have no garbling of papers, let the Clerk read it." Sir Robert pretended to evade it, by faying," it was a thing of no confequence;" but this only exciting the other's curiofity, he obliged him to give up the paper; which being read, turned out to be a confidential note from Lord Bolingbroke to Prior, cafting fome very in

decent reflections upon a very near part of Mr Pulteney's family. The Committee on this burst into a fit of laughter, and as this circumstance was no part of the fecrets of the Committee, the story became public, which Mr P. felt fo feve ely, that it is thought he never forgave him.

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A Scotchman giving evidence at the bar of the House of Lords in the affair of Captain Porteus, and telling of the variety of shots that were fired upon that unhappy occafion; he was alked by the Duke of Newcastle, What kind of shot it was?" Why." fays the man in his broad dialect, "fuch as they fhot fools with, and the like."-"What kind of fools?" fays the Duke, fmiling at the word, "Why, my Lord, dukes and fuch kind of fools."

A gentleman who had long danced attendance at the Duke's Levee, being one morning cooling his heels in the anti-chamber along with a number of other unfortunate folicitors, one of the company was praifing the elegant ftucco of the ceiling: "Yes," fays the Gentleman, "it is really very elegant; and what is more, it is of a piece with the flooring.' "How can that be?" fays the other, Why don't you fee the top and

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The late Lord Chesterfield being one day at his Grace's Levee, he took up Garnet upen Job, a book de dicated to the Duke, and was reading it just as his Grace entered. "Well, my Lord, what's your opinion of that book ""The belt vade mecum in the world for one that attends your Grace's Levee.”

When the affair of General Warrants was long over, Lord Mansfield one day in the House spoke lightly of them as things which every yro in Weftmintter Hall ought to know were illegal. "And did you always think fo?" fays the Duke of Newcaftle very fignificantly. "O yes," fays the other." Why then, my Lord, I vow to G- I always mifunderftood you, for while I was Minifter I thought you always faid the contrary."

Upon the expected death of the King of Spain in 1759, the Duke, who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave orders to his fervants, that if any meffenger arrived by exprefs, even if it was at midnight, he fhould be inftantly introduced to him. Pending this order a man on horseback knocking furiously at the outer gate about three o'clock in the morning, he was inftantly admitted, and brought up to the Duke's bed-cham

ber.

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ber." Well, my good friend," fays the Duke (putting on his stockings, and furveying the man fplatched all over with mud from top to toe,) you must have rode hard?" "Most damnably! never once flept during the whole journey."-" But you're fure he's dead?"-Oh! moft certainly."-"Ah! poor man, he's got out of a troublesome world at lait, Pray when did you leave Madrid?". "Madrid !" fays the man in amaze; "Lord your Grace, I never was there in " And life."" my where the Devil elfe did you come from ""Why, from Richmond in Yorkshire, your Grace, and am come exprefs to acquaint you of the death of Sam Dickinson the Excife

man, whofe place you know your Grace promifed me at the last election, the moment the breath was out of his body."

The Duke had great buffle and appearance of business in his manner always in a hurry, and generally indifcreet, though quick in his converfation. It was this manner that induced the late Dowager Lady Townsend to fay to him, That he always put her in mind of a man that loft two hours in the morning, and was looking for them the reft of the day.

He was always esteemed a courtier of the first order-full of civilities, promifes, and forgetfulness; and many anecdotes, too well known to be recorded here, are given in proof of this character. Whenever he had a mind any recommendation of his fhould fucceed, he made a private mark oppofite his fignature in red ink.-When this mark did not appear, the latter meant nothing.

Amongst the familiar habits of the Duke was the splendour of his table, which, for faring fumptuoufly every day,'was reckoned the best in England. To him, therefore,was more peculiarly allotted the entertainment of the Ambaffadors, Foreign Noblemen of article of fith, he has more than once Diftinction, &c. &c. In the bare had an account with his fishmonger to the amount of eleven thousand pounds, which he always difcharged very honourably, though fometimes tardily. In refpect to himfelf, he was no article. His favourite dish was, a epicure, but confined himself to one neck of boiled mutton or lamb, with dined in the midft of all the rarities caper fauce, of which he frequently

of the season.

