1 246 Lord Chesterfield's Thoughts on the late Peace. May, The clerk, who laughed at his vain threats, retired without any uneafinefs; whilft the Merchant went to seek the father and daughter, and difplayed to them his great fortune, and love; but he fpoke to people that were deaf and blind. They had given their words, and nothing could make them recall it. The clerk was not long in knowing this, and it is eafy to judge how happy he was in his triumph, and now thought of nothing but forwarding a hymen, which had fuch promifing profpects, and he already thought himself fure of his conqueft, when he was called to juftice by his mafter to lofe his future wife, as merchandize acquired with money depofited in his hands, and of which, according to law, the produce belonged to the proprietor. The parties accordingly went to law, and the Merchant's council pleaded in his favour the express law of England by which all Merchants are entitled to the profits which their clerks may make whilft in their service. "You know, Gentlemen, this law, faid he, and you are fenfible of the wifdom of it; you therefore, doubtlefs, will fupport it. My clerk has made use of my flock to purchase his wife, fince, without it, he could not have depofited the hundred guineas, and thereby have put himself on a footing with his rivals, to try his fortune; what he has acquired is, therefore, my property. The property was mine, the intereft he has drawn therefrom, namely, his wife, is the profit, which according to law he could make for my advantage only: this future wife is, therefore, the produce which belongs to me, which I claim from your juftice, and which you neceffarily must adjudge to me.” This fingular application of mercantile law must have, doubtlefs amufed the Court greatly, though they were obliged gravely, to liften to it, The defendant's council denied the validity of this reafoning, and juftly obferved, that no law, cuftom, or even particular way of thinking, had yet confidered woman as grocery or haberdashery goods; and in fact, faid he, though the commonly has the likeness and variety of the laft, and the tharpness and fweetnefs of the firft, no Nation has yet perfumed to confound them together. It is lawful only in barbarous climates to traffick in them, added he, with a triumphant air. So, in fpite of his eloquence the Merchant was caft, and the clerk was put in poffeffion of his wife. Lord Chesterfield's Thoughts on the late I ed, THINK we have made a tolerable good bargain with Spain, at least full as good as I expected. We have by no means made fo good a bargain with France; for, in truth, what do we get by it, except Canada, with a very proper boundary of the river Miffifippi: and that is all. As for the restrictions upon the French fishery in Newfoundland, they are very well per la predica, and for the commiffary whom we shall employ; for he will have a good falary from hence to fee that thofe reftrictions are complied with, and the French will double that falary, that he may allow them all to be broken through. It is plain to me, that the French fithery will be exactly what it was before the war. "The three leeward Islands, which the French yield to us, are not all together worth so much as that of St. Lucia, which we gave up to them. Senegal is not worth one quarter of Goree. The restrictions of the French in the East Indies are as abfurd and impracticable as thofe of Newfoundland. But, after all I have faid, the articles are as good as I expected with France, when I confidered, that no one fingle perfon, who carried on this negociation on our parts, was ever concerned or confulted in any negotiation before. Upon the whole then, the acquifition of Canada hath coft us eighty millions Sterling. I am convinced we might have kept Guadaloupe, if our negotiators had known how to have gone about it. His Moft Faithful Majefty of Portugal is the beft off of any body in this tranfaction; for he faves his kingdom by it, and has not laid out one moïdore in defence of it. Spain, thank God, in fome meafure, paie les pots caffez; for befides St. Auguftin, logwood, &c. It has loft at least four millions Sterling in money, fhips, &c. I thould naturally think, as you do, that that this feffion will be a ftormy one if Mr. Pitt takes an active part; but if he is pleased, as the minifters fay, there is no other Eolus to blow a ftorm. The dukes of Cumberland, Newcastle, and Devonshire, have no better troops to attack with than the militia; but Pitt alone is ipfe agmen," "Nov. 27, 1762. As his majefty expatiates so much in his fpeech on the great atchievements of the war, I cannot help hoping that when the preliminaries fhall be laid before parliment in due time, which I fuppofe means after the refpective ratifications of all the contracting parties, that fome untalked-of and unexpected advantage will break out in our treaty with France; St. Lucia at leaft. I fee an article in the newspapers, which I by no means like in our treaty with Spain; which is, that we shall be at liberty to cut logwood in the bay of Campeachy, but paying for it. Who does not fee that this condition may, and probably will, amount to a