good and all, and turned him out of the house, saying, He would have no butcher of his fellow-creatures there. This was last month, at the dinner which he gave on the chriftening of my little brother Buonaparte Sourby, which name he gave him against the advice of the clergyman and all his neighbours.

I am afraid these particulars may seem tiresome and uninteresting; and I feel that I have not half defcribed the uneafinefs which this new temper and principles of my father occafion, and the change that has been made in him; nor how furprifing it feems to me, that the more he has liberty and independence in his mouth, the more he fhould be a tyrant (if I might fay fo) in his conduct to his family. But I will intrude no longer, than to say, that

I am, Sir,

Your afflicted humble fervant, LETITIA SOURBY. I forgot to mention, that my father does not know of my feeing your paper, which I see at a neighbour's in the village (a widow lady), who takes it in, and lets me read it when I call upon her. My father would be very angry if he knew it.

SIR,

LETTER FROM SAMUEL SHALLOW.

HEA

[From the Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly, Examiner.]

EARING you had fome time back publifhed a letter from a Young Woman, complaining, her father had been misled by thefe new-fangled French doctrines, I take the liberty (though I am but a poor fcribe) to relate to you the history of my own family.

We live in a small town in Warwickshire. Father is a shoemaker; I am his apprentice; and mother as eminent a clear-starcher as any in the county. We were very hard-working people, and had plenty of customers, and were as comfortable a family as could be, till about

two

two months ago, when father one evening carried a pair of fhoes to the master of the Red Lion. It was twelve o'clock before he came home; he was very drunk, and came in finging (as he called it) patriotic fongs. Father never could fing in his life; but he made a frightful noife, and mother and I had inuch ado to get him to bed. Being ufually a fober man, next day he was very fick, and could not fit at his work; and a strange, ill-looking man came and asked to fpeak to him, and they were thut up together ever fo long, and when he went away, father faid it was Citizen Rigfbaw, a member of the Correfponding Society, and occafionally steward of the Whig Club, a great philofopher, and a patriot, who had been fent down to enlighten and reform, and organize (I think he called it) this part of the nation, and father was to help him.Father faid it would be a GLORIOUS work! and full of HUMAN WISDOM and INTEGRITY!

Meantime, however, his own work ftood still, and we were half starved. My mother had a great affection for my father, and a high opinion of his understanding; but when the found his ftudying politics made us none the richer, and his neglecting his work made us all the poorer, she grew fomewhat crufty, and one evening, when father had been keeping his Decadeday, as he calls it (for we had no Sundays now, though we did no work), mother plucked up a spirit, and well fcolded him. He only fmiled, and told her, Philofophers did not like a noife; therefore he fhould get rid of a brawling wife, for he would be divorced as foon as the French came. "Divorced!" faid my mother, colouring as red as a turkey-cock- Nay, Female Citizen," said he, " do not blush, it will be no difgrace to thee; I fhall only allege incompatibility of temper, and when thou art divorced from me, thou mayeft marry as many husbands as thou canst getone after another, that is."-" May I, fure?" faid mother; and the feemed quite pacified, and went out

of

of the room, telling one, two, three, upon her fingers. Then my father turned to me- "My brave boy," said he, "thou art no longer my child, but the child of thy country;" and then he ran on a deal about the old Romans, and a parcel of stuff I did not heed-I had heard enough in knowing I was no longer his fon, and I determined to shift for myfelf in the world, and trouble my head no more about him..

A few days ago he happened to get drunk again; and as he was roaring Liberty and Equality in the ftreet, a sturdy fellow came up, and damned him for a Jacobin, and pushed him into the kennel. I happened not to be far off, fo he halloos out to me" Come hither, Sam, and help thy old father on his legs again." I thought to fhow how well I had improved by his inftructions; fo, going up to him, I said, “ Citizen, I am not thy child, but the child of my country"—and was walking away, when I met a gentleman who had dealt at our shop, who, feeing father sprawling on his back, infifted on my going and taking him up, and fupporting him home, and he walked with us; fo, when we came to our house, the gentleman faid to my mother," Mrs. Shallow, I have brought you home a drunken husband; but you are a good wife, and, I doubt not, will take care of him.""Sir," faid my mother, calmly," to oblige you, I will take charge of this citizen; but-"-" Citizen !" cried the gentleman,

is he not your husband?"—" Why yes, Sir, I cannot but fay he is at prefent; but we fhall foon be divorced for comatability of tempers, as Richard calls it, and then I fhall marry neighbour Wilkins the clothier; and then Ephraim Hopkins, a promifing youth in the fadlery line; and then, perhaps, John

"Hold your foolish prating," said the gentleman; and therewith he fell a difcourfing upon the nonfenfical doctrines that we had been learning, and vowed, as he was a justice of peace, to clear the parish of that Rig

ihaw,

fhaw, if he were fifty times a Whig and Corresponding Society-man.

Next day he came again; father was ill, from the bruises he got by his fall, fo the gentleman went and talked to him by his bed-fide; and truth to fay, we were all desperately ashamed of ourfelves, and very forry for what had happened; and refolved to keep to our bufinefs, which we did understand; and not meddle with politics, conftitutions, or divorces any more. Father has fhut his door against all citizens (as for Rigfhaw, he was put in gaol for robbing the landlord's hen-rooft); and we hope in time, by the help of a few friends, to get into business again, though at prefent 't is but poor doings with us.

If you think, Sir, our example may serve as a warning to others, you are very welcome to publish this letter.

From your obedient humble fervant,
SAMUEL SHALLOW.

IMPROVEMENT OF THE FISHERIES.

IN A LETTER TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS, PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, AND READ LATELY IN THE SOCIETY.

SIR,

EVER

[From the Morning Chronicle.]

VER defirous to contribute what lies in my power to the perfection of those plans in which the Society are laudably employed, I beg leave to communicate a difcovery lately made in America, and which I have no doubt will prove of infinite fervice to this country, if not refifted by that bugbear, dread of innovation, which threatens to render all improvement dead and unprogreffive.

In an American paper which lately came into my hands, I found the following paragraph

« New

"New Hampshire, Keen, March 22.

"A fingular fact.-We hear from Enfield, in the upper part of this county, that as two men were croffing a pond in pursuit of a moufe, one of them being thirsty, and perceiving a hole which had been cut through the ice by fome fishermen, he ftooped down to drink, but being poffeffed of a long red nofe, a fifh fuppofed he had fome bait, and made bold to fnap at it, when the man fuddenly throwing his head back, drew out a trout which weighed three pounds four ounces."

Since the discovery of the circulation of the blood, there has not been a discovery equal to this-nothing which will tend more to facilitate the art of angling, and render the implements of fishery fo cheap. Immediately on reading this account, I went to the New York coffee-houfe, fituated in the ward of Cornhill, and parish of St. Michael's, and inquired if any gentlemen had lately arrived from America. I found feveral, who confirmed the truth of this fact, by producing other newspapers, into which it was copied. The evidence being now complete, I immediately fat down to improve upon this discovery. The refult of my reflections I beg leave to communicate to the Society by your means.

The leading fact here established is, that "Red nofes are a good and fufficient bait for trout."—I will not stop here to differt on the moufe-hunting, which probably is a diverfion peculiar to Enfield, in the province of New Hampshire, as hunting the steeple is in fome provinces in England, not to speak of chafing butterflies, and emperors of Morocco-but I will proceed to obferve upon the fact itself, that if due encouragement is given to the breed of red nofes, catching trout will foon be as eafy as taking fnuff.

A

To afcertain the fact, however, by experiment, which now and then is a pretty certain way of proving

facts,