1 entrance of the city, being all the tax the fith were subject to. "No farther demand was made on him, either for cuftom, tythe, or rent till October, 1773, when he was proceffed to the areopagus (a court fimilar to our civil bill court) for near ten pounds, alledged to be due from him for rent of his ftanding in the market; but no demand was then made for custom or tythe; apparent ly, from a conviction how little the præto rian body, or corporation, was legally entitled to it. "Nicholas took defence to the procefs, employing a learned counfellor to defend bis caufe; who, with abilities resembling thofe of our Caldbeck, proved to the fatisfaction of the court, that the prætorian body had no fort of right or title to the fum demanded for rent of the ftanding. After a full bearing therefore, the procefs was difosiffed on the merits, with cofts. "Here (continues the narrative) was a glorious victory obtained over the prætorian body.-Eminent counfel, nay the court of areopagus, in which prefided a learned judge-a judge not inferior to a Bradstreet! decided in favour of Nicholas, against the unjust, the unfounded claims of his adverfaries. Who now would not have thought that all his troubles were at an end? Who would not imagine, that the prætorian body would have had the modey to acquiefce in the upright decifion of the court? Who would furmife that, arraigning the integrity and wifdom of the judge, they would difpute his judgment; and, ftill perfevering in the piths of litigation, continue their vexatious claims? "For fome time indeed, Nicholas had a refpite; while those of his own business, who had fat filent fpectators of the affair, were ftill exposed to the extortions he had eppofed, and continued with a criminal paffiveness to submit to them. "Many further vexatious and troublefome proceedings enfued ; which (fays the author) though they fully prove the unrelenting vengeance of the magistrates againft Nicholas, and their fixed refolu tion to ruin him, if they could; yet, as foreign to our purpose, and tiresome to our readers, we omit the account of. "On the 7th of Jan. 1783, the lawless and outrageous proceedings were renew ed, a Man, Eager for mifchicf, came with his ragged "associates; to whom he had joined a brother officer, a vile lictor, refembling our high conftable; and with oaths and menaces, ordered Nicholas's man to bring his fish out of the market, which he refused doing, but, as was his duty, went to his mafter, to acquaint him with what was going forward. On his return, he found thefe defperadoes had thrown the fith and boards into the street, and heard then declare they would fet fire to them-whether to broil the fish for their dinner, or to deftroy them, let the public judge. Nicholas, in the mean time, coming home, and hearing of these violent and illegal tranfactions, went to an Utopian feribe-a perfon fimilar to a Dublin Notary Public-to request him to attend and witnefs the proceedings. The feribe could not conveniently attend himfelf, but fent his clerk; and as Nicholas and he came to the market, the former ordered his fervant to bring back his fish into the market, which had been thrown into the ftreet, and demanded the officers authority for what they had done; to which they answered, that they acted by the directions of the Prætor, or Lord for a Year. They then again forcibly feized the fish, which had been gathered up, and with reiterated wantonnefs, again threw them into the treet, though they were warned of the illegality of their conduct by the feribe's clerk. "A few days after these riotous and lawlefs proceedings, fill farther to vex and barrass the little Fishmonger, a fellow, employed by fome underftrappers of the Prætorian body, or Corporation, came with a pavier, to mend a hole in the pavement near his ftanding in the market; and to find tones for it, he ordered him to break up the pavement dire&ly oppofite to Nicholas's fhop-door, on purpofe to injure and diftrefs him. Whilft this was doing, the fellow defired him to take his fish out of the market ; who in reply, told him to mind his own bulinefs, and then went to his breakfast, leaving his fish in the care of his brother and fervant boy: But before he bad time to finish his breakfast, his boy came and informed him, that the fellows were going to throw his fish out of the market. On this information, he went there; and feeing them taking his fith away, demanded, "By what authority they did "thofe things?" They aufwered," by order of the Prætor and his officers." He told them, they were acting illegally, and dared them to produce the Prætor's authority in writing; but this they only laughed at, and continued their inhu min fport of throwing the fish out of the market into the ilreet. "Provoked to fee himself thus