That, during the long course of his employment, he hath always diftinguifhed himself as a pat.iot and friend to this conftitution, from which character no threats or promifes, nor any confiderations of private intereft, could ever engage him to fwerve in the minutest point; but hath always ftood up in defence of their liberties and laws, and fupported those measures which he thought, in his own confcience, to be best and most useful to his country. And, as the most certain mark of the public approbation, his writings have been, for these many years, the ftandard of coffee-houfe politicks, under every revolution of minifters and parties.

That he hath alfo, with immenfe labour and application, got ready for the prefs a very voluminous work, intituled, Great Britain's Remembrancer; or, A Complete Hiftory of all the Patriots, Prime Minifters, and Penfioners, from the Conqueft down to the prefent year. A work full of much erudition and fecret intelligence, and very neceffary to be perufed by all ranks and degrees of people in these nations.

That upon the fale of this performance depend all his hopes of a comfortable

fubfiftence in an extreme old age, having the misfortune, like many others, to have outlived his faculties; and being utterly unable to gain an honeft livelihood in the employment which he hath always followed.

That having an entire confidence in their gratitude and generofity, he takes the liberty to address them in this publick manner, and most humbly to requeft, that they will not now withdraw their favour and fupport from one who is grown grey in their fervice. And,

That if they will encourage him with their ufual countenance in this his laft

undertaking, he will oft thankfully acknowledge their kindnefs, and their petitioner shall for ever pray, &c.

had at Timothy Puff's, in BlowbladderProposals at large of the work may be

ftreet.

The of young lover in

HE generality of young women,

their heads, imagine that their relations are the most cruel creatures in the world, unless they give an immediate confent to every abfurdity of their inclinations, and bestow them at once with a confiderable fortune upon the fweet fellow who has thus happily made himself master of their affections. If a parent pretends to any authority, he inftantly, from a tender father, is looked upon as an abfolute tyrant; and pretty Mifs very

ground, that the may have a handfome

dutifully wishes him fifty fathom under

fum of money to throw away upon a rafcal, whom he has not poffibly known above a month or fix weeks.

'I am, you must know, a miferable woman, whom a partiality of this nature, for a moft infamous villain, has plunged into the deepest diftrefs. About five years ago I lived with my father, a beneficed clergyman in the north of England, and had every reason to be satisfied that the happiness of the venerable old gentleman's

gentleman's life was placed in mine, from the exceffive tenderness with which he constantly treated me; and from the enjoyments of which he debarred himfelf, merely to lay up a fortune for my advancement in the world. I was his only child; and though my mother died while I was quite an infant, he never would alter his condition, for fear, as he kindly expreffed it, he might place a very different fort of woman over his poor Ifabella.

I had fcarcely turned my twenty-firft year, when a company of strolling players came into our neighbourhood; a principal of which, being an excellent scholar, and master of a very genteel addrefs, had a letter of recommendation to my father, from a brother clergyman in the laft town where they exhibited. My father, who was benevolence itfelf, though he did not greatly approve of fuch a guest, neverthelefs defired him, out of compliment to his friend, to ftay dinner; and affured him of his belt fervices whenever the benefits came to be advertised. Mr. Villars, the comedian, thanked him in a handfome manner; and we foon after fat down to table, where the designing hypocrite, by a behaviour the most fpecious and polite, and by an unaffuming pretence to all the virtues, with which he was utterly unacquainted, soon got the better of my father's referve, and not a little filenced the contempt which I had always entertained for those itinerant dependants on the theatre. Not to be minutely circumftantial, fuffice it, that Villars received an invitation, no lefs warm than general, to our house; and, in less than a week, made fuch good ufe of my father's hofpitality, as entirely to captivate the affections of his inexperienced daughter, and to fill her with an infuperable averfion to the happy habitation in which for her whole life fhe had been fo carefully brought up.

