6 SIR, I NEED not tell you with what Difadvantages Men of low Fortunes and great Modefty come into the World; what wrong Measures their Diffidence of themselves, and Fear of offending, often obliges them to take; and what a Pity it is that their greateft Vir6 tues and Qualities, that fhould fooneft recommend them, are the main Obstacle in the way of their Pre • ferment. THIS, Sir, is my Cafe; I was bred at a CountrySchool, where I learned Latin and Greek. The Misfortunes of my Family forced me up to Town, where a Profeffion of the politer Sort has protected me against • Infamy and Want .I am now Clerk to a Lawyer, and, in Times of Vacancy and Recefs from Bufinefs, have ⚫ made myself Master of Italian and French; and tho' the Progrefs I have made in my Business has gain'd me Reputation enough for one of my Standing, yet my Mind fuggefts to me every Day, that it is not upon that • Foundation I am to build my Fortune. THE Perfon I have my prefent Dependance upon, has it in his Nature, as well as in his Power, to advance me, by recommending me to a Gentleman that is going beyond Sea in a publick Employment. I know the printing this Letter would point me out to those I want Confidence to fpeak to, and I hope it is not in your • Power to refuse making any Body happy. September 9. Yours, &c. T M. D. Thursday i ❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀919 No. 481. Thursday, September 11. Uti nan Compofitus melius cum Bitho Bacchius, in jus IT Hor. T is fometimes plenfant enough to confider the different Notions, which different Perfons have of the fame Thing. If Men of low Condition very often fet a Value on Things, which are not prized by those who are in an higher Station of Life, there are many Things thefe efteem which are in no Value among Perfons of an inferior Rank. Common People are, in particular, very much aftonished, when they hear of thofe folemn Contests and Debates, which are made among the Great upon the Punctilio's of a publick Ceremony; and wonder to hear that any Bufinefs of Confequence fhould be retarded by thofe little Circumftances, which they represent to themfelves as trifling and infignificant. I am mightily pleafed with a Porter's Decifion in one of Mr. Southern's Plays, which is founded upon that fine Distress of a virtuous Woman's marrying a fecond Hufband, while her first was yet living. The firft Hufband, who was fuppos'd to have been dead, returning to his Houfe after a long Abfence, raises a noble Perplexity for the tragick Part of the Play. In the mean while, the Nurfe and the Porter conferring upon the Difficulties that would enfue in fuch a Cafe, honeft Sampson thinks the Matter may be eafily decided, and folves it very judiciously, by the old Proverb, that if his firft Mafter be ftill living, The Man must have his Mare again. There is nothing in my Time which has fo much furprized and confounded the greatest Part of my honeft Countrymen, as the prefent Controverfy between Count Rechteren and Monfieur Mefnager, which employs the wife Heads of fo many Nations, and holds all the Affairs of Europe in Sufpence. UPON my going into a Coffee-house yesterday, and lending an Ear to the next Table, which was encompaffed with with a Circle of inferior Politicians, one of them, after having read over the News very attentively, broke out into the following Remarks. I am afraid, fays he, this unhappy Rupture between the Footmen at Utrecht will retard the Peace of Christendom. I wish the Pope may not be at the Bottom of it. His Holiness has a very good Hand at fomenting a Divifion, as the poor Swifs Cantons have lately experienced to their Coft. If Monfieur What-dye-call-him's Domefticks will not come to an Accommodation, I do not know how the be ended, but by a Religious War. Quarrel can WHY truly, fays a Wifacre that fat by him, were I as the King of France, I would fcorn to take Part with the Footmen of either Side; Here's all the Business of Europe ftands ftill, because Monfieur Mefnager's Man has had his Head broke. If Count Rectrum had given them a Pot of Ale after it, all would have been well, without any of this Buftle; but they fay he's a warm Man, and does not care to be made Mouths at. UPON this, one that had held his Tongue hitherto, began to exert himfelf; declaring, that he was very well pleased the Plenipotentiaries of our Chriftian Princes took this Matter into their ferious Confideration; for that Lacqueys were never fo faucy and pragmatical, as they are now-a-days, and that he fhould be glad to fee them taken down in the Treaty of Peace, if it might be done without Prejudice to the publick Affairs. ONE who fat at the other End of the Table, and feemed to be in the Intereft of the French King, told