Leaving this correspondent to his fate, I have to announce that in my next paper, the publick will hear some extraordinary intelligence respecting the PROJECTOR.

THE PROJECTOR. N° 100.

"Conticuit tandem, factoque hic fine quievit."

VIRGIL

N my

November 1809.

IN last I promised my readers some very extraordinary news respecting the PROJECTOR; and I could easily conceive that such an intimation would occasion very many sagacious conjectures, and many anxious inquiries. It is incredible how many persons have given a gentle tap at Mr. URBAN's door, or called upon the venerable gentleman himself, merely to inquire "if any thing had happened to the Projector; to express their hopes that he would satisfy their impatience in his next paper, and in the mean time, they would be very much

obliged to Mr. Urban to let them know, if it was not a secret, what the meaning of the above intimation could be." I am now, therefore, to put an end to these anxieties and conjectures, by announcing, in due form, and with suitable concern, that the PROJECTOR is about to take leave of his readers, and, like other tradesmen who have long laboured in their vocation, to pass the rest of his days in retirement; and lastly, that he determined in one of those moments or hours of self-applause, from which Projectors are seldom free, to announce this affair in the present rather than in the following month, because he would be sorry to cast any gloom on the festivities of Christmas.

But whether, the said hour of self-applause having expired, this piece of news will be followed with any testimonies of public regret, or of satisfaction; whether I shall be considered as one who is about to lessen the stock of public amusement, or as one who wisely makes his exit, when he can remain on the stage no longer; whether it will be thought that I have been turned out of my place, or have only resigned at a very critical time by way of prevention; all these are circumstances which must be left to that sagacity which, on such occasions, is never much at a loss in resolving per

plexed questions, and which, if it does not hit the truth, some how or other contrives what answers just as well.

upon

Among the possessors of this species of sagacity, there are many who, I have no doubt, will receive the news of my departure without any mark of surprize; who have always considered the rise and fall of Projectors as cause and effect, mere matters of course, and things that happen every day; and who, instead of any astonishment at my approaching the end of my labours, will only wonder that I have been able to carry on business so long. These sagacious persons will declare, and upon affidavit if necessary, that they have for some time foreseen that I was on the decline, and could not hold out much longer; that the trade of PROJECTING had been long overstocked, and that the demand for articles in our line was sensibly falling off. They have seen likewise, with no less quickness of discernment, that PROJECTORS are a tribe rather tolerated than favoured, and that, where they are not dupes themselves, their highest merit is that of having made dupes of others. As to myself, affecting a wonderful degree of candour, they will perhaps allow, that "the man meant well, produced scheme after scheme, either for the benefit of

individuals or joint-companies: but, after all, a Projector is a Projector; and the fine schemes begun in the three-pair-of-stairs garret, generally end in the King's Bench."

There are, as I am well informed, others, no less sagacious, who endeavour to establish a very different theory, and, at first sight, rather more flattering. They are decidedly of opinion that I would not have quitted my vocation, after only eight years labour, if I had not certain reasons which I do not choose to divulge; if, for example, I had not been bought off by some superior engagement, and they surmise that the name industriously suppressed in these papers may soon appear at full length in a certain book bound in red leather. And pur

suing this agreeable scent, they were no sooner informed (in consequence of very pressing intreaties) that I was about to resign, than they became perfectly certain, that I had at length attained that promotion which is the chief end and object of all your disinterested schemers, men who are perpetually plotting and contriving for the good of the publick, and whose plots and contrivances, if they thrive at all, contribute only to their own emolument.

This, I own, was opening a very wide field for conjecture; but although the prospect of

preferment, while but a shadowy conjecture, is very pleasing, I soon ceased to be flattered when I heard all the various opinions that have been propagated. I had no objection to my name appearing in the book bound in red leather, and I could very well have submitted to the grievous suspicion of filling a high station in the political world: but it was not quite so pleasant to hear it surmised that all I had written had no more lofty tendency than to place me at the head of a scheme for plaguing the brewers, or illuminating the streets, to the utter destruction of oilmen and lamp-lighters. Nay some went even farther than this (for where will the censorious stop?); and judging from I know not what criterion of consistency, concluded that I was one of those enterprising gentlemen who had at length reduced idleness to a system, and had determined to provide a third theatre for a town that cannot support two, merely because I have bestowed no little pains in expatiating on the value of time, and the increase of irrational amusements. From the hints I so frequently have thrown out on the unprofitable waste of time and money in the summer months, it has been very candidly conjectured that I have either been promoted to the rank of Master of the Ceremonies at one