I was too much a novice, however, in the bufinefs of amour, to keep the matter fo perfectly concealed from the eyes of a father who in his youth had been remarkably well received among the ladies, as I could with: he faw with what eagerness I hung upon every fyllable that fell from Villars; and remarked, with concern, that unless Villars was in the house, I ftudiously avoided his company. One Sunday afternoon, therefore, while I imagined he was at church, he unexpectedly darted from a clofet in VOL. I.

the very room where Villars and I were exchanging vows of everlafting fidelity; and ordering my lover, with a look of indignation, never to come again into his prefence, defired me immediately to retire to my room.

Though fhame and confufion kept me filent in the prefence of my father, I was, nevertheless, no fooner alone, than I began to think his behaviour a very unjustifiable piece of barbarity: all the care and anxiety which for more \than twenty years he had manifested for my welfare, was immediately banished from my remembrance. I looked upon him as the greatest enemy I had in the world; and, full of nothing but the idea of my adorable Villars, I determined, like the inconfiderate, the unnatural monfter I was, to quit the man who gave me being, who educated me with the niceft circumfpection, and of whofe worth I was perfectly convinced, to go off with a fellow who. for aught I knew, might be a highwayman, to whom I, never owed an obligation, and whofe perfon I had never feen till the week before, in which he fo unfortunately brought a recommendation to my father.

Before I had time to execute this dutiful project, however, my unhappy father came into my room; and looking at me for fome time with an air of inexpreffible anguish, at last burst into a flood of tears. When he had fomewhat recovered himfelf O Ifabella!' faid he, little did I think to have seen fuch a day as this; and little did I imagine you would ever give me caufe to regret the hour of your birth. In what part of my duty, tell me, child, has there been a deficiency, to occafion fo fatal a negligence in yours? What has your father done, that you wish to shake off every fentiment of nature and affection, and defire to fly from the arms which have cherished you fince the first moment of your existence, to refuge with a villain, whom you have not khown above ten or a dozen days? In the alienation of your affections, has he hesitated to break the facred laws of friendship and hofpitality; cr fcrupled to put on the awful form of virtue, to profecute the most infamous ends? While I entertained him with the greatest cordiality, he was doing me the most irreparable injury; and when • I harboured him most in my bosom, 2 G like

like the venomous adder, the more • deeply he stung me to the heart. And will you, Ifabella, inftead of revenging the cause of fo injured, and, I hope I < may fay, fo tender a parent, become yourself acceffary to the deftruction of my happiness? Will you be guilty of a parricide to reward an affaffin, who has attempted more than my life? And fhall it be faid, that a common place compliment to her beauty is of more confideration to fo fenfible a young lady, than the everlafting tranquillity of her father? Alas! my child, let not your youth and inexperience lead you into an irretrievable mistake. The man that would be guilty of a crime to engage your affections, would not ftop at a crime to caft you off, when time and poffeffion had rendered you lefs attractive to his imagination. Confider, my dear, the man who courts you to quit your father's houfe, is interested in his folicitations. I cannot be interested. He wants you to gratify his own purposes; whereas I have no end to answer but the advancement of your felicity, and am willing to contract every enjoyment of my life for the fake of building that felicity on a permanent foundation. As I am determined never to lay a restraint upon your inclinations, weigh well the advice I have given you. You are now a woman by the laws of the land, and your perfon is at your own difpofal: if, therefore, 'tomorrow morning, after having maturely confidered the affair, you can facrifice your doating father for this inhofpitable villain, pack up your cloaths, and every thing elfe which belongs to you; go, and favour him with your hand at the altar of that God who fees into the bottom of my afflictions; and do not incur the additional difgrace of an infamous flight from a house in which you have been treated with fuch a continued excefs of paternal indulgence. Remember, however, if such should be your refolution, that I am no more your father. In humble imitation of the Deity, by ⚫ whom I hope to be forgiven, I here offer you a chearful forgiveness for what is paft but if you perfevere, know, that though my humanity may weep for your tranfgreffion, my juftice will never permit me to reward it!'

