taken. The whole of this affair has given the Portu gueze a great idea of the capacity and courage of my Lord Galway, against whofe advice they entered upon this unfortunate affair, and by whofe conduct they were rescued from it. The prodigious conftancy and refolution of that great man is hardly to be paralleled, who, under the oppreffion of a maimed body, and the reflection of repeated ill fortune, goes on with an unfpeakable alacrity in the fervice of the common cause. He has already put things in a very good pofture after this ill accident, and made the neceffary difpofitions for covering the country from any further attempt of the enemy, who lie Aill in the camp they were in before the battle.

Letters from Bruffels, dated the twenty-fifth inftant advife, that notwithstanding the negotiations of a peace feem fo far advanced, that fome do confidently report the preliminaries of a treaty to be actually agreed on; yet the Allies hafle their preparations for opening the sampaign; and the forces of the empire, the Pruffians, the Danes, the Wirtembergers, the Palatines, and Saxon auxiliaries, are in motion towards the general rendezvous, they being already arrived in the neighbourhood of Bruffels. Thefe advices add, that the Deputies of the States of Holland, having made a general review of the troops in Flanders, set out for Antwerp, on the twentyfirft inftant from that place. On the fame day the Prince Royal of Pruffia came thither incognito, with a defign to make the enfuing campaign under his Grace the Duke of Marlborough.

This day is published a treatife, called, "The dif ference between fcandal and admonition, by Ifaac Bickerftaff, Efq;" and on the firft of July next, you may expect "A prophecy of things paft; wherein the "art of Fortune-telling is laid open to the meanest ca"pacity." And on the Monday following, "Choice "fentences for the company of Mafons and Bricklayers, "to be put upon new houfes, with a tranflation of all "the Latin fentences, that have been built of late years, together with a comment upon ftone-walls," by the fame hand.

N° 18.

Saturday, May 21, 1709.

I

From my own Apartment, May 20.

T is obferved too often that men of wit do fo much employ their thoughts upon fine fpeculations, that things ufeful to mankind are wholly neglected; and they are bufy in making emendations upon fome encliticks in a Greek author, while obvious things, that every man may have ufe for, are wholly overlooked. It would be an happy thing, if fuch as have real capacities for public fervice, were employed in works of general use; but becaufe a thing is every body's bufinefs, it is no body's bufinefs: This is for want of public fpirit. As for my part, who am only a ftudent, and a man of no great in tereft, I can only remark things, and recommend the correction of them to higher powers. There is an offence I have a thousand times lamented, but fear I shall never fee remedied; which is, that in a nation where learning is fo frequent as in Great Britain, there fhould be fo many grofs errors as there are in the very directions of things, wherein accuracy is neceffary for the conduct of life. This is notoriously obferved by all men of letters when they first come to town (at which time they are ufually curious that way) in the infcriptions on fignpofts. I have caufe to know this matter as well as any body; for I have, when I went to Merchant-Taylor's fchool, fuffered ftripes for fpelling after the figns l'obferved in the way; though at the fame time I must con fefs, ftaring at thofe infcriptions firft gave me an idea and curiofity for medals: in which I have fince arrived at fome knowledge. Many a man has left his way and his dinner by this general want in fkill in orthography: For, confidering that the painters are ufually fo very bad, that you cannot know the animal under whofe fign you are to live that day, how mut the ftranger be misled, if

it be wrong spelled, as well as ill painted? I have a coufin, now in town, who has answered under Bachelor at Queen's-college, whofe name is Humphrey Mopftaff: (He is akin to us by his mother) this young man going to fee a relation in Barbican, wandered a whole day by the mistake of one letter, for it was written, this is the "Beer," instead of "this is the Bear." He was fet right at last, by enquiring for the houfe, of a fellow that could not read, and knew the place mechanically, only by having been often drunk there. But in the name of goodness let us make our learning of ufe to us, or not. Was not this a fhame, that a Philofopher fhould be thus directed by a Cobler? I will be fworn if it were known how many have fuffered in this kind by falfe fpelling: fince the Union, this matter would not long lie thus. What makes thefe evils the more infupportable is, that they are so easily amended, and nothing done in it. But it is fo far from that, that the evil goes on in other arts as well as orthography; places are confounded, as well for want of proper diftinctions, as things for want of true characters. Had I not come by the other day very early in the morning, there might have been mischief done; for a worthy North Briton was fwearing at Stocks · Market, that they would not let him in at his lodgings; but I knowing the gentleman, and obferving him look: often at the King on horfeback, and then double his oaths, that he was fure he was right, found he mistook that for Charing Cross, by the erection of the like statue in each place. I grant, private men may diftinguish their abodes as they pleafe; as one of my acquaintance who lives at Marybone, has put a good fentence of his own invention upon his dwelling-place, to find out where he lives: He is fo near London, that his conceit is this, the country in town;" or, " the town in the country;" for you know, if they are both in one, they are all one. Befides that, the ambiguity is not of great confequence; if you are fafe at the place, it is no matter if you do not diftinctly know where to fay the place is. But to return to the orthography of public places; I propofe, that every tradefman in the cities of London and Westminster,. fhall give me fixpence a quarter for keeping their figns in repair, as to the grammatical part; and I will take into

