never enough commended for his courage and intrepidity during this whole ware He had laid about him with an inexpreffible fury; and, like the offended Marius of antient Rome, made fuch havock among his countrymen, as must be the work of two or three ages, to repair. It must be confeffed, the redoubted Mr. Buckley has fhed as much blood as the former; but I cannot forbear faying (and I hope it will not look like envy) that we regard our brother Buckley as a kind of Drawcanfir, who fpares neither friend nor foe; but generally kills as many of his own fide as the enemies. It is impoffible for this ingenious fort, of men to subsist after a peace: every one remembers the shifts they were driven to in the reign of King Charles the fecond, when they could not furnish out a fingle paper of news, without lighting up a Comet in Germany, or a Fire in Mofcor. There fcarce appeared a letter without a paragraph on an earthquake. Prodigies were grown fo familiar, that they had: loft their name, as a great Poet of this age has it. member Mr. Dyer, who is juftly looked upon by all Fox-. hunters in the nation as the greatest Statesman our country has produced, was particularly famous for dealing. in Whales; infomuch, that in five months time (for I had the curiofity to examine his letters on that occafion) he brought three into the mouth of the River Thames, befides two Porpuffes and a Sturgeon. The judicious and wary Mr. J. Dawks hath all along been the rival of this great writer, and got himself a reputation from Plagues and Famines; by which, in thofe days, he deftroyed as great multitudes, as he has lately done by the fword. In every dearth of news, Grand Cairo was fure to be unpeopled.

I re

It being therefore vifible, that our fociety will be greater fufferers by the peace than the foldiery itself, infomuch that the Daily Courant is in danger of being broken, my friend Dyer of being reformed, and the very beft of the whole band of being reduced to half-pay; might I prefume to offer any thing in the behalf of my diftreffed brethren, I would humbly move, that an ap pendix of proper apartments, furnished with Pen, Ink, and Paper, and other neceffaries of life, fhould be added to the hofpital of Chelsea, for the relief of fuch decayed. News

100 News-writers as have ferved their country in the wars; and that for their exercise they should compile the annals of their brother veterans, who have been engaged in the fame fervice, and are still obliged, to do duty after the fame manner. "

關

I cannot be thought to fpeak this out of an eye to any private interest; for as my chief fcenes of action are Coffee-houses, Play-houfes, and my own Apartment, I am in no need of camps, fortifications, and fields of battle, to fupport me; I do not call out for Heroes and Generals to my affiftance. Though the officers are broken, and the armies difbanded, I fhall ftill be fafe as long as there are Men or Women, or Politicians, or Lovers, or Poets, or Nymphs, or Swains, or Cits, or Courtiers, in being.

N° 19.

TH

Tuesday, May 24, 1709.

From my own Apartment, May 20.

HERE is nothing can give a man of a any confideration greater pain, than to fee order and diftinction laid afide amongst men, efpecially when the rank (of which he himself is a member) is intruded upon by fuch as have no pretence to that honour. The appellation of Efquire is the most notoriously abused in this kind, of any clafs amongst men; infomuch, that it is become almost the fubject of derifion: But I will be bold to fay, this behaviour towards it proceeds from the ignorance of the people in its true origin. I fhall therefore, as briefly as poffible, do myself and all true Efquires the Juftice to look into antiquity upon this fubject.

In the first ages of the world, before the invention of Jointures and Settlements, when the noble paffion of Love had poffeffion of the hearts of men, and the fair Sex were not yet cultivated into the merciful difpofition which they have fhewed in later centuries, it was natu

ral

for great and heroic fpirits to retire to rivulets, woods, and caves, to lament their destiny and the cruelty of the fair perfons who were deaf to all their lamentations. The Hero in this distress was generally in armour, and in a readiness to fight any man he met with, especially if diftinguished by any extraordinary qualifications: it being the nature of heroic Love to hate all merit, left it fhould come within the obfervation of the cruel one by whom its own perfections are neglected. A lover of this kind had always about him a perfon of a fecond value, and fubordinate to him, who could hear his afflictions, carry an inchantment for his wounds, hold his helmet when he was eating (if ever he did eat) or in his absence, when he was retired to his apartment in any King's palace, tell the Prince himself, or perhaps his daughter, the birth, parentage, and adventures of his valiant mafter. This trufty companion was ftiled his Efquire, and was always fit for any offices about him; was as gentle and chafte as a Gentleman-ufher, quick and active as an Equerry, fmooth and eloquent as a Master of the Cere. monies. A man thus qualified was the first, as the antients affirm, who was called an Efquire; and none without thefe accomplishments ought to affume our order: But, to the utter difgrace and confufion of the heralds, every pretender is admitted into this fraternity, even perfons the most foreign to this courteous inftitution. I have taken an inventory of all within this city, and looked over every letter in the Poft-Office for my better information. There are of the Middle-Temple, including all in the buttery-books, and in the lifts of the house, five thousand. In the Inner, four thousand. In the King's-Bench Walks, the whole buildings are inhabited by Efquires only. The adjacent fireets of Effex, from Morris's Coffee-house, and the turning towards the Grecian, you cannot meet one who is not an Efquire, until you take water. Every houfe in Norfolk and Arundel freets is governed also by an Esquire, or his Lady, SoboJquare, Bloomsbury-fquare, and all other places where the floors rife above nine feet, are so many Universities where you enter yourselves, and become of our Order. However, if this were the worst of the evil, it were to be fupported, because they are generally men of fome figure,

