outfide upon a small eftate. Here I lived very comfortably for fome time, till I unfortunately found my mafter, the very gravest man alive, in the garret with the chambermaid. I knew the ⚫ world too well to think of staying there; and the next day pretended to have received a letter out of the country that my father was dying, and got my difcharge with a bounty for my difcretion. • The next I lived with was a peevish fingle man, ' whom I ftayed with for a year and a half. Moft part of the time I paffed very eafily; for when I began to know him, I minded no more than he meant what he faid; fo that one day in good humour he faid, I was the best man be ever had, by • my want of respect to him.

Thefe, Sir, are the chief occurrences of my life, and I will not dwell upon very many other places I have been in, where I have been the ftrangeft fellow in the world where no body in. the world had fuch fervants as they, where sure they were the unluckieft people in the world, in ⚫ fervants, and fo forth. All I mean by this reprefentation, is, to fhew you that we poor fervants are not (what you called us too generally) all rogues; but that we are what we are, according to the example of our fuperiors. In the family I am now in, I am guilty of no one fin but lying; which I do with a grave face in my gown and. ftaff every day I live, and almost all day long, in denying my lord to impertinent fuitors, and my lady to unwelcome vifitants. But, Sir, I am to

let you know that I am, when I can get abroad, રી leader of the fervants: I am he that keep time with beating my cudgel againft the boards in the gallery at an opera; I am he that am touched fo properly at a tragedy, when the people of quality are ftaring at one another during the most important incidents: When you hear in a crowd a cry in the right place, an hum where the point

T

is touched in a fpeech, or an huzza fet up where it is the voice of the people; you may conclude it is begun or joined by,

SIR,

Your very humble fervant,

THOMAS TRUSTY

THURSDAY, JUNE 21.

No 97.

Projecere animas

VIRG. Æn. vi. ver. 436.

They prodigally threw their fouls away.

AMONG the loofe papers which I have frequently

fpoken of heretofore, I find a converfation between Pharamond and Eucrate upon the fubject of duels, and the copy of an edict iffued in confequence of that difcourfe.

Eucrate argued, that nothing but the moft fevere and vindictive punishments, fuch as placing the bodies of the offenders in chains, and putting them to death by the most exquifite torments, would be fufficient to extirpate a crime which had fo long prevailed and was fo firmly fixed in the opinion of the world as great and laudable; but the king an fwered, That indeed inftances of ignominy were neceffary in the cure of this evil; but confidering that it prevailed only among fuch as had a nicety in their fenfe of honour, and that it often happened that a duel was fought to fave appearances to the world, when both parties were in their hearts in amity and reconciliation to each other; it was evident that turning the mode another way would effectually put a stop to what had being only as a mode. That to fuch perfons, poverty and fhame were torments fufficient: That he would not go further in punishing in others crimes which he was fatisfied he himself was moft guilty of, in that he might

might have prevented them by fpeaking his difpleafure fooner. Befides which the king faid, he was in general averfe to tortures, which was putting human nature itself, rather than the criminal, to difgrace; and that he would be fure not to use this faeans where the crime was but an ill effect arifing from a laudable caufe, the fear of thame. The king, at the fame time, fpoke with much grace upon the fubject of mercy; and repented of many acts of that kind which had a magnificent afpect in the doing, but dreadful confequences in the example. Mercy to particulars, he obferved, was cruelty in the general: That though a prince could not revive a dead man by taking the life of him who killed him, neither could he make reparation to the next that fhould die by the evil example; or anfwer to himfelf for the partiality, in not pardoning the next as well as the former offender. As

for me, fays Pharamond, I have conquer'd France, and yet have given laws to my people: The laws are my methods of life; they are not a diminution but a direction to my power. I am ftill abfolute to diftinguifh the innocent and the virtuous, to give honours to the brave and generous: I am Jabfolute in my good-will; none can oppose my bounty, or preferibe rules for my favour. While I can, as I pleafe, reward the good, I am under no pain that I cannot pardon the wicked: For which reason, continued Pharamond, I will effectually put a stop to this evil, by expofing no more the tendernefs of my nature to the importunity of having the fame refpect to thofe who are miferable by their fault, and thofe who are fo by their misfortune, Flatterers (concluded the king fmiling) repeat to us princes, that we are heaven's vicegerents; let us be fo, and let the only thing out of our power be to do ill.

Soon after the evening wherein Pharamond

and

and Eucrate had this converfation, the following edict was published.

Pharamond's Edict against Duels.

Pharamond, King of the Gauls, to all his loving fubjects fendeth greeting.

WHEREA

HEREAS it has come to our royal notice and obfervation, that in contempt of all laws divine and human, it is of late become a cuftom among the nobility and gentry of this our kingdom, upon flight and trivial, as well as great and urgent provocations, to invite each other into the field, there, by their own hands, and of their own authority, to decide their controverfies by combat: We have thought fit to take the faid custom into our royal confideration, and find, upon inquiry into the ufual caufes whereon fuch fatal decifions have arifen, that by this wicked cuftom, maugre all the precepts of our holy religion, and the rules of right reafon, the greateft act of the human mind, forgiveness of injuries, is become vile and fhameful; that the rules of good fociety and virtuous converfation are hereby inverted; that the loofe, the vain, and the impudent, infult the careful, the difcreet, and the modeft; that all virtue is fuppreffed, and all vice fupported, in the one act of being capable to dare to the death. We have alfo further, with great forrow of mind, obferved that this dreadful action, by long impunity, (our royal attention being employed upon matters of more general concern) is become honourable, and the refufal to engage in it ignominious. In thefe our royal cares and inquiries We are yet farther made to underftand, that the perfons of moft eminent worth, and moft hopeful abilities, accompanied with the ftrongeft paffion for true glory, are fuch as are most liable to be involved in the dangers arifing from this licence. VOL. II. + G

• Now

Now taking the faid premifes into our ferious confideration, and well weighing that all fuch emergencies (wherein the mind is incapable of commanding itself, and wherein the injury is too fudden or too exquifite to be born) are particularly provided for by laws heretofore enacted; and that the qualities of lefs injuries, like thofe of ingratitude, are too nice and delicate to come under general rules: We do refolve to t blot this fafhion, or wantonnefs of anger, out of the minds of our fubjects, by our royal refolutions declared in this edict as follow.

No perfon who either fends or accepts a challenge, or the pofterity of either, though no death enfues thereupon, thall be, after the publication of this our edict, capable of bearing office in thefe our dominions, lavo

The perfon who fhall prove the fending or receiving a challenge, fhall receive to his own ufe and property, the whole perfonal eftate of both parties; and their real eftate fhall be immediately vested in the next heir of the offenders in a ample manner as if the faid offenders were actually deceased.

T

as

In cafes where the laws (which we have already granted to our fubjects) admit of an appeal for blood; when the criminal is condemned by the faid appeal, he fhall not only fuffer death, but his whole eftate, real, mixed, and perfonal, fhall from the hour of his death be vefted in the next heir of the perfon whose blood he spilt.

That it shall not hereafter be in our royal power, or that of our fucceffors, to pardon the faid offences, or reftore the offenders in their eftates, honour, or 1 blood for ever.”

Given at our court at Blois, the 8th of February to 420, in the fecond year of our reign, sua no? T sil dy nga valtine ausgashodi ai bevlovab wall

2

FRIDAY,