army was difpofed in the following manner: The troops under the command of Count Thaun are extended from Conftans to Saint Peter D'Albigni. Small par ies are left in feveral pofts from thence to Little St. Bernard, to preferve the communication with Piedmont by the valley of Aofta. Some forces are alfo pofted at Taloir, and in the caftle of Doin, on each fide of the lake of Anneci. General Rhebinder is encamped in the valley of Oulx with ten thousand foot, and fome detachments of horfe: His troops are extended from Exilles to mount Genevre, fo that he may easily penetrate into Dauphinè on the leaft motion of the enemy; but the Duke of Berwick takes all neceffary precautions to prevent fuch an enterprize. That General's head quarters are at Francin; and he hath difpofed his army in feveral parties, to preferve a communication with the Maurienne and Briançon. He hath no provifions for his army but from Savoy; Provence and Dauphinè being unable to fupply him with neceffaries. He left two regiments of dragoons at Anne, who fuffered very much in the late action at Teflons, where they loft fifteen hundred, who were killed on the fpot, four ftandards, and three hundred prifoners, among whom were forty Officers. The laft Letters from the Duke of Marlborough's camp at Orchies of the nineteenth inftant advise, that Monfieur Ravignan being returned from the French Court with an account that the King of France refused to ratify the capitulation for the furrender of the citadel of Tournay, the approaches have been carried on with great vigour and fuccefs: Our miners have difcovered feveral of the enemy's mines, who have fprung divers others, which did little execution; but for the better fecurity of the troops, both affaults are carried on by the cautious way of fapping. On the eighteenth, the Confederate army made a general forage without any lofs. Marfhal Villars continues in his former camp, and applies himself with great diligence in cafting up new lines behind the old on the Scarp. The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene defigned to begin a general review of the army on the twentieth.

Thursday,

N° 56. Thursday, Auguft 18, 1709.

Quicquid agunt homines-noftri farrago libelli.

Juv. Sat. 1. v. 85.

Whatever good is done, whatever ill

By human kind, fhall this collection fill.

TH

White's Chocolate-houfe, August 17.

HERE is a young foreigner committed to my care, who puzzles me extremely in the questions he asks about the perfons of figure we meet in public places. He has but very little of our language, and therefore I am mightily at a loft to exprefs to him things, for which they have no word in that Tongue to which he was born. It has been often my answer, upon his afking, who fuch a fine Gentleman is? That he is what we call a Sharper, and he wants my explication. I thought it would be very unjust to tell him, he is the fame the French call Coquin; the Latins, Nebulo; or the Greeks, Páonan: For as cuftom is the most powerful of all laws, and that the order of men, we call Sharpers, are received amongst us, not only with permiffion, but favour, I thought it unjust to use them like perfons upon no establishment. Befides that, it would be an unpardonable dishonour to our country, to let him leave us with an opinion, that our Nobility and Gentry keep company with common thieves and cheats: I told him, they were a fort of tame Huffars, that were allowed in our cities, like the wild ones in our camp; who had all the privileges belonging to us, but at the fame time were not tied to our difcipline or laws. Aletheus, whơ is a Gentleman of too much virtue for the age he lives in, would not let this matter be thus palliated; but told my pupil, that he was to understand that diftinction, quality

C 3

quality, merit, and induftry, were laid afide among us by the incurfions of thefe civil huffars; who had got fo much countenance, that the breeding and fashion of the age turned their way to the ruin of order and œconomy in all places where they are admitted. But Sophronius, who never falls into heat upon any fubject, but applies proper language, temper, and fkill, with which the thing in debate is to be treated, told the youth, that Gentleman had fpoken nothing but what was literally true; but fell upon it with too much earneftnefs to give a true idea of that fort of people he was declaiming againft, or to remedy the evil which he bewailed: For the acceptance of thefe men being an ill which hath crept into the converfation-part of our lives, and not into our conftitution itself, it must be corrected where it began; and confequently is to be amended only by bringing raillery and derifion upon the perfons who are guilty, or thofe who converfe with them. For the Sharpers, continued he, at prefent are not as formerly, under the acceptation of pick-pockets; but are by custom erected into a real and venerable body of men, and have fubdued us to fo very particular a deference to them, that though they are known to be men without honour or confcience, no demand is called a debt of honour fo indifputably as theirs. You may lofe your honour to them, but they lay none against you: As the priesthood in Roman catholic countries can purchafe what they please for the church, but they can alienate nothing from it. It is from this toleration, that Sharpers are to be found among all forts of affemblies and companies; and every talent amongst men is made ufe of by fome one or other of the fociety for the good of their common caufe: So that an unexperienced young Gentleman is as often enfnared by his understanding as his folly: For who could be unmoved, to hear the eloquent Dromio explain the conflitution, talk in the key of Cato, with the feverity of one of the antient Sages, and debate the greatest queftion of ftate in a common Chocolate or Coffee-houfe? Who could, I-fay, hear this generous declamator, without being fired at his noble zeal, and becoming his profeffed follower, if he might be admitted? Monoculus's gravity would be no lefs inviting to a beginner in converfation;