treated, and his own and partners property deftroyed, he took hold of feveral of these mifcreants fucceffively by the breath, and told them, that if there was law or jut with rage; they laughed with madness! At length, it was determined, that the Prætor himself should come from behind the curtain, and appear on the flage in propria perfona. tice in Utopia, he would make them repent their daring and lawless actions. For this flight oppofition to ruffians in office, to the defroyers of his commodities by the hold hands of violence, he was afterwards indicted; many vexatious proceedings, attended with circum. fances of unparalleled injustice, and its conftant concomitant, heavy expence, were had against him; proceedings, which it were tedious to relate, and foreign to the main end of this narrative to infert in it. The bills were found, ow. ing to dextrous management, against him; but notwithtanding this, on the day appointed for trial in the Court Imperialaufwering to our King's Bench-confeious of the little foundation they had, no one appeared against him. However, fuch is the deficiency of the Utopian laws, he was obliged to pay above four pounds cons of court, exclufive of a fee to the lawyer he employed on the occa. fion; and without which fee, that makes, as Lewis, the Corrector of the Prefs, expreffes it, in his Candid Philofopher, dumb men deal in Speaking tropes, and blind men fee the goodness of a bad caufe, it were in vain to expect an Utopian law orator would plead either for wrong or right, for justice or injuftice, or strive to bring boneft men to the gallows, or fave rógues from it. "In purfuance of this refolution, on the 15th of January, 1783, the Prætor, clothed in the regalia of authority, armed with the enfigns of power, attended by low conftables, a high conftable, and-a motley medley crowd of followers, with pitchforks, spears, staves, weapons of of fence and defence, clubs to knock men down, and inftruments to flick pigs, ap. peared in the Fish Market!-At this aufpicious, this important moment, it is faid, that hogs grunted, and affes brayed, that cows calved, and goats confummated their loves: But this I vouch not for fact, nor think it material to this genuine hiftory.-He then ordered his attendants, or followers, to feize poor Nicholas's fifh, and throw them out of the market;—firfl, however, taking care to referve the choiceft cod for his own table; a prudential conduct, an Utopian Prætor, or Lord for a year, would be ashamed to be deficient in; most tenaci only observing the good old maxim, of having wit in one's anger. But thinking he had not yet done enough, and refolving to display the greatnefs of his might, be ordered alfo his followers to throw poor Nicholas along with his fifh. Then, with a majeftical march and haughty demeanour, unlike that of a thief in a WARREN (caught in the act of flealing rabbits) he departed from the Fith-Market, to perform another important act,that of dining on the cod he had made. The work then concludes in the following bold and ftriking manner. Words cannot exprefs the mingled emotions which feized the breas of the Prætor and bis brethren of the Prætorian Body, at finding a refiftance to their bigh wills. They had been accuflomed to the moft tame and abje& fubmiflion paid to their dictates, whether legal or illegal, wife or other quife And now, to find themfolves oppofed in their arbitrary de crees by a little Fishmonger! by a man, "I have thus felected, from an enor forced to toil through life for a precari. mous mafs of matter, and an innumeracus fubfiftence for himself and family! ble quantity of facts, the moft friking by a man, whom their very officers were particulars of poor Nicholas's ftory. To taught to look on with fcorn nay, by mention the whole would be needlefs. a man, who avowed, who gloried in the They are all of the complexion of those integrity of his intentions, and declared, I have related. They are a tissue of it was the public good, that was the cruelty, tyranny and oppreffion that are main-fpring of his conduct! shame, vex nearly incredible-to us who live in Dubation, rage, revenge, took poffeffion of-lin, They exhibit a vindictive fpirit, that their fouls, and fired their very brain !They knew not what to do. They were plunged into a gulph, they could not get out of, They were stuck on the horns of a dilemma, that forely pricked them; unable to find a better fitution, and unrefolved to quit their prefent one. In the torture of their fouls, they had nearly refolved to deviate into right, but Hell's whole conclave forbade fo ra an In a word, they groaned with anguill; they curft with fury; they wept would difgrace the most ferocious clan of Indians, or horde of Tartars. They prove to what a high degree barbarifm may be carried in a civilized country. They fhew the dreadful confequences of arming men with authority, who know not how to use it properly. They convey to us this ufeful effon, that it is dangerous for private men, even in a good caule, to relift the encroachments of all grafping power. "But (interrogates the author) muft free men fubmit to be made flaves of? Muft they kneel and crouch at the feet of their haughty mafters? Muft they fubmit to whatever impofitions they please to lay on them?