was faid by an old philofopher, muft lay at the bottom of a tankard of porter. There is no grace or excellence in oratory, but is difplayed in the Robin Hood Society to the greatest advantage. Demofthenes being asked what was the firt quality in an orator, replied-Ac. tion; what the fecond-Action; what the third-A&tion. Upon this principle one of the members, for whom I have a vaft refpect, is the greatest orator that ever lived. He never troubles himself about the order or fubftance of what he delivers, but waves his hand, toffes his head, abounds in feveral new and beautiful geftures, and from the beginning of his fpeech to the end of it, takes no care but to fet it off with action. Tully tells us, that it is the bufinefs of an orator to prove, delight, and convince.' Proof and conviction our Society is always fure to give us: for elfe how could it ever come to pafs, that fo many young men fhould have learned from thefe difquifitions, that there is no God, that the foul is mortal, that religion is a jet, and many other truths, which they would otherwife never have difcovered? The nature of their queftions is alfo for the most part fo entertaining, that the difputes about them cannot fail of giving delight; and there is a peculiarity in the oratory of the place, which greatly conduces to that end. The fpeakers do not always think themselves obliged to drive in the dull direct road to the point, but indulge themselves in a larger fcope, that allows room for novelty and entertainment. When the question has been concerning the veracity of the Bible, I have known a gentleman get up, and beginning with William the Conqueror, give the audience an abfract of as many reigns as his five minutes would allow him to difpatch. I lately remember the queftion to have been, Whether a bridge from Black Friars to Southwark would be of pub. lic benefit;' when a facetious gentleman employed himself in demonftrating the great utility of the bridge of the nofe, and the bridge of a fiddle. In a word, cur orators are at once ferious and comical; and they make gravity and mirth almoft conftantly attend each other, like their own Robin Hood and Little John. The folidity, and at the fame time the fmartness of their fpeeches, are equally remarkable. They pun with a grave face, and make quibbles and conun drums with the air of a philofopher The writings of different authors have been compared to wines: but the ora tions delivered here can be resembled to nothing fo properly as the liquors of the Society; for while they are at once fo weighty and fo fharp, they seem to be an equal mixture of porter and lemonade. It would be endless to enumerate the advantages refulting from this fociety. The wonderful improvement it has already made in our mechanics is very evident: it calls off our tradesmen from the practice of honefty in their common dealings, and fets them upon enquiries concerning right and wrong, and the moral fitnefs of things. The Spectator has told us of the rhetoric of a toyman; but you, Mr. Town, might acquaint pofterity of the eloquence of bakers, barbers, carpenters, and blacksmiths: you may every day hear difcourfes on religion from the fhepboard, and refearches into philofophy from behind the counter. When you took notice of the want of learning in our people of quality, you ought in justice to have acknowledged the amazing erudition of our tradefnien. The plebeians of Rome were mere brutes to our common people; and I am of opinion, that the public room under that in which this weekly meeting is held, inftead of being furnifhed with the bufts of our English poets, fhould be adorned with the heads of the learned fhoemakers, tailowchandlers, bakers, &c. that conftitute this excellent Society, We may venture to fay, that the Royal Society and the Robin Hood are the two greatest ornaments of this nation: and as the former now and then gives us an account of their tranfactions, it were to be wifhed, that the fellows of the latter would alfo from time to time oblige us with an hiftory of their proceedings. We should then fee by what means fo many profelytes have been made from bigotry and fuperftition; by what degrees a young difputant from a raw Christian ripens into a Deift, from a Deift into a Free-thinker, and from a Free-thinker, (by a very short step) into an Atheist. We fhould alfo know the effect that the difputations at this weekly meeting have upon our lives and converfations; and from thence judge how much a defign of this nature deferves public encouragement. I have here Aung flung together a fhort account of fome of the former members; and upon a review of it cannot but lament, that it feems to be the peculiar fate of great erators, fuch as Demosthenes and Tully for example, to come to an unhappy end. MAT. PRIG, a Merchant's Clerk, was converted from Chriftianity by the arguments which were brought againft Revelation. AARON BEN SADDAI was converted from the Jewith Faith by the arguments brought againft Mofes and the Patriarchs. WILL. POSITIVE was a ftrong Fatalift, and at the fame time a vehement advocate for man's free-will. At laft he gave a proof of his free-agency by fhooting himself through the head. JACK WILDFIRE was convinced of the innocence of fortication, used to declaim against the abfurd inftitution of matrimony, and at twenty-fix died a batchelor in the Lock Hofpital. SOLOMON SQUARE ftood up for the religion of nature, and the immutable rule of right and wrong, in preference to the laws of the community. How ever, he was unfortunately detected in an