My father, after this, defired me to recollect that I was far from being de

ftitute of admirers; that three or four young gentlemen of agreeable persons, unexceptionable characters, and handfome fortunes, had for a confiderable time paid their addreffes; and that confequently I could not have even the ridiculous plea of being neglected to palliate my attachment for the object whom I had fo prepofterously diftinguished by my choice. Saying this, he left me with an air of dejected refolution; and taking his horfe, rode off a few miles to the houfe of an intimate acquaintance, where he lay that night, as if he was unwilling to throw the fhadow of an impediment in the way of my determination. It is no eafy circumftance to defcribe the fituation of my heart at this behaviour of my father's: he convinced my reafon, but at the fame time he alarmed my pride; and I abfurdly imagined, that it would be a derogation from my own dignity, if I offered to make him the leaft conceffions, after he had thus indirectly commanded me to quit his houfe. Prefumption is always the daughter of indulgence: where children have been treated with an excess of tenderness, they moft commonly think it very infolent in a parent, if he happens to tell them of any little mistake; and are wonderfully ready to expect a moft punctual performance of his duty, however remifs they themselves may be in the discharge of their own. Unhappily for me, I was one of thefe hopeful children; accustomed to nothing but the heart-directed blandishments of paternal affection, I could not bear the accent of reproach, though confcious of it's being merited; and thought that my father fhould have made me a fubmiffive apology, though it certainly would have done me the greateft credit if I had fallen at his feet, and implored his forgiveness with a torrent of tears.

While I was thus agitated between the fober remonftrances of my reafon and the unnatural workings of my pride, Villars, who had waited at a little alehoufe in the neighbourhood to watch the motions of our family, no fooner faw my father's back, than he boldly came up to the houfe, and preffed me, in the moft paffionate manner, to embrace that opportunity of packing up my little all, and efcaping from the tyranny of man, who made no other wie of his authority than to render me perpetually milerable.

Parents, my charming Mifs Bran

'don,'

don,' faid the artful villain, imagine they do mighty things, if they give a young lady a decent room, a tolerable gown, and treat her now and then with a box at the theatre: this they call an 'excess of tendernets, and think a very 'meritorious difcharge of, their duty. But fee the ftrange inconfiftency of ⚫ their characters! though they fo readily allow her to please herfelf in little things, yet they abfolutely deny her a will in the mott material article of all, and permit the mere amufement of an hour with no other view but to claim fuch an authority over her inclinations as may render her miferable for life. Thele fentiments, joined to the fafcinating importunity of the fellow, did my bufinefs compleatly. I fet about packing up my cloaths and trinkets in an inftant, and in lefs than two hours was entirely out of fight; glowing all the way with a revengeful fort of fatisfaction, to think how mortified my father must be when he found I had fo chearfully taken him at his word.

As it would not be prudent for Mr. Villars to ftay in the neighbourhood when our affair became any way public, we quitted the country with the utmost expedition; and, by the following evening, arrived at a confiderable town, near an hundred miles off, in which a ftrolling company was at that time performing, from whom Mr. Villars had received feveral very preffing letters, requefting him to join them, and offering him by much the most capital caft of all the characters. At this place we were married the morning after our arrival; and, to my everlasting infamy I mention it, no one reflection of what might be felt at home was once fuffered to difcredit the festival with a figh.

I had not, however, been many weeks married, before I found a very material, alteration in the behaviour of my hufband; instead of the good-humour and complaifance which he formerly affumed, he treated me with nothing but a round of the most filent furliness, or the most farcastic contempt. If he talked fometimes, it was of having thrown himfelf away; and, in proportion as our circumftances became contracted, (for the players had but very little business, and the principal part of my wardrobe was now difpofed of) he was bafe enough even to reproach me with running away from

my father. I now faw, when it was too late, the imprudence of my conduct and would have given the world, had Ĩ been miftrefs of it, to call back the days of my former tranquillity. I perceived clearly that Villars's fole motive in ever addreffing me was the confideration of my father's opulence: he faw me an only child, and naturally imagined that, though the venerable old gentleman. might be offended with me at first, he would, neverthelefs, quickly relent, and take me again to the arms of his affection as a daughter. With this view, he obliged me to fend home letters upon letters, all expreffing the deepest peni tence for my fault, and painting the wretchedness of our fituation in colours the most affecting. A poft fcarcely went, for feveral weeks, but what carried fome petition of this nature; and, perhaps, I might have continued writing confiderably longer, had not the following note been at last fent in answer to my various epiftles

TO MRS. VILLARS, AT THE THEATRE IN SHREWSBURY.

