session of her venerable countenance) was not, in her time, confined to their bills: but now, instead of the person's being protected and kept warm and comfortable, the dignity of the man preserved, and his property protected, the popinjays of the present day, by the absurd and horrid fashion prevalent in dress, were exposed to the cold winds and inclemency of the weather; all that dignified consequence totally extinguished; and our purses and handkerchiefs left an easy prey to the street-walker and public marauder ; and looked for all the world like so many game-cocks trimmed for the pit. Happening at this instant to cast her eye upon a whole-length portrait of her late husband Mr. Alderman Molasses, adorned with a brigadier of immense dimensions, a full-dressed suit of blue velvet, loaded with buttons of gold lace; ruffles of the finest cambric down to his fingers ends; a gold-headed cane, of size sufficient to level an ox; and a small silver-hilted sword, peeping through the skirt of his coat; she desired I would mark the contrast between that dress and that of a print which happened to hang exactly opposite, attired in the pink of the present costume; and which, to avoid prolixity, I will just mention had the words following printed under it :-" John! don't the Ladies admire me?” In compliance with the good old lady's desire, I cast a glance at both, and at the same time taking out my watch, and finding it was 'Change time, I told her I thought "much might be said on both sides," made. my bow, and set forward to meet a merchant in the Irish walk, on the Royal Exchange.

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For my part, I laugh at the present times, have laughed at the past, and, as long as it shall please the Almighty Power to permit me, doubt not but I shall see occasion to laugh at the future; and cannot entirely agree with my worthy relation, when she insists most peremptorily on the dignity-a word she

is as fond of as Colonel Bath, in Fielding's Amelia— the delicacy-the gentlemanly deportment of the men of her day, over the bell-swaggers-as she emphatically calls them, of the present day: and the prudence, reservedness, discretion, and virtue of the maidens of her time, over the hoity-toity, bold, forward, pert flirts of the present day! Now, all are gadding, the mornings taken up in preparing dress for the evening ball, where they expose themselves (she is told, for she never goes to them herself) in dancing the Irish wriggle, with any fellow in a bit of scarlet and a feather, or gambling at the card-table, losing their money, souring their tempers, and, by their dissipated lives, giving the other sex an aversion to matrimony; for she is informed as a positive fact, that, in point of expense, the girl who has not a prospect of five hundred pounds to her fortune, will vie with one who has as many thousands; and hardly such a thing as a spinning-wheel to be seen in any private house between Temple Bar and Hyde Park Corner. She really is tired of the profligate manners of the present day; it is this, and only this, that makes so many prostitutes: in her time, young women spent the morning in spinning linen (here she cast a significant look, and observed there were not such numbers of linen-drapers then). for the family, and the evenings in an innocent game of Hot Cockles and Hunt the Slipper; or, by way of variety, at cards: at the amusing games of My Lady's Hole, or Strip Jack Naked; games which, however oneered at in the present times, carried excellent morals with them, and were entirely free from the deep thinking in the game of whist, so much now the vogue; which, she asserts, is full of artifice and contrivance, and only fit to teach young people to over-reach one another, and fill their minds with hypocrisy and deceit. Such women were very unfit for wives; and were she a man, and young as formerly, she would rather

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rather live a single life than yoke herself to one whose mind was every where but at home: it was not so when she was young-then there were no false colours hung out to allure birds; no, a maiden depended then upon her discretion and housewifery for a husband, and having established that character, she had no occasion to wander abroad for lovers. Then the good old lady, placing her fore-finger on her thumb, would begin to recount what lovers she had, all of whom she had dismissed in favour of Mr. Molasses; for she always thought, and a glow of pleasure and satisfaction sat upon her countenance when she said it, that a British merchant was the first of all characters!

Having, I fear, much exceeded the limits of your paper, I will reserve the arguments I made use of in favour of our own times, till my next letter; which, as soon as I can gain time from the hurry and bustle of fitting out and freighting half a dozen vessels for our new-acquired settlement at Buenos Ayres, I will, with your permission, address to you.

