have tried them, and they have all happened true: and I am fure my own fifter Hetty, who died just before Christmas, flood in the church porch last Midfummer Eve to fee all that were to die that year in our parish; and the faw her own apparition. Your humble fervant, ARABELLA WEMSEY.

T

MARTIAL.

TheRury of modern converfa HERE is no phrafe in the whole tion, which has a more vague fignification than the words Good Company.' People of fashion modestly explain it to mean only themselves; and, like the old Ronans, look on all others as barbarians. Thus a star or a ribband, a title or a place, denotes Good Company; and a man rifes in the esteem of the polite circle according to his rank or his rent roll. This way of reafoning is fo well known and fo generally adopted, that we are not furprised to hear polite perfons complain at their return from the play, that the houfe was very much erouded, but that there was no company: though, indeed, I could not help fmiling at a lady's faying the preferred St. James's church to St. George's, becaufe the pews were commonly filled with Better Company.

I propofe at prefent to confider this comprehenfive term, only as it refpects a fociety of friends, who meet in order to pass their time in an agreeable manner. To do this the more effectually, Ifhall take a curfory view of the feveral methods now in vogue, by which a fet of acquaintance endeavour to amuse each other. The reader will here meet with some very extraordinary inventions for this purpofe; and when he has fixed his choice, may try to introduce himfelf into that company he likes belt.

There is a great demand for wit and humour in fome parts of this metropolis. Among many he is reckoned the Best Company, who can enliven his converfation with ftrokes of facetioufnels, and An Shakespeare's words) fet the table

་

SHAKESPEARE.

on a roar.' But as wit and humour do not always fall to the fhare of thofe who aim at thining in converfation, our jokers and witlings have wifely devifed feveral mechanical ways of gaining that end. I know one who is thought a very facetious fellow by the club of which he is a member, because every night, as foon as the clock ftrikes twelve, he begins to crow like a cock: another is accounted a man of immense humour, for entertaining his friends with a bur lefque hornpipe; and a third has the reputation of being excellent company by finging a fong, and at the fame time playing the tune upon the table with his knuckles and elbows. Mimicry is, in thefe focieties, an indifpenfible requifite in a Good Companion. Imitations of the actors, and other well-known charafters, are very much admired; to which they have given the appellation of taking off. But the mimic is by no means limited to an imitation of the human fpecies: for an exact reprefentation of the brute creation will procure him infinite applaufe. Very many of these wits may be met with in different quarters of the town; and it is but a week ago fince I was invited to pafs the even ing with a fociety, which, after a dif-. play of their feveral talents, I found to confift of a Dog, a Cat, a Monkey, an 'Afs, and a couple of Dancing Bears..

I cannot help looking with fome veneration on the wit exerted in focieties of this fort, fince it has the extraordi nary quality of never creating either difguft or fattety. They affemble every night, tell the fame ftories, repeat the fame jokes, fing the fame fongs; and R

they

they are every night attended with the fame applaufe and merriment. Confidering how much their wit is ufed, it is furprifing that it fhould not be worn out. Sometimes, however, one of the fociety makes a new acquifition, which is immediately thrown into the common tock of humour, and conftantly difplayed as part of the entertainment of the evening. A gentleman of this caft Jately hewed me with great joy the poft fcript of a letter, in which his correfpondent promifed him buge fun the next time he fhould fee him, for he had got two new stories, and three or four excellent fongs from one of the actors.

Thefe are certainly very agreeable methods of paffing the evening, and muft please all perfons who have any relifh for wit and humour. But thefe powers of entertaining are not every where the ftandard of Good Company. There are places, in which he is the Beft Company who drinks moft. A Boon Companion lays it down as a rule, that talking poils converfation.' A bumper is the argument; and his first care is to promote a brifk circulation of the bottle. He fhews his esteem for an abfent friend by toasting him in a bumper extraordinary; and is frequently fo good and loyal a fubject, as to drink his Majefty's health in half-pints. If he is defired to fing a catch, he ftill keeps the main point in view, and gives a fong wrote in fo ingenious a ftile, that it obliges the company to tofs off a glafs at the end of every ftanza. If he talks, it is of healths five fathom deep,' or a late hard bout with another fet of jolly fellows; and he takes care, by a quick round of toalts, to fupply the want of other converfation.

I have ever thought the invention of Toafts very useful and ingenious. They at once promote hard drinking, and ferve as a kind of memorial of every glafs that has been drank: they alfo furnish thofe with converfation who had nothing to fay, or at least, by banishing all other topics, put the whole company on a level. Befides all this, three or four rounds of Toafts, where many are met together, mult unavoidably lift them all into Good Company. These are no fmall advantages to fociety; not to mention the wit and morality contained in many Toafts.

