ance. Among other articles, it was therein ftipulated, that she should have 400l. a year for pin-money, which I obliged myself to pay quarterly into the hands of one who acted as her plenipotentiary in that affair. I have ever fince religiously obferved my part in this folemn agreement. Now, Sir, fo it is, that the lady has had feveral children fince I married her; to which, if I fhould credit our malicious neighbours, her pin-money has not a little contributed. The education of thefe my children, who, contrary to my expectation, are born to me every year, ftraitens me fo much, that I have begged their mother to free me from the obligation of the above-mentioned pin-money, that it may go towards making a provifion for her family. This propofal makes her noble blood fwell in her veins, in-fomuch that finding me a little tardy in her last quarter's payment, fhe threatens me every day to arrest' me; and proceeds fo far as to tell me, that if I do not do her juftice, I fhall die in a jail. To this fhe adds, when her paffion will let her argue calmly, that she has feveral play debts on her hand, which must be difcharged very fuddenly, and that he cannot lofe her money as becomes a woman of her fashion, if she' makes me any abatements in this article. I hope, Sir, you will take an occafion from hence to give your opinion upon a subject which you have not yet touched, and inform us if there are any precedents for this usage among our ancestors; or whether you find any mention of pin-money in Grotius, Puffendorf, or any other of the civilians.

I am ever the humbleft of your admirers,
Jofiah Fribble, Efq;'

As there is no man living who is a more profeffed advocate for the fair-fex than myfelf, fo there is none who would be more unwilling to invade any of their ancient rights and privileges; but as the doctrine of pinmoney is of a very late date, unknown to our great grandmothers, and not yet received by many of our modern

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ladies,

adies, I think it is for the interest of both fexes to keep t from fpreading.

Mr. Fribble may not, perhaps, be much mistaken where he intimates, that the fupplying a man's wife with pinoney, is furnishing her with arms against himself, and 1 a manner becoming acceffary to his own difhonour. Ve may, indeed, generally obferve, that in proportion is a woman is more or lefs beautiful, and her husband dvanced in years, she stands in need of a greater or lefs amber of pins, and upon a treaty of marriage, rifes or lls in her demands accordingly. It must likewife be ned, that high quality in a mistress does very much flame this article in the marriage reckoning.

But where the age and circumstances of both parties e pretty much upon a level, I cannot but think the ifting upon pin-money is very extraordinary; and yet e find feveral matches broken off upon this very head. What would a foreigner, or one who is a ftranger to this practice, think of a lover that forfakes his mistress, ecause he is not willing to keep her in pins; or what .:ould he think of the mistress, fhould he be informed at fhe afks five or fix hundred pounds a year for this e? Should a man unacquainted with our customs be ld the fums which are allowed in Great-Britain, under the title of pin-money, what a prodigious confumption of pins would he think there was in this island? “ A pin "a day," fays our frugal proverb, "is a groat a year," fo that, according to this calculation, my friend Fribble's wife muft every year make use of eight millions fix hundred and forty thoufand new pins.

I am not ignorant that our British ladies alledge they comprehend under this general term feveral other conveniencies of life; I could therefore wish, for the honour of my countrywomen, that they had rather called it needle-money, which might have implied fomething of good housewifery, and not have given the malicious world occafion to think, that drefs and trifle have always the uppermoft place in a woman's thoughts.

I know feveral of my fair readers urge, in defence of this practice, that it is but a neceffary provifion they make or themselves, in cafe their hufband proves a churl or a pifer; fo that they confider this allowance as a kind of

alimony,

alimony, which they may lay their claim to without actually feparating from their hufbands. But with fubmiffion, I think a woman who will give up herself to a man in marriage, where there is the leaft room for fuch an apprehenfion, and truft her perfon to one whom the will not rely on for the common neceffaries of life, may very properly be accufed, in the phrafe of an homely proverb, of being "penny wife and pound foolish."

It is obferved of over-cautious generals, that they never engage in a battle without fecuring a retreat, in cafe the event fhould not anfwer their expectations; on the other hand, the greateft conquerors have burnt their fhips, or broke down the bridges behind them, as being determined either to fucceed, or die in the engagement. In the fame manner I should very much suspect a woman who takes fuch precautions for her retreat, and contrives methods how the may live happily, without the affection of one to whom he joins herself for life. Separate purfes between man and wife are, in my opinion, as unnatural as feparate beds. A marriage cannot be happy, where the plea-fures, inclinations, and interests of both parties are not the fame. There is no greater incitement to love in the mindof man, than the fenfe of a perfon's depending upon him for her eafe and happiness; as a woman ufes all her endeavours to please the perfon whom the looks upon as her honour, her comfort, and her support.

