count's uncle, who was greatly in the intereft of the house of Austria, lent the emperor four hundred thousand florins, while he refided at Barcelona. When his majesty was ready to pass into Germany, the old count, finding he muft fhortly leave the regions of mor. tality, fent his confeffor to that prince, declaring his inhuman conduct towards his nephew, and the methods already ufed for his recovery; begging his majefty's pardon for his offence, and befeeching him to ufe his Imperial authority for the difcovery of the young nobleman, in order to his being restored to his eftate, his honours, and his dignity. His majefty charged the confeffor to affure the count d'Alvarez, that he might securely rely on his care; that every poflible enquiry fhould be made, and every precaution taken to render it effectual. He alfo ordered the confeffor, immediately after the count's decease, which could not be long, to repair to him in Germany, that he might affift in finding the young count, and prove the identity of his perfon, by certain figns and marks that nature, and his intended murderer, imprinted on his body. Accordingly, in the month of May 1712, the confeffor arrived at Vienna, and the emperor commanded one of the gentlemen of his houshold to accompany him into Bohemia, in search of the young count d'Alvarez. After much enquiry, they found he had quitted his trade, and was then a steward to a nobleman of that kingdom. They had therefore, at first, recourfe to his mafter, in order to know how long he had ferved in that capaci ty, and also what he himself knew of his fteward. The nobleman told them, that he only knew his having been in the service of the count de Gallas, and afterwards in that of the count d'Oberstoff; that both were fatisfied with his diligence, as he was also himself; that ́ they had both afked him what countryman he was, and that he always anfwered, he knew not himfelf, he only remembered that when he was a fervant in Turkey, his mafter had given him to underftand, that he was the natural fon of a grandee of Spain, but had neither told him the name of his father, nor why he was fent out of his natural country, fuppofing he was actually born in Spain. The fteward was now fent for, and the fame queftions put to him by the confetfor; but, he could give no other answer than what they had before heard from his master. The priest therefore defired to fee his neck and fhoulders; but on his fhewing fome reluctancy to fatisfy their curiofity, they gave him to understand, that it was highly to his own intereft, and conformable to the command of the emperor. Thefe affurances induced him to comply, and they obferved on his right fhoulder the natural marks defcribed by the nurse and woman, who had taken care of him in his infancy, together with the fears of the wounds given him by the valet de chambre. There being now no longer room to doubt of his being the real perfon fo long the object of their enquiries, they gave him a faithful relation of his birth, and the imminent danger to which his life had been expofed. They all faluted Y 2 him him count d'Alvares, and gave him a full account of his quality and paternal eftate. But if this news agreeably furprized the young nobleman, it had a very different effect on his wife, who was perfuaded that he must be for faken by a husband of fuch eminent quality; but the new count removed all her fears, by affuring her that as fhe had fhared in his poverty, the fhould also share in his good for tune. Every thing being thus adjufted, they conducted him to Vienna, to thank the emperor, who received him very graciously, promised to reftore him to all his eftates and dignities; and, in the mean time, gave him an order for the payment of the four hundred thousand florins he had borrowed of his uncle. The count, throwing himself at his majefty's feet, intimated, that he wished to pass the remainder of his days in the empire, and to purchafe fome eftate in that country. Accordingly, he bought the lordfhip of Ratibor in Silefia, where he fettled with his family, and long enjoyed the happiness of repofe and tranquility, which a series of fervitude had taught him how to value. Thus did Providence defend the innocent, and protect the orphan, when abandoned by thofe who ought to have taken every care for his prefervation; and we could with that this was the only inftance of an infant's having fallen a victim to the covetous difpofition of a guardian. GENTLEMEN, To the Authors of the BRITISH MAGAZINE. towards the Supreme Donor, would MEcknefs and forgiveness of in- engage our deepest attention to pre juries is one of the earlieft lefons prefcribed us by nature; the diftinguishing