J

4

"I can readily believe," replied the stranger, "that her father forced this odious Lord upon her; for, if I am rightly inform'd of Sir Andrew's character, he was capable of fome violence, and not very well difpos'd, to confult his daughter's inclinations; fhe, perhaps, might yield to his authority, and confent to be miferable for life, rather than disobedient in any one act of it. From my foul I compaffionate her! And now fhe is dropping into a decline, and must go to Lifbon; this I gather from the perfon himself, who advis'd it; mark, therefore, the iffue of these matches of compulfion. What has not that parent to answer for, who forces a child, against the natural bent of her affection, into the arms of a man, whom her heart revolts from! But it is a painful fubject, and we will fay no more on it."

"Agreed!" cried Henry, rifing from his feat; let us difmifs this melancholy topic befides, my time is expir'd, and I have business. I must now attend to."

END OF BOOK THE FIFTH

BOOK

BOOK THE SIXTH.

CHAPTER I.

The Author hints at a Reform in the Conftitution of a Novel.

IT is my wish to devote these short prefatory Effays to our fraternity of Novelifts, if haply my good will can ftrike out any thing for their use and profit; it is, therefore, in the friendly fpirit of criticism, that I protest against a practice, which fome few of the corps have lately taken up, of adulterating their comppfitions with a dafh of politics, which I conceive to be a kind of fraud upon their cuftomers, that not only brings difgrace and lofs upon themselves individually, but is injurious to the trade in general. I fhall not point out the particular offenders, as they are fufficiently noted by thofe, who have read their productions; and, if they have but wisdom enough to reform, I fhould be loth that paft errors should be remembered to the prejudice of their future fortune.

I trust,

I truft, they need not be told, that there are clubs and coffee houses in this free country, where nonsense may be talked with impunity; but it is a ferious rifque to print it. Round their own fire-fides their zeal may boil over without fcalding their fingers; but when they cater for the public, they should be warned how they mix up any fuch inflammatory materials, as temperate ftomachs will not bear; our only aim fhould be to refresh our friendly vifitors with an exhilarating wholesome draught, not to disturb their reafon with an intoxicating naufeous drug.

All that I am bound to do as a story-maker is, to make a story; I am not bound to reform the constitution of my country in the fame breath, nor even (Heaven be thanked!) to overturn it, though that might be the easier task of the two, or, more properly speaking, one and the fame thing in its confequences. Nature is my guide; man's nature, not his natural rights: the one ufhers me by the fraiteft avenue to the human heart, the other bewilders me in a maze of metaphyfics.

Doubtless, it becomes the gentle nature of a female votary of the Mufe, and of every author foft as females, to let no occafion flip

for

for making public fuch their amiable propensity, through every channel that the prefs affords; the poor African is therefore fair game for every

minstrel that has tuned his lyre to the sweet chords of pity and condolence; whether he builds immortal verfe upon his lofs of liberty, or weaves his melancholy fate into the pathos of a novel, in either cafe he finds a mine of fentiment, digs up enthufiafim from its richest vein, and gratifies at once his fpleen and his ambition. The happy virtuous negro, torn from his own fine temperate climate, and transported into the torrid heats of our inhospitable islands, there to fweat and bleed beneath the lash of barbarous task-masters, inspires so fine a rhapsody, and gives so touching a difplay of British cruelty, that, against the force of truth, the unguarded reader credits it, and blushes for the country that he lives in. No matter that the world at large bears testimony to the charities of our land, to her magnanimity, her honour, her benevolence; though thousands of the perfecuted fufferers for confcience fake fly to Britain as the univerfal philanthropist, in whose arms there is a fure afylum for the wretched, ftill the degrading fiction bears down truth; black troops of favages are raised

to

C

to caft the nation's character in fhade; the African lives free and happy under the mild government of his native princes; he never licks the duft in their prefence, nor loads the gibbet to adorn their palaces, and, though fnatched from 'death by his purchaser, yet not emancipated from flavery by his employer, he must be taught to murmur, and the figh, which he cannot draw from his own bofcm, must be infpired into him by the breath of others, till urged by these incendiary condolences, he shakes off his contentment, rifes terrible in his enthufiafm, and, though redeemed from death by those whom he deftroys, fates himself with carnage, and ripping forth the heart of his benefactor, fhows the trophy of his freedom, and gloriously afferts the Rights of Man. Caft your eyes towards thofe blood-befprinkled islands, which ye have confpired to illuminate, ye merciful reformers, and glory in your doctrines, if your consciences will let you. I blush to think, that folly can effect fuch mischief.

A faft friend to the interefts of the prefs, and a great authority in point, who vends our wares to the amount of one hundred thousand volumes annually (Heaven augment his little modicum