-No! human nature revolts at the thought. The voice of God, through the organs of man, cries out aloud, "Be virtuous; and in a good caufe, be bold !" "That good caufe (fays the Writer) I bave placed before the world in as clear a manner as I am able, I have painted to them fuffering virtue under oppreffion. I have fhewn them Tyranny riding over the bodies of fallen innocents, that in vain implore pity, and beg to be treated according to law-Law! What have tyrants, that have robbers to do with law? Their will is the law; and their armed myrmidons are the enforcers of that law. But I will declaim no more. I will come now seriously to the point I aim at; and I beg the attention of my countrymen in general to what I am going to propofe. "Though the fcenes I have laid open happened in Utopia; though it is in Utopia, that a poor Fishmonger, in defence of his own and others rights, has entered into a conteft with a great Corporation; yet Irishmen fhould not be unmoved at it, They are all, as citizens of the universe, interefted in it. It is the characteristic, it is the glory of Irishmen, that they are as generous as brave. Let them then fhew their generofity and bravery, by taking poor Nicholas's part; by seconding his upright intentions; and support ing him in his defence of right against power. Let them not look on his cafe, as the cafe of an individual, but as a great public caufe, interefting to the whole community. Let them remember, that individuals, who boldly ftand up for the rights of the public, are entitled to the public fupport. Aided by the generous and fpirited Hibernians, he may crush that hydra, that would devour the very entrails of mankind; but without a pub lic fupport, he must give up the unequal conteft. Subscribe then liberally, my vir. tuous countrymen, in his behalf; and be affured, that whatever the fums may amount to, they fhall be depofited in the National Bank, and faithfully applied in the defence of the public rights "The rod, formed of a number of twigs, may be broken with ease, if its component parts are divided, and feparately attacked; but while thofe component parts are in union they are irrefifli ble. Such is the chief fcope and defign of Hib. Mag. Jan, 1784 this Pamphlet; which as it deferves, will certainly meet the approbation of every intelligent and worthy man. But there is another, and a greater Effect we think it must have, that of inducing the great Senate of the Nation to examine into the Matters here complained of, and to interpofe their Authority, to prevent future Exactions and Impofitions. To the Author therefore of this Pamphlet every Fa mily in the Kingdom, and the proprietors of Fisheries and Dealers in Fish in particular, must hold themselves to be great. ly obligated. Cecilia: Or, Memoirs of an Heiress: Concluded from our Mag. for September, 1783, Page 463. A thoughts of an union between young T that particular period, when all Delvile and Cecilia feemed to be at an end, and a week of ftruggle with all her feelings had just elapsed, in her retirement at Mrs. Charlten's houfe in Suffolk, the received by the post the following letter from Mrs. Delvile. To Mifs Beverley. Bristol, Oct. 21. My fweet young friend will not, I hope, be forry to hear of my safe arrival at this place. To me every account of her health and welfare will ever be the intelligence I fhall moft covet to receive. Yet I mean not to ask for it in return : to chance I will truft for information, and I only write now to fay I fhall write no more. Too much for thanks is what I owe you, and what I think of you is beyond all power of expreflion. Do not, then, with me ill, ill as I have feemed to merit of you; for my own heart is almoft broken by the tyranny I have been compelled to practise upon yours. And now let me bid a long adieu to you, my admirable Cecilia. You fhall not be tormented with a useless correfpondence, which can only awaken painful recollections, or give rife to yet more pain: ful new anxieties. Fervently will I pray for the reftoration of your happiness, to which nothing can fo greatly contribute as that wife, that uniform command, fo feminine, yet fo dignified, you maintain. over your paffions; which often I have admired, though never fo feelingly as at this confcious moment, when my own