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Evils from a Prize in the Lottery."

give them an additional brilliancy.-My wife affifted me in my business, as a wife ought; and if any business called me from home, there was the behind the counter, and as attentive as myfelf. I - kept one maid fervant, and a boy to carry parcels. My two children had got fuch schooling as was thought proper for their expectations. I intended my fon to fucceed me in bufinefs; and, as for my daughter, fhe would have made an excellent house-wife, which is all, in my humble opinion, that tradefmen's daughters ought to be. I paid all parish rates with pleasure, and ferved parish offices fo honestly, that I do not think I eat more than two children in all my time, which is faying a great deal. As to amufements, we never defired the expenfive ones. Now and then, in very fine wea ther, I would treat my family to Sadler's Wells, or Barnaby Spa, but as to trips by fea,we never went farther than Gravelend, and carrying our own provifions with us, and coming back by the next tide, you must allow all this was very moderate.

In this happy state things went on for fome years. All was fun-fhine and broad day-light; aye, and good broad humour at night with us. But happinefs will have an end. There are many ups and downs in life. The devil is never tired of the many pranks he plays us poor honeft folks. It happened one day, Sir, that my wife received a hand bill about the lottery, wrapt round an ounce of green tea which we had brought to treat the curate of our parish with. What there was in this wicked bill, I do

not

now remember, but the woman would not reft until fhe had bought a ticket, or a fhare of one I had not been used to contradict her, and perhaps the devil might enter into me at the fame time, for I believe he generally prefers a whole family, when he can get them. The ticket was bought, and I had been happy if it had proved a blank; but in a few days it was pronounced an hun dred pound prize. A fecond ticket followed of courfe, and a third; and before the lottery had done drawing, I was mafter of five thousand pounds fterling money. This was a fum of which there is no mention in the records of our family for feveral generations. I feemed, indeed, born a great man without the help of ancestors.

But alas! this was the beginning of forrows and evils. My wife now deflared war against all bufinefs, industry,

163

and frugality; and as it was by her advice I bought the ticket, the took the whole merit of our fuccefs out of the hands of Dame Fortune, and infisted that we fhould lay out our money like people of fashion. People of fashion! Thefe were her very words; and, the added, likewife, that the must now fee a little of the world, and metamorphofe me and my children after her own way.

Would you believe it, Sir? I cannot fay that I was wholly against all this, because I could not help feeling how much more comfortable it is to have five thoufand pounds, than to be daily toiling to make up as many hundreds; but I declare, that if it had not been for this money, I never should have thought of becoming a man of fashion, for I had nó other notion of fuch at that time, than that they were perfons who required long credit. But to proceed-The first fep my wife took, was to difpofe of our stock in trade, and this was eafily done, at the lofs of about three hundred pounds, for we were very precipitate, and the buyers knowing that we could not for fhame's fake keep our stock on hand, resolved to eafe us of it in the genteeleft way poffible; and I may truly fay, for the fir time of my life, that my candles were burnt at both ends. This being over, my wife difcovered that there was fomething very pernicious in the air of Whitechapel, and determined to leave the place. My leafe had fifteen years to run, and I foon got a tenant who agreed to pay me lefs than I was obliged to pay the landlord; but this was nothing to a man who, by the fale of his effects, had added a pretty handfome fumr to the above five thoufand.

After much confultation (for we found the whims of people of fashion come very naturally) we hired a houfe in one of the ftreets near Palace-vard, because it was only 100l. a year rent, and was fo centrical (as my wife called it) to the playhonies, and the palace! By this you will learn,' that the knew as much of the centre of the playhoufes as he did about the circumference of our fortune. B t here, however, we fat down, and a difcovery having been made, naturally enough I muft fay, that the furniture of our old houfe was not proper even for the fervants' rooms of our new one, we employed an honeft broker, who furnished us completely, from top to bottom, with every article in the newest taste. We had carpets which it was almost herefy to walk upon; chairs on which I dare not

164

Evils from a Prize in the Lottery.

fit down without a caution, which deprived them of all eafe; and tables which were fcreened, by ftrict laws, from the profane touch of a naked hand.

