften the darkest fhades of mifery! I have reconfidered this apology, and, alas! what will it accomplish? Arguments, however finely fpun, can never change the nature of things-very true-fo a truce with them.

I have loft a very valuable friend by a fad accident, and, what is worse, he has left a widow and five young children to lament this fudden stroke.-Ïf real usefulnefs and integrity of heart could have fecured him from this, his friends would not now be mourning his untimely fate.Thofe dark, and seemingly cruel difpenfations of Providence, often make the best of human hearts complain.-Who can paint the diftrefs of an affectionate mother,made a widow in a moment, weeping in bitternefs over a numerous, helpless, and fatherlefs offspring 1-God! these are thy chaftifements, and require (hard task!) a pious acquiefcence.

Forgive me this digreffion, and allow me to drop a tear over a departed friend; and what is more excellent, an honeft man. My LI thou wilt feel all that kindnefs can

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made the exercise of it no longer poffible. He has reduced himfelf from a voter to one of the innumerable multitude who have no votes.

6. But you fay, As the Colonies are not represented in the British Parliament, they are intitled to a free power of Legiflation: For they inherit all the rights which their ancestors had of enjoying all the privileges of Englishmen.'

They do inherit all the privileges which their ancestors had: But they can inherit no more. Their ancestors left a country where the Representatives of the people were elected by men particularly qualified, and where those who wanted that qualification were bound by the decisions of men whom they had not deputed. You are the defcendents of men who either had no votes, or refigned them by emigration.-You have therefore exactly what your ancestors left you: Not a vote in making laws, nor in chufing Legiflators, but the happiness of being protected by laws, and the duty of obeying them.

What your ancestors did not bring with them neither they nor their defcendants have acquired. They have not, by abandoning their right in one Legislature, acquired a right to conftitute another: Any more than the multitudes in England who have no vote have a right to erect a Parliament for themselves.

7. However the Colonies have a right to all the privileges granted them by royal Charters, or fecured to them by Provincial laws.'

The first claufe is allowed: They have certainly a right to all the privileges granted them by royal Charters. But, as to the fecond, there is a doubt; Provincial laws may grant privileges to individuals of the Province. But furely no province can confer Provincial privileges on itfelf! They have a right to all which the king has given them, but not to all which they have given themselves.

A corporation can no more affume to itself privileges which it had not before, than a man can, by his own act and deed, affume titles or dignities. The Legiflature of a colony may be compared to the veitry of a large parish: which may lay a cefs on its inhabitants, but ftill regulated by the laws: And which (whatever be its internal expences) is ftill liable to taxes laid by fuperior authority.

The Charter of Pennsylvania has a clause admitting, in exprefs terms, taxation by Parliament. If fuch a claufe be not inferted in other Charters, it must be omitted as not neceffary, because it is November, 1775.

manifeftly implied in the very nature of fubordinate Government. All countries, which are fubject to laws, being liable

to taxes.

It is true, the first fettlers in Massachu fett's-Bay were promised an exemption from taxes for feven years.' But does not this very exemption imply, that they were to pay them afterwards?

If there is in the Charter of any Colony a claufe exempting them from taxes for ever, then undoubtedly they have a right to be fo exempted. But, if there is no fuch claufe, then the English parliament has the fame right to tax them as to tax any other English fubjects.

8. All that impartially confider what has been observed must readily allow, that the English Parliament has an undoubted right to tax all the English Colonies.

But whence then is all this hurry and tumult? Why is America all in an uproar? If you can yet give yourselves time to think, you will fee the plain cafe is this:

A few years ago, you were affaulted by enemies, whom you were not well able to refift. You reprefented this to your Mother country, and defired her affiftance. You was largely affifted, and by that means wholly delivered from all your enemies.

After a time, your Mother-country, defiring to be reimbursed for fome part of the large expence the had been at, laid a fmall tax (which fhe had always a right to do) on one of her Colonies.

But how is it poflible, that the taking this reafonable and legal step should have fet all America in a Hame?

I will tell you my opinion freely; and perhaps you will not think it improbable. I fpeak the more freely, because I am unbiassed: I have nothing to hope or fear from either fide. I gain nothing either by the Government or by the Americans, and probably never fhall. And I have no prejudice to any man in America: I love you as my brethren and countrymen.