MADAM,

you

W HEN I had a daughter, fhe never fpoke a word but what gave me pleafure, nor mentioned a want which I did not fly to remove. You, Madam, have robbed me of that daughter; yet, after the barbarity of plunging a dagger in my bofom, are now mean enough to throw yourfelf at my feet, and to folicit my compaffion for bread. In reality, I do not know whether I fhould moft deteft you for the inhumanity of your conduct on the one hand, or defpife you for the bafenefs of your behaviour on the other. Is it not enough to be guilty, but must try to be defpicable? For fhame, Madam, exert a little more fpirit, and be uniformly culpable: talk as much of duty and affection to your husband as you please; but let not the heavy hand of neceffity fqueeze you into a paltry affectation of either to a father, about whose heart you have twisted a thousand fcorpions, and who, probably, before you receive this, may be ready for that grave which you kindly opened for him on the fixth of Auguft. Trouble me, I beseech you, no more; I am familiar with your hand, and fhall never open another letter 2 G 2

of

of your writing. As you have difpofed of your perfon, give me leave to difpofe of my property; for, be affured, no confideration on earth fhall tempt me to provide for a villain, or to mitigate the punishment which Providence has in this world pronounced against filial disobedience. Could you abandon a father, and yet hope for felicity? Could you rife up against the fountain of your being, and yet form an idea of content? The very fuppofition is a blafphemy against Heaven. Make, therefore, a proper ufe of your prefent chaftifement, and rather rejoice at it as an happinefs, than lament it as a misfortune; fince, had you escaped the indignation of Omnipotence in this world, there was but too just a foundation to expect an eternity of torments in the next.

HORACE BRANDON.

This letter, which my confcience convinced me was what I ought to have expected, putting an end to all our hopes, Mr. Villars no longer kept measures with me: he wanted money-money he would have; and even told me, in very plain terms, I might that very night put him in poffeffion of fifty guineas, if I would. Oh! this propofal was a horrid one. A young gentleman of great fortune had, it feems, praifed me to his face; and knowing, perhaps, his character, taken the liberty of I cannot enter into an explanation. You may eafily judge with what a degree of united rage and aftonishment any woman must have heard fuch a circumitance from the husband of her heart. For my own part, though I had forfeited all pretenfions to the filial character, I was yet tremblingly alive in all my other relations. I received the overture, therefore, with the indignation it merited; and Mr.

Villars, finding that neither the mo foothing language of hypocrify, nor the moft vehement arguments of a horfewhip, were fufficient to alter my refolution, privately decamped in a few nights after, leaving me in a strange country, not only without a fixpence, but over head and ears in debt, and in a fituation alfo that required the tenderest circumfpection. This was too much; it brought on the pains of parturiency; and I was delivered of a boy, who, happily for himself, poor orphan! died in a few hours after his birth. For me, I languifhed a long time in the most deplorable circumftances; and must have inevitably perifhed, had it not been for the humanity of the company, who, notwithstanding their own diftreffes were extremely urgent, nevertheless ftrained a point to relieve mine; and, when my health was fomewhat established, enlifted me at a full fhare, though I had never before appeared in any thing but Ifabella in the Innocent Adultery.

In this way of life I have ever fince continued, not knowing how to better myself. Was my heart at ease, I might poffibly entertain the reader with some very humourous little narratives. But, alas! remorfe is the only companion of my bofom. My unhappy father, who did not furvive his letter three days, is ever present to my remembrance; and even Villars, greatly as he is the object of abhorrence to my reafon, now and then draws a tear from my tendernefs, and gives me a moment of diftrefs. He has for thefe four years been strolling with a company in various parts of the American Plantations; and is lately married to a woman infinitely better calculated for his purposes than the

UNFORTUNATE ISABELLA.