In point of political principle the Duke was a Whig" up to the very head and ears."

ANCING I confider to be

particularly for females of rank and genteel connexions; it teaches them to walk with firmness and ease, to enter a room with grace, to incline the head or body, even when fitting and converfing, without diftortion; and removes that aukward ftiffness, which in provincial females, who have not had the advantages of a good dancing-mafter, is too often apt to create ridicule, and fometimes

difguft. Virgil represents Æneas un

appeared in the fhape of a rural nymph, was his mother: but the moment the moved fhe was the goddefs.

There are two kinds of dancing, the ferious and the fportive; and at the theatre I am gratified when I fee them both executed in perfection. In the ferious I never faw fuch a a finished dancer as the Heinel! Her approach was dignity itself! But

thofe

To obtain fuch great perfection, however, though it be neceffary for profeffional performers, can never be thought requifite, and ought never to be defired by young women of condition; as it would be impoffible to attain it without fuch practice as must engross too much of that time, which ought, for the greater part, to be dedicated to useful domeftic employments, as well as to the adorning of their minds. Therefore, though I am pleafed when I fee a minuet or country dance gracefully performed, yet I lament if the accomplishment is carried to a culpable extreme of perfection.

A young Englishman of fashion, remarkable for his fine figure and elegant manners, went to Paris on purpofe to take leffons of Veftris the elder; and made fuch rapid improvement, that the mafter declared he had never poffeffed fo good a fcholar. As he was taking leave, on his return to London, Veftris faid to him:

As his object was merely to fhew the chearfulness of the nation, he has not attached any ridicule to fuch youthful fallies of old age; but Prior, in his delightfully sportive poem, the Alma, has treated the subject with the happiest vein of irony and wit.

If while the mind is in the leg
The dance affected nimble Peg,
Old Madge bewitch'd at fixty-one,
Calls for Green Sleeves and Jumping
Joan:

In public mask, or private ball,

From Lincoln's Inn to Goldfmith's hall,
All Chrifimas long away fhe trudges,
Trips it with 'prentices and judges;
In vain her children urge her stay,
And age of palfey bar the way;
She ftill renews the ancient fcene,
Forgets the fixty years between:
Aukwardly gay, and oddly merry,
Her fcarf pale pink, her head-knot
cherry;

And heated with ideal rage
She cheats her fon to wed her page.

Exclufive of the impropriety of devoting too much time to this art, even by the youthful, I am apt to

think, that unless reftrained within due bounds, it may have, in certain cafes, an immoral tendency: at least I have been prefent among people of character and condition, at fuch animated dances, as I should have been very forry to have feen performed by my wife or my fifter; or indeed by any female for whom I entertained a particular regard.

That Horace was of this opinion, is manifest in that ode wherein he mentions the Ionic dances as

leading to profligacy and vice: and if a prophane author, certainly not over-fcrupulous in general, reprobates this stile of dancing, how much more reprehenfible ought it to be confidered in a nation of Christians!

Dancing, however, even when it keeps clear of the strong objection juft alluded to, is unfortunately efteemed fo effential a requifite, that a deficiency in this art is confidered by its giddy and unthinking admirets as a greater opprobrium than the want of any moral virtue or mental endowment.