9. My opinion is this: We have a few men in England, who are determined enemies to Monarchy. Whether they hate his prefent Majelly on any other ground, than because he is a King, I know not. But they cordially hate his office, and have for fome years been undermining it with all diligence, in hopes of erecting their grand idol, their dear Commonwealth, upon its ruins. I believe they have let very few into their defign: (Although many forward it, without knowing any thing of the matter) but they are fteadily purfuing it, as by various other means, fo in particular by inflammatory papers, which are induftriously and conti

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nually difperfed, throughout the town and country: By this method they have already wrought thousands of the people, even to the pitch of madnefs. By the fame, only varied according to your circumliances, they have likewife inflamed .America. I make no doubt but thefe very men are the original cause of the prefent breach between England and her Colonies. And they are still pouring oil into the flame, ftudioufly incenfing each against the other, and opposing, under a variety of pretences, all measures of accommodation. So that, although the Americans in general love the English, and the English in general love the Americans (all I mean that are not cheated and exafperated by these artful men) yet the rupture is growing wider every day, and none can tell where it will end,

Thefe good men hope it will end in the total defection of North America from England. If this were effected, they truft the English in general would be fo irreconcileably difgufted, that they fhould be able, with or without foreign affiftance, intirely to overturn the Government : Efpecially while the main of both the English and Irish forces are at fo convenient a diftance.

10. But, my brethren, would this be any advantage to you? Can you hope for a more defirable form of Government, either in England or America, than that which you now enjoy? After all the vehement cry for liberty, what more liberty can you have? What more religious berty can you defire, than that which you enjoy already? May not every one among you worship God according to his own confcience? What civil liberty can you defire, which you are not already poffeffed of? Do not you fit, without restraint, every man under his own vine? Do you not, every one, high or low, enjoy the fruit of your labour: "This is real, rational liberty, fuch as is enjoy ed by Englishmen alone, and not by any other people in the habitable world. Would the being independent of England make you more free? Far, very far from it. It would hardly be poffible for you to fteer clear between Anarchy and Tyranny. But fuppofe, after numberlefs dangers and mifchiefs, you fhould fettle into one or more Republics: Would a Republican Government give you more liberty, either religious or civil? By no means. No governments under heaven are fo defpotic as the Republican: No fubjects are governed in fo 'arbitrary a manner as thofe of a Commonwealth. If any one doubt of this, let him look at

the fubjects of Venice, of Genoa, or even of Holland. Should any man talk or write of the Dutch Government as every cobler does of the English, he would be laid in irons, before he knew where he was. And then woe be to him? Republics fhew no mercy.

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11. But, if we fubmit to one tax, more will follow.' Perhaps fo, and perhaps not. But if they did; if you were taxed (which is quite improbable) equal with Ireland or Scotland, ftill, were you to prevent this by renouncing connection with England, the remedy would be worfe than the difeafe. For O! what convulfions must poor America feel, before any other government was fettled? Innumerable mischiefs must ensue, before any general form could be established. And the grand mifchief would enfue, when it was eftablifhed; when you had received a yoke which you could not shake off.

12. Brethren, open your eyes! Come to yourfelves! Be no longer the dupes of defigning men. I do not mean any of your countrymen in America: I doubt whether any of these are in the secret, The defigning men, the Ahithophels, are in England; thofe who have laid their scheme fo deep, and covered it fo well, that thousands who are ripening it fufpect nothing at all of the matter. These well inclining men, fincerely believe that they are ferving their country, exclaim againft grievances, which either never exifted, or are aggravated above measure and thereby inflame the people more and more, to the wifh of thofe who are behind the scene. But be not you duped any longer: Do not ruin yourselves for them that owe you no good will, that now employ you only for their own purpofes, and, in the end, will give you no thanks. They love neither England nor America, but play one against the other, in fubferviency to their grand defign of overturning the English Government. Be warned in time. Stand and confider before it is too late; before you have intailed confufion and mifery on your lateft pofterity. Have pity upon your Mother country! Have pity upon your own! Have pity upon yourselves, upon your children, and upon all that are near and dear to you! Let us not bite and devour one another, left we be confumed one of another! O let us follow after peace! Let us put away our fins, the real ground of our calamities! Which never will or can be thoroughly removed, till we fear God and honour the King.

