have been ftaggered; but your offer of five or fix hundred pounds, though a handsome fum, I cannot poffibly accept upon the terms and tenure you proposed: the tenure is unftable, and refts upon too many uncertainties; upon my fteady attachment; upon the life of your patron; upon his permanence in power: which

I cannot reckon an annuity for his life. The terms likewise fhock me too much; I muft degrade myself; I must deceive my friends, who will fhun me, as a peftilence; I must renounce my avowed honest principles: I must not speak, or judge, or act for myself; that is, I must cease to be a man: I muft, in fhort, like the oftrich, fwallow down every thing, without afking; whether it be food, or poison.

WOULD not this, I befeech you, be a hard bargain on my fide? but hard as it is, I queftion, whether you could make it good: five or fix hundred per annum for a dead v-e is a large fum; and I am told, the market is fo full that the price is much fallen. Befides; I have only your master's word for this; and fhould I be fo filly, as to take it; when my character is gone, I fhall be at his I fhall be at his mercy; he may use me like a dog, as I deferve; and give me nothing but a bare bone to pick: my five or fix hundred may dwindle to two, or three, and I cannot help myself. I may complain indeed, that he is not a man of honour: but will that hurt him? but I dare not complain; because to complain is to prove my proffitution.

YOUNG

YOUNG as I am, and unlearned in the tricks of policy, I affert not this upon my own knowledge; but I am credibly informed, there are few places of one thousand or twelve hundred pounds a year, but have two or three penfioners quartered upon them; not indeed at the rate you propofe, which is impracticable; but at two or three hundred a piece. This, in the town phrase, is called lying two or three in a bed and before I would fubmit to fuch low and dirty indignities, I would fell my eftate, pay off my debts, banish myself with the refidue into a foreign country, and live at large, as a citizen of the world; leaving at my departure Jugurtha's bitter farcafm upon Rome; Urbem venalem, & mature perituram, fi emptorem invenerit ! O mercenary city, and ripe for ruin, if any body shall be found rich enough to buy thee!

IT would fhock me indeed to be compelled to leave my native Britannia, whom I fincerely love; but love her, as I do, I would abandon her, rather than renounce the dignity of my

nature.

As to the extraordinary expences and pleafures of the town; I think they lie within the reach of my eftate, in the degree I propose to indulge as to mending my fortune in the way you mention; though I deteft the thought of it, yet were my heart lefs delicate; how could it be? have not the lower clafs of placemen and penfioners much ado to live? and I cannot

be

be fo vain as to think, that my little fervices could be of confequence enough to intitle me to the higher. A dull dead ve has no great merit; and it would be well, if fome gentlemen would confider this: they would not then spend fifteen hundred, or two thousand pounds in the purchase of a borough; which diftreffes them oftentimes as long as they live: they would certainly content themselves with a private life, to which both their talents and estates are better adapted there they might eat the bread of innocence, which to a virtuous palate is far fweeter than all the dainties of corruption.

I HAVE now, Madam, anfwered, I think, the fubftance of your arguments, to secure my attachment to your noble mafter, and you fee my refolution. Nevertheless; as you have done me the honour of fo extraordinary a visit, I have a few more things to impart.

your

In the first place then, I confefs, Felicity! the force and dexterity of address: you fpake to my fenfes; you fpake to my paffions; that is, to the weakest and strongest part of my nature; the weakest to refift; the strongest to perfuade; and had not that celeftial maid come to my aid in the critical moment, what the iffue might have been, it is impoffible to say.

WISE men have fallen; I alfo am a man; a young man; and to flatter myself, as placed above the frailties of human nature, would be a folly, that would prove me young indeed. O

ANO

ANOTHER impediment to the fuccefs of your embaffy is, that I have had the misfortune of an unhappy education, as your patron perchance may call it: I have been early tinctured with a fenfe of virtue; and the feeds fown have grown up with me. I was taught to venerate the established religion of my country, and to think it a good one; I was taught to fear God, and honour the King: but I was never taught to fear or honour his minifter. Fear him I will not, fo long as I purfue thofe paths, which virtue, liberty, and the interest of my country point to; and honour him I cannot, unless he deferves it; my will being not in my power. However, as I have no perfonal pique, or prejudice to your illuftrious mafter, tell him, I will be his upon the following

conditions.

LET him (I fpeak in the prefence and under the protection of a goddess, and will be bold :) let him, I fay, not fquander the public money in bribery at elections; which ruins the morals of the people, as well as enervates the eftate; let him not make vile bargains with money-jobbers, which infenfibly eat out the heart of the exchequer; let him not grant unneceffary penfions, at a time when the public wants every fhilling of the money. This would bring infamy upon his adminiftration, and could answer no wife purpose, except to fecure himfelf, at all events, in the poft of honour: honour, do I say? I mean power; for honour

there

there can be none, except his power be fupported by men of honour; and this he need be in no pain about, if he purfues measures, agreeable to this free conftitution, and for the benefit and glory of the British nation.

IN conformity to this plan; let your thrice noble patron employ in the high and important offices of the ftate, men of ability, integrity, and lovers of their country. It being the fame thing; whether the nation be undone by ignorance or knavery.

LET him in the inferior departments keep a jealous eye; and if there are dirty hands, call them to account; or not fkreen them at least, when others do it in a legal and parliamentary

way.

IN matters of the church; let him promote to her dignities men of virtue, piety, genius, and learning; without afking, whether they are the fons, the brothers, or nephews of fuch fenators, as are his flaves. Let him not at leaft (for I would not be too rigorous) fill her stalls with blockheads, parafites, and informers; who are a difgrace to their patron, and to the places they fit in; having neither abilities to defend the religion of their country, nor virtue to adorn it.

WHEN I fee fuch a revolution, wrought by his hands; tell him, I will draw a veil over paft tranfgreffions, and be his; entirely his, without place or penfion; and fuch an independant

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