Ma. But perhaps you will fix on a lawyer;
Or rather he'll fix upon her;
[aside.]
Perhaps one of that class will do for you?'
Self. If he stands in the smell of the fur.'
Ma. But don't let us speculate longer,

I'll leave you, my love, to decide.'

Self. Well, I'll say, as I cannot get younger,
Look out for the flood of the tide.'*

Ma. Then we'll give our first rout in a fortnight,'
Self. Or alias, we'll lay our first trap,'

Ma. Ah! ah! and may he be who's caught 'n it,' Self. A gallant and good sort of chap.'

Ma's t' invite all the dandies of fashion,

And dames of the town, to B-- House; And I'm to be open for passion

Sigh love, just as snug as a mouse.

Well, first I'm to bob at a viscount,

Or perhaps, (if we get him,) an earl;
Then baronet, baron; and I count,
If I win, I'm a fortunate girl.

But if these, with the colonels, and cornets,
And lawyers, and parsons, should shy,
I shall call 'em a parcel of hornets,
And then for another good try!

Ma visits the Countess of Dashem,
The dowager Duchess of B-
And Ladies Ross, Locket, and Lashem,
And to them she will whisper for me.
So I think there's no fear of my winning;
I was twenty, you know, in the spring,
But we'll lose not, for want of beginning;
Dear Lizzy,

Your's ever,

A. BYNG.

U. C. K. L'E.

There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

Shakspeare.

ANECDOTES OF DESPOTISM.

DESPOTISM, or arbitrary power, naturally tends to make a man a bad sovereign, who might possibly have been a good one, had he been invested with an authority circumscribed by laws. None can doubt of this tendency in arbitrary power, who consider, that it fills the mind of man with great and unreasonable conceits of himself; raises him into a belief, that he is of a species superior to his subjects; extinguishes in him the principle of fear, which is one of the greatest motives to all duties; and creates an ambition of magnifying himself, by the exertion of such a power in all its instances.

One of the most arbitrary princes that ever lived was Muley Ishmael, Emperor of Morocco, who, after a long reign, died in the year 1714. He was a man of much wit and natural sense, of an active temper, undaunted courage, and great application. He was a 'descendant from Mahomet; and so exemplary for his adherence to the law of his prophet, that he abstained all his life from the taste of wine; began the annual feast, or Lent, of Ramadan, two months before his subjects; was frequent in his prayers; and, that he might not want opportunities of kneeling, had fixed in all the spacious courts of his palace large consecrated stones pointing toward the east, for any occasional exercise of his devotion. What might not have been hoped from a prince of these endowments, had they not all been rendered useless to the good of his people by the notion of that power which they ascribed to him!

Foreign envoys have described this holy man mounted on horseback in an open court, with several of his alcaydes, or governors of provinces, about him; standing barefoot, trembling, bowing to the earth, and at every word he spoke, breaking into exclamations of praise, as 'Great is the wisdom of our lord the king; our lord the king speaks as an angel from heaven.' Happy the man among them who was

so much a favourite as to be sent on an errand to the most remote street in the capital, which he performed with the greatest alacrity, ran through every puddle that lay in his way, and took care to return out of breath, and covered with dirt, that he might show himself a diligent and faithful minister. His majesty, at the same time, to exhibit the greatness of his power, and show his horsemanship, seldom dismissed the foreign envoy from his audience, till he had entertained him with the slaughter of two or three of his liege subjects, whom he very dexterously put to death with the tilt of his lance. One ambassador he received in robes just stained with an execution, and blooded up to his elbows by a couple of Moors, whom he had been butchering with his own imperial hands. The authors who have given an account of his exploits, have calculated, that by his own arm he had killed above forty thousand of his people. To render him. self the more awful, he would wear a garb of a particular colour when he was bent upon execution; so that when he appeared in yellow, the great men hid themselves in corners, and durst not pay their court to him, till he had satiated his thirst of blood by the death of some of his loyal commoners, or of some such unwary officers of state as chanced to come in his way, On this account, the first news inquired after every morning at Mequinez, was, whether the emperor were stirring, and in a good or bad humour? As he was a great lover of architecture, and employed many thousands in his buildings, if he did not approve of the plan or the performance, it was usual for him to show the delicacy of his taste, by demolishing the building, and putting to death all who had a hand in it. One instance of his mercy, however, was shown to the master of an English vessel. This man presented him with a curious hatchet, which he received very graciously, and then asking him whether it had a good edge, he tried it upon the donor, who, slipping aside from the blow, escaped with the loss only of his right ear; for old Muley, upon second thoughts, considering

that it was not one of his own subjects, stopped his hand, and would not send him to Paradise. Of one of his queens he was remarkably fond; and a favourite prime minister was also very dear to him. The first died of a kick from her lord the king, when she was pregnant, for having gathered a flower as she was walking with him in his pleasure-garden; the other was bastinadoed to death by his majesty, who, repenting of the drubs he had given him, when it was too late, to manifest his esteem for the memory of so worthy a man, executed the surgeon that could not cure him.

This absolute monarch was as notable a guardian of the fortunes, as of the lives of his subjects. When any one grew rich, in order to keep him from being dangerous to the state, he used to send for all his goods and chattels. His governors of towns and provinces, who formed themselves upon the example of their grand monarque, practised rapine, violence, extortion, and all the art of despotic government, that they might the better send him their yearly presents: for the greatest of his viceroys was in danger of being recalled or hanged, if he did not remit the bulk of his plunder to his dread sovereign. That he might make a right use of these prodigious treasures, he took care to bury them under ground, by the hands of his most trusty slaves, and then cut their throats, as the most effectual method of securing secrecy.

The following story will illustrate his notions of property: being upon the road, amid his life-guards, a little before the time of the ram feast, he met one of his alcaydes at the head of his servants, who were driving a great flock of sheep to market. The emperor asked whose they were. The alcayde, with profound submission, answered, "They are mine, O Ishmael, son of Elcheriff.' Thine! thou son of a cuckold,' said this servant of the Lord, I thought I had been the only proprietor in this country.' Upon which he ran him through the body with his lance, and very piously distributed the sheep among his guards for the celebration of the feast.

His determination of justice between man and man will evince the blessings of his administration: an alcayde complaining to him of a wife, (whom he had received from his majesty's hands, and therefore could not divorce,) that she used to pull him by the beard, the emperor ordered his beard to be plucked up by the roots, that he might not be liable to any more such affronts. A farmer having accused some of his guards of having robbed him of a drove of oxen, the emperor readily shot the offenders; but afterwards, demanding reparation of the accuser, for the loss of so many brave fellows, and finding him insolvent, he compounded the matter with him by taking away his life. One good thing he was celebrated for in the course of his reign, the clearing of the roads of robbers, with which they used to be much infested. But his method was to flay man, woman, or child, that lived within a certain distance of the district where the robbery was committed.

By way of reprisal for the English captives that were detained in his dominions, our distinguished admiral Sir Cloudesly Shovel took several of his subjects; and, upon offering to exchange them on very advantageous terms, this good emperor sent him word, that the subjects he had taken were poor men not worth the ransoming, and that he might throw them overboard if he pleased.

Such was the government of Muley Ishmael, the servant of God, the emperor of the faithful, who was courageous in the way of the Lord, the noble, the good.' C. G.

EPIGRAM.

WHAT form the angels wear, my lass,
Is surely known to you;

If not! consult your looking glass,
An angel's form you'll view.

W. C. O.