Our difcoveries had now no end. We found that tea was not fo hurtful to the nerves when drank out of a filver tea-pot, and, fome how or other, the milk and the fugar derived certain new qualities, from being contained in veffels of the fame metal. I had faved fome pounds of my beft candles from the general fale, as I thought I could use my own goods cheaper than. if I bought them of a stranger, who would of courfe treat me like a gentleman. But Jack-a-day, my wife's lungs were immediately fo affected by the smell of the tallow, that I was obliged to confign my wares, the work of my own hands, to the ufe of the fervants, and order wax lights in their place.

You have now feen me removed from Whitechapel to Palace-yard, my houfe new furnished in a fashionable ftyle, as handfome and as ufelefs as money could purchase. I had hopes I might now be at reft, and enabled to purfue my old plans, and was one night stepping out in fearch of fome friendly public-houfe, where I might fmoke my pipe as ufual, and enjoy the luxury of talking politics, and eating a Welsh rabbit, but no fuch thing could be permitted. What! a man of my ftanding finoak tobacco! Smoaking was a vulgar, beastly, unfashionable, vile thing. It might do very well for Whitechapel, or the Tower Hamlets, but would not be fuffered in any genteel part of the world. And, as for checfe, no cheese was fit to be brought to table but Parmefan, or perhaps a little Cheshire ftewed in claret. Fie, husband, how could you think of tobacco and Welsh rabbits: I am abfolutely afhamed of you: at this rate we might as well have been living at Whitechapel."

To do my wife justice, however, as the deprived me of the pleasure of feeing company out of doors, fhe took care to provide me with a fufficient number of vifitors. There were Mifters and Miftreffes, Mafters and Miffes, from all parts of St. Margaret's and St. John's parifles, none of which I had the fmallest previous acquaintance with; but my wife always maintained, that feeing company was the mark of fashionable life, and things had proceeded now too far for me to raise objections. Indeed one day drove another out of my head, and I began to be reconciled to fashionable life. I thought it mighty pleafant to have new furniture too good

for ufe, and new acquaintances of no ufe at all; to drink wines which do not agree with one's ftomach, and to eat of dishes which one does not know the ufe of. We had likewife our card-parties, where my wife and I foon learned all the fashionable games. How we played, I fhall not say, but we discovered in no long time, that it was not Whitechapel play.

My two children, you may fuppofe, did not efcape the general metamorphofis; the boy was difpatched to Eton fchool, to be brought up with the children of other people of fortune, but the girl was kept at home to fee life, and a precious life we led. The morning was the moit innocent part of it, for we were then faft afleep; and yet, Sir, you cannot think how difficult it was to caft off old cuftoms, for I frequently awoke at fix or feven o'clock, and would have got up, had not my wife reminded me that it was unfashionable, and asked, "What must the fervants think?"-Aye, Sir, and even the, with all her new quality, would fometimes difcover the old leaven of Whitechapel. One night, when a lady faid the believed it would rain, my wife anfwered, perhaps it mought. Another time, on feeing a great man go to the Houfe of Lords, although the had with her at that moment one of the first people of fashion in the Broad Sanctuary, the exclaimed, "There's a go!"

Pride, however, will have a fall. Grandeur muft one day or other expire in the focket. My wife was now seized with a very ftrange diforder, the nature of which I cannot better explain, than by faying, that the loft the use of both her feet and legs, and could not go out unless in a carriage. This was the more extraordinary, becaufe, when at home, or even on a vifit, the never could fit a minute in one place, but was perpetually running up and down. She threw out broad hints, therefore, that a carriage must be had, and a carriage therefore was procured; but mark the confequences, two fervants were added to our former nunber. To be fure, every body must have a coachman and footman. One bufinels was now, to use our homely phrafe, good as done," and what little the town left, was fully accomplished by a visit to Brighton, and another to Tunbridge.