them, that they did not take the Matter right, for that his moft Chriftian Majefty did not refent this Matter because it was an Injury done to Monfieur Mefnager's Footmen; for, fays he, what are Monfieur Mefnager's Footmen to him? but because it was done to his Subjects. Now, fays he, let me tell you, it would look very odd for a Subject of France to have a bloody Nofe, and his Sovereign not to take notice of it. He is obliged in Honour to defend his People against Hoftilities; and if the Dutch will be fo infolent to a crowned Head, as in any wife to cuff or kick thofe who are under his Protection, I think he is in the right to call them to an Account for it. THIS Diftinction fet the Controversy upon a new foot, and feemed to be very well approved by moft that heard it, till a little warm Fellow, who declared himself a Friend to the House of Auftria, fell most unmercifully upon his Gallick Majefty, as encouraging his Subjects to make Mouths at their Betters, and afterwards skreening them from the Punishment that was due to their Infolence. To which he added, that the French Nation was fo addicted to Grimace, that if there was not a Stop put to it at the general Congrefs, there would be no walking the Streets for them in a Time of Peace, efpecially if they continued Masters of the West Indies. The little Man proceeded with a great deal of Warmth, declaring, that if the Allies were of his Mind, he would oblige the French King to burn his Gallies, and tolerate the Proteftant Religion in his Dominions, before he would fheath his Sword. He concluded with calling Monfieur Mefnager an infignificant Prig. THE Difpute was now growing very warm, and one does not know where it would have ended, had not a young Man of about one and twenty, who feems to have been brought up with an Eye to the Law, taken the Debate into his Hand, and given it as his Opinion, that neither Count Rechteren nor Monfieur Mefnager had behaved themselves right in this Affair. Count Rechteren, fays he, fhould have made Affidavit that his Servants had been affronted, and then Monfieur Mefnager would have done him Juftice, by taking away their Liveries from them, or fome other way that he might have thought the most proper; for let me tell you, if a Man makes a Mouth at me, I am not to knock the Teeth out of it for his pains. Then again, as for Monfieur Mefnager, upon his Servants being beaten, why! he might have had his Action of Affault and Battery. But as the Cafe now ftands, if you will have my Opinion, I think they ought to bring it to Referees. Í heard a great deal more of this Conference, but I muft confefs with little Edification; for all I could learn at laft from these honeft Gentlemen, was, that the Matter in Debate was of too high a nature for fuch Heads as theirs, or mine, to comprehend. Friday, No. 482. Friday, September 12. Floriferis ut apes in faltibus omnia libant. W Lucr. HEN I have published any fingle Paper that falls in with the popular Tafte, and pleases more than ordinary, it always brings me in a great Return of Letters. My Tuesday's Difcourfe, wherein I gave several Admonitions to the Fraternity of the Henpeck'd, has already produced me very many Correfpondents; the Reafon I cannot guess at, unless it be that such a Discourse is of general Ufe, and every married Man's Money. An honeft Tradesman, who dates his Letter from Cheapfide, fends me Thanks in the Name of a Club, who, he tells me, meet as often as their Wives will give them leave, and stay together till they are fent for home. He informs me, that my Paper has adminiftred great Confolation to their whole Club, and defires me to give some further Account of Socrates, and to acquaint them in whofe Reign he lived, whether he was a Citizen or a Courtier, whether he buried Xantippe, with many other Particulars: For that by his Sayings he appears to have been a very wife Man and a good Chriftian. Another, who writes himself Benjamin Bamboo, tells me, that be-. ing coupled with a Shrew, he had endeavoured to tame her by fuch lawful Means as thofe which I mentioned in my laft Tuesday's Paper, and that in his Wrath he had often gone further than Bracton allows in those Cases; but that for the future he was refolved to bear it like a Man of Temper and Learning, and confider her only as one who lives in his House to teach him Philofophy. Tom Dapperwit fays, that he agrees with me in that whole Difcourfe, excepting only the last Sentence, where I affirm the married State to be either an Heaven or an Hell. Tom has been at the Charge of a Penny upon this Occafion, to tell me, that by his Experience it is neither one nor the other, but rather that middle Kind of State, commonly known by the Name of Purgatory. 3 Тва |