verfation; and the fnare of his eloquence would equally catch one who had never feen an old Gentleman fo very wife, and yet fo little fevere. Many other inftances of extraordinary men among the brotherhood might be produced; but every man, who knows the town, can fupply himself with fuch examples without their being named. Will Vafer, who is fkilful at finding out the ridiculous fide of a thing, and placing it in a new and proper light, though he very feldom talks, thought fit to enter into this fubje&t. He has lately loft certain loofe fums, which half the income of his eftate will bring in within feven years: Befides which, he propofes to marry, to fet all right. He was therefore indolent enough to fpeak of this matter with great impartiality.

When I look around me, faid this eafy Gentleman, "and confider in a just balance us Bubbles, elder bróthers, whofe fupport our dull fathers contrived to depend upon certain acres, with the rooks, whofe anceftors left them the wide world; I cannot but admire "their fraternity, and contemn my own. Is not Jack "Heyday much to be preferred to the Knight he has "bubbled? Jack has his equipage, his wenches, and "his followers: The Knight fo far from a retinue, that "he is almoft one of Jack's. However, he is gay, you "fee, ftill; a florid out-fide-His habit fpeaks the man-And fince he muft unbutton, he would not be "reduced outwardly, but is ftripped to his upper coat.

But though I have great temptation to it, I will not "at this time give the hiftory of the lofing fide; but fpeak the effects of my thoughts, fince the lofs of my money, upon the gaining people. This ill fortune "makes moft men contemplative and given to reading; at least it has happened fo to me; and the rife and "fall of the family of Sharpers in all ages has been my " contemplation."

I find, all times have had of this people: Homer, in his excellent heroic Poem, calls them Myrmidons, who were a body that kept among themfelves, and had nothing to lofe; therefore never fpared either Greek or Trojan, when they fell in their way, upon a party. But there is a memorable verfe, which gives us an account

of what broke that whole body, and made both Greeks and Trojans mafters of the fecret of their warfare and plunder. There is nothing fo pedantic as many quotations; therefore I fhall inform you only, that in this battalion there were two officers, called Therfites and Pandarus: They were both lefs renowned for their beauty than their wit; but each had this particular happiness, that they were plunged over head and ears in the fame water, which made Achilles invulnerable; and had ever after certain gifts, which the rest of the world were never to enjoy. Among others, they were never to know they were the moft dreadful to the fight of all mortals, never to be diffident of their own abilities, never to blush, or ever to be wounded but by each other. Though fome hiftorians fay, gaming began among the Lydians to divert hunger, I could cite many authorities to prove it had its rife at the fiege of Troy; and that Ulyffes won the fevenfold fhield at Hazard. But be that as it may, the ruin of the corps of the Myrmidons proceeded from a breach between Therfites and Pandarus. The firft of thefe was leader of a fquadron, wherein the latter was but a private man; but having all the good qualities neceffary for a partizan, he was the favourite of his officer. But the whole hiftory of the feveral changes in the order of Sharpers, from thofe Myrmidons to our modern men of address and plunder, will require that we confult fome antient manufcripts. As we make thefe enquiries, we fhall diurnally communicate them to the Public, that the Knights of the Induftry may be better understood by the good people of England. These fort of men, in fome ages, were fycophants and flatterers only, and were endued with arts of life to capacitate them for the converfation of the rich and great; but now the Bubble courts the impoftor, and pretends at the utmost to be but his equal. To clear up the reafons and causes in fuch revolutions, and the different conduct between fools and cheats, fhall be one of our labours for the good of this kingdom. How therefore pimps, footmen, fiddlers, and lacqueys, are elevated into companions in this prefent age, fhall be accounted for from the influence of the planet Mercury on this ifland; the afcen

dency