as

Here, Sir, is a blank in my hiftory, which I fhall fill up no otherwife than by informing you, that I took the advantage of an Infolvent act, and by the affistance of fome friends, who did not defert me when I deferted them, I am once more

quietly

Perfection of the Chinese Government.

quietly fet down in my old fhop, com-
pleatly cured of my violent fit of gran-
deur. I am now endeavouring to repair
my affairs as well as I can, but I cannot
hold my head fo high. They are perpe-
tually asking me at the club, "What my
t'other end of the town friends would
have faid in fuch and such a case ?" and
as I go to church on Sundays, I fome-
times hear the neigbours faying, "Aye,
there goes the man that got the prize."
Wherefore, Sir, for the benefit of all
fuch unfortunately lucky men as myfelf,
I hope you will give this a place in your
Magazine. I am, Sir, your very hum-
ble fervant,
DAVID DIP.
Whitechapel High-street,
March 10, 1798.

For the Monthly Magazine. HAVE been lately occupied with the perufal of the recent accounts of China, by Sir GEORGE STAUNTON, and Mr. ANDERSON. The firft is too ver

bofe; but both are interesting. Some confiderations naturally arife, of high importance to human society.

I do not find that I have difcovered from either works, the ftate of property in China; though no topic can be more interefting. Are the eftates large, or fmall? Is the inheritance firm and fecure? Thefe are queftions not anfwered. We only know that there is no hereditary nobility-and that large eftates, if fuch exift, can bestow no fort of influence, or political power. There is no church and fate: there is no property governmentYet I have heard of fome diftant countries, not far from Terra Incognita, in which it is faid, that church and ftate muft ftand or fall together; nay, the clergy gravely toast, CHURCH and state, while the French were content with a lefs prepofterous order of words, l'Etat et l'Eglife.

In the fame countries, it is faid, that property is the natural and juft foundation of power; and that a man will ferve his country in proportion to the stake he has in its welfare. Good heavens! what fools these Chinese are! Their government is a government without church and kate, a government in which property is a political cypher-fuch a government cannot stand a dozen years.

It has flood five thousand years: and has feen all the eminent empires and republics rife and fall.

What is the cause of this unaccountable mystery?

.165

There is no mystery. The plain cause is, that the government of China is founded on the model of that of heaven, in which there is no church and state, no property government.

Pray explain the emperor :

He indeed is no deity, except in power. He may be a tyrant; but a country, containing three hundred millions of souls, is is fo wide, that his tyranny comparatively small, and felt only by a few rich people round him, a few ambitious men, who chufe to trample the flippery ice of fortune.

Setting the emperor afide, I fay the government of China refembles the pe-petual ariftocracy of heaven, in that radical point, that it is regulated by MIND only.

It is a mere LITERARY government, in which the skilful, (a perpetual and indefeafible law of nature) conduct and guide the ignorant.

Their fchools and colleges, instead of ripening fools into eloquent fenators, or pedantic clergy, are dedicated to inftruct youth in the united practical sciences of morals and politics. A man is promoted in exact proportion to his merit and knowledge. The examinations are public: and no influence is, or can be used.

There is a rabbinical fable of a rebellion in heaven. It is impoffible. Pure incorporeal minds must feel their own gradations. Even on earth, the men of greateft genius are always the most modeft; because they are moft confcious of the abilities of others, and of their own defects. An angel muft fee, by one g'ance of intuition, whether he be inferior of existence. or fuperior, in the grand progreffive fcale

In China, government is as it ought to be, a province alloted only to TRIED SKILL. A man proceeds, in proportion to his learning and justice, from a finall office to a greater. A Chinese will laugh at the idea of alloting even the meanest fhare in government to a raw college ftudent, or a teinplar.

duration of the Chinese empire, its uniI repeat, therefore, that the amazing verfal cultivation, ftupendous population, unexampled profperity and happiness of its inhabitants, its contempt of foolish wars, &c.* in fhort, every thing the

* No foreign conquest has ever affected the internal government of China, becaufe it is founded on MIND, is regular as the univerfal laws of morality, immutable as truth, eternal as fincere.

166.

