obedience and unison, may be said to subject fortune to his control, to reduce even chance to certainty. With an antagonist so prepared, a raw, headstrong, over-fed young man, with furious unrestrained passions, and of unguarded temper, rushes to almost certain defeat; to attribute victory over an opponent like this, to any other cause than the natural triumph of deliberate preparation and subdued sensibility over untutored ignorance and rash indiscretion, is unworthy a man of sense and a gentleman; so degrading a deduction, whenever intentionally and personally pointed (for I have no objection to the general discussion of any subject), it is my duty and determination to punish by every means in my power. I never have played, I never will play, with a man actually intoxicated, but, in every other instance, I consider myself as fully justified in seizing all advantages which skill and good luck may place within my reach. At a gaming-house, we meet professedly to combine amusement with profit, and I am surely authorised, on every principle of equity and common sense, to win the money of men who assemble for the express purpose of making themselves masters of mine. A gentleman present, who never forgets that he is a gentleman, has mentioned, as one of the proofs of unfairness, the difference of men's abilities, but I cannot agree with him in opinion; at play, as in war, he who draws the sword, commits himself at once to all the chances of the field.

"If I were to decline accepting a challenge, on the ground of being more expert at hitting a mark, or because I was a more complete master of the small-sword than my antagonist, such conduct might be applauded in a school of puritanic casuists, but in the great school of the world, I should be deservedly laughed at for my moderation, and kicked out of company for a poltroon, who disguised rank cowardice under a mask of punctilio and affectation."

This frank confession, which may be considered by some as unanswerable argument, and by others as a barefaced, downright avowal of unquestionable and illicit advantage, has been perused, I hope and believe, not without utility, by certain young friends of the editor, who think their night badly spent, and their day ill-finished, which does not conclude with faro or rouge et noir.

On the subject of gaming, at which so many and such great fortunes have been dissipated, a short, a natural question has often been asked: To what oblivious, unfathomable abyss does such a vast mass of ready money descend? for, compared to the numbers who are ruined, how very few have the luck or the prudence to secure independence? The magnificent structures which are rising on every side around us, while their fortunate proprietors collect pictures and purchase boroughs, is a full and sufficient answer to the question. Another circumstance should also be considered; the life of a gamester, who moves in circles where sums worth winning alone can circulate, must be expensive, his equipage brilliant, and his appendages ample; he must occasionally visit the sea-side, and other places of fashionable resort, objects not within the reach of moderate finances, and which, without a constant and adequate return, or a proportionate income, will not fail to impoverish the wealthiest individuals. But whatever the vicissitudes of a life

devoted to gaming, however miraculous its elevation, or sudden its depression, the proprietors play a safe and certain game; whilst suicide, public justice, famine, and disease, are crushing and treading down into oblivion and perdition the miserable victims by whom they have been enriched, these triumphant adventurers, who were never born to be drowned, march the turnpike road to affluence and wealth. If we review the annals of play, how rare are the instances of even a successful gamester terminating his career with happiness or decent respect: ********, with the magnificence and income of a prince, owes the little sufferable society he can muster, to the dexterity of his cook and the excellence of his wine; and, with all the expensive splendour of his entertainments, equipage, and establishment, is alternately tolerated, shook off, insulted, or despised; and Major Baggs, respected by the brother of his sovereign, and protected by an Italian king, perished from the effects of disgraceful confinement, in the nauseous and comfortless recesses of a watch-house, the nocturnal receptacle for felons, prostitutes, and thieves.

The editor was in the act of revising these pages for this new impression, and groaning under the painful and minute labour of erasure and correcting, a task which, however necessary, has none of the pleasures of original composition to alleviate the toil; at this moment he is informed of an old friend being lost to himself, his family, and the world; the circumstance of the case being obviously connected with this article, he presumes on the patience of his readers, to speak further on the subject.