I remember, about twenty years fince, when I was a young man, being invited to a private ball, where I danced with a noble earl's daughter, then a beautiful girl of feventeen. Tired of country-dances, the wanted to make a cotilion; but unfortunately for poor me, a fourth beau was wanting Her ladyship called for my affiftance. I civilly declined it; be. ing preffed, I was obliged to confefs the melancholy truth, that I knew neither the steps, nor the figures. Upon which the exclaimed, with an extraordinary vivacity of impatience, How old are you?'-- Five-andtwenty, madam." Great God!' the replied, five-and-twenty, and not

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dance cctilions! I own that my ignorance fhamed me; and being foon afterwards in the fociety of an amiable young woman, to whom I communicated this anecdote, the took compaffion upon my cafe, by giving me herfelf the neceflary in

ftructions: and gratitude for fuch a fignal favour, drew from me the fol lowing verfes:

When Orpheus ftruck the lyre, his tuneful ftrains

Tam'd the fierce monfters of the Thracian plains;

The lions wagg'd their tails, the tygers pranc'd,

And bears, untaught by burning heaters, danc'd:

With uncouth steps they strangely frisk'd along,

Smit with the facred magic of his fong. Yet Orpheus, though fo well he play'd his part,

Muft yield the palm to thy fuperior art; His monfters danc'd-but how? of sense bereft,

Who knows if they could do right foot and left?

Their fhaggy limbs perhaps could only

fhake

At that great epoch, when from po lifh'd France

Gallini drew the fashionable dance, Y'cep'd Cotillion, none could fhine untaught,

With fuch perplexity each movement's Now here, now there, the nimble danfraught: cers fly,

Like rapid meteors fhooting 'cross the fky;

Now in mid-courfe they flop, or flowly fail,

Like a proud fhip that ftems the adverse gale.

Unequal to the task I vainly gaze,
Loft in the dark nextricable maze;

Nor fee with how much art each winding bends,

Thus was I doo" an ufelefs beau to fit, • Nor where the regular confufion ends! And be the fpor of many a female wit; Till, like my guardian angel, you appear'd,

Chas'd inv defpair, my drooping spirits

chear'd;

I do not mean, however, to quit this subject with cynical captioufnefs, as my wifh is to pleafe my fair and youthful readers by any commendations which dancing, when properly reftricted, may reafonably deferve; and therefore I cannot conclude this letter in a more agreeable and lively manner, than by tranfcribing, from Sterne's Sentimental Journey, The Grace.

When fupper was over, the old man gave a knock upon the table with the haft of his knife, to bid them prepare for the dance: the moment the fignal was given, the women and girls ran all together into a back apartment to tie up their hair, and the young men to the door to wash their faces, and change their fabots: and in three "minutes every foul was ready, upon a little efplanade before the house, to begin. The old man and his wife came out laft, and placing me betwixt them, fat down upon a fofa of turf by the door.

The old man had fome fifty years ago been no mean performer upon the vielle, and at the age

6

was then of, touched it well enough for the purpose. His wife fung now and then a little to the tune, then intermitted, and joined her old man again, as their children and grand-children danced before them.

'It was not till the middle of the fecond dance, when, for some pauses in the movement, wherein they all 'feemed to look up, I fancied I 'could diftinguifh an elevation of fpirit different from that which is the cause or the effect of fimple jollity. In a word, I thought I beheld Religion mixing in the dance; but as I had never feen her fo engaged, I fhould have 'looked upon it now as one of the illufions of an imagination, which is eternally misleading me, had not the old man, as foon as the dance ended, faid, that this was their conftant way; and that all his life long he had made it a rule, after supper was over, to call out his family to dance and rejoice; believing, he faid, that a chearful and contented mind was the best sort of thanks to 'heaven that an illiterate peasant could pay.

"may witnefs the emotion of their amo"rous fouls."

This anfwer, far from removing the fufpence, created one a thousand times more terrible. The Lama Zarin, thought it portended ruin to himfelf and family; he now reflected on the rafh fteps he had taken, and feared his fanguine hopes had been deceived by frequent converfations with a ftranger, who had taught him to think lightly of the laws and cuftoms of Thibet, for which he now recollected with horror, the Great La ma's bigotry and zeal; he knew he muft obey the fummons, and trembled at Rig fituation. Tarempon was too much enamoured to think of any danger which promised him a fight of his beloved miftrefs; and all the fear he felt, was, left the beauty of Serinda should tempt the

the