For this reafon I am not very much surprised at the behaviour of a rough country 'fquire, who, being not a little: fhocked at the proceeding of a young widow that would not recede from her demands of pin money, was fo enraged at her mercenary temper, that he told her in great wrath, "as much as the thought him her flave, he would shew "all the world he did not care a pin for her." Upon which he flew out of the room, and never faw her more.

Socrates, in Plato's Alcibiades, fays, he was informed by one who had travelled through Perfia, that as he paffed, over a great tract of lands, and inquired what the name of the place was, they told him it was the Queen's Girdle;. to which he adds, that another wide field, which lay by it, was called the Queen's Veil; and that in the fame man-, ner there was a large portion of ground fet afide for every

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part

part of her majefty's drefs. Thefe lands might not impoperly be called the queen of Perfia's pin-money.

I remember my friend Sir Roger, who I dare fay never read this paffage in Plato, told me fome time fince, that upon his courting the perverfe widow, of whom I have given an account in former papers, he had disposed of an hundred acres in a diamond-ring, which he would have prefented her with, had the thought fit to accept it; and that upon her wedding-day fhe would have carried on her head fifty of the tallest oaks upon his eftate. He further informed me that he would have given her a coal-pit to keep her in clean linen; that he would have allowed her the profits of a wind-mill for her fans, and have prefented her once in three years with the fhearing of his fheep for her under-petticoats. To which the knight always adds, that though he did not care for fine clothes himfelf, there fhould not have been a woman in the country better dreffed than my lady Coverley. Sir Roger, perhaps, may in this, as well as in many other of his devices, appear fomething odd and fingular; but if the humour of pin-money prevails, I think it would be very proper for every gentleman of an estate to mark out fo many acres of it under the title of "The Pins."

L

N° 296

Friday, February 8.

'

-Nugis addere pondus. Hor. Ep. 19. lib. 1. ver. 42. -Add weight to trifles.

• Dear Spec,

H

"Aving lately converfed much with the fair-fex on the fubject of your fpeculations, which, fince their appearance in public, have been the chief exercife of the female loquacious faculty, I found the fair ones poffeffed with a diffatisfaction at your prefixing Greek mottoes to the frontifpiece of your late papers; and, as a man of gallantry, I thought it a duty incum• bent

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bent on me to impart it to you, in hopes of a reformas tion, which is only to be effected by a restoration of the Latin to the ufual dignity in your papers, which, of ← late, the Greek, to the great difpleasure of your female readers, has ufurped; for though the Latin has the re⚫commendation of being as unintelligible to them as the Greek, yet being written of the fame character with their mother-tongue, by the affiftance of a fpellingbook it is legible; which quality the Greek wants: and fince the introduction of operas into this nation, the ladies are fo charmed with founds abftracted from their ideas, that they adore and honour the found of Latin as it is old Italian. I am a folicitor for the fairfex, and therefore think myself in that character more likely to be prevalent in this request, than if I fhould fubfcribe myself by my proper name.

J. M..

I defire you may infert this in one of your fpeculations, to fhew my zeal for removing the diffatisfaction of the fair-fex, and reftoring you to their favour.'

SIR,

I Was fome time fince in company with a young of

ficer, who entertained us with the conqueft he had • made over a female neighbour of his; when a gentleman who stood by, as I fuppofe, envying the captain's good fortune, afked him what reafon he had to believe the lady admired him? Why, fays he, my lodgings are oppofite to her's, and fhe is continually at her window either at work, reading, taking fnuff, or putting her• felf in fome toying pofture on purpose to draw my eyes that way. The confeffion of this vain foldier made me • reflect on fome of my own actions; for you muft know, • Sir, I am often at a window which fronts the apartments of feveral gentlemen, who I doubt not have the fame apinion of me. I must own I love to look at them all, one for being well dreffed, a fecond for his fine eye, and one particular one, because he is the least man I ever faw; but there is fomething fo eafy and pleasant in the manner of my little man, that I obferve he is a favourite of all his acquaintance. I could go on to tell you of " many