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No. CXLIII.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER

To MR.

1794.

I AM extremely obliged to you for

your kind mention of my interests, in a letter which Mr. S*** shewed me. At present, my situation in life must be in a great measure stationary, at least for two or three years. The statement is this-I am on the supervisors' list; and as we come on there by precedency, in two or three years I shall be at the head of that list, and be appointed of course-then, a Friend might be of service to me in getting me into a place of the kingdom which I would like. A supervisor's income varies from about a hundred and twenty, to two hundred a-year; but the business is an incessant drudgery, and would be nearly a complete bar to every species of literary pursuit. The moment I am appointed supervisor

3

supervisor in the common routine, I may be nominated on the Collectors' list; and this is always a business purely of political patronage. A collectorship varies much from better than two hundred a-year to near a thousand. They also come forward by precedency on the list, and have, besides a handsome income, a life of complete leisure. A life of literary leisure, with a decent competence, is the summit of my wishes. It would be the prudish affectation of silly pride in me, to say that I do not need, or would not be indebted to a political friend; at the same time, Sir, I by no means lay my affairs before you thus, to hook my dependent situation on your benevolence. If, in my progress of life, an opening should occur where the good offices of a gentleman of your public character and political consequence might bring me forward, I will petition your goodness with the same frankness and sincerity as I now do my. self the honour to subscribe myself, &c.

No.

No. CXLIII.

To MRS. R*****.

DEAR MADAM,

I MEANT to have called on you yesternight; but as I edged up to your box-door, the first object which greeted my view was one of those lobster-coated puppies, sitting like another dragon, guarding the Hesperian fruit. On the conditions and capitulations you so obligingly offer, I shall certainly make my weather-beaten rustic phiz a part of your box furniture on Tuesday, when we may arrange the

business of the visit.

**

Among the profusion of idle compliments, which insidious craft, or unmeaning folly, incessantly offer at your shrine-a shrine, how far exalted above such adoration-permit me,

were

were it but for rarity's sake, to pay you the honest tribute of a warm heart and an independent mind; and to assure you that I am, thou most amiable, and most accomplished of thy sex, with the most respectful esteem, and fervent regard, thine, &c.

VOL. II.

F F

No.

No. CXLIV.

TO THE SAME.

I WILL wait on you, my ever-valued friend, but whether in the morning I am not sure. Sunday closes a period of our curst revenue business, and may probably keep me employed with my pen until noon. Fine employment for a poet's pen! There is a species of the human genus that I call the gin-horse class: what enviable dogs they are! Round, and round, and round they go,-Mundell's ox, that drives his cotton-mill, is their exact prototype -without an idea or wish beyond their circle; fat, sleek, stupid, patient, quiet, and contented; while here I sit, altogether Novemberish, a d— melange of fretfulness and melancholy; not enough of the one to rouse me to passion, nor of the other to repose me in torpor; my soul flouncing and fluttering round her tenement, like a wild finch caught amid the horrors of winter, and newly thrust into a cage. Well,

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