and ufe; though I know no pretence they have to an honour, which had its rife from chivalry. But if you travel into the counties of Great-Britain, we are still more impofed upon by innovation. We are indeed derived from the field: But fhall that give title to all that ride mad after foxes, that halloo when they fee an hare, or venture their necks full speed after an hawk, immediately to commence Efquires? No; our Order is temperate, cleanly, fober, and chafte; but thefe rural Efquires commit immodefties upon hay-cocks, wear fhirts half a week, and are drunk twice a day. Thefe men are also, to the last degree, exceffive in their food: An Efquire of Norfolk eats two pounds of dumplin every meal, as if obliged to it by our Order: An Efquire of Hampshire is as ravenous in devouring hogs-flefh: One of Elex has as little mercy on calves. But I must take the liberty to proteft against them, and acquaint those perfons, that it is not the quantity they eat but the manner of eating, that fhews an Efquire. But, above all, I am most offended at fmall quillmen, and tranfcribing clerks, who are all come into our Order, for no reason that I know of, but that they can easily flourish it at the end of their name. I will undertake that if you read the fubfcriptions to all the offices in the kingdom, you will not find three letters directed to any but Efquires. I have myfelf a couple of clerks, and the rogues make nothing of leaving meffages upon each other's defk: One directs, "to Degory Goofequill, Efquire;" to which the other replies by a note, "to Nehemiah Dafbwell, Efquire, with "refpect;" in a word, it is now Populus Armigerorum, a people of Efquires. And I do not know but, by the late act of naturalization, foreigners will affume that title, as part of the immunity of being Englishmen. All thefe improprieties flow from the negligence of the Heralds-Office. Thofe gentlemen in party-coloured habits do not fo rightly, as they ought, understand themselves; though they are dreffed cap-a-pee in hieroglyphicks, they are inwardly but ignorant men. I asked an acquaintance of mine, who is a man of wit, but of no fortune, and is forced to appear as a Jack-pudding on the ftage to a mountebank: pray thee, Jack, why is your coat of fo many colours He replied, I act a fool, and

this fpotted drefs is to fignify, that every man living has a weak place about him; for I am Knight of the shire, and reprefent you all. I wish the heralds would know as well as this man does, in his way, that they are to act for us in the cafe of our arms and appellations: We fhould not then be jumbled together in fo promifcuous and abfurd a manner. I defign to take this matter into further confideration; and no man shall be received as an Efquire, who cannot bring a certificate, that he has conquered fome Lady's obdurate heart: that he can. lead up a country-dance, or carry a meflage between her and her lover, with addrefs, fecrecy, and -diligence. A Squire is properly born for the fervice of the fex, and his credentials fhall be figned by three Toafts, and one Prude, before his title shall be received. in my office..

Will's Coffee-house, May 23.

On Saturday laft was prefented The Bufy Body, a Comedy, written (as I have heretofore remarked) by a woman. The plot and incidents of the Play are laidwith that fubtilty of fpirit which is peculiar to females of wit, and is very feldom well performed by thofe of the other fex, in whom craft in love is an act of invention, and not, as with women, the effect of nature and inftinct.

To-morrow will be acted a Play, called, The Trip to the Jubilee. This performance is the greatest inftance that we can have of the irrefiftible force of proper action. The dialogue in itself has fomething too low to bear a criticifm upon it: But Mr. Wilkes enters into the part with fo much fkill, that the gallantry, the youth, and gaiety of a young man of a plentiful fortune, is looked upon with as much indulgence on the ftage, as in real life, without any of thofe intermixtures of wit and humour, which usually prepoffefs us in favour of fuch charafters in other plays.

·St...