Memoirs

Memoirs of Albert, Count Walfiein, Duke

of Friedland and Mecklenburg.

T is well known that Guftavus Adol

Iphus confidered Ferdinand II. empe

ror of Germany, who fucceeded to the Imperial crown in 1619, as the moft formidable of all his antagonists, and nothing contributed fo much to the importance of that catholic potentate as the fingularabilities of his generaliffimo Walftein, whofe great qualities, fumptuous manner of living, and other characteristics, were ex ceedingly fimilar to thofe poffeffed by the late celebrated marthal Saxe.

This extraordinary man, whose memoirs we now prefent to our readers, was born about the year 1588. He was the fon of a Bohemian knight, and educated a proteftant. He was of a fpirited and turbulent difpofition from his childhood, and hated mortally all literature and private tutors. Upon this, his father placed him as a companion with the children of the marquis of Burgau, fon of Ferdinand, archduke of Auftria. Here he stayed fome years, and minded religious matters no more than claffical ones; for, fitting one day at a fermon preached in the family, the chapel being at top of the house, he dropped afleep, and tumbled out at a window, which had been opened on account of the violent heats: but, receiving no fort of harm from fo ftupendous a fall, he, who from his childhood was fingular in all things, took occafion from this event to conform himself immediately to the popish religion. He then made the tour of France, Holland, England, and Italy; and fixed at Padua, being now fully convinced of the expediency and advantages of learning: Here he applied himself to claffical and hiftorical erudi tion, with infinite affiduity, making judicial astrology his recreation and amufe

ment.

Previously to this, he had ftudied at Altdorf, near Nuremberg, where a new prifon had been erected for offending ftudents, and the rector of the university, in terrorem, had given orders, that it fhould take its name from the party who fhould be first confined therein. Walstein's impetuofity foon made him a delinquent, and, as the beadles were conducting him into this apartment, he made a ftop at the entrance under fome pretence, kicked a little fpaniel that belonged to him into the room, and fhut the door: Now, gentlemen, faid he, the prison must take the dog's name, and not Walftein's. Returning home from his travels,more ambitious than rich, he paid his addreffes to a Bohemian

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widow advanced in years; but an heiress with a good fortune; for Bohemia, next to England, makes the best provifion for the fair fex of any country in the world.

At length, geting the better of a rival

greatly his fuperior in birth and wealth, he had the good fuccefs to marry her; but, having no children, jealoufies enfued, and our adventurer was fuppofed to fuffer confiderably from the effects of a philtre which the incenfed lady contrived to give him. Nevertheless, at her death he found himself mafter, without exception, of her whole fortune, which was a very confiderable one; and in the Venetian war raised a regiment at his own expence, and carried it to the fervice of the archduke, where he behaved with great reputation, and was created a baron by the emperor.

He was then made governor of Moravia, and, being accufed of having received bribes, and acting in a very arbitrary manner, procured his peace at court by a timely facrifice of rixdollars in abundance to the miniftry. The proteftant party fixed their eyes principally upon him, at the firit breaking out of the Bohemian troubles; but he attached himself immoveably to the intereft of the houfe of Auftria, and underwent a confifcation of his goods and eftates in Bohemia, where fome affure us he performed a notable piece of fervice to the emperor, by pure chance; for, having raised a company of cuiraffiers, at his own expence, he happened to enter Prague, just at the inftant when count Thorn, and an armed band of nobility, forced their way into the palace, where they propofed terms of very hard digeftion to the viceroy, the prince of Lichtenftein, and the count particularly, at the end of his remonftrance, pointed with his right hand to the hilt of the fword, which hung by his fide: But, upon hearing the fudden trampling of horfes, he and his followers, fuppofing themselves betrayed, betook themfelves to flight. Walftein then marched 5000 Moravians to join Bucquoy, the Imperial general; but they all deferted him, upon being informed what measures their countrymen had taken at home in defence of their liberties. However, Walstein pofled on to Vienna with the military cheft; and upon this the Moravians feized the cardinal Diftrichstein, who was then among them, by way of pledge.

Some authors like wife obferve, that, at the beginning of thofe civil difcords and diffenfions, he made his mafter an offer of levying a body of 30,000 men, at his own expence, upon condition that he was Rrrr 2

made

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