health is the facrifice of emotions moft fa tally unrestrained! Send to me no answer, even if you have the fweetnefs to with it. Every new proof of the generosity of your nature is to me but a new wound. Forget us, therefore, wholly. Alas! you have only D kwa known us for forrow! Forget us, dear and invaluable Cecilia, though ever, as you have nobly deferved, muft you be fondly and gratefully remembered by Augufta Delvile. The attempted philofophy, and laboured refignation of Cecilia, this letter deftroyed. The ftruggle was over, the apathy was at an end, and she burst into an agony of tears, which finding the vent they had long fought, now flowed unchecked down her cheeks, fad monitors of the weakness of reafon oppofed to the ànguish of forrow! pleasure, I have no power to give it any one; you can give none to me: the whole world could not inveft you with the means!' Well, Sir,' faid Cecilia, who had litthe fpirit to defend herself, I will not vindicate the expreffion, but of this I will unfeignedly affure you, I am at leaft as glad to see you just now, as I should be to fee any body." Your eyes,' cried he, are red, your voice is inarticulate! Young, rich, and attractive, the world at your feet; that world yet untried, and its falsehood unknown; how have you thus found means to anticipate mifery? Which way have you uncovered the cauldron of human woes? Fatal and early anticipation! that cover once removed, can never be replaccd; thofe woes, thofe boiling woes, will pour out upon you continually, and only when your heart ceases to beat, will their ebullition cease to torture you !' A letter at once fo careffing, yet fo abfolute, forced its way to her heart, in fpite of the fortitude he had flattered herself was its guard. In giving up Delvile fhe was fatisfied of the propriety of feeing him no more, and convinced that even to talk of him would be folly and imprudence; but to be told that for the future they must remain ftrangers to the existence of each other-there feemed in this a hardship, a rigour, that was infup.how cruel, yet how true!' portable! Oh, what,' cried fhe, is human nature! in its beft ftate how imperfect! that a woman fuch as this, fo noble in character, fo elevated in fentiment, with heroifm to facrifice to ber sense of duty the happinefs of a fon, whom with joy fhe would die to ferve, can herself be thus governed by prejudice, thus enflaved, thus fubdued by opinion! Yet never, even when miferable, unjust or irrational; her grief was unmixed with anger, and her tears ftreamed not from refentment, but affliction. The fituation of Mrs. Delvile, however different, the confidered to be as wretched as her own. She read, therefore, with fadnefs, but not bitterness, her farewell, and received not with difdain, but with gratitude, ber fympathy. Yet, though her indignation was not irritated, her fufferings were doubled, by a farewell fo kind, yet fo defpotic; a fympathy fe affectionate, yet so hopeless. In this first indulgence of grief which fhe had granted to her difappointment, fhe was foon interrupted by a fummons down ftairs to a gentleman. She then put up her letter, and went into the parlour; and there, to her in finite amazement, beheld Mr. Albany. How little, Sir,' fhe cried, did I expect this pleasure!' • This pleasure,' repeated he, do you call it? What ftrange abufe of words! What causeless trifling with honefty! Is language of no purpose but to wound the ear with untruths? Is the gift of speech only granted us to pervert the fe of anderBanding? I can give you no Alas! cried Cecilia,' fhuddering, He Why went you, cried he, to the cauldron! It came not to you. Mifery feeks not man, but man mifery. walks out in the fun, but flops not for a cloud; confident he pursues his way, till the storm which, gathering, be might have avoided, burts over his devoted head. Scared and amazed, be repents his temerity; he calls, but it is then too late! he runs, but it is thunder which follows him ; Such is the prefumption of man, fuch at once is the arrogance and fhallowness of his nature! And thou, fimple and blind! haft thou, too, followed whither fancy bas led thee, unheeding that thy career was too vehement for tranquillity, nor miffing that lovely companion of youth's early innocence, till, adventurous and unthinking, thou haft loft her for ever!' In the prefent weak ftate of Cecilia's fpirits, this attack was too much for her; and the tears the had juft, and with difficulty `reftrained, again forced their way down her cheeks, as the answered, It is but too true,-I have lost her for ever!' Poor thing,' said he, while the rigour of his countenance was foftened into the gentlest commiferation, fo young!looking too fo innocent!