mark that raises man in the creation he was made to adorn, and by which he bears the nearest resemblance to his divine original. Thefe confiderations led me to reflect on the inhuman practice of duelling, as it is now established by cuftom, in defiance of the authority of our fevereft laws; a practice which, I hope reason, without the affiftance of an unhappy experience, will foon convince us to be deftructive of all human peace and fociety, and the bane of that tranquility which heaven intended for the enjoyment of mankind, and which, were we not guilty of the vileft ingratitude ferve. Cicero has often been blamed for the following passage : "There are two methods of determining controverfies, the one by argument, and the other by force; the first is proper to man, the fecond to beafts; we should only fly to the latter, when we cannot have recourse to the former." This feems to give a fanction (if indeed it might be regarded as fuch) to mankind to mix with the brutish fpecies, and leaves them at large to rove in a sphere never intended by Nature for their reception; and if fuch a limitaion as this were to take place, I fear it would in time produce a perfect unity, and we fhould mix in one common herd. The The ancients, when they engaged in private combats, did it while the dispute was recent, and thereby avoided the imputation of a malice prepenfe; they never made ufe of any more than one weapon, and often only thofe which nature allowed; fo that the combat was frequently decided without the expence of either perfon's life: but how dreadful is the alternative, with regard to our own nation! The modern duellift conceals his malice, and cherishes it in his bofom, till it ripens into refentment, and he meets his adversary in all the heat of fury and anger, under the difguife of a calm countenance. A fingle weapon was for many years, in our own nation, thought capable of determining the strongest controverfies, or giving ample fatisfaction for the most injurious calumny; but thanks to the affiftance of British ingenuity, for the production of a confederate inftrument, which, for its fize, had all the powers of mischief combined, they could not have rivalled for deftruction. When one of our combatants chufes to have what he terms fair play for his life, the latter weapon is laid afide, and he risks his existence on the length of his fword, and the flattering hope of a felffufficient dexterity; a few tilts and parryings prolong the decifion, till capricious chance has caft the lot, and while he is meditating his adverfary's deftruction, a fatal push fetches him to the ground. He quits the ftage of life rolling his eyes in anguish on his conqueror; his foul, loaded with guilt, is fent afoat into the abyfs of eternity, to fink beneath the weight of future torments: nor is the furvivor's ftate hardly more eligible, while he has the ftinging reflections of a wounded confcience to encounter with here, and the expectations of a murderer's reward to fupport hereafter: he views the ghaftly spectacle with horror; he quits the harveft of triumph he had juft before promifed himself the pleasure of reaping, from the wretched remains of his deceafed antagonist, to template on the depth of his own woe: if he escapes the iron hand of juftice, he only furvives to hear the reproaches of a widow and orphan children, and quits the fhackles of ignominy and difgrace of a day, for years of mifery and forrow. con That the gentlemen of the army fhould fo often engage in private duels will feem less strange, if we reflect on the mean ideas a modern hero entertains of martial virtue, and the bafe pretenfions by which he feans his fortitude; he thinks bombaft, and an over-bearing confidence, the ftandard of true bravery, and makes barbarity the pub. lither of his valour. Let me inform them further, that courage and humanity are the only characteriftics of a foldier's honour; and when they poffefs an equal fhare in his breaft, animate and cherish in hima laudable zeal for his country's in-. tereft but when thefe are wanting, a race of viler paffions often take place, and the patlive mind enters. into a ftate of the most abject flavery; pride, the grand deftroyer of Chrif tian virtue, with a strong fucceffion of evils, follow; envy and malice fhed their baleful dews, and the ftrong contagion of refentment rankles in his bofom, and inflames his whole mafs of blood, till all the spirit and fire of the warrior is degenerated into the fierceness of a bull or countrymen, with the fame hand that a mastiff. He forgets his priftine he deftroys their foes, can only be allegiance which he had dedicated confidered as a common murderer, to