Mrs. Webber on Mrs. Langhans's Monument.

exact reverse of all other ftates, ancient and modern,-all, all, arife from one fimple caufe:

Its government is the exact reverse of most others, because it is the province of men of letters; because it is the facred prerogative of MIND only; while most others are abandoned to court intrigues,—to the wickedness and ignorance of men of rank and property -to tygers, fometimes called warriors, fometimes ftyled heroes-idiot favourites bereditary stupidity-the yellow fever of corruption-brutal force and terror-and the worst of all plagues, perverse, ignorant, profligate minifters, who in China would be burned, if they afpired to the lowest rank f Mandarins.

Z.

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T has often been the misfortune of the writers of travels to deceive their readers, by magnifying, in the liveliness of their imagination, the objects they defcribe; or to be themfelves deceived by the idle tales of the Ciceroni in Italy, and in other countries by thofe of the valets de place who generally accompany I have lately met with two inftances of the

them.

errors into which the travellers were led by the universal love of mankind for the wonderful. Give me leave, Sir, to correct them in your interefting Magazine. Pretending to know more than is commonly known in England about the hif tory of the fo justly famous Mrs. Langhans's monument, at Hindelbank, near Berne, Dr. SMITH* attributes its origin to fome revengeful feelings in Mr. Nabl, the fculpter, who thought himself difgraced by the painting and gilding the family of D'E----, had caused to be

daubed over the superb maufeleum he

had erected to one of their relations in the fame church. The learned Dr. will, I hope, give credit to a native of Berne, and niece of Mrs. Langhans, when the afferts, that he knows, and has written even more than what is commonly known in Switzerland, and in the family of this lady. The anecdote with which he has amufed his readers is as fabulous, though not fo much fentimental, as that of MAYER.

He has feigned that the ftatuary, while he was occupied in erecting a superb mo

Vol. iii. p. 176. "Tour on the Continent in 1786 and 1787," &c.

"Tableau Hiftorique, Politique et PhiloSophique de la Suiffe," p. 22, lettre xx. de Berne.

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nument to vanity in a country village, became paffionately enamoured of the curate's wife, a beautiful woman in the prime of life, and that, a deeply concerned witnefs of her untimely death, he thought of immortalizing at once, his tendernefs and her deplorable fate.

Permit me, Sir, to contradict those two ftories, equally founded on truth. Mrs. Langhans was truly beautiful, and of the molt amiable difpofition; but the tender fympathy for the grief of an inconfolable husband, the unanimous prayers of a flock by whom the curate and his wife were fincerely beloved, and who rewarded the labours of the artist, determined, alone, Mr. Nahl, a Pruffian fculptor, to exert his great talents on this mournful occafion. The love of truth, and the tender care for the facred memory of a relation, much esteemed and refpected, prompt me to defire you to infert your Magazine.

this letter in

I will not attempt a description of this monument, fo often given in many Englifth books of travels, and known by a fine French print, and an English one after it; both, it must be confefled, give fome amateurs of arts, after the reading. a very inadequate idea of it. If, then, of this letter, and of the various accounts of travellers, would wish to fee its orifelf, which is in my poffeffion, I would ginal model, made by the ftatuary himvery willingly gratify their curiofity.

I am, Sir, your humble fervant,
ELIZABETH WEBBER.

No. 8, Mount-fireet, Berkley-fquare,
13th Dec. 1797.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

BG in answer to N.'s queftion re

fpecting what is meant by the "communion of faints," has, after a view of the fubject. This article of the proteftant divine, given only a partial ancient creed, referred by the tradition of the church to the apostles themselves, comprizes one of the leading dogmata of the catholic religion: it does not merely from Archbishop Secker, "that commuexprefs, according to B. G.'s quotation nion of benevolence, kind offices, inftruction, and edification, which frould be among all good chriftians;" but as a point of the orthodox creed, acknowledged by the fathers of the church, further implies, that the faithful on earth communicate, or are in communion with the angels, and faints in heaven. It has indeed been the general belief of Chriftians

from

Communion of Saints.....The Enquirer, No. XV.

from the time of the apoftles, that there is immediately within the divine prefence, befides the hofts of angels, a fociety, or community of patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, and other holy perfons, who, in their fate of glory, ftill fympathize with the faithful below, under their manifold trials; affifting, and comforting them in various ways, or prefenting their prayers, and interceding for them with the divine majesty.