prohibition, by the price which the Spaniards may fet it at? It was our undoubted right, and confirmed to us by former treaties before the war, to cut logwood gratis ; but this new ftipulation, if true, gives us a privilege fomething like a reprieve to a criminal, with a non obftante to be hanged." "Dec. 4, 1762. I return you the inclosed preliminaries. fince you intend to keep them, which is more than I believe the French will. I am very glad to find that the French are to refore all the conquefts they made upon us in the East Indies during this war; and I cannot doubt but they will likewife restore to us all the cod that they shall take within lefs than three leagues of our coafts in North America, (a distance eafily measured, especially at fea) according to the fpirit, though not the letter of the treaty, I cannot make out above fix or feven lords who will be against the peace upon a divifion, unlefs, which I cannot fuppofe, fome of the bishops fhould vote on the fide of their Maker." "Dec. 13 1762. Yesterday I received angels, ever fpoke fo long at a time. There must have been a trick in Charles Townshend's fpeaking for the preliminaries; for he is infinitely above having an opinion. Lord Egremont must be ill, or have thoughts of going into fome other place; perhaps into Lord Granville's who they fay is dying. When he dies, the ableft head in England dies too, take it for all in all." Sept. 3, 1764. France and Spain both infult us, and we take it too tamely: for this is, in my opinion, the time for us to talk high to them. France, I am perfuaded will not quarrel with us till it has got a navy at least equal to ours, which cannot be these three or four years at foonest, and then indeed, I believe we fhall hear of fomething or other. Therefore this is the moment for us to speak loud, and we shall be feared, if we do not fhew that we fear." "Oct. 4 1764. I do not wonder that people are wonderfully surprised at our tameness and forberance, with regard to France and Spain. Spain indeed has lately agreed to our cutting log wood, according to the treaty, and fent ftrict orders to their governer to allow it: but you will obferve too, that there is not one word of reparation for the loffes we lately fuftained there. But France is not even fo tractable: it will pay but half the money due, upon a liquidated account, for the maintenance of their prifoners. Our request to have Comte d'Estaing recalled and cenfured they have abfolutely rejected, though by the laws of war he might be hanged for having twice broke his parole. This does not do France honour; however, I think, we shall be quiet, and that at the only time, perhaps this century, when we might with fafety be otherwife; but this is nothing new, nor the first time by many, when national honour and interest have been facrificed to private. It has always been fo, and one may say upon this occafion, what Horace fays upon another, Nam fuit ante Helenam your letter, which gave me a very clear A private Letter Sent from one Quaker to another. B ALDWIN, archbishop of Canterbury, in the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I. was, it is faid, fo very temperate, that he never tasted a morfel of flesh from the time he commenced monk to the day of his death. Being met one day by a lean and fkinny old woman, fhe afked him if it was true that he had never tafted any flesh: he answered, it was. "It is falfe," replied the old woman, for you have eaten my flesh to the very bones." The archbishop demanding what the meant, the acquainted him, that fome of his officers had taken from her a cow which was her only fupport. The archbishop, not offended at her freedom, promised to repair her lofs with a good cow. The Scence lies in Vienna, and in the Cave of Idra, in the Silver-mines of Saxony. EYFERT, Minifter to Leopold, Emperor of Germany, being ftruck with the charms of Conftantia, a Noble Lady, who had, in fpite of his folicitations, given her hand in marriage to Alberti, laid a villainous plan to enjoy the object of his defire, by fomenting a quarrel between the Prince Colredo, and the hufband of Conftantia, hoping that, if the Prince deftroyed Alberti, or that, if the latter difpatched Colredo, the beautiful widow would eafily become his pray, as the Emperor had made a law, by which all duellifts were condemned to perpetual imprisonment in the mines of Saxony. This plan fucceeds according to his expectation, and a combat takes place between the parties above-mentioned, in which Colredo is desperately wounded, and carried for dead off the field. Alberti, notwithstanding the great fervices he had done his country, in confequence of Leopold's edict, is fentenced to pafs the remainder of his days inglorioufly in the cave of Idra. Conftantia, who knew nothing of the quarrel, receives from Laura a billet which Alberti had left for her on the morning of the duel, in which he acquaints her that, Colredo having reflected upon her honour, he was under a neceffity of vindicating it with his own hand; this throws her into great diftrefs, which becomes inexpreffible upon her receiving intelligence of his being condemned to the mines, infpite of the