sometimes in the broader streets three a breast, again we see them leaving a cart or waggon in the midst of the street, and often set across it, while the driver repairs to a neighbouring alehouse, from the window of which he diverts himself, while he is drinking, with the mischief or inconvenience which his vehicle occasions. The same pretensions which they make to the possession of the streets, they make likewise to the possession of the high-ways. I doubt not, I shall be told they claim only an equal right; for I know it is very usual when a carter or dray-man is civilly desired to make a little room, by moving out of the middle of the road, either to the right or left, to hear the fellow answer: "D-n your eyes, who are you? Is not the road, and be d-ned to you, as free for me as you?" Hence it will, I suppose, be inferred that they do not absolutely exclude the other estates from the use of the common highways. But notwithstanding this generous concession in words, I do aver their practice is different, and that a gentleman may go a voyage at sea with little more hazard than he can travel ten miles from the metropolis. I shall mention only one claim more, and that a very new and a very extraordinary one. It is the right of excluding all women of fashion out of St. James's Park, on a Sunday evening. This, they have lately asserted with great vehemence, and have inflicted the punishment of mobbing. on several ladies, who had transgressed without design, not having been apprised of the good pleasure of the mob in this point. And this Į the rather publish to prevent any such transgressions for the future, since it hath already appeared, that no degree of either dignity or beauty can secure the offenders.* Many things have contributed to raise this fourth estate to that exorbitant degree of power which they at present enjoy, and which seems to threaten to shake the balance of our constitu tion. I shall name only three, as these appear to me to have had much the greatest share in bringing it about. The first is that act of parliament which was made at the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign, and which I cannot help considering as a kind of compromise between the other three estates and this. By this act it was stipulated, that the fourth estate should annually receive out of the possessions of the others, a certain large proportion yearly, upon an implied condition * A lady of great quality, and admirable beauty, was mobbed in the Park at this time. (for no such was expressed), that they should suffer the other estates to enjoy the rest of their property without loss or molestation. This law gave a new turn to the minds of the Mobility. They found themselves no longer obliged to depend on the charity of their neighbours, nor on their own industry for a maintenance. They now looked on themselves as joint-proprietors in the land, and celebrated their independency in songs of triumph; witness the old ballad which was in all their mouths, "Hang sorrow, cast away care; The parish is bound to find us," &c. A second cause of their present elevation has been the private quarrels between particular members of the other estates, who, on such occasions, have done all they could on both sides to raise the power of the Mob, in order to avail themselves of it, and to employ it against their enemies. The third and the last which I shall mention is, the mistaken idea which some particular persons have always entertained of the word liberty; but this will open too copious a subject, and shall be therefore treated in a future paper. But before I dismiss this, I must observe, that there are two sorts of persons of whom this fourth estate do yet stand in some awe, and whom consequently they have in great abhorrence: these are, a justice of peace, and a soldier. To these two it is entirely owing that they have not long since rooted all the other orders out of the commonwealth. COVENT-GARDEN JOURNAL, No. 49, June 20, 1752. No. LVII. Os homini sublime dedit; cœlumque tueri OVID. Thus, while the mute creation downward bend DRYDEN. IN my opinion, there is no science more useful, and at the same time more delightful, than astronomy. It fills the soul with beautiful as well as magnificent ideas. It has a certain tendency to open and enlarge every avenue of knowledge, and puts our nobler part upon exerting its highest powers. It has an admirable efficacy to fix the attention, and enable the mind to sustain the fatigue of laborious studies. It likewise gives us the most exalted conceptions of that infinite power and wisdom, which are so gloriously exhibited throughout the whole creation. It raises in us the highest, and consequently the worthiest, notions of the great Author of nature. The soul of man is naturally delighted with what is grand and sublime. She hates restraint and loves an enlarged sphere of action. Here, then, she is at full liberty to expatiate. Here |