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might rise; have they not bequeathed to that country their widows and their orphans?

And liberal as is the provision made under government for these objects of a pation's guardianship; and splendid in the page of our history as are the patriotic contributions which have been added to the public fund for succour and reward, it was impossible, from the nature of things, that inultitudes of this interesting description of persons should not have great cause to deplore the scantiness of fortune which has succeeded the loss of those upon whom they depended for support in a more elevated station of life.

Need I point out the peculiar delicacy of their situation? Not ashamed to turn to advantage some of those elegant acquirements which were once only the source of honest pride and domestic pleasure, but unable to fulfil the business part which would mingle them with a new and unaccustomed world, and expose them to wrongs and mortifications; and every way hedged in, as well by a senseof propriety and an unfitness for the commercial struggle, as by habit and prejudice, they cannot as they would derive any benefit from their disposition and ability to procure ease and comfort from their own exertions.

To all these the BAZAAR must be inestimable. Here is a place where their labours, of whatever kind they are, may be sold at the most trifling expense to the manufacturer, and in many cases be brought before the public without expense at all. They will have no trouble in finding out purchasers for their commodity, to retail it again at great profit to themselves. The BAZAAR, with its company of renters, renders inquiry unuecessary: the characters of all who are admitted to it have undergone the strictest investigation; it is the resort of credit and of safety; goods displayed in it have all the advantages of the most fashionable repository or sale-room; and either by having a spun of counter or by affording a trifling commission on the sale of the article to one of the tenants of this place, there is not a thing which industry can produce that may not come fairly, beneficially, and delicately into the common market.

I will not further dilate on the applicability of this to all genteel families in limited circumstances, and had I not proposed to direct your regards to other classes to whom this establishment holds out the greatest advantages, I should be

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inclined to leave all further illustration on this branch of the subject to the sense of your readers. I shall, however, be as short as possible, and point out facts, without entering into their details.

There is not, perhaps, in the world so much mechanical ingenuity as in this city. I am and have been myself acquainted with several persons who have stood in need of nothing but of having their extraordinary genius made known to reach the highest eminence of wealth and distinction. They have toiled in their obscurity, and starved in the midst of inventions which would have done honour to the age and country in which they lived. Some of them have fortuitously attracted notice in time to become ornaments to society; others have died exhausted in the unequal struggle; and some, less blessed, still pine in despised poverty and neglected wretchedness. Of such matters I have had ocular demonstration, and there is not one man of observation in London who could not adduce many examples of a similar melancholy kind.

How many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear!

How many a flower is born to blush unseen;
And waste its sweetness in the desert air!

One of the greatest benefits I antici pate from the BAZAAR is, that it will bring such gems to light, and such flowers into the sunshine of patronage. The dark alley shall yield up its inhabitant illumined with mental acquirements; the garret shall surrender its ingenious occupant; the opportunity shall be afforded to the benevolent man, whose fortune will not permit him to undertake the whole task, to produce his favourite to the world, and let it be seen whether or not he is the gifted individual whom his humble triends have mourned their inability to lift into notice and action.

Hitherto I have been speaking chiefly of persons not bred to trade. I have been suggesting the grateful idea of cherishing the sanctity of the famty circle, encouraging the domestic virtues, embalming the sweets of social intercourse, and preventing the fatal influx of females to the metropol's, and the separation of those of the metropolis from their connexions and relations.-I have been endeavouring to shew how the wi dows and children of persons in the upper ranks of life, with scanty provisions, of officers, clergymen, and those nose incomes die with them, might employ themselves delicately and advantage.

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ously, to the improvement of their pecuniary resources and the augmentation of their happiness, whether in increasing their comforts or in educating their families. I have been enforcing the grand principle, that to render the poor contented with themselves and useful to society, the great secret is to make them depend on their own industry, and therefore to give them work, and the means of disposing of it. In all these essential points of view, I conceive that the BaZAAR is replete with mighty and abundant properties, which may be safely and extensively directed to their accomplishment.

But there are many entirely different conditions of life in the existing state of our social compact, which it is alike eminently calculated to improve. Some of these are glanced at in the epitome above quoted. There is the poor but industrious tradesman, who cannot rent a shop, far less purchase a house to carry on his business. Relieved from the necessity of living in a place, for a term inconsistent with his means, or of an extent beyond his ability, the BAZAAR, with all the advantages of the best situated and richest ware-room in London, presents him the very space his wants require, for the very period his business needs: he may be the proprietor of a few inches of counter for a few hours! For a few shillings he may enjoy the opportunity of an experiment which could not before have been tried for as many hundred pounds!

The same argument goes the same length with the honest man whom unavoidable losses have reduced from opulence to beggary. Those who know him, and the case of his probity and his misfortune, are not perhaps able to set him forward again in the world, wherein be has already failed, in a way suitable to their good wishes. The BAZAAR meets every object of their desires. Here may the worthy bankrupt renew his trial; here may he reward the confidence reposed in him; here may he better his estate; and hence may he aspire to the respectability and consideration which are but seldom awarded to merit without the appendage of success.