the fervice of the ftate he lifted and acts in the fame capacity in a under; and the fword that was de- ftate as a Drawcanfir in Bayes's regivoted to his country's freedom is ment, who, regardless of parties, now reserved for being inhumanly delights in a promifcuous havock, ftained in the blood of its citizens. Your's, &c. A foldier that can wound his own B. C. To the Authors of the BRITISH MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN, Every nation, bleffed with any regular form of divine worship, have certain appointed times or feafons devoted to innocent mirth and gaiety, when the wealthy open their hearts, their bofoms, and their purfes, to charity, humanity, and universal chearfulness. Our ancestors, who fhone cotemporary with the Edwards, the Henries, and good queen Befs, at fuch times opened their doors, and received into their hofpitable halls, the circumjacent poor; fed them with roaft-beef and good plumporridge, and made their hearts merry with found October. This kept up the fpirit of reflection on their good chear till the returning feafon, and the Squire's health was occafionally toafted through every revolving moon; affection made him lord of their wills, and every man's perfon was a ready facrifice to his fervice. At church every one bleffed him, at his diverfions allifted him, and in all his undertakings, interefted themfelves in his profperity every labouring houfewife had a cheefe-cake to entertain his children in their little peregrinations, and all treated his fervants with refpect. The hofpitality of the mafter commanded reverence to himself, love to his issue, and esteem to all about him. Thus lived the country 'Squire, enobled by his virtue, enriched by his generofity, and revered by his humanity; fplendidly frugal, foberly magnificent, and fupremely happy. In imitation of his focial qualities, thofe endowed with the good things of this life in greater plenty than the labouring multitude, acted after him in miniature; and at harvesthome, and fheep-fhearing, revived, as it were, the jollity of the past Chriftmas, and acted, according to their abilities, the 'Squire in their turns. But as the Squire degenerated into the beau, the courtier, the petit maitre, and the gamefter, the glowing mirth of Christmas faded away, fickened, and died. The joyous harvest-home, lofing its bright example, pined away to a fhadow, and the plum-firmity and mellow ale at fheep-fhearing dwindled into fmall-beer, and roafted apples. Thus languifhed, thus expired, Englifh hofpitality. Some remains of it indeed are found here and there, like courage and common honesty, in thofe fecret receffes over which virtue fpreads her radiant wing, and and fame and honour lives, as it were, entombed. This change has been gradually brought about by the fickly paffion which the country gentlemen entertain for living in the buz of this great city, by their effeminate longings to resemble fhadowy nothings in drefs and flutter; by their ardent inclinations to be minifters of ftate, archbishops, and chancellors; or by the excellent education acquired at Paris, or in the regions beyond the Alps; by which means this pleafing charity, which cheered the industrious, and gave new life. and vigour to commerce, the fupport of the ftate, and grandeur of the nation, is thrown away on the idle and unworthy, funk and confounded in infamous brothels, fquandered in the different kinds of gaming, or abforbed in the ruinous purfuit of places and penfions, where a deftructive fire is embraced for Jupiter, and a cloud for Juno. Your's, &c. K. L. An Account of the new Piece called the Elopement; as added at Drury-Lane, on Wednesday Night, for the Benefit of Mr. Havard. Lady Candid, MR. of his understanding and his character. In order to this, Mrs. Thoughlefs is to pretend an elopement, and to behave as if her hufband's ufage had driven her to that extremity, and as if the neither wished a change in his conduct, nor defired a reconciliation. The better to carry on the defign, the fervants are all let into the fecret, and directed in what manner to answer any enquiries of their mafter. The appointed time for her departure being come, Mrs. Thoughtlefs fets out in a chair to lady Candid's, who is a relations of her bufband's, and Mr. Senfible, according to the fcheme concerted, proceeds to Almack's in Pall-Mall, where Mr. Thoughtless is fuppofed to be fitting, to give some hints that may alarm him, and roufe up his fufpicions in relation to his wife.Mr. Senfible being admitted where Thoughtlefs is drinking with fome Newmarket fportfmen, mentions, as if accidentally, that he had juft feen Mrs. Thoughtiefs in a chair, pre ceded |