BOOK THE SIXTH.

CHAPTER I.

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

T is my wish to devote thefe fhort 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 spirit of criticism, that I protest against a practice, which fome few of the corps have lately taken up, of adulterating their compofitions with a dash of politics, which I conceive to be a kind of fraud upon their cuftomers, that not only brings disgrace 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 past errors should be remembered to the prejudice of their future fortune.

I truft,

I truft, they need not be told, that there are clubs and coffee houfes in this free country, where nonfenfe may be talked with impunity; but it is a serious 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 fhould 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 whole fome 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 ftory; 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 cafier 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 pɔɔr 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 tranfported into the torrid heats of our inhofpitable iflands, there to fweat and bleed beneath the lafh of barbarous task-mafters, infpires fo fine a rhapfody, and gives fo 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 teftimony 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 whofe arms there is a fure asylum for the wretched, ftill the degrading fiction bears down truth; black troops of favages are raised

to

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 purchafer, yet not emancipated from flavery by his employer, he must be taught to murmur, and the figh, which he cannot draw from his own bofom, must be inspired into him by the breath of others, till urged by these incendiary condolences, he fhakes off his contentment, rifes terrible in his enthufiafim, and, though redeemed from death by thofe whom he destroys, 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 those blood-besprinkled islands, which ye have confpired to illuminate, ye merciful reformers, and glory in your doctrines, if your confciences will let you. I blufh 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 of trade !) ingenuously acquaints us with those honeft arts, by which he rose to eminence so justly earned; of thefe, one trifling requifite, amongst many more noble acquirements, he mentions to be, that of keeping himfelf always pretty well informed of the fate of politics in Europe, not exactly by the reading of novels, nor purposely for the writing of them, but for reafons much more wife and weighty, namely, because he has always found, that bookfelling is much affected by the political ftate of affairs. May the fecrets of all the cabinets in Europe be ever open to a politiician, who makes fo good an use, and draws fuch worthy profit from his information; and I would to Heaven, thofe wrong headed zealots of our fraternity above alluded to, had his political knowledge for our edification, or would copy his prudence for their own amend

ment.

This experienced perfonage further obferves, that the best time for bookfelling is, when there is no kind of news stirring it is a little mortifying, I must own, but his authority is conclufive, for he tells us, that then many of those, who for months would have done nothing but talk of war or peace, revolutions and counter-revolutions,

&c.