this invention, take a view of another, without the impertinence of ftaring; at the fame time it fhall not be poffible to know whom or what he is looking at. One may look towards his right · or left hand, when he is fuppofed to look forwards: this is fet forth at large in the printed proposals for the fale of these glaffes, to be had at Mr. Dillon's in Long-Acre, next door to the White-Hart. Now, Sir, as your Spectator has occafioned the publifhing of this invention for the benefit of modeft fpectators, the inventor defires your admonitions concerning the decent ufe of it; and hopes, by your recommendation, that for the future beauty may be beheld without the 6 torture and confufion which it fuffers from the infolence of ftarers. By this means you will relieve the innocent from an infult which there is no law to punish, though it is a greater offence than many which are within the cognizance of justice. I am,

Sir,

Your moft humble fervant, Abraham Spy.'

N° 251. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18.

Lingue centum funt, oraque centum, Ferrea vor

VIRG. Æn. 6. ver. 625.

-A hundred mouths, a hundred tongues, And throats of brais infpir'd with iron lungs.

T

DRYDEN.

of London has the privilege of disturbing a whole street for an hour together, with the twanking of a brafs kettle or a frying pan. The watchman's thump at midnight ftartles us in our beds, as much as the breaking in of a thief. The fowgelder's horn has indeed fomething mufical in it, but this is feldom heard within the liberties. I would therefore propofe, that no inftrument of this nature fhould be made ufe of, which I have not tuned and licenfed, after having carefully ex amined in what manner it may affect the ears of her majefty's liege fubjects.

Vocal cries are of a much larger extent, and indeed fo full of incongruities and barbarifms, that we appear a diftracted city to foreigners, who do not comprehend the meaning of fuch enormous outcries. Milk is generally fold in a note above E la, and in founds fo exceeding 'fhrill, that it often fets our teeth on edge. The chimney-fweeper is confined to no certain pitch, he fometimes utters himself in the deepest bass, and fometimes in the fharpest treble; fometimes in the highest, and fometimes in the lowest note of the gamut. The fame obfervation might be made on the retailers of fmall-coal, not to mention broken glaffes of brick-duft. In these therefore, and the like cafes, it hould be my care to fweeten and mellow the voices of thefe itinerant tradesmen, before they make their appearance in our streets, as alfo to accommodate their cries to their respective wares; and to take care in particular, that thofe may not make the most noife who have the leaft to fell, which is very obfervable in the venders of card-matches, to whom I cannot but apply the old proverb of "Much cry "but little wool."

I

SIR,

AM a man out of all bufinefs, and would willingly turn my head to any thing for an honeft livelihood. I have invented feveral projects for raifing many millions of money without burdening the fubject, but I cannot get the parliament to listen to me, who look upon me, forfooth, as a crack, and a projector; fo that defpairing to enrich either myfelf or my country by this public-fpiritednefs, I would make fome propofals to you relating to a defign which I have very much at heart, and which may procure me a handfome fubfiftence, if you will be pleased to • recommend it to the cities of London and Weft• minfter.

Some of these laft-mentioned muficians are fo very loud in the fale of these trifling manufac tures, that an honeft fplenetic gentleman of my acquaintance bargained with one of them never to come into the street where he lived: but what was the effect of this contract? why, the whole tribe of card-match-makers which fre" quent that quarter, paffed by his door the very next day, in hopes of being bought off after the fame manner.

It is another great imperfection in our London cries, that there is no juft time or measure ob ferved in them. Our news fhould indeed be published in a very quick time, because it is a commodity that will not keep cold. It fhould not, however, be cried with the fame precipitation as fire: yet this is generally the cafe. A bloody battle alarms the town from one end to another in an inftant. Every motion of the French is published in fo great a hurry, that one would think the enemy were at our gates. This likewife I would take upon me to regulate in fuch a manner, that there fhould be fome diftinction made between the spreading of a victory, a march, or an incampment, a Dutch, a Portugal, or a

general of the London cries, which are at prefent under no manner of rules or difcipline. I think I am pretty well qualified for this place, as being a man of very strong lungs, of great insight into all the branches of our British trades and manufactures, and of a competent skill in mu

<fic.

The cries of London may be divided into vocal and inftrumental. As for the latter, they are at ⚫ prefent under a very great diforder. A freeman

thofe exceflive alarms with which feveral boifte6 rous ruftics infeft our streets in turnip-feafon; and which are more inexcufable, because these are wares which are in no danger of cooling upon their hands.

There are others who affect a very flow time, and are, in my opinion, much more tunable than the former; the cooper in particular fwells his laft note in an hollow voice, that is not without its harmony; nor can I forbear being infpired

with a most agreeable melancholy, when I hear that fad and folemn air with which the public ✓ are very often asked, if they have any chairs to mend? Your own memory may fuggeft to you 6 many other lamentable ditties of the fame na. ፡ ture, in which the mufic is wonderfully languishing and melodious.

I am always pleased with that particular time of the year which is proper for the pickling of dill and cucumbers; but alas, this cry, like the fong of the nightingale, is not heard above two months. It would therefore be worth while to confider, whether the fame air might not in fome cafes be adapted to other words.

It might likewife deserve our most serious confideration, how far, in a well-regulated city, thofe humourifts are to be tolerated, who, not 'contented with the traditional cries of their < forefathers, have invented particular fongs and tunes of their own: fuch as was, not many years fince, the pastry-man, commonly known by the name of the Colly-Molly-Puff; and fuch as is at this day the vender of powder and wash-balls, who, if I am rightly informed, goes • under the name of Powder-Watt.

'I must not here omit one particular absurdity which runs through this whole vociferous generation, and which renders their cries very often not only incommodious, but altogether uselefs to the public; I mean, that idle accomplishment which they all of them aim at, of crying to as not to be understood. Whether or

no they have learned this from several of our affected fingers, I will not take upon me to say; but most certain it is, that people know the 'wares they deal in rather by their tunes than by 'their words; infomuch that I have fometimes 'feen a country boy run out to buy apples of a 'bellows-mender, and gingerbread from a grinder of knives and fciffars. Nay fo ftrangely in'fatuated are fome very eminent artists of this particular grace in a cry, that none but their acquaintance are able to guefs at their profeffion; for who else can know, that "work if I had it," should be the fignification of a corn'cutter?

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