wish to repair our old mansion, how they take the keystone out of an arch without first securely propping it.

I should have began my letter with thanks to you for your valuable cargo of books, the intrinsic value of which is not reduced by my son's not being likely to make the use of them I could have wished; as the result of a consultation with him and my relation, Earl Spencer, is, that his lordship has promised his patronage to him in the line my son preferred-the church. Although your religious persuasion admits of no priests, you have exhibited so much candour, acknowledging the merits of exemplary clergymen, that I cannot help assuring you, that not only you, but your sect, meet with equal candour from them. My brotherin-law, who is one, was lately expressing his admiration of the conduct of quakers in a large company, when one of his assertions was combated by a lawyer present, who could not, however, contradict it. It was, that he could not produce an instance of a quaker arraigned for a criminal offence. I am not conversant with the Newgate kalendar, nor do I suppose you to be; but if such an instance ever did occur, I am convinced your whole fraternity feels it too sensibly not to remember it; and I promised to ask you when such a thing did happen. If it never did, why could it not be prevented in the professors of other religions?

Yours, &c.

M. MARTIN.

LETTER XCV.

Dr. LETTSOM to Sir M. MARTIN, Bart.

London, Oct. 15, 1793.

My son, is just arrived from Göttingen, after nearly two years' absence, much improved. He stays with me to the end of this month, and then departs for Edinburgh. He will be of age on Christmas Eve, a period when some people make their neighbours and tenants dead drunk: to me it will be one of joy; but I hope to express it in a different way.

I think some philosopher proposed to illuminate a whole kingdom by means of the inflammable matter of iron; and that one cannon would supersede the use of candles for a province at least. A friend of mine has lately discovered the art of changing human flesh, particularly the fleshy part, into spermaceti candles. This is not a fable. He means to light up the large room of the Royal Society with the leg of a man. I advised him to go to the swamps of Dunkirk, to Lyons, Weissemberg, La Vendée, or Toulon, where he might find materials sufficient to supersede all the tallow of Russia. If this project succeed, we shall refine on the custom of the ancients in burning their dead. We may burn our friends over a supper or a pipe.

This scheme may puzzle the Materialists about collecting the remains against the last day. My friend has promised me some human candles; but my wife will not suffer them to be burnt.

I remember that when Montgolfier discovered the art of flying in the air, it was discredited by philosophers in London. Of one I won a wager on

the occasion.

When this discovery was made, poor Smeathman, who first proposed the Sierra Leone scheme for settling blacks, was in Paris, and gave me, twice a week, the best information on this then curious subject; and when I read his letters among the circle of my friends, they said I was duped by him. Execrable L'Egalité was one of those whom he described as an early balloon adventurer. He ascended in a grand car at that time he will soon, or ought soon, to ascend in a more fatal species: the long-merited reward of a wretch who could publicly vote for the death of a good-natured prince, his near kinsman; who, if not innocent, was guilty from inadvertence; who wished, I believe, beyond any prince then in Europe, the Crown Prince of Denmark excepted, to render his people happy; who sacrificed the prerogatives of the crown to serve his subjects, and was disposed to stand as a barrier between the lower classes and the proud aristocracy; the latter he long considered with more jealousy than even the Sans-culottes. Excuse this digression in favour of a worthy character, as I feel a pleasure in avowing my sentiments in favour of the late Louis; and

dislike of the conduct of the French lawgivers, accusers, and judges. But however mad I think the French are, I would not hence infer, we are acting right, because I think we are unwise and impolitic in our present useless crusades in favour of Austria and Russia, the only two powers we need to fear, and which are inimical to us. We ought to have supported the French immediately after Louis had accepted the Constitution, and thus have prevented the war, and established a limited monarchy in France. Prussia should have protected Poland as a barrier against Russia, and leagued with France as a security against Austria, and England should have remained the arbiter of peace, and the umpire and glory of the world.

J. C. L.

LETTER XCVI.

Sir M. MARTIN, Bart. to Dr. LETTSOM.

Nov 6, 1793.

A Scheme to alleviate the Poor's Rates.

Whereas, it is a common practice to take a sum of money from the father of a bastard, which contributes to lower the rates for that year, and leaves a permanent charge upon the parish, it is proposed to establish an Office to receive these sums,

and all others which it may be found expedient to add to an increasing fund: such as the penalties already directed by law to be paid to the poor of the parish; those inflicted by magistrates for trespasses, &c.

That upon burying in any thing but woollen, the tax upon registering births and burials, to which might be added one upon being registered on becoming a parishioner by any other means than birth or marriage; and an exemption to every person who should pay a half-penny a day to it, from being moveable till they should become chargeable.

Were employers to be made responsible for a half-penny a day, (or more in proportion to wages,) for all labourers and workmen, not belonging to the parish, and liable to pay double for neglect, with a reward to informers, it would induce occupiers of land to encourage persons to become parishioners, instead of their present endeavours to depopulate the country; the effects of which were severely felt in many places by the quantity of corn spoiled, and the exorbitant wages paid in the harvest of 1792.

Payments to be made to the parish in which the master should reside, who should employ persons to work for him in other parishes. This would avoid disputes, and be some compensation for the number of persons (useless to agriculture) who are fixed upon country parishes by apprenticeship and service to those who pay very little to the fates.