In a remote county lived Albino (I affix for convenience a fictitious name to my portrait, although I actually paint from real life); he was in circumstances of easy affluence, with an amiable family, who enjoyed and deserved the friendship of a neighbourhood where he had passed the greater part of a long life, and with an object fully capable of honourably and profitably occupying a few leisure hours every day. Thus situated, he might have lived useful and beloved, and have died with substantial hope, but, from disease of body or of mind, it was observed that he became dissatisfied with every thing around him, and lost his relish for those pursuits, amusements, and friendships, in which he and his family had passed their lives; he suddenly declared his resolution to remove into a distant part of the kingdom, converted the whole of his property, which was considerable, into ready money, and eagerly rushed to the fountain head of ruin and rapacity, devoting his days to slumber, and his nights to the gaming-table. A few words will conclude my story; he was quickly and irretrievably ruined, and, whilst I relate the circumstance with tears, but not for him, an amiable family are buried in hopeless and penurious obscurity, without a single source of retrospective comfort or future satisfaction. In endeavouring to trace the remote causes of this wretched degradation, I have sometimes attributed it to Albino's not acquiring a taste for simple and innocent pleasures. Instead of sitting down with cheerfulness and gratitude to the various feasts prepared by Providence, he was seeking for faults in the viands, and I fear, at times, giving way to unbecoming sentiments and language concerning the Almighty provider.

BAILLIE, CAPTAIN, an officer in the British navy, and lieutenant-governor of Greenwich hospital during part of the time that the Earl of Sandwich presided at the Admiralty board. From this office, which was the recompence of professional merit, the worthy captain was dismissed, for pointing out and endeavouring to remedy certain notorious abuses in that valuable institution, at a period when all consideration of public duty and private justice was overpowered by the fury of party virulence. I will not dwell on or describe the shabby and cruel fraud of imposing on our marine veterans bull-beef, of which, although he was paid a fair price for wholesome and nutritious meat, a contracting butcher was convicted; I will not follow the minute but laudable investigations of the Duke of Richmond, into curtailed sheets, short shirts, ill-made shoes, or scanty stockings; it is sufficient for my purpose to observe, that the steps which led to, and the rancorous spirit produced by these transactions, terminated in the removal of an able servant of the public, a spirited, judicious, and disinterested reformer.

It must, however, afford Captain Baillie considerable satisfaction, under all the evils he suffered, that he will be considered by posterity as an active resister of official peculation, as one who, deaf to the voice of selfish prudence and worldly policy, and unawed by ministerial frowns, endeavoured, by every means in his power, to appropriate the noble foundation at Greenwich to the relief of wounded and aged seamen, according to the spirit and design of the hospital charter, which, in many instances, had been notoriously violated. Such will be the tardy justice done to his memory; but impressions equally important, but not equally cheering, will remain on the mind of every impartial man who shall peruse the memorials of the subject of this article, supported by the most respectable personal evidence, and the sentence of a court of justice. The fatal effect his treatment may hereafter produce on the diligence and integrity of persons in public employments, is easily imagined, and, in some instances, has already been felt; ability to detect, and courage to arraign the artifices of fraud and corruption, must, on future occasions, be concealed under the convenient mask of cunning reserve, or prudent unconcern. Should carrion be provided as food for those seamen whose gallantry has secured to us every blessing we enjoy, or should they be supplanted at Greenwich hospital by landsmen from Cornish boroughs and shires beyond the Tweed, a lieutenantgovernor, after suppressing the struggles of honesty, and the sigh of bridled indignation, would naturally say, "I see what is doing, and know my duty, but I have not the resolution to expose myself and family to the difficulties and embarrassments of dismission; I remember the fate of Captain Baillie, and must learn to hold my tongue."

It happened, in the present instance, that the captain's warmest friend and supporter, although not the immediate cause of his dismission, was, in fact, the only impediment why the minister of that day made him no compensation for the loss of his post; the bold, the unceasing attacks of the Duke of Richmond on the measures of government, had exasperated into malignity the resentments of Lord Sandwich and his political

associates.

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"I acknowledge there is much of right, and much of reason, in the assertions of Captain Baillie," exclaimed the Earl of Sandwich, in a confidential moment, to a certain literary barrister (Mr. Murphy); but he forgot, or forbore to add, “ he is encouraged by my bitter antagonist, the inflexible Lenox, and if any relief is afforded to the discharged officer, it will be considered as a tacit confession of the truth of his grace's accusations, and will be putting additional weapons into the hands of our merciless foe, that unrelenting Drawcansir, the AngloGallic duke."

