a great measure from the several counties, is a continual drain from the people, and an immense loss to the nation: and I cannot help recommending it to those gentlemen who are for increasing the number of our people by a general naturalization bill, to provide in the mean time for the security and preservation of those we have already.

'The monstrous size of our capital is one great cause of the excessive luxury that prevails amongst us. The infinite number of people that resort hither, naturally rival each other in their tables, dress, equipage, furniture, and, in short, extravagances of all sorts. Notwithstanding the late necessary regulations, a continual round of amusement and entertainment is invented for every day in the week; and by this means the mind is kept in a constant hurry and dissipation, and rendered unfit for any serious employment. Can mothers of this turn, immersed in vanity and folly, be supposed capable of any domestic concerns? What a prospect is here of the morals of the rising age! And, what is worse, this love of pleasure is carried into the country, and a general dissoluteness spreads itself through the whole kingdom. Hence it is that gentlemen even of small fortunes are impatient of the country, and crowd to the diversions of London, contracting an expensive taste, and ruining their families. Nor is this love of pleasure confined only to genteel life; the common people easily follow the example of those above them; and as they have no fund to support them without labour, the consequence of idleness, in them, is immediate poverty; which necessarily throws them into sharping, robbery, and all kinds of dishonesty. So that I believe it may truly be affirmed, that the luxury and corruption of any nation is just in proportion to its wealth, and the largeness of its metropolis.

'Thuanus tells us, that in the reign of Henry the Second, there was an edict made to prohibit any buildings in the suburbs of Paris; and in Queen Elizabeth's time a bill passed to prevent the increase of London; but, like other good laws, it soon grew obsolete, and lost its effect.

In what manner our metropolis may be reduced without injury to the proprietors of houses and ground-rents, I do not pretend to determine; but it seems absolutely necessary that a stop should be put to any farther building; and if, besides this, the ruinous houses in the back parts of the town, such as Hockley in the Hole, &c. which are the grand receptacles for sharpers and pickpockets, and which might be purchased at an easy rate, were annually to be bought up, the materials sold, and the ground thrown into open fields, the town in a few years would be considerably reduced, the health of the people very greatly improved, and the number of gamesters, thieves, lewd women, &c. gradually diminished. I am, &c.'

'SIR,

'To MR. FITZ-ADAM.

As you profess not only to amuse but to instruct; and as the early grounding of youth in true fortitude and the love of their country, are objects worthy of the most serious attention; give me leave to caution parents and guardians through your channel against an evil they seem insensible of, the evil of sending youths unacquainted with the world, even raw from school, to French academies; where no sooner are they got together, than those who preside in the councils of that kingdom, ever attentive to sow the seeds of dissension in these nations, detach a number of Irish officers, who by speaking our language, and introducing these heedless boys into the plea

sures of the place, easily insinuate themselves into their good graces; and then, with no less art than judgment, gradually instil into their vacant minds the poison of Popery and disaffection. I speak by experience. If any one doubts the truth of this assertion, let him inquire into the present condition of a French academy in a neighbouring maritime province, where these measures will be found to be at this hour warmly pursuing. Are there not other countries, countries of liberty, where the French tongue and the exercises which contribute to fashion the exteriors, are to be acquired with equal success? Doubtless there are; and those parents who, by the advantage of their own education, are capable of directing that of their children, never hazard them among these dangerous people, till by reading, travel, and an acquaintance with mankind, they are proof against such unhappy impressions.

If the inserting this short letter saves but one Briton from perdition, you and I, Mr. Fitz-Adam, shall not esteem it as a useless precaution.

I am, Sir, your most humble servant.'

N° 62. THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1754.

TO MR. FITZ-ADAM.

'SIR, 'I HAVE Somewhere read of the saying of a philosopher, I believe it was in the Spectator, "That every one ought to do something in the world to shew that he has been in it." I am therefore, though a woman, desirous of leaving behind me the following testi

mony of my existence, and of convincing posterity that in point of birth I have had the start of them. 'It is of late grown into a fashion among the men to treat the business of visiting with great disrespect: they look upon it as a mere female recreation, and beneath the dignity of their superior natures. Yet notwithstanding their contempt of it, and the odious name of gadding which they have given it, I do not find that they fail in their appearance at any of our assemblies, or that they are better able than us women to shut themselves up in their own houses, when there is any thing to be done or seen abroad. If they would content themselves with finding fault with the name and not the thing, I should have no quarrel with them; the word visit being of so various and uncertain a signification, that I am always at a loss in what sense to understand it.

'A sister-in-law of mine, who lives about ten miles from town, sent me some time ago a very pressing letter, desiring my assistance, and that of my cookmaid, for a few days; her house, as she said, being likely to be put into great hurry and confusion from the preparations they were making for the reception of my Lord Whimsey, who had sent my brother a card that he intended him a visit the week following. I set out accordingly with my cook; and when every thing was got ready in the best and genteelest manner that my brother's fortune would afford for the entertainment of so noble a guest, down comes my Lord as expected; who, upon alighting from his chariot, gave orders to his coachman to keep the horses in motion, for that his stay should not exceed fifteen minutes. His Lordship took a walk through the garden; seemed greatly pleased with the situation and design; very politely excused himself from making a longer stay, and took his leave with say

ing, that he hoped soon to do himself the pleasure of making him a second visit.

6

It would be taking up too much of your time to enter minutely into the family distress upon so vexing a disappointment: let it suffice to tell you, that it was near a fortnight before my poor sister perfectly recovered it, or before she left off her hourly repeated question of, "What shall we do with all this load of victuals?" My Lord next day at White's was giving high encomiums on my brother's seat, and the goodness of the air in that part of Surrey, and was pleased to say that he thought it the completest thing of its size within twenty miles of London. Upon which Sir Humphry Hobling, a distant relation of ours, proposed being of my Lord's party at his next visit. Accordingly in about three weeks a second card informs my brother of a second visit.

'By this time I and my maid, together with two or three supernumerary assistants and female humble cousins, were dismissed, after having stayed a fortnight, by particular desire, to help to eat up the pasties, pies, tarts, jellies, sillabubs, &c. which had been provided for my Lord, and were now looked upon as mere drugs in a family, which usually contented itself with two substantial dishes, or one and a pudding.

It was not in the least doubted that my Lord's second visit would be of the same nature with the first; his Lordship's card being conceived exactly in the same words: there was therefore no need of fuss or preparation; my sister too had pretty well worn off the dread of making her appearance before so great a man. According to his appointment my Lord arrived, and with him Sir Humphry and Colonel Shuffle, a great favourite of my Lord's, and a number of servants with portmanteaus, guns, pointers, set