attempt to carry off a filver tankard from the bar of the house, and was fent to propagate morality in foreign parts. BOB BOOTY was a strict Hobbian, and maintained that men were in a narural ftate of war with each other. He at laft died a martyr to these principles, and now hangs on a gibbet on Hounflow Heath. JOHN DISMAL, after having argued one night against the being of a God, and the immortality of the foul, went home, and was found the next morning hanging in his garters. THOMAS BROADCLOTH, Citizen and Mercer, was very much admired for his fpeeches upon trade. After he had been in bufinefs for two years, he became bankrupt, and was indicted for felony in fecreting his effects. RICHARD GOOSEQUILL, Attorney at Law, was remarkable for his patriotifm and the love of his country. He was convicted of bribery and corruption at a late election, in which he was em ployed as an agent. JEREMYCRISEN, Cordwainer, used conftantly to attend the club for edification, though he was forced from time to time to pawn his own and his wife's cloaths to raise the weekly fixpence for his admittance. In the space of three years he had been a Papilt, a Quaker, an Anabaptift, a Jew, an Arian, a Socinian, a Mahometan, a Methodist, a Deift, and an Atheift. His wife and four children have been fent to the workhouse. He is at prefent confined in Bedlam, and calls himself the Prefident of the Robin Hood Society. I am, Sir, your humble servant, &c. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME THE CONNOISSEU R. VOLUME THE SECOND. N° XXXVI. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1754 NON SIC INCERTO MUTANTUR FLAMINE SYRTES,, I Have fomewhere feen a picture, re- ordinary revolutions have already happened in the habits of this kingdom; and as dress is fubject to unaccountable changes, pofterity may perhaps fee without furprise our ladies ftrut about in breeches, while our men waddle in hooppetticoats. In the days of Queen Elizabeth, it was the fashion for the ladies to conceal and wrap up as much of their bodies as they could: their necks were encompaffed with a broad ruff, which likewife fpread itself over their bofoms; and their fleeves were continued down and fastened close to their wrifts, while only their feet were allowed just to peep from beneath the modeft fardingale; fo that nothing was expofed to the impertinent eye of man but their faces. Our modern ladies have run into the contrary extreme, and appear like fo many ropedancers; they have difcarded as much PROPERT of their cloaths as with any tolerable the other fex, and b part of the female drefs within these few years. The hoop has been known to expand and contract itself from the fize of a butter churn to the circumference of three hogtheads: at one time it was floped from the waist in a pyramidical form; at another it was bent upwards like an inverted bow, by which the two angles, when fqueezed up on each fide, came in contact with the ears. At prefent it is nearly of an oval form, and fcarce meatures from end to end above twice the length of the wearer. The hoop has, indeed, loft much of it's credit in the female world, and has fuffered much from the innovation of fhort facks and negligées; which, it must be confeffed, are equally becoming to the lady of pleasure and the lady of quality: for as the men will agree, that next to no cloaths at all, nothing is more ravishing than an easy deshabille, our ladies for that reafon, erhaps, come into public places as if they were just got out of bed, or as if they were ready to go into it. This, while it is the fashion, muft be agreeable; but I must own, that I could fooner approve of their encircling themselves in fo many ells of whalebone, than to see them affect to appear with their cloaths huddled on fo loosely and indecently. This manner of dreffing, or rather not dreffing, was brought from Paris: but I would have my fair readers confider, that as this loofe method of dress is calculated to hide any defects in the body, it is very impolitic to fuffer ail that fymmetry and elegant turn of fhape they are mittreffes of, to be fmothered under it; fince thefe habits can be of no more fervice to their perfons, than paint (that other Paris commodity) can add to the natural red and white of their complexion, though perhaps it may heighten the fallow vifages of the French. But of all the branches of female drefs, no one has undergone more al terations than that of the head. The long lappets, the horfe-fhoe cap, the Bruffels head, and the prudifh mob pinned under the chin, have all of them had their day. The prefent mode has rooted out all thefe fuperfluous excrefcences, and in the room of a flip of cambrick or lace, has planted a whimfical sprig of fpangles or artificial flowLets. We may remember, when for a while the hair was tortured into ringlets Schinde at prefent it is braided into a queue, (like thofe formerly worn by the men, and still retaining the original name of Ramillies) which, if it were not reverted upwards, would make us imagine that our fine ladies were afflict. ed with the Plica Polonica. If the caps have paffed through many metamorphofes, no lefs a change has been brought about in the other coverings contrived for the head. The diminutive high-crowned hat, the bonnet, the hive, and the milk-maid's chip hat, were refcued for a time from old women and fervant girls, to adorn heads of the first fashion. Nor was the method of cocking hats lefs fluctuating, till they were at length fettled to the prefent mode; by which it is ordered, that every hat, whether