cile the Laplander to his freezing fnows, and the African to his fcorching fun. There are fome portions of the globe fo partially endowed by Providence with climate and productions, that were it not for this prejudice to the natale folum, the greater part of the habitable world would be a fcene of envy and repining. National predilection is in this fenfe a bleffing, and perhaps a virtue; but if it operates otherwife than in the best fenfe of its definition, it perverts the judgment, and in fome cafes vitiates the heart. It is an old faying, that charity begins at home, but this is no reafon it should not go abroad: A man fhould live with the world as a citizen of the world; he inay have a preference for the particular quarter, or fquare, or even alley in which he lives, but he fhould have a generous feeling for the welfare of the whole; and if in his rambles through this great city (the world) he may chance upon a man of a different habit, language or complexion from his own, ftill he is a fellow-citizen, a fhort fojourner in common with himself, fubject to the fame wants, infirmities and neceffities, and one that has a brother's claim upon him for his charity, candour and relief. It were to be withed no traveller would leave his own country without thefe impreffions, and it would be still better if all who live in it would adopt them; but as an Obferver of mankind (let me fpeak it to the honour of my countrymen) I have very little to reproach them with on this account. It would be hard if a nation, more addicted to travel than any other in Europe, had not rubbed off this ruft of the foul in their excursions and collifions; it would be an indelible indelible reproach, if a people, fo bleft at home were not benevolent abroad. Our ingenious neighbours the French are lefs agreeable guests than hofts: I am afraid their national prejudices reach a little beyond candour in moft cafes, and they are too apt to indulge a vanity, which does not become fo enlightened a nation, by fhutting their eyes against every light except their own; but I do a violence to my feelings, when I ex- · prefs myself unfavourably of a people, with whom we have long been implicated in the most honourable of all connections, the mutual pursuits of literary fame, and a glorious emulation in arts and sciences. Prejudices of education are lefs dangerous than religious prejudices, lefs common than national ones, and more excufable than any; in general hey are little else than ridiculous habits, which annot obtain much in a country where public ducation prevails, and fuch as a commerce with he world can hardly fail to cure: They are chaacteristic of feraglio princes; the property of fequeftered beings, who live in celibacy and retirement, contracted in childhood and confirmed by ge: A man, who has paffed his life on fhipoard, will pace the length of his quarter-deck on the terrace before his house, were it a mile in ength. These are harmless peculiarities, but it is obvius to experience that prejudices of a very evil naure may be contracted by habits of education; nd the very defective state of the police, which fuffered yet to go on without reform in and bout our capital, furnishes too many examples of B 2 Our our fatal inattention to the morals of our infant poor: Amongst the many wretched culprits who fuffer death by the law, how many are there, who, when standing at the bar to receive fentence of execution, might urge this plea in extenuation of their guilt! for "This action which you are pleased to term criminal, I have been thought to confider as meritorious: The arts of fraud and thieving, by which I gained my living, are arts instilled into me by my parents, habits wherein I was educated from my infancy, a trade to which I was regularly bred: If these are things not to be allowed of, and a violation of the laws, it behoves the laws to prevent them, rather than to punish them; I cannot fee the equity of putting me to death for actions, which, if your police had taken any charge of me in my infancy, I never had committed. If you would fecure yourselves from receiving wrong, you should teach us not to do wrong; and this might easily be effected, if you had any eye upon your parish poor. For my part, I was born and bred in the parish of Saint Giles; my parents kept a fhop for the retail of gin, and old rags; chriftening I had none; a church I never entered, and no parish officer ever visited our habitation: If he had done fo, he would have found a feminary of thieves and pick-pockets, a magazine of stolen goods, a houfe of call where nightly depredators met together to compare accounts, and make merry over their plunder : Amongst these and by these I was educated; I obeyed them as my mafters, and I looked up to them as my examples: I believed them to be great great men, I heard them recount their actions with glory; I faw them die like heroes, and I attended their executions with triumph. It is now my turn to fuffer, and I hope I fhall not prove myself unworthy of the calling in which I have been brought up: If there be any fault in my conduct, the fault is yours; for, being the child of poverty, I was the fon of the public: If there be any honour, it is my own; for I have acted up to my inftructions in all things, and faithfully fulfilled the purposes of my education." I cannot excufe myself from touching upon one more prejudice, which may be called natural, or felf-prejudice: Under correction of the Dampers I hope I may be allowed to fay, that a certain portion of this is a good quickener in all conftitutions; being feasonably applied, it acts like the fpur in the wing of the oftrich, and keeps induftry awake: Being of the nature of all volatiles and provocatives, the merit of it confifts in the moderation and difcretion which administer it: If a man rightly knows himfelf, he may be called wife; if he justly confides in himself, he may be accounted happy; but if he keeps both this knowledge and this confidence to himself, he will neither be lefs wife nor lefs happy for fo doing: If there are any fecrets, which a man ought to keep from his nearest friends, this is one of them. If there were no better reason why a man fhould not vaunt himself, but because it is robbing the poor mountebanks of their livelihood, methinks it would be reafon enough: If he must think aloud upon fuch occafions, let him lock himself into his closet, and take it out in foliloquy: If he B 3 likes our fatal inattention to the morals of our infant poor: Amongst the many wretched culprits who fuffer death by the law, how many are there, who, when standing at the bar to receive fentence of execution, might urge this plea in extenuation of their guilt! "This action which you are pleafed to term criminal, I have been thought to confider as meritorious: The arts of fraud and thieving, by which I gained my living, are arts inftilled into me by my parents, habits wherein I was educated from my infancy, a trade to which I was regularly bred: If these are things not to be allowed of, and a violation of the laws, it behoves the laws to prevent them, rather than to punish them; for I cannot fee the equity of putting me to death for actions, which, if your police had taken any charge of me in my infancy, I never had committed. If you would fecure yourfelves from receiving wrong, you should teach us not to do wrong; and this might eafily be effected, if you had any eye upon your parish poor. For my part, I was born and bred in the parish of Saint Giles; iny parents kept a fhop for the retail of gin, and old rags; chriftening I had none; a church I never entered, and no parish officer ever vifited our habitation: If he had done fo, he would have found a feminary of thieves and pick-pockets, a magazine of ftolen goods, a houfe of call where nightly depredators met together to compare accounts, and make merry over their plunder : Amongst thefe and by thefe I was educated; 1 obeyed them as my mafters, and I looked up to them as my examples: I believed them to be great |