The communion of faints, and alfo the nature of the intercourfe which fubfifts between the faints of the triumphant, heavenly church, and members of the fuffering church, or purgatory, and those of the church militant on earth, is explained, and at the fame time enforced as an indifpenfable article of belief, by the following decree of the council of Trent. "The holy fynod commands all bishops, and all others who have the charge and care of teaching, diligently to instruct the faithful: first, concerning the interceffion and invocation of faints; and concerning the honouring of reliques; and the lawful ufe of images, according to the practice of the catholic and apoftolic church, received from the primitive ages of Chriftianity, and according to the confent of the holy fathers, and the decrees of the holy councils; teaching them that the faints now reigning, together with Chrift, do offer their prayers to God for men; that it is good and profitable to invoke them with humble fupplication, and to fly to their prayers, aid, and affiftance, for the obtaining the benefits of God, through his fon Jefus Chrift, our Lord, who is our only Redeemer and Saviour."

Whoever, therefore, in repeating the creed, feriously profeffes his faith in the "communion of faints," muft believe not only the above statement refpecting it, but likewife pledges his belief in the preceding article, "the holy catholic church;" by which is underflood, in the opinion of good Chriftians, founded on the authority of ancient divines †, "the fociety of the faithful, who are united by the profeffion of the fame faith, and by a participation in the fame facraments, under the authority of legitimate paftors, whofe vifible head is the pope, bihop of

* Revelations, chap. 4. 6, 7. 20, &c. Compare, St. Cyprian de Mortalit." "Ambos. de Vidins." Auguftin de Civitate, lib. xa. cap. 9."

+ St. Fornerd. ep. 113" "Cyprian. Lib. de Unitat. Eules." "Auguftin. Lib. de Verá Belig.cap. 5 and 7." Sec. &c.

MONTHLY MAG, XXIX,

167

Rome, fucceffor of St. Peter, vicar of
Jefus Chrift upon earth."

Your correfpondent N. in propofing
his question, had probably fome doubts
refpecting the confiftency of the English
church, which obliges its members, dur
ing divine fervice, folemnly to repeat the
catholic profeffion of faith, and yet, in
reality, condemns, or rejects *,
the prin
cipal articles of it.
Feb. 22, 1798.

THE

R. M.

THE ENQUIRER, No. XV, WHAT IS EDUCATION? HE other day I paid a vifit to a gentleman with whom, though greatly my fuperior in fortune, I have long been in habits of an eafy intimacy. He rofe in the world by honourable induftry; and married, rather late in life, a lady to whom he had been long attached, and in whom centered the wealth of feveral expiring families. Their earnest wifh for children was not immediately gratified. At length they were made happy by a fon, who, from the moment he was born, engroffed all their care and attention. My friend received me in his library, where I found him bufied in turning over books of education, of which he had collected all that were worthy notice, from Xenophon to Lecke, and from Locke to Catharine Macauley. As he knows I have been engaged in the bufinefs of inftruction, he did me the honour to confult me on the fubject of his re fearches, hoping, he faid, that, out of all the fyftems before him, we should be able to form a plan equally complete and comprehenfive; it being the determination of both himself and his lady to chufe the best that could be had, and to fpare neither pains nor expence in making their child all that was great and good. I gave him my thoughts with the utmost freedom, and after I returned home, threw upon paper the obfervations which had occurred to me.

The first thing to be confidered, with refpect to education, is the object of it. This appears to me to have been generally mifunderfood. Education, in its largest fenfe, is a thing of great fcope and extent. It includes the whole proceis by which a human being is formed to be what he is, in habits, principles, and cultivation of every kind. But of this a very fmall part is in the power even of the parent

* Articles of the Church of England, 22.

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