Toafts are doubtlefs very ufeful and entertaining: but the wifelt inftitution

ever made in drinking focieties, is the cuftom of appointing what is called an Abfolute Toaft-maker. The gentle man invested with this dignity is created king of the company; and, like other abfolute monarchs, he commonly makes great use of his power. It is particu Tarly his office to name the Toaft, to obferve that every man duly toffes off his bumper, and is in every respect Good Company. He is alfo to correct all mifdemeanors; and commonly punishes an offender by sconcing him a bumper that is, in the language of hard drinkers, not unmercifully denying him his due glafs, but obliging him to add another to it of perhaps double the quantity. For offences of a very heinous nature, the tranfgreffor is ordered a decanter of water, or a tankard of small beer. The privilege of inflicting a bumper is exerted almoft every moment: for there is hardly any fort of behaviour which does not produce this punishment. I have known a man fconced for drinking, for not drinking, for finging, for talking, for being filent, and at length fconced dead drunk, and made very Good Company.

But none of thefe qualifications abovementioned conftitute Good Company in the genteel part of the world. Polite affemblies neither aim at wit and humour, nor make the least pretence to cultivate fociety. Their whole evenings are confumed at the card-table, without the leaft attempt at any other converfation than the usual altercations of partners between the deals. Whift has deftroyed converfation, fpoiled fociety, and

murdered fleep.' This kind of Good Company is as ridiculous, and more infipid, than either the fociety of Witlings or Hard-drinkers. Toffing off bumpers is as rational, and an employment. infinitely more joyous, than shuffling a pack of cards a whole night and puns, jokes, and mimicry, however ftale and, repeated, furnifh the company with converfation of as much ufe and variety, as the odd trick and four by honours.

Such are the agreeable evenings paffed at White's, and the other coffee-houfes about St. James's. Such is the happinefs of Affemblies, Routs, Drums, and Hurricanes and without Gaming, what infipid things are even Mafquerades and Ridottos! At fuch meetings, the man, who is Good Company, plays the game very well, knows more cafes than are

in

in Hoyle, and often poffeffes fome particular qualifications, which would be no great recommendation to him any where elfe. Instead of meeting together, Jike other companies, with a defire of mutual delight, they fit down with a defign upon the pockets of each other: though, indeed, it is no wonder, when one has ftripped another of two or three thousand pounds, if the fuccessful gamefter thinks the perfon he has flecced very Good Company.

By what has been faid, it appears that the notion of Good Company excludes all useful conversation; which, in either of the above-mentioned focieties, would undoubtedly be despised as stupid and

pedantic. The Witlings have too lively a genius, and too warm an imagination, to admit it; the Boon Companions can join nothing but love to a bottle; and among Gameters, it would, like sleep, be

mere lofs of time, and hindrance of bufinefs. Yet an accomplished member of either of thefe focieties is called Good Company: which is just as proper an expreffion, as, according to Serjeant Kite, Carolus is good Latin for Queen Anne, or a fout beating. But a let of people who aflemble for no other purpofe than to Game, have, in particular, fo very bad a title to the denomination of Good Company, that they appear to me to be the very worst.

SALLUST

Misfortune which happened to

A me the other day, fuficiently con

vinced me of the inconveniencies arifing from the indifcriminate power lodged in our Prefs-gangs; who pay no more regard to those who plead protection from the badge of literature, than a bailiff's follower. I would not have the reader think that I was preffed myfelf:-but my Devil (that is the meffenger of the printing-houfe) was carried off as he was going with the copy of a Connoiffeur to the prefs. Learning appears to me of fo much importance, that (in my opinion) the perfons of the lowelt retainers to it should be facred from moJeftation; and it gives me concern, though a very loyal fubject, that even a ballad-finger, or the hawker of Bloody News, thould be interrupted in their literary vocations. I have in vain endeavoured to recover my manufcript again: for, though I cannot but think any one of my papers of almost as much confequence to the nation as the fitting ut a fleet, the ignorant failors were fo

regardless of it's ineftimable contents, that after much enquiry I detected them (with my Devil in conjunction) lighting their pipes with it, at a low alehoufe by Puddle Dock.

This irretrievable lofs to the public, as well as myself, led me to confider, whether fome method might not be thought of, to raise fufficient forces for the fleet and army without disturbing poor labourers and honeft mechanics in their peaceful occupations. I have at length, with great pains and expence of thought, hit upon a fcheine which will effectually answer that end; and without further preface fhall lay it before the public.

I would propofe, that every useless member of the community fhould be made of service to his country, by being obliged to climb the ropes, or carry a mufquet; and every detrimental one fhould be prevented from injuring his fellow-fubjects, and fent to annoy the common enemy. To begin with the country. There is no occafion to rob

the