affecting, that my reader, I am sure, will esteem himself under an obligation to me for bringing them again into his remembrance, by closing this paper with a citation of them:

"When I look upon the tombs of the great, 66 every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read "the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate "desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of "parents upon a tomb-stone, my heart melts with

compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents "themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for "those whom we must quickly follow; when I see

kings lying by those who deposed them, when I "consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests " and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonish

66

ment on the little competitions, factions, and "debates of mankind. When I read the several

dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, " and some six hundred years ago, I consider that "great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together *."

*Spectator, Vol. I. No. 26.

Z.

It is wisely ordained by the laws of England, that the person of the Monarch is sacred; as also, that the King can do no wrong. The meaning of this last maxim I take to be, that, if wrong should happen at any time to be done, the blame is to be laid upon the administration, and not upon the King.

A friend, some years ago, took me into the House of Commons, to attend the debates upon the opening of a Session; when an honourable gentleman made so free with the Speech, which I had but just before heard most gracefully pronounced by his Majesty from the throne, that my hair stood an end, and I was all over in a cold sweat; till, towards the close of his oration, he relieved and restored me, by mentioning, in a parenthesis, that the speech was always considered, in that assembly, as the speech of the Minister.

Sheltering myself, therefore, under this distinction, I cannot refrain from offering a few remarks

on a late production, pregnant, as many are of opinion, with much mischief to the community. The reader sees that I mean, A Proclamation for the encouragement of piety and virtue, and for preventing and punishing of vice, profaneness, and immorality.

That the scheme proposed should be carried into execution, does not indeed seem probable. When we consider how long vice, profaneness, and immorality, have been increasing among us, what a powerful party they have formed, how much fashion is on their side, and how very strong the tide runs, the attempt may be thought to resemble that of the man, who endeavoured to stop the Thames at London bridge, with his hat; unless the rich and the great would set the example.

I have always been an enemy to pains and penalties. The word punishment is a bad word; and the thing itself is much worse. When once it begins, the wisest man living cannot tell where it will end, or what will become of our liberties. For as the sheep-stealer said, "If a gentleman cannot "kill his own mutton, without being hanged for " it, I should be glad to know what we have got by "the Revolution." In short, one must be without a nose, not to smell something here of arbitrary power,

The idea of a Sunday, unenlivened by a little innocent play, is a very dull and dreary one. I know a family in town, that has made the experi ment. The consequence was, that before nine in the evening, the members of it found themselves so cross, peevish, and out of temper, that had it not been for an early supper, and a glass of good wine, they could not have gone to bed in Christian charity with each other.

But much more distressful still was the case of a lady, whose husband, being in the commission, had lent his assistance to suppress gaming on a Sunday, in a neighbouring public house. It struck him that cards on that day, in a private house, might not, just then, be quite so proper; and he ventured to hint as much to his lady. She had always apprehended the Gospel to have been designed for the poor; and was astonished to find that any thing in the Proclamation could apply to persons of her rank in life." The party was made, and what could * be done?”—A thought, however, luckily occurred; and when the company was assembled, after an apology suitable to the occasion, instead of the card tables, she introduced the entertainment of Catches and Glees. The thing took mightily, and was judged a pretty variety. Otherwise, a disap

pointment of such a nature, spreading, as it must have done, like an electrical shock, through all the polite circles, might have bred bad blood, and produced a general insurrection.

It fares with religion as with a shuttlecock, which is stricken from one to another, and rests with none. The rich apprehend it to have been designed for the poor; and the poor, in their turn, think it calculated chiefly for the rich. An old acquaintance of mine, who omitted no opportunity of doing good, discoursed with the barber who shaved him on his manner of spending the Sabbath (which was not quite as it should be), and the necessity of his having more religion than at present he seemed to be possessed of. The barber proceeding in his work of lathering, replied, that he thought he had tolerably well for a barber; as, in his apprehension, one third of the religion, necessary to save a gentleman, would do to save a barber.

I mention this, because I have received a letter of considerable length, praying redress of grievances, from a person who lets lodgings in Broad St. Giles's. He speaks of a very snug and comfortable neighbourhood there, which is likely to be broken up, and dispersed, by the Proclamation, and nobody can well tell why.