It was observed by the enemies of the lieutenant-governor, "that his manners were untractable and his temper vexatious." "I confess,' replied the duke, "that a man of stern independence and uncorrupted integrity, is not a very desirable companion to menials, jobbers, and dependents, or calculated to conciliate their affections; one of such a cast is not a likely person to connive at fraudulent jobs and scandalous impositions ; he will, of course, be considered as a morose, uncomplying, ill-natured fellow, and they will endeavour, by every method in their power, to rid themselves of so troublesome a companion." His grace, on this occasion, might have aptly introduced, by way of apology for the Greenwich delinquents, a declaration made by the wretched man, who, during the reign of Queen Anne, bore and disgraced the title of Duke of Wharton, although it must be confessed, that his character has been drawn by Swift with the "recentibus odiis" evidently predominating: his picture of the Whig Devil is painted much too black.

This nobleman, who, I believe, was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, had constantly professed great esteem for the Dean of St. Patrick's, but his professions were false, and his activity and interest generally exerted to the injury rather than the benefit of the man he flattered, but could not deceive, for our benevolent misanthrope saw and understood his excellency's character.

On a certain occasion, his deviation from a solemn promise he had made in favour of the dean, being detected in a manner too palpable and gross to escape observation, or admit either apology or evasion, he exclaimed with an oath to one of his loose associates, in the hearing of the exasperated priest, who forgot the implied compliment, but never forgave the injury, "We have not enough character or importance ourselves, my lord, to countenance these fellows who have."

This comfortable theory of the Irish viceroy accounts for the success of many an unprincipled superficial coxcomb; and a consideration of it may help to soothe the disappointments of men of acknowledged worth and abilities. Before I conclude, it ought to be observed, in justice to his grace of Richmond, that on being constituted master-general of the Ordnance, he embraced an early opportunity of appointing Captain Baillie to a lucrative place in that department, which I wish him many years of health and happiness to enjoy.

In the train of melancholy ideas produced by the present article, the name of Valentine Morris naturally arises in our minds, and presents a striking example of zealous fidelity and anxious disinterestedness, precipitated from the heights of fortune, respect, elegance, and domestic

happiness, to obloquy, neglect, prosecution, adversity, and a jail. Raised by personal merit, and the more immediate approbation of his sovereign, to the government of St. Vincent, he found, in the midst of a war unexampled for combination and malignity against Great Britain, he found that island defenceless and unprovided. He felt it his duty to repair the fortifications and provide military stores: these purposes he found it impossible to carry into effect without making himself responsible for payment: remittances from the treasury were refused; his, or rather the public, creditors, were clamorous, and instant ruin ensued. How keen must have been the anguish, how severe the mortification of a man like Valentine, erect in the honest and justifiable pride of integrity and scrupulous performance, thus to experience the degrading treatment of delinquency and guilt! What must have been the tortures of taste and sensibility, refined and warm like his, when Persfield, his paternal estate, was torn from his possession? Persfield, visited and celebrated by travellers and poets, the seat of well-disposed decoration, elegant hospitality, and unrivalled picturesque gratification, for which fifty thousand pounds had been repeatedly offered, and at last sold, in the urgency of the moment, for less than half its value.

May the injustice shown me, and the unfeeling treatment I have experienced," says Governor Morris, in a memorial he published of his case, may what I have experienced impress on my successors the shocking insensibility of all ministers in their public capacities, however amiable their characters in private life. I have enjoyed the pleasures and comforts of prosperity; and trust that when affliction applied for solace, I did not withhold the bounties of Providence: I suffer the neglect of adversity, and hope that it will teach me the useful lesson of resignation. If friendship shall sympathise with my misfortunes; if my name shall be hereafter rescued from undeserved reproach; if others shall be warned against suffering the warmth of zeal to overheat their judgment, and render them forgetful of private prudence, it will be some compensation for hope, health, and happiness, sacrificed in the service of my country."

BALTHAZAR, a Spanish Jew, born early in the seventeenth century, who read lectures in philosophy for several years in the university of Salamanca, and afterwards practised as a physician at Seville, which was the place of his birth. Having, by honesty or indiscretion, incurred the resentments of the holy office, he was confined and severely tortured in the cells of the inquisition, where, to use his own words, rather than submit to die, by openly confessing his faith, he repeatedly endured torments worse than ten thousand deaths. After suffering various corporal punishments, at intervals, for more than three years, and remaining in solitary darkness during the whole time, which he describes as still more dreadful, and at times depriving him of his reason, he escaped into France, where he assumed the name of Isaac Orobio, and soon after travelled into Holland. At Amsterdam he was received with sympathy and respect, admitted into the synagogue, passed the remainder of his life in that city, and died in sixteen hundred and eighty-seven.