over to you; and they become your servants, fro tempore. They get about you, are very diligent, fetch you whatever you call for, and retire with the table-cloth. You see no more of them till you want to go away. Then they are all ready again at your command; and instead of that form which you observed them standing in at table, they are drawn into two lines, right and left, and make a lane, which you are to pass through before you can get at the door. Now it is your business to discharge your servants; and for this purpose you are to take out your money, and apply it first on your right hand, then on your Jeft, then on your right, and then on your left again, till you find yourself in the street. And from hence comes that common method, which all regular people observe in money-dealings, of paying as you go. I know not, continues my friend, so ridiculous a personage as the master of the house upon these occasions. He attends you to the door with great ceremony; but is so conscious of the awkward appear ance he must make as a witness to the expences of his guests, that you can observe him placing himself in a position, that he would have it supposed conceals from him the inhospitable transactions that are going on under his roof. He wears the silly look of an innocent man, who has unfortunately broke in upon the retirement of two lovers, and is ready to affirm with great simplicity, that he has seen nothing.

I already concurred with the observations of my friend, thanked him for his intelligence, and blessed myself that I was that day to dine cheaply at a tavern. But during my stay in London, I have been obliged to fall in with the customs of that place; and have learned to my cost, that egression as well as admission, must be purchased. I am at length, however, with many more of my acquaintance, reduced to a disagreeable necessity of seeing my friends very

seldom; because I cannot afford (according to a very just and fashionable expression) to pay a visit to them.

Every man who has the misfortune to exceed his circumstances, must, in order to recover himself, abstain from certain expences, which in the gross of his disbursements, have made the most formidable articles. The economist of the city parts with his country-house; the squire disposes of his hounds; and I keep other people's servants in pay no longer. But having an earnest desire of mixing with those friends whom an early intimacy has most endeared to me, and preferring the social hours that are spent at their tables to most others of my life, I cannot at all times refuse their invitations, even though I have nothing for their servants. And here, alas! the inconveniences of an empty pocket are as strongly exhibited, as in any case of insolvency that I know of. I am a marked man. If I ask for beer, I am presented with a piece of bread. If I am bold enough to call for wine, after a delay which would take away its relish were it good, I receive a mixture of the whole side-board in a greasy glass. If I hold up my plate, nobody sees me; so that I am forced to eat mutton with fish sauce, and pickles with my apple-pye.

I observe, there is hardly a custom amongst us, be it what it will, that we are not as tenacious and jealous of as any national privileges. It is from this consideration, that I expect rather to see an increase, than an abolition of our follies; an improvement rather than a change. I should not, therefore, conclude my subject, without injustice to my friend above-mentioned, if I did not reveal a new method, which, he says, he intends to propose to some of the leaders of fashions, and which he has no doubt, he assures me, of seeing soon in practice. Let every artificer that has contributed to raise the house you have the ho->

nour to dine in, make his appearance when the company is going away. Let the mason, the painter, the joiner, the glazier, the upholsterer, &c. arrange themselves in the same order as the gentlemen in and out of livery do at such conjunctures; and let every guest consider, that he could not have regaled himself that day within his friend's walls, if it had not been for the joint labours of those worthy mechanics. Such

a generous reflection would produce three good effects: liberality would have a fresh and noble subject for its exertion; the tradesmen (a numerous and discontented race) would be satisfied to their utmost wishes; nor could the payment of bills, any more than of wages, with reason or propriety, be demanded of the master.

I am, Sir,

Your humble servant,

O. S.

Though my ingenious correspondent has treated this subject with great vivacity and humour, I cannot dismiss his letter without saying a word or two in favour of servants.

It is well known that many of them are engaged in the services of younger brothers, whose total inattention to the payment of wages can only be remedied by the bounty of those ladies of quality, who are fond of a cold chicken at the lodgings of their said masters.

That others have the honour to serve ladies of fashion where the card-money at their routs and drums, which of right belongs to the servants, is appropriated by many of the said ladies to the defraying the expences of tea, coffee, and wax-candles for the said routs and drums.

That a very great number are the domestics of persons of quality, in whose services they have se

little to do, from the crowds maintained in them, that they find themselves under a necessity of spending a great part of their time in alehouses and other places of resort, where, in imitation of their masters, they divert themselves with the fashionable amusement of gaming, wenching and drinking; which amusements, as they are always attended with considerable expence, require more than their bare wages to support.

That others, who live in the city, and are the servants of grocers, haberdashers, pastry-cooks, oilmen, pewterers, brokers, taylors, and so forth, have such uncertain humours to deal with, and so many airs of quality to submit to, that their spirits would be quite broken, but for the cordial of vàils: which I humbly apprehend they have a better title to than any other of the fraternity, as the maid-servants in such places happen to be as great traders as their masters, and are rarely to be dealt with but at extravagant prices.

That a third part at least, of the whole body of servants in this great metropolis, who for certain wise reasons, pass with their masters for single men, have wives and families to maintain in private; and if it be considered that the common advantages of such servants, without the addition of vails, are too insignificant to support the said wives and families in any degree of elegance, it is presumed that their perquisites ought in no wise to be abridged.

For these and many other reasons, too tedious to be here set down, I am not only for continuing the custom of giving money to servants, but do also publish it as my opinion, that in all families where the said servants are no more in number than a dozen or fifteen, it is mean, pitiful, and beggarly, in any person whatsoever, to pass from table without giving to all.

No. LXI. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28.

THOUGH the following letters are written upon more serious subjects, and in a graver style and manner than are common to this paper, which is professedly devoted to the ridicule of vice, folly and false taste, yet as they are intended for public benefit, and may contain some useful hints and informations, I shall present them to my readers without farther preface.

To Mr. Fitz-Adam.

SIR,

HIS Majesty having frequently recommended to his parliament to consider of proper means to put a stop to the numerous robberies and murders amongst us, I shall want no apology for sending you my thoughts upon that subject. Many persons have been of opinion that severe punishments were necessary in these cases; but constant experience proves the contrary, and that the consequence is only making rogues more desperate, and thereby encreasing the danger, instead of providing for the security of honest men. One thing only I think might safely be done with respect to punishments, which is, that no criminal (except in very particular circumstances) who is clearly convicted, should escape by transportation or otherwise. The lenity of the government suffers this in hopes of an amendment; but when the mind is once corrupted to so great a degree, it is seldom capable of any virtuous sentiments; and the case of such persons is, that they generally return from transportation in a short time, and fall immediately into the same company and profligate course of life as before. Such kind of pardons