should they be insufficient to fill the columns of a daily paper, individuals are invited to exhibit the arcana of domestic history; the hopes and expectations of celibacy, and the intrigues and vexations of marriage; and if such invitations shall be slighted, they are threatened with a system of inspection from which no secrets shall be able to escape. When these new vehicles of information are added to the number already established, it becomes a question whether the world be sufficient to supply materials adequate to so extensive a demand? News, indeed, may now be compared to food. Whatever we may eat today, however plentiful in quantity, or excellent in quality, we are equally ready on the morrow for a fresh banquet, and not very well pleased if the yesterday's provision be hashed up for our entertainment. We are not long out of bed before our first meal of intelligence is served up, and devoured with an eagerness proportioned to the long fast which sleep had occasioned. There is one respect, indeed, in which our food differs a little from our curiosity. Previous excesses will sometimes unfit a man for the solid enjoyment of the breakfast table ; but few are known to rise so much disordered with the excesses of the evening, as to have no appetite for the morning papers. On the contrary it has been found, that the more eagerly curiosity takes in its gratifications, the more ready it is for fresh supplies. There is not an hour in the day, a situation in business, or a posture in sickness or in health, which prevents a hungry Quidnunc from making a comfortable meal upon a wet Newspaper, or a gossiping News-monger; or enjoying the luxury of a messenger just arrived, especially if the contents of his dispatches are not known. And here, by the way, I may observe, that certainty in intelligence is one of the most unpalatable of all ingredients; while a wide scope for conjecture, and a due portion of ignorance, as to all the particulars of where, when, who, &c. form those luxurious dishes which we enjoy with unceasing relish — "As if increase of appetite had grown Some years ago, it was thought sufficient if this Newspaper-diet was accessible during six days of the week only; and the seventh, as in other employments, was reserved as a day of rest. But a numerous band of Projectors have discovered that this was a silly prejudice in favour of the laws of the country, and the anti quated customs of Religion. They have therefore determined to indulge the publick with a species of Sunday papers, or as they may be called (in order to carry on our comparison) Sunday ordinaries. Some attempts have been made to prevent these accommodations; but hitherto so much in vain, that their number has lately been nearly doubled; and they are resorted to with increasing goût. Yet they profess no higher entertainment than the remains and scraps of all the tables of the week, with now and then some kickshaws of their own; or, perhaps, what they esteem a very high relish, the account of a new Play; a thing of so much importance, that they suppose Sunday would be an intolerable and painful portion of our existence, if it were to be passed in ignorance of the Dramatis Personæ, the plot, and a specimen of the songs. In these remarks on the analogy between Diet and News, nothing has been said of digestion, with which, indeed, the latter has little connexion. The powers of swallowing are expected to be great, but the after-process is a matter of very little importance. I shall, therefore, dismiss these, in order to notice another set of Projectors, who have appeared at this fertile season, and whose object seems to be to extend the empire of Fashion. While the purveyors of News convey the events of wars, treaties, senates, and councils, these new adventurers aspire to the higher honour of circulating the varieties of dress. This, it may be said, is not absolutely a new attempt, but in its execution it is now proposed to extend it to a degree hitherto unknown. Former Projectors were content with exhibiting, in their Magazines of Fashion, engravings sometimes coloured and sometimes plain, of the newest dress but the bold and enterprising gentlemen in my eye have contrived to convey samples of the very articles which are best calculated for extending the empire of Beauty, by slaying obdurate man. ; Before I bestow the praises due to this attempt to unite Literature and Mantua-making, the Study and the Shop, I hope it will not be taken amiss if I offer a few remarks, either in the shape of objection, or of historical information, whichever the parties concerned choose to think them. To extend the empire of Fashion by dispersing her various laws through the most remote parts of the kingdom almost as soon as they are promulgated in the Metropolis, is an attempt which requires rather more consideration than has been bestowed it. It may upon at first sight seem a very clever thing to exhibit a gown, or a cap, at Falmouth, or at Aberdeen, within a few hours after they are enacted in Bond-street, and to instruct the belles of those distant regions in the fashions of the month almost as soon as they have been communicated to the elegantes of St. James's or St. George's parishes. But while we are felicitating ourselves on so happy a thought, we ought at the same time to consider what is to become of this great, long, wide, and shapeless thing, increased and increasing, which we call the metropolis, the seat of fashion, the place where she keeps her court, her courtiers, her guards, and her palaces? Till now, we know, it has been her object to dispense her favours, and proclaim her laws to the rest of the kingdom at long and distant periods, and to dole them out in such proportions as may prevent a dangerous rivalship. The consequence of this was, that whatever faint gleams of fashion might appear in remote parts, no lady thought herself justified in the enjoyment of them, or even considered that she could appear in a dress fit to be seen, without one or two visits, at least, to the metropolis. But what will be the consequence if all for which Bond-street is valuable can be conveyed by post |