of ttraw or filk, whether of the chambermaid or miftrefs, muft have their flaps turned up perpendicu larly both before and behind. If the end of a fine lady's drefs was not rather ornamental than ufeful, we should think it a little odd, that hats, which feem naturally intended to fcreen their faces from the heat or feverity of the weather, fhould be moulded into a fhape that prevents their answering either of these purposes: but we muft, indeed, allow it to be highly ornamental, as the prefent hats worn by the women are more bold and impudent than the broadbrimmed ftaring Kevenhullers worn a few years ago by the men. These hats are alfo decorated with two waving pendants of ribband, hanging down from the brim on the left fide. I am not fo much offended at the flaming air which thefe ftreamers carry with them, as I am afraid left it fhould fpoil the charming eyes of my pretty countrywomen, which are conftantly provoked to caft a glance at them; and I have myself often obferved an obliging ogle or ravishing leer intercepted by thefe mediums; fo that, when a lady has intended to charm her lover, fhe has shocked him with an hideous fquint. The ladies have long been feverely rallied on their too great attention to finery: but, to own the truth, dress feems at prefent to be as much the study of the male part of the world as the female. We have gentlemen, who will lay a whole night' (as Benedick fays) carving the fashion of a new doublet.' They have their toilettes too, as well as the ladies, fet out with washes, perfumes, and cofmetics; and will fpend the whole morning in fcenting their linen, dreffing their hair, and arching their eyebrows. Their heads (as well as the ladies) have undergone various mutations, and have worn as many different kinds of wigs, as the block at their barber's. About fifty years ago they buried their heads in a bush of hair; and the beaux (as Swift fays) lay hid beneath the penthouse ⚫ of a full-bottomed periwig.' But as they then fhewed nothing but the nose, mouth, and eyes, the fine gentlemen of our time not only oblige us with their full faces, but have drawn back the fide curls quite to the tip of the ear. As France appears to be the wardrobe of the world, I fhall conclude my paper with a piece of fecret hiftory, which gives us fome infight into the origin of deriving all our fafhions from thence. The celebrated Lord Foppingten, among his other amours, had once an intrigue with a milliner of Covent Garden, who after fome time brought a lovely girl into the world, and called her after his lordship's furname, Fafhion. The milliner brought up the child in her own houfe till the age of fifteen, at which time he grew very preffing with Lord Foppington to make fome provifion for his daughter. My lord, who was never much pleased with this confequence of his amours, that he might be rid of the girl for ever, put her into the hands of a friend, who was going abroad, to place her in a nunnery: but the girl, who had very little of the veital in her difpofition, contrived to efcape from her conductor, and flew to Paris. There her beauty and fprightiinefs foon procured her many friends; and fhe opened a genteel fhop. in her mother's bufinefs. She foon made herself remarkable for contriving the moft elegant head-dreffes, and cutting out ruffles with the most ravishing flope: her fancy was befides fo inexhauftible, that the almost every day produced a great variety of new and beautiful patterns. She had many adorers, and at laft married his Moft Chriftian Majesty's taylor. This alliance brought the drefs of all Paris under their jurifdiction; and the young lady, out of a natural love to her native country, propofed the extending their care to the fine gentlemen and ladies of London. In purfuance of this, Monfieur her hufband, two or three times in the year, tranfinits a fuit of cloaths entirely à la Paris as a pattern to Meffieurs Regnier and Lynch, of Leicester Fields and Pall Mall, while the wife fends over a little wooden Mademoifelie to her relations in Tavistock Street, N° XXXVII. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1754. EJA! SUDABIS SATIS, 61 CUM ILLO INCEPTAS HOMINE: EA ELOQUENTIA EST! TER. BY MY TROTH, YOU WILL SWEAT FOR IT, IF YOU ONCE BEGIN WITH THIS MAN: HE HAS SUCH AMAZING ELOQUENCE. Correfpondent writes to me, that I have, indeed, obferved with a good After fide confidered the Art of deal of concern, that the orator has of Speaking in the theatre, as alfo celebrated the practice of it in the Robin Hood Society, my remarks will not be compleat, except I take notice of the ex traordinary eloquence of the Clare Market Orator. He defires me to remember, that this univerfal genius has from time to time declared from his roftrum, with a thundering elocution That there is but one orator in the world, and he is the man-that Sir Robert Walpole, and all the great men in the kingdom, have been his fcholars-and that bithops have come to his oratory to earn to preach, late defcontinued to oblige the public with his Sunday evening lectures as ufal. Initead of feeing his Oratorychapel fhut up, I was in hopes that every parith-church in the kingdom would be opened on the fame principles. How much more falutary were his tenets, fetting forth the fufficiency of realon, than the cold doctr me of our clergy preaching up the neceffity of faith! H w fuperior was his form of prayer to our whole liturgy, and how much better adapted to particular occafions! - A Prayer for a finking bridge !— Prayer for the White Rofe!-Praver • for L 2 |