of the strictest honour and secrecy! And how many ladies, dreffed in fuch a manner, and seen at fuch a place, have been defired to leave a line for A. B. Before the late Marriage-act, it was very ufual for young gentlemen and ladies (poffeffed of every qualification requifite to make the marriage ftate happy) to offer themfelves as a good bargain to each other; and men took the fame measures of advertiling to get an agreeable companion for life, as they do for an agreeable companion in a poft-chaife. As this traffic in matrimony is now prohibited, it has given occafion to the opening a new branch of trade; and fince hufbands and wives are hardly to be got for love or money, feveral good-natured females have fet themselves up to fale to the best bidder. The Daily Advertiser is therefore become the univerfal regifter for new faces; and every day's advertifements have been lately crouded with of fers of young ladies, who would be glad of the company of any elderly gentleman, to pass his leifure hours with them, and PLAY AT CARDS.

appeared with most fuccefs. Thefe pieces of intelligence would undoubtedly give great fatisfaction; and I am myfelf acquainted with a very learned gentleman, who has affured me, that he has been as much delighted at difcovering that the Sofii were Horace's bookfellers, that the Hecyra of Terence was damned, and other little particulars of that nature, as with an account of the deftruction of Carthage, or the death of Cæfar. We fhould alfo be glad to collect from their advertisements what things were moft in request at Athens and Rome. Even our papers, (which perhaps are called Daily from their lasting but a day) are, I fear, of too fugitive a nature to fall under the infpection of pofterity. To remedy, in fome measure, this inconvenience, I shall now conclude with a few advertisements, which, if they have not all actually been inferted in our papers, are at least of the fame nature with thofe that daily have a place there.

ADVERTISEMENTS.

in the Old Bailey,

BRYAN RAPAWAY,

read, what are our chief amufements and diverfions: and when they fhould obferve the daily inquiries after eloped wives and apprentices, and the frequent accounts of trials in Weltminster Hall for perjury, adultery, &c. they might form a tolerable nction even of our private life. Among many other reafons for lamenting that the art of printing was not more early difcovered, I cannot but regret that we have perhaps loft many accounts of this nature, which

to us.

might otherwife have been handed down With what pleafure fhould we have perufed an Athenian Advertiser, or a Roman Gazetteer! A curious critic or antiquarian would place them on the fame shelf with the Claffics; and would be highly pleafed at difcovering, what days Tully went to his Tufculum, or Pliny to his magnificent Villa; who was the capital finger at the Grecian Opera, and in what characters Rofcius

WHO fwears Oaths of all Kinds and

Prices, and will procure pofitive Evidence at a Day's Warning in all Sorts of Causes. He will contract with an Attorney or Quack Doctor, to swear by the Quarter; and will fupply Affidavits, &c. on the most reasonable Terms.

*He will attend, during the Bufnefs of Elections and Double Returns, in the Lobby of the House of Commons, and will ply next Term at Westminster Hall.

Several Sums, from 10l. to 10,000l. WANTED immediately, by a Perfon in a large and profitable Bufinefs Wanted directly, by a Perfon whofe Character will bear the strictest Enquiry Wanted for a Week only, or as long as the Lender chufes-Upon undeniable Security-The Borrower will give his Bond and Judgment, make over his Stock in Trade, enfure his Life, &c.-A hand fome Gratuity will be given Intereft paid punctuallyStricteft Honour and Secrecy may be depended on.None but Principals will be treated with.

Direct for A. B. L. M. S. T. X. Y. &c. &c. &c.

This Day are published,

THE Adventures of Dick Hazard. The Hiftory of Mr. Johua True

man.

The History of Will Ramble.
The Hitory of James Ramble, Efq.
The Travels of Drake Morris.
The History of Jasper Banks.
Memoirs of the Shakespeare's Head.
The Hiftory of Frank Hammond.
The Marriage- A&t, a Novel.

And speedily will be published, The Hiftory of Sir Humphry Herald and Sir Edward Haunch.--Memoirs of Lady Vainlove.-The Card. Adventures of Tom Doughty, Jack Careless, Frank Ealy, Dick Damnable, Molly Peirfon, &c. &c. &c.

Being a compleat Collection of NOVELS for the Ainufement of the prefent Winter.

T

NEC DIVERSA TAMEN

OVID.

TO MR. TOWN.

