the frequent obfervations he made by the converfation of men of rank and learning; and what was the most of all regarded by him, the daily fatisfaction of being admitted into the presence and company of that illuftrious PATRIOT, and to admire his unwearied diligence for the fervice and good of his country, and his unalterable fteadine's in the purfuit of it;-virtues that must tranfmit his memory to the laft rolls and records of eternity. 66 Man, each man's born "For the high business of the public good." WITH this great example for ever before their eyes, it is no wonder to fee the Commons of that kingdom fired with a zeal for liberty and honour, and rifing to a pitch of ROMAN virtue; it is emulation working ftrongly in a noble mind, that parent and fource of all true greatness, and brings conviction to this fidling age; what infinite importance it is poffible for one fhining character to be of to a whole nation, even in those for-ever-tobe-dreaded times, in all states of freedom, when public fpirit fleeps, when nodding justice repofes in the chair of indolence, and nothing throughout the land is broad awake,-but private interest and general corruption. DURING Mr. MERRY-FELLOW's ftay in Ireland, he was prefent at many debates in the Honour able able Houfe of Commons, and had frequent opportunities of admiring the ferenity and wifdom of the Speaker, the great abilities of the Prime Serjeant, Mr. M--1--ne, the clearness and perfpicuity of the Mafter of the Rolls, the eloquence of Sir Richard Cox, the dignity of Sir Alexander Gore, the honefty of heart in Mr. Charles Gardiner, the rifing virtues of Colonel Richard Boyle, and the eagernefs and warmth of Colonel Dilkes. PLACEMEN and penfioners forgot all private views, and answered the call of liberty and of truth! and officers gave the unbiaffed vote, warm as is their nature in the cause of freedom; amongst thefe latter will be remembered the names of N--pp--r and Walfingham. IN the House of Peers it was impoffible to enter without remarking the never-to-be-equalled integrity of the Earl of Kildare, the folidity and judgment of the Earl of Carrick, the learning of the Bishop of Derry. In a word, Mr. MERRY-FELLOW has been often heard to say, there were fo many characters in that kingdom, eminently diftinguished for all inftances of public fpirit and national honour, that it was to be recommended to a young noblemen, entering on his travels, not by any means to put an end to them, till he had paid a vifit on that fide of the the water; it is true he might acquire addrefs and flattery in France, mufic and virtù in Italy, honour and gravity in Spain, commercial arts in Holland; in Germany, he might learn ferenity and courage; but to be a TRUE PATRIOT, he muft go to Ireland. "I own the glorious fubject fires my breast, Rowe. WHILE Mr. MERPY-FELLOW was preparing to leave Ireland, he received a letter, informing him of the death of Mifs BELL SHADWELL, of the small-pox at Bath; the fhock was fo great, having had, as he fays, a letter from her in good health, * but, a few days before, and dated within ten days of her decease, that it threw him into a fever. He recovered from this diforder, went into deep mourning for her, and fought variety of company in order to divert his mind from thinking of her; but still there appeared in his countenance, on all occafions, a visible diftraction of foul. Anfwer, my foul! whence this unmanly woe? He returned to England in July, 1752, when arriving at London, he fell ill of the fmall -pox, at * In another part of Dick's narrative, he fays, " she lan guished two months." the the age of twenty-nine, and although extremely dangerous, he pursued his journey down to Thetford in great pain; from whence he went next day to Norwich, travelling in the greatest agony of mind and body, where being put under the care of one of the ableft phyficians in the world, the late Doctor Offley, and who, with the greatest knowledge in his profeffion, was certainly one of the beft men that lived, he foon recovered. The marks of the diforder, which he carried to his grave, was certainly a mortifying circumstance to a man of gallantry and intrigue, and who at all times thought himself rather handsome than otherwife. Beauty, according to Shakespeare, is A fleeting good, a gloss, a glafs, a flow'r, WE have, in fome degree, anticipated the violent measures purfued by Dick to oblige Mr. SHADWELL to produce the will of his deceased fifter, and are not at all forry that we have got over that most difagreeable part of his memoir : it will be neceffary, however, juft to mention, that the incomparable PUDICA, heirefs to between forty and fifty thousand pounds, was to be married to her fifth lover MILES DINGLEBOB, Efq. who, it is faid, had twenty-fix thousand pounds left him by an uncle: Quod Quod optanti divům promittere nema THE nuptials over, and the lady in poffeffion of a husband, in whom the perfections of her first four admirers are centered, viz. The humour of DICK MERRY-FELLOW, DICK, who never miffed an opportunity of playing off his artillery of wit, complimented the hymeneal rites with a poetical feu de joye, by way of Epithalamium, or wedding-fong; * and foon after produced his hiftory of PUDICA; written, as we have been told, within the precincts of the Fleet-prifon, and publifhed in 1754. THE severity and pointed every circumftance of that ridicule with which affair is told, fhews him to have been a man of the boldeft conceits, which he never checked nor modified by reafon, but went on from one extreme to another, till the public, to whom he always appealed, and endeavoured to draw in as partifans with his dif putes, became fatiate, and wearied of his per petual clack. * See Page 24, &C. Short |