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peace would very suddenly be set on foot, and that yachts were appointed by the States to convey the ministers of France from Mordyke to Gertruydenburgh, which is appointed for the place wherein this important negociation is to be transacted. It is said

this affair has been in agitation ever since the close of the last campaign; Mons. Pettecum having been appointed to receive, from time to time, the overtures of the enemy. During the whole winter, the ministers of France have used their utmost skill in forming such answers as might amuse the Allies, in hopes of a favourable event, either in the North, or some other part of Europe, which might affect some part of the alliance too nearly to leave it in a capacity of adhering firmly to the interest of the whole. In all this transaction, the French king's own name has been as little made use of as possible: but the season of the year advancing too fast to admit of much longer delays in the present condition of France, Mons. Torcy, in the name of the king, sent a letter to Mons. Pettecum, wherein he says, "That the king is willing all the preliminary articles shall rest as they are during the treaty for the 37th.”

Sheer-lane, February 20.

I have been earnestly solicited for a further term for wearing the fardingal, by several of the fair sex, but more epecially by the following petitioners. "The humble petition of DEBORAH HARK, SARAH THREADPAPER, and RACHEL THIMBLE, spinsters, and single women, commonly called waiting-maids, in behalf of themselves and their sisterhood.

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"That your worship has been pleased to order and command, that no person or persons shall presume > wear quilted petticoats on forfeiture of the said etticoats, or penalty of wearing ruffs, after the seventeenth instant now expired.

"That your petitioners have, time out of mind, been entitled to wear their ladies clothes, or to sell the same.

"That the sale of the said clothes is spoiled by your worship's said prohibition.

"Your petitioners therefore most humbly pray, that your worship will please to allow, that all gentlewomen's gentlewoman may be allowed to wear the said dress, or to repair the loss of such a perquisite in such manner as your worship shall think fit.

And your petitioners, &c."

I do allow the allegations of this petition to be just; and forbid all persons, but the petitioners or those who shall purchase them, to wear the said garment after the date hereof.

N° 137. THURSDAY, FEB. 23, 1709-10.

Ter centum tonat ore Deo, Erebúmque, Chaosque
Tergemiámque Hecaten-

VIRG. EN. iv.

510.

He thrice invokes th' infernal powers profound
Of Erebus and Chaos; thrice he calls
On Hecate's triple form-

Sheer-lane February 22.

R. WYNNE.

DICK REPTILE and I sat this evening later than the rest of the club; and as some men are better company when only with one friend, others when there is a large number, I found Dick to be of the former kind. He was bewailing to me, in very just terms the offences which he frequently met with in the abuse of speech; some use ten times more words than they need; some put in words quite foreign to their purpose; and others adorn their discourses with oaths and blasphemies, by way of tropes and

figures. What my good friend started dwelt upon me after I came home this evening, and led me into an enquiry with myself, Whence should arise such strange excrescences in discourse? where as it must be obvious to all reasonable beings, that the sooner a man speaks his mind, the more complaisant he is to the man with whom he talks; but, upon mature deliberation, I am come to this resolution, that for one man who speaks to be understood, there are ten who talk only to be admired.

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The ancient Greeks had little independent syllables called expletives, which they brought into their discourses both in verse and prose, for no other purpose but for the better grace and sound of their sentences and periods. I know no example but this, which can authorize the use of more words than are necessary. But whether it be from this freedom taken by that wise nation, or however it arises, Dick Reptile hit upon a very just and common cause of offence in the generality of people of all orders. We have one here in our lane, who speaks nothing without quoting an authority; for it is always with him, so and so, 66 as the man said." He asked me this morning, how I did, as the man said?" and hoped I would come now and then and see him, as the man said." I am acquainted with another, who never delivers himself upon any subject, but he cries, "he only speaks his poor judgment; this is his humble opinion; as for his part, if he might presume to offer any thing on that subject." -But of all the persons who add elegances and superfluities to their discourse, those who deserve the foremost rank are the swearers; and the lump of these may, I think, be very aptly divided into the common distinction of High and Low. Dulness and barrenness of thought is the original of it in both these sects, and they differ only in constitution: The Low is generally a phlegmatic, and the High a cho

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leric coxcomb. The man of phlegm is sensible of the emptiness of his discourse, and will tell you, that, "I'fackins," such a thing is true: or if you warm him a little, he may run into passion, and cry, Odsbodikins, you do not say right." But the High affects a sublimity in dulness, and invokes "hell and damnation" at the breaking of a glass or the slowness of a drawer.

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I was the other day trudging along Fleet-street on foot, and an old army-friend came up with me. were both going towards Westminster; and, finding the streets were so crowded that we could not keep together, we resolved to club for a coach. This gentleman I knew to be the first of the order of the choleric. I must confess, were there no crime in it, nothing could be more diverting than the impertinence of the High juror: for whether there is remedy or not against what offends him, still he is to show he is offended; and he must, sure, not omit to be magnificently_passionate, by falling on all things in his way. We were stopped by a train of coaches at Temple-bar. "What the devil!" says my companion, cannot you drive on, coachman ? -n you all, for a set of sons of whores; you will stop here to be paid by the hour! There is not such a set of confounded dogs as the coachmen, unhanged. But these rascally cits'Ounds, why should not there be a tax to make these dogs widen their gates? Oh! but the hell-hounds move at last." Ay," said I, "I knew you would make them whip on, if once they heard you." "No," says he, "but would it not fret a man to the devil, to pay for being carried slower than he can walk? Look ye! there is for ever a stop at this hole by St. Clement's church. Blood, you dog! Hark ye, sirrah!—— Why, and be d- d to you do you not drive over the fellow?--Thunder, furies, and damnation! I will cut your ears off, you fellow before there

D-n

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Come hither, you dog you, and let me wring your neck round your shoulders." We had a repetition of the same eloquence at the cockpit, and the turning into Palace-yard.

This gave me a perfect image of the insignificancy of the creatures who practise this enormity; and made me conclude, that it is ever want of sense makes a man guilty in this kind. It was excellently well said, "That this folly had no temptation to excuse it, no man being born of a swearing constitu tion." In a word, a few rumbling words and consonants clapped together without any sense, will make an accomplished swearer. It is needless to dwell long upon this blustering impertinence, which is already banished out of the society of well-bred men, and can be useful only to bullies and ill tragic writers, who would have sound and noise pass for courage and sense.

St. James's Coffee-house, February 22.

There arrived a messenger last night from Harwich, who left that place just as the Duke of Marlborough was going on board. The character of this important general going out by the command of his queen, and at the request of his country, puts me in mind of that noble figure which Shakspeare gives Harry the Fifth upon his expedition against France. The poet wishes for [abilities to represent so great

an hero :

Oh for a Muse of fire!

Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars, and at his heels,

Leash'd in, like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire,
Crouch for employments.

A conqueror drawn like the god of battle, with such a dreadful leash of hell-hounds at his command, makes a picture of as much majesty and terror, as is to be met with in any poet.

Shakspeare understood the force of this particular

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