T is whimfical to obferve the miftakes that we country gentlemen are led into at our first coming to town. We are induced to think, and indeed truly, that your fine ladies are compofed of different materials from our rural ones; fince, though they fleep all day and rake all night, they (till remain as fresh and ruddy as a parton's daughter or a farmer's wife. At other times we are apt to wonder, that fuch delicate creatures as they appear, fhould yet be fo much proof against cold, that they look as rofy in January as in June, and even in the harpeft weather are very unwilling to approach the fire. I was at a lofs how to account for this unalterable hue of their complexions: but I foon found, that beauty was not more pecular to the air of St. James's than of

York; and that this perpetual bloom was not native, but imported from abroad. Not content with that red and white which nature gave, your belles are reduced (as they pretend) to the neceffity of fupplying the flush of health with the rouge of vermillion, and giving us Spanish wool for English beauty.

The very reafon alledged for this fashionable practice is fuch, as (if they feriously confidered it) the ladies would be afhamed to mention. 'The late hours they are obliged to keep, render them fuch perfect frights, that they would be as loth to appear abroad without paint as without cloaths.' This, it must be acknowledged, is too true: but would they fuffer their fathers or their hutbands to wheel them down for one month to the old Manfion house, they would foon be fenfible of the change, and foon perceive how much the early walk exceeds the late affembly.

The

enthufiaft has his conventicles, but even the free-thinker boafts his focieties, where he may hold forth against religion in tropes, metaphors, and fimilies. The declamations weekly thundered out at Clare Market, and the subtle argumentations at the Robin Hood, I have formerly celebrated: it now remains to pay my respects to the Martin Luther of the age, (as he frequently calls himself) the great Orator MACKLIN; who, by declaiming himself, and opening a fchool for the difputations of others, has join ed both the above plans together, and formed the BRITISH INQUISITION. Here, whatever concerns the world of tafte and literature is debated: our rakes and bloods, who had been used to frequent Covent Garden merely for the fake of whoring and drinking, now refort thither for reafon and argument; and the Piazza begins to vie with the ancient Portico, where Socrates difputed.

But what pleafes me moft in Mr. Macklin's inftitution is, that he has allowed the tongues of my fair countrywomen full play. Their natural talents for oratory are fo excellent and nume. rous, that it seems more owing to the envy than prudence of the other fex, that they should be denied the opportunity of exerting them. The remarkable tendency in our politeft ladies to talk, though they have nothing to fay,' and the torrent of eloquence that pours (on the most trivial occafions) from the lips of thofe females called Scolds, give abundant proofs of that command of words, and flow of eloquence, which fo few men have been able to attain. Again, if action is the life and foul of an oration, how many advantages have the ladies in this particular? The waying of a fnowy arin, aftfully fhaded with the enchanting flope of a double ruffle, would have twenty times the force of the ftiff fee-faw of a male orator: and when they come to the moft animated parts of the oration, which demand uncommon warmth and agitation, we should be vanquished by the heaving breast, and all thofe other charms which the modern drefs is fo well calculated to difplay.

Since the ladies are thus undeniably endued with theie and many other accomplishments for oratory, that no place fhould yet have been opened for their exerting them, is almoft unaccountable.

The lower order of females have, indeed, long ago inftituted an academy of this kind at the other end of the town, where oyfters and eloquence are in equal perfection: but the politer part of the female world have hitherto had no further opportunity of exercising their abi lities, than the common occafions which a new cap or petenlair, the tea or cardtable, have afforded them. I am therefore heartily glad, that a plan is at length put in execution, which will encourage their propenfity to talking, and enlarge their topics of converfation: but I would more particularly recommend it to all ladies of a clamorous difpofition, to attend at Macklin's; that the impetuous ftream of eloquence, which, for want of another vent, has long been poured on their fervants or hutbands, may now be carried off by another more agreeable channel.

I could not have thought it poffible, that this undertaking would have subfifted two nights, without fetting all the female tongues from St. James's to Temple Bar in motion. But the ladies have hitherto been dumb: and female eloquence feems as unlikely to difplay itself in public as ever. Whether their modefty will not permit them to open their mouths in the unhallowed air of Covent Garden, I know not: but I am rather inclined to think, that the queftions propofed have not been fufficiently calculated for the female part of the affembly. They might perhaps be tempted to debate, Whether Fanny Murray or Lady

.

or

were

the propereft to lead the fashion?To what lengths a lady might proceed without the lofs of her reputation?"

Whether the Beautifying Lotion or the Royal Wathball were the most ex. cellent cofmetics. It might also be expected in complaifance to the fair fex, that the Inquifitor fhould now and then read a differtation on Natural and Artificial Beauty; in which he might (with that foftnefs and delicacy peculiar to himfelf) analyfe a lady's face, and give examples of the ogle, the fimper, the fimile, the languish, the dimple, &c. with a word or two on the ufe and beneft of paint.

But thefe points I fhall leave to Mt. Macklin's confideration: in the mean

time, as it is not in my power to oblige the public with a lady's fpeech, I fhall fill up the remainder of my paper with