Penny Post Invincible Standard Middlefex Sharp Shooters "Staunch Whigs" Bank of England Weftminster Hall British Prefs Bonaparté Twopence. "Swear! Swear!" Millers of Ifleworth. The P*****g Pofts. The Devil. Roaft Beef and Plum Pudding. THE JACOBIN GENIUS OF FRANCE TO HER SELECT CORPS OF PRINTERS IN ENGLAND, AN IMPROMPTU. [From the Morning Herald.] COME, Libellers in Gallic pay, Print in black letter! and proclaim? Work double tides, by night and day, Drive Truth and Common Senfe before yel And thus fuftain my blood-earn'd glory! Let each report make Falsehood smile, Succefs fhall follow our command, We wreft but from St. Vincent's hand! Yet ftill his vengeful banner flies! For not a Jacobin can rise, Unless you work St. Vincent's fall! NAUTILUS. DRESS. SIR, YOUR DRESS. [From the Morning Chronicle.] York, Jan. 23. OUR account of the birth-day dreffes is arrived in thefe parts, and has been studied with the usual attention that we beftow on matters of fuch importance.. Barring heavy roads, we now get the London fashions eight-and-forty hours fooner than before the mailcoaches were established, which is a great comfort to the ladies here, who have a good deal of leisure on their hands. But pray, Sir, did you not omit fome part of the birth-day intelligence, or is it only our North-country ignorance that makes us think fo? Youdwell principally upon the heads and the petticoats, omitting, in general, thofe intermediate parts which are of great confequence with us. Are we to underftand by this, that there is no medium in a fashionable drefs, or that the opinion of the milliner and mantuamaker is never taken but upon the last extremities ? We have a proverb here, that "if you light the fire at both ends, the middle will fhift for itself." I fhould not have applied this to our prefent dilemma, if I could have thought of any other way of accounting for it. I am, for felf and fifters, Your humble fervant, EULOGIUM UPON THE ART OF A COEFFEUR. I [From the Oracle.] WOULD propofe to all the Academies of Europe a prize for the best panegyric upon that art, which is of all others the most useful to fociety, as well as the moft arduous, the most noble, and the moft fublime, in relation to the virtues which it requires: I mean the art art of a Lady's Hairdreffer. To modify into pleafing forms thofe long and flender filaments which nature feems to have intended for the fport of every gale; to give to them a confiftency of which no one would fuppofe fuch materials were fufceptible; to give to abundance regular order in the place of confufion, and to fupply a want with fictitious riches, which would deceive the fharpeft eye; to foften the coarfenefs of features; to increase the brilliancy of the eye, by contrast of colours, and even fometimes by reflected union: to effect all thefe miracles, without any other means than a comb, and fome powder of different tints, these are the characteristics of the art, and yet conftitute but a small part of a Lady's Hairdreffer's daily occupation. If his industry entitles him to the rank of artift, its fubject ought furely to give him a distinguished place on the lift. The pencil of the painter is exercised only upon the canvafs; the chifel of the ftatuary, upon the marble block. Cold copyifts of the charms of which they only prefent the image, their labours neceffarily bear the mark of dependence. They must have models to direct their imagination and their hand. Their greateft merit is faithful imitation; and the inanimate Thadow which they fell fo dear to luxury, is but an imperfect sketch of the original, of which it teaches us to lament the lofs. What a difference between them and the Lady's Hairdreffer! It is living beauty that he embellifhes; it is a fex to which all the world pays homage, that implores his aid. Has nature lavished upon it all her treafures? He improves their eclat. The forms and features of the fculptor and painter are all borrowed: the model is before their eyes. Not fo with the Coeffeur: he must have a peculiar genius for invention, a fuperior tafte for combination. He must be able, at the first fight of a phyfiogno VOL. VIII, G my, my, to ascertain what fort of decoration will fuit it. He must adhere to the general fafhion, yet modify the drefs to the individual. One woman would appear horrible, in the ftyle which makes another lovely. The Coeffeur must therefore be always uniform, yet always vary his productions. It is true, the industrious hands, to which the canvafs and the marble owe their metamorphofis, have a fuperiority in one fenfe over the Coeffeur. Their works poffefs a folidity which immortalizes them. Each fucceeding generation enriches itfelf with the labours of the preceding. The Coeffeur has not that good fortune. The fruits of his art are more fleeting than thofe of the fpring. Like the bouquets, whofe brilliancy they poffefs, they disappear with the day which has feen their growth, and find their tomb in the fleep, from whence the beauties they adorned derive new freshnefs. This is indeed a disadvantage; but ought the Coeffeur to fecl humbled on that account? In this particular, his art refembles that which we admire most in nature. It is the fate of every thing beautiful to fade away and vanish, at the moment when arrived at the highest degree of perfection. The Coeffeur always triumphs over this envious fatality by new creations. Every toilette is a fertile field, where he scatters his rofes; and the prodigality of the evening is only a pledge of the abundance of the next day. I have hitherto confidered him as a mere artift; but what if I were to enter into a detail of all his virtues? Are not difcretion, refervednefs, patience, punctuality, virtues? Of all artifts, is there one to whom they must be more familiar than to the Coeffeur? Admitted to the mystery of the toilet, must he not, like Job, make a compact with his tongue and his eyes? The more unreferved the confidence, the more circumfpection is required. How great must be his vigilance to keep himself conftantly upon his guard against the charms which are placed in his hands? A new new Pygmalion, does he not run a risk of having his head turned by the divinities whofe heads he is employed to adorn? What fcrupulous modefty does he not require to bear him fafe through fuch variety of danger? He must not be merely as filent as Job, he must be equally patient. It is not a piece of inanimate metal that he forms; they are beings of quick fenfibility, beings of delicate tafte, accuftomed to empire, and who regard every curl of their hair as forming part of their crown. He must therefore follow with his eye their interefting and penetrating glances-he muft divine the effect of a curl or a trefs-he must feize in a moment all the immenfity of rapid combinations which every motion of the comb produces, and anfwer with this inftrument even the filent objections to his procedure. It will be eafily admitted then, that the exercife of this art fuppofes a calm temper, exceffive virtue, attention, and inexhauftible patience. As to punctuality, only think for a moment what diforder would arife in fociety upon all fuch effential occafions as balls and affemblies, fpectacles and birthday galas, were a Coeffeur to neglect his duty, or flip his memory! How many empty boxes, how many diftreffed families, how many broken engagements, and hence what confufion, what embarraffment, both in public and private! PHYSIC verfus MUSIC. [From the Morning Poft.] THE lady of a country apothecary, although the did not know a gamut from the ace of spades, yet, from having picked up fome technical phrafes, was reckoned by the other ladies of the neighbourhood to be a prodigious mufical cognofcente; and was conftantly fhewing her tafte, by inviting thrumming and Squalling evening parties, to the no fmall difquiet of her huf |