F.5

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my houfe a Sifs Count of my acquaintance, who can remember all their names without book, for dispatch fake, fetting up the head of the faid foreigner for my fign; the features being ftrong, and fit for hanging high.

St. James's Coffee-house, May 20.

This day a mail arrived from Holland, by which there are advices from Paris, that the Kingdom of France is in the utmost mifery and distraction. The merchants of Lyons have been at Court, to remonftrate their great sufferings by the failure of their public credit; but have received no other fatisfaction, than promises of a fudden peace; and that their debts will be made good by funds out of the revenue, which will not anfwer, but in cafe of the peace which is promised. In the mean time, the cries of the common people are loud for want of bread, the Gentry have loft all Spirit and Zeal for their country, and the King himself feems to languish under the anxiety of the preffing calamities of the nation, and retires from hearing thofe grievances which he hath not power to redrefs. Instead of preparations for war, and the defence of their country, there is nothing to be seen but evident marks of a general defpair; proceflions, faftings, public mournings and humiliations, are become the fole employments of a people, who were lately the most vain and gay of any in the universe.

The Pope has written to the French King on the sub ject of a peace, and his majefty has anfwered in the lowlieft terms, that he entirely fubmits his affairs to Divine Providence, and fhall foon fhew the world, that he prefers the tranquillity of his people to the glory of his arms, and extent of his conquests.

Letters from the Hague of the twenty-fourth fay, that his excellency the Lord Townshend delivered his credentials on that day to the States General, as Plenipotentiary from the Queen of Great-Britain; as did alfo Count Zinzendorf, who bears the fame character from the emperor.

Prince Eugene intended to fet out the next day for Bruffels, and his Grace the Duke of Marlborough on the Tuesday following. The Marquis de Tarey talks daily of

going, but ftill continues there. The army of the Allies is to affemble on the feventh of next month at Hel chin; though it is generally believed, that the preliminaries to a treaty are fully adjusted.

The approach of the peace ftrikes a panick through our armies, though that of a battle could never do it, and they almoft repent of their bravery, that made fuch hafte to humble themselves and the French King. The Duke of Marlborough, though otherwise the greatest General of the age, has plainly shown himself unacquainted with the arts of husbanding a war. He might have grown as old as the Duke of Alva, or Prince Waldeck in the Low-Countries, and yet have got reputation enough every year for any reasonable man: For the command of a General in Flanders hath been ever looked upon as a provifion for life. For my part, I cannot fee how his Grace can answer it to the world, for the great eagerness he hath fhewn to fend an hundred thousand of the bravest fellows in Europe a begging. But the private Gentlemen of the infantry will be able to fhift for themselves; a brave man can never starve in a country stocked with hen-roofts. "There is not a yard of linen," fays my honoured progenitor, "Sir John Falftaff, in my whole

company; but as for that," fays this worthy Knight, "I am in no great pain; we fhall find fhirts on every

hedge." There is another fort of Gentlemen whom I am much more concerned for, and that is the ingenious fraternity of which I have the honour to be an unworthy member; I mean the news-writers of Great-Britain, whether Poft-men or Poft-boys, or by what other name or title foever dignified or diftinguished. The cafe of these Gentlemen is, I think, more hard than that of the foldiers, confidering that they have taken more towns, and fought more battles. They have been upon parties and fkirmishes, when our armies have lain ftill, and given the general affault to many a place, when the befiegers were quiet in their trenches. They have made us masters of feveral ftrong towns many weeks before our Generals could do it; and compleated victories, when our greatest captains have been glad to come off with a drawn battle. Where Prince Eugene has flain his thoufands, Boyer has Bain his ten thousands. This Gentleman can indeed be