-tis hard!And is nothing left thee? no fmall res maining hope, to cheat, humanely cheat thy yet not wholly extinguished credulity?" Cecilia wept without answering. Let me not, faid he, waste my compaffion upon nothing; compaffion is with me no effufion of affectation; tell me, then, if thou deferveft it, or if thy misfortunes misfortunes are imaginary, and thy grief factitious? Factitious, repeated the, Good heaven!' Answer me, then, those questions, in which I fhall comprife the only calamities for which forrow has no controul, or none from buman motives. Tell me, then, have you loft by death the friend of your bofom?' • No? Is your fortune diffipated by extravagance, and your power of relieving the diftreffed at au end? No; the power and the will are I hope equally undiminished,' O, then, unhappy gir!! have you been guilty of fome vice, and bangs remorfe thus heavy on your confcience?' No, no; thank Heaven, to that mifery at least, I am a ftranger!' His countenance now again refumed its feverity, and, in the fterneit manner, Whence then,' he faid, thefe tears; and what is this caprice you dig nify with the name of forrow? Strange wantonnefs of indolence and luxury! Perverfe repining of ungrateful plenitude! Oh! hadft thou known what I have fuf. fered !' Could I leffen what you have fuffered,' faid Cecilia, 1 fhould fincerely rejoice; but heavy indeed must be your affliction, if mine in its comparison deferves to be styled caprice!' "Caprice! repeated he, 'tis joy! 'tis ecftacy compared with mine! Thou baft not in licentiousness watted thy in heritance! Thou haft not by remorfe bar. red each avenue to enjoyment, nor yet has the cold grave feized the beloved of thy foul !' Neither,' faid Cecilia, I hope, are the evils you have yourself sustained fo irremediable?' Yes, I have borne them all!--have borne? I bear them still; I fhall bear them while I breathe! I may rue them, perbaps, yet longer.' 'Good God!' cried Cecilia, fhrinking, 'what a world is this! how full of woe and wickedness!' Yet thou, too, canft complain,' cried, be, though happy in life's only bleffing, Innocence! Thou, too, canft murmur though stranger to death's only terror, Sin! O, yet if thy forrow is unpolluted with guilt, be regardless of all elfe, and rejoice in thy destiny !' But who,' cried the, deeply fighing, Thall teach me fuch a leffon of joy, when all within rifes to oppose it?' • I,' cried he, ' will teach it thee, for I will tell thee my own fad hory. Then wilt thou find how much happier is thy lot, then wilt thou raise thy head in thankful'triumph.' O, no! triumph comes not fo lightly! Yet if you will venture to truft me with fome account of yourself, I fhall be glad to hear it, and much obliged by the communication.' I will,' he answered, whatever I may fuffer: to awaken thee from this dream of fancied forrow, I will open all my wounds, and thou fhalt probe them with fresh fhame.' No, indeed,' cried Cecilia with quicknefs, I will not hear you, if the relation will be fo painful' Upon me this humanity is loft,' faid he, fince punishment and penitence alone give me comfort: I will tell thee, therefore, my crimes, that thou mayeft know thy own felicity. Liften then to me, and learn what mifery is! Guilt is alone the bafis of lafting unhappiness; guilt is the bafis of mine, and therefore I am a wretch for ever!' Cecilia would again have declined hearing him, but he refused to be spared: and as her curiofity had long been excited tɔ know fomething of his biftory, and the motives of his extraordinary conduct, the was glad to have it satisfied, and gave him the utmost attention. I will not fpeak to you of my family," fiid he, hiftorical accuracy would little anfwer' to either of us. I am a native of the West Indies, and I was early fent hither to be educated. While I was yet at the University, I faw, I adored, and I pursued the fairest flower that ever put forth its fweet buds, the foftelt heart that ever was broken by ill usage! She was poor and unprotected, the daughter of a villager; fhe was untaught and unpretending, the child of fimplicity! But fifteen fummers had fhe bloomed, and her heart was an efy conqueft; yet, once made mine, it refifted all allurements to infidelity. My fellow ftudents attacked her; fle was affaulted by all the arts of feduction; flattery, bribery, fupplication, all were employed, yet all failed; the was wholly my own; and with fincerity fo attractive, 1 determined to marry her in defiance of all worldly objections. • The fudden death of my father called me hastily to Jamaica. I feared leaving this treafure unguarded, yet in decency could neither marry nor take her directly. I pledged my faith, therefore, to return to her, as foon as I had fettled my affairs, and I left to a hofom friend the inspection of her conduct in my ab fence. To leave her was madness; to truft |