Again, a young person has two or three hundred pounds to begin life. A spot is selected, and a house or part of a house taken for the purposes of trade. The shop must be fitted up; the lodging must be furnished. By this means more than half of the little all is spent. The goods are next bought on credit, and be

[Feb. 1,

fore the returns of profit to live upon are made, come rent, and taxes, and the bills for prime cost, which devour the whole stock, and swell the Gazette with the name of its proprietor. Let such a person resort to the BAZAAR for the room wanted, for the time wanted. Still residing with friends or in furnished apartments, the entire capital may be employed in lucrative commerce; the store will increase, the profits will accumalate, and soon set him above the danger of want; and such settlement in life may be made as suits with the utmost enjoyment and rational happiness.

Again, the daughters of persons in trade, with large families and contracted fortunes, how are the anxious parents to provide for their beloved offspring? They cannot maintain them in idleness; they are above the class of servants; governesses are now more numerous than pupils; and they have not wherewithal to embark them in business, because so many establishments forbid the hope of succeeding, even could they afford to begin them. To such I would say, commence then with little, and enlarge your plan by degrees as you go on. A small portion of your own stock,or of articles of any other kind thought more advisable, will suffice to set up your eldest girl in the BAZAAR. Try her there. The very practice will render her managing, and prudent, and industrious. Your younger daughters may execute something at home to be disposed of at this place, and thus they will acquire the same useful qualifications. Had you a fortune to leave each of them at your death, you would have done them a still greater service by training them up in habits of industry, obedience, and virtue. These will be their surest recommendations to the affections of good men, who know that the best of wives and of mothers are formed of the best of daughters.

I might in this way, sir, travel through almost every class of society, and point out the expediency of the BAZAAR for promoting their welfare; but I shall confine myself to barely naming two more, the one occupying the highest place in the estimation of all the civilized world; the other, of considerable interest to the humanity whence it is derived.

The first is the class of artists to whom this establishment offers a constant and easy mode of appealing to the public judgment. I trust to see the BAZAAR the noblest gallery for the encouragement of the arts that has ever been erected, and simply for this reason, that it will be ad

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Having dwelt so much on the moral and practical benefits to be derived from this institution, I shall not intrude upon you long with the details of the plan itself.

For it his country is indebted to Mr. TROTTER, of Soho-square; and I am happy in taking this early opportunity of paying my tribute of cordial applause to a gentleman whom it will send down to posterity with the HOWARDS, JENNERS, WILBERFORCES, and other benefactors of mankind.

Mr. TROTTER, happily for his fellowcreatures, is the possessor of premises almost equal to the benevolence of his heart. From Soho-square, they reach on one hand to Oxford-street, and on the other side to Dean-street, being, as far as I know, with the exception of one or two great breweries, among the largest private properties in this vast city. A considerable portion of this pile of building he has fitted up for the purposes of the BAZAAR. The great sale-room is hang with red baize, adorned with mirrors, chandeliers, &c. &c. and neatly laid out in alleys of handsome counters. These, as is expressed in the advertisement, are let by the foot and by the day, to persons of unquestionable character and moral respectability; and this is the prominent feature of the BAZAAR; the sine qua non of its existence; that only respectable persons, who, whether rich or poor, can produce testimonials to satisfy a very rigid inquiry into their fitness, shall be admitted under its roof. To some perhaps this ordeal might appear to be too rigid; but when it is remembered that such proof of rectitude is not only a recommendation of the whole concern to the public, but a guarantee to parents, &c. who may trust their dearest hopes within its walls, I am persuaded that every one will agree with me in thinking, that upon such a basis the success of the undertaking entirely depends. It must be a place to which misers might consign their gold, and fathers their children without a fear: it must be as pure as possible from vicious

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example, and even from ill manners, which are a source of corruption. In these respects I am proud to bear witness to the humane and provident cares of Mr.TROTTER. Without describing it, I will say that his plan of security, as far as property is concerned, is perfect; and with regard to the more valuable trust of female honour, every precaution is calculated to obviate the most sensitive apprehensions. In the first place, as we observe from a prospectus, "respectability, moral character, and good temper," are laid down as indispensable to the tenants of the BAZAAR. Whoever sits there must be considerd prima facie as people with whom there can be no danger in associating. Secondly, it will be governed by strict rules, not only with respect to external decorum, but with reference to the articles sold, so that in the former there may be no impropriety, and in the latter no unjust blemish. Lastly, the hours will be such as to do away all anxiety in the minds of those having an interest in the persons engaged in the business of the place. They have been fixed at from ten in the morning to five in the afternoon-thus allowing the safest periods of a London morning and evening for its population to go to and return from the BAZAAR.

These, sir, are a few of the fundamental principles, which having morality and virtue in view, must be reckoned among the unchangeable bases, not only of this single institution, but of all those which may be formed upon it. Without the severest attention to them, such an establishment, instead of being a blessing, would be a curse; instead of encouraging the noblest of purposes, would be a sink of wickedness; instead of ameliorating the condition of society, would be the nurse of licentiousness and consequent misery. But with proper care in the selection of candidates, and proper discipline in interior arrangement, it is not, I hope, enthusiasm to believe that such establishments throughout the empire would do more to reform the evil, and promote the good habits of the community, and in general to improve the condition of society than any plan which has ever been submitted for the amelioration of our kind.

Before I conclude, there is one commercial advantage which I ought to record. It is the power which the union of interests in the BAZAAR would give to persons of the slenderest means to purchase the materials of their traffic at the same cost with the richest dealers.