the unhappy Mr. Mackenzie, I am pofitive he has not coffered a fhilling from it; for he has laid out more than the annual income of it, fince it was in the poffeffion of his Lady, in purchasing mines that belong to the truft eftate itself. Befides which, he has indulged a ridiculous paffion for Virtu, in the most oftentatious and extravagant degree, and heaped together God knows how many thousand inftances of his falfe tafte and infatuation. Not a scarce book or manufcript could come in his way (though he was utterly ignorant of the characters in which it was written) but he purchased it at a most exorbitant price, and the very binding together of his prints and drawings amounted (if I am not mifinformed) to the amazing fum of fifteen hundred pounds PHILANGLIA.

THOUGH it would be well for Mr. J. J.'s patron if he would please to forget both what AntiSejanus has told the public, and every thing" which he has faid in vindication of the Favourite: yet, as he will not, let him take what follows; it is the fruit of his writer's own doing; for I appeal to the candid part of mankind, which fide began first of all their investigation of private charac`ters; and whether thefe controverfies do not owe their rife to the attempts made by the Sejanian party to draw our attention from their principal as a minifter, in order that we might confider him in another capacity, in which I imagine their prejudices led them to think him lefs blameable. It is, therefore, a fufficient anfwer to the panegyrics that have been bestowed on this obnoxious perfon, that the friends of truth have thought it their duty to difabufe mankind; and his friends muft blame themselves if they have already heard more than they expected on this fubject, or if they hear any

thing further from me, or any of those with whom I am connected.

Though I heartily despise abuse and fcurrility, as the vile spawn of low and illiberal minds, yet I am not of fo milky a difpofition as to fuffer it to operate, without any antidote, against those whose characters I admire: Befides, I am too much a friend to the public to fuffer them to be impofed upon by false colours, held out to their humanity, in order that it may operate against their reason.

Mr. J. J. feems to controvert the information which has been given us by Anti-Sejanus of the vast expences incurred by his idol in the space of three or four years, fo infinitely beyond his vifible income. He may have convinced himself, perhaps, that this charge is not well grounded; but I am firmly perfuaded, that he has not drawn in one fingle perfon befides to be of his opinion. The purchase which was made by the Favourite, in a neighbouring county, amounted to 97,000l. and he has made great and confiderable alterations there, to the amount of a large fum of money. This first expence alone is twice as much as is apparent. Receipt has been for ten years back; and as he has been a kind and tender father, (for I am glad to allow him every degree of merit he is entitled to) it is to be fuppofed that the education of his numerous family has taken off, at least, the income of his northern island, which Mr. J. J. fays was not brought to account. As to the villa near London, we are told, it is only fit for the reception of a grocer's wife; and yet I believe he will find a most astonishing expence incurred there in books, prints, pictures, and virtu of every kind. The palace that is now rifing to the fkies, and fills the end of one of the principal fquares in this metropo lis, has not, with the purchase of the land, coft much less than 20,000l. I am forry to find that D 2 Mr.

Mr. J. J. is fo unfair an advocate as to forget the mines which have been purchased by the Favourite from the Trust estate; I must therefore beg that he will inform himself, against his next refutation of Anti-Sejanus's affertions, what that purchase amounted to. For as I have not any knowledge of the trustees myself, and Mr. J. J. feems to intimate that he has, we shall both of us be more accurate in our future correspondence upon this point. Till he fets me right I own I cannot fay, with precifion, whether it was 20,000l. 40,000l. or 60,000l. though I believe it was nearer the greater than the smaller fums. There are two other articles, which Mr. J. J. entirely paffes over; a great houfe and coftly furniture in London, which, joined to the current expences neceffarily incurred by a nobleman at the head of affairs in this opulent and luxurious country, will, I believe, fully account for the 250,000l. which Anti-Sejanus has fuppofed to have been ex, pended by the Favourite, in the course of three or four years.

As to the other article, which is his cruel and unparalled treatment of the poor disappointed heir, whofe inheritance he poffeffes, I will inform Mr. J. J. that I have feen a letter, not many months old, from that unhappy gentleman who is at this present time starving in a remote part of the Eaft, a letter which would move the moft flinty bofom to compaffionate his unfortunate fituation, in want of the common neceffaries of life, and under the deepest and blackest of all horrors, the dread of leaving feveral unhappy children to ftruggle in the wide world with hunger and thirst, cold and nakednefs.

Mr. J. J. mentions a cross bill, which he tells us may be brought against some of the friends of Anti-Sejanus. In the name of justice, let it be preferred: I know their innocence, their integrity;

if there is the leaft fufpicion of their guilt, let them be brought to their trial; they have nothing dark or mysterious about them; they live in the light, and love it. So far from being found guilty of corruption, I am confident, that the more their conduct is examined, the whiter their characters will appear. Let them be fifted, and bolted to the bran and it will then be found, that of all the infamous falfhoods that were ever urged against any fet of men, none could be more void of foundation than that any of the late Minifters ever increased their private fortunes by base and indirect practices, or received the value of a fingle fhilling for the difpo→ fal of any favours of the Crown during the many years in which most of them had opportunities of recommending perfons to employments in almost every department of the state.

Aug. 30.

PHILANGLIA.

. P. S. Since this letter was written, I have seen another anfwer from Mr. J. J. in yesterday's paper, who affirms, that the income of the eftate which was bequeathed to the Favourite by Mr. W, is fufficient to account for all the expences that he has incurred. This is an abfolute impoffibility; for I here repeat it again, that Sejanus does not receive from that bequest above 5000l. per annum clear. As to the expreffion of state-jobbing, Mr. J. J. is too good a writer himself not to perceive that Anti-Sejanus is very little likely to be guilty of nonfenfe. For my own part, the word appears to me to be very expreffive; but if Mr. J. J. really does not know the meaning of it, I would advise him, by all means, to ask his patron, who, I will venture to fay, understands the word as well as any in the English language.

AVING endeavoured in a former letter to

fhew, that the computations published by Anti-Sejanus of the Favourite's income and outgoings, whereby he charges that nobleman with having plundered the public, are, as to the first point of income, arbitrarily taken up at random, or invented for the occafion; and as to the second point of out-goings, abfolutely falfe and contradictory to indifputable facts, which are within the reach of any man's knowledge; I fhall now perform the promise of my laft letter, to confider the charge of peculation against the Favourite, independently of fuch matters as the writer thought fit to affign for his reason, and to answer the accufation with materials furnished by the accufer.

The Favourite hath been in three offices under the Crown; thofe of groom of the ftole, fecretary of state, and first commiffioner of the treasury. A fecretary of state in this country hath no opportunity to poffefs himself of the nation's treasure: He may, if he be wicked enough, fell the fecrets of his office to foreign powers, accumulating wealth by betraying his King and Country: But to purloin the money of the ftate, is a crime out of his reach, let the iniquity of his heart be what it will, because not a penny belonging to the nation paffes, or can pafs through his fingers. A groom of the stole might, if he be a low rogue, fecret the King's old cloaths, for ought I know, but never yet got his hands into the chefts of the Exchequer. The only fituation, therefore, where the most raging party jealoufy can fufpect the Favourite to have been capable of plundering the public, is that of his eleven months prefiding at the board of treasury; and there Anti-Sejanus does, by plain confeffion, extorted by the force of truth, acquit him of embezzling the nation's money. For (fays he) "I will