I remain, Sirs, your obedient servant,
TIMOTHY HOMESPUN.

Throgmorton Street,

Dec. 8, 1806.

MORE FROM MR. HOMESPUN.

[From the same.]

I HAVE been so busy, and have had my time so much taken up in procuring and shipping the articles which the recent capture of Buenos Ayres has opened a market for, that I have not had a moment of leisure to resume my correspondence with you. Upon my return from 'Change, I found the good old lady in very low spirits, and upon my salutation on entering the parlour, she accosted me nearly in the following

words:

words: "So," says she, "this villain hath at last accomplished what he has been so long aiming at !” This exordium you may think greatly surprised me; for there was no one in the room with her, but my youngest son Peter, a boy of about seven years of age. When my astonishment had a little subsided, I was going to inquire the meaning of the exclamation I had just heard, when she thus went on: "Ay! you may forbid all your orders, and lay up your ships till better times; if, by the blessing of God, we are ever to see them! Here," says she, Peter has just been reading to me from the evening paper which our neighbour, Mr. Dowlas, sent in, that that tyrant Bonaparte has just put all our ports into a state of blockade; so that trade is ruined, and not a ship can put to sea.' "Lard, grandmamma," says Pe-I call my dear little boy (who, to be sure, is a wonderful sensible child of his age) by that abbreviation, in a spirit of fondness as he sits on my knee and prattles away in hopes of obtaining a halfpenny for barley-sugar or gingerbread"Lard," says he, "I wonder if that bad man has got all our men of war, and ships, and all our ports, I wonder we don't see him in the city! for nurse often tells me, if I don't go to sleep and leave off talking or crying, that Fee-faw-fum will come and fetch me." I could not help-excuse, good Sirs, the fondness of a father, catching up the dear little soul in my arms and kissing him; for I could not tell which was most conspicuous in his observation, innocence or discernment; for certainly there was great sense and propriety in what he said, much beyond what could be expected from a child of his age. I begged my worthy relative to make herself perfectly easy; what she had heard was, I told her, only an idle gasconade of Bony's, assisted by his prime minister Talleyrand; that our ports were as open as ever, our navy rode as triumphantly on the ocean, and such a spirit

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spirit of enthusiasm warmed the bosoms of our volunteers, that we set at defiance all that the usurper could do by sea or by land; that my bills of lading were already made out, and by to-morrow's dawn I hoped my vessels would be able to weigh anchor and proceed on their voyage. "My dear son," says the good old lady, "this man, or d-l, I don't know which to call him, is certainly sent as a scourge and punishment for the sins of mankind; and when the Almighty's will is accomplished, he will be cast off, 'his days will flee as a shadow, his flesh will wither like grass;' for the king is not saved by a great army, nor shall the giant be saved by his own strength; the Lord giveth and taketh away. But pray," added she,

they tell me this prime minister, this Talleyrand, is a priest?" I answered her, he was an ex-bishop, Bishop of Autun; but that he had broken his vow of celibacy and had married. For some time the good old lady remained silent, but at length resuming her discourse with a sigh, said, "Well! I cannot say but I always thought it a cruel infringement on the natural rights of mankind, the preventing Popish priests (for the good creature is not wholly divested of a marked dislike to Roman Catholics, a dislike which these more enlightened and liberal times have almost worn away) marrying; for we are told, the man that 'glorieth in his own strength, shall fall by reason thereof."" She had indeed heard so before; but could scarcely believe that a people who, she was told, were so strict in their fasts, in their observance of the ceremonies of their church, and were so attentive to their flocks, could quit the service of so good, so benign a Master, for any worldly consideration; but if a man vaunted so much in his own strength as to make a vow, he ought at all events to keep it she had never made but one vow, and that she religiously kept; and, indeed, she disapproved of all others. She

asked