applications made in his favour by Lorenzo her brother, and feveral other Noblemen. She flies to court, in order to plead her husband's caufe at the foot of the throne; but is refufed admittance to the Emperor, and foon after receives a mandate which confines her to her house; notwithstanding which the refolves to follow her Lord to the dreary mansion he had been conveyed to. During these transactions, Colrodo being attended by the Surgeon of the Court, the latter told him, in confidence, that Seyfert had bribed him to give him poifon; on which the treachery of the Minister was at once suspected, and Colredo, finding himself in a fair way of recovery recovery, determines to accufe him to the Emperor. Alberti, in his melancholy habitation, unexpectedly meets with a noble friend, Everard, in his dungeon, who appearing aftonished at his being able to bear existence in fo forJorn a place. Alberti tells him he is chained to his being, and reconciled to his fad state, by the affection of his wife, who has followed him into his dark abode. Conftantia then appears, and gives the strongest proofs of her unal terable love for Alberti, who, finding no perfuafions would prevail on her to return to the Court, determines to kill himfelf; but, just as he is going to put his fatal purpofe in execution, her brother, Lorenzo, arrive at the cave, in confequence of an order from the Emperor, who, on proof of Seyfort's treafon, had commanded Alberti to be brought to Court. Seyfort is punished with death, and the Heroine of the Cave and Alberti re-enter Vienna in triumph, where they are received with the utmost affection by Leopold, who diftinguishes them with new honours, and does every thing in his power to make amends for the misfortunes they had undergone. For the Prologue and Epilogue, fee the Poetry. t that a particular fort of whale afforded the oil whence this is made, and that it is very improperly called Sperma, becaufe it was only the oil that comes from the head it can be made from, and which is done by fome picular management, that is in the knowledge only of very few, whereby it is mightily changed from what it was naturally, before it becomes fit for ufe in the fhops; the oil itself, before feparated therefrom, being very brown and difagreably rancid. The peculiar property of it is to fhoot into flakes, not much unlike the cryftallization of falts, after it has flood a due time at reft, in a proper veffel. So fpermaceti is at last a fine, bright, white, and femi-pellucid matter, compofed of a fine furfuraceous fubftance, formed into oblong flakes, very light, soft, and unctuous to the touch, inflammable, foluble in oil, but not in watery menitiua, of fearce any fmell when fresh, and fine, and of a foft, agreeable, and unctuous taste. The largeft, firmeft, and whited flakes of it are to be chofen: it is liable to become rancid and yellowifh in keep ing, and the fmaller fragments contract this bad quality fooner than the larger. Parmality, or spermaceti (for they are both arbitrary names, and equally improper, adeps, or oleum ceti being more The Natural Hiftory and Virtues of Ster- expreffive of the thing ignited) is the maceti. PERMACETI, in pharmacy, is a white flaky animal fubftance, prepared from the oil of a fpecies of whale, called by Ichthyologifts, Catodon, by reafon it has teeth only in the under jaw. The antients were entirely firangers to this drug, and Schroder himself feems very much unacquainted therewith, not knowing whether to take it for an animal or mineral fubftance, though he places it among the minerals, and calls It aliud genus bituminis, his preceding articles being about fuch fubftances. The ignorance of the people who frit ufed this modern medicine, gave it a name, which feemed to exprefs its being the femen of the whale: it is in reality no fuch thing, but only a preparation of oil with which that large nfl more particularly abounds. It was at last known (or faid at least) beit, I fay, which is whiteft and fweeteft, that is fmooth and free from rancidity. The first knowledge the world feems to have had of this drug, was the finding it by chance (the discoverer of many fecrets) fwimming on the furface of the water in the northern feas: and we are not to wonder that people who knew no more of its origin than what they were informed of by thofe who found it fo floating on the fea, referred it to a mineral clafs, fuppofing it to be a bitumen formed in the bowels of the earth (as ambergreafe) and thrown up from the bottom of the ocean, as was the opinion of Schroder, as I obferved before, and others of his time. It was foon after difcovered, however, that the head of a peculiar fpecies of whale afforded a fitty fubftance, which when boiled, ani properly prepared by refinement, wa analogous to thi. Hence it was foon deduced that the maile of it £rst foun 1, 1 i 2 bleached bleached by the fun, were of the fame origin; that there had been formerly an oily matter in this fith, which, getting loofe on the perifhing of the dead carcafe, or by any other means, had been wathed and bleached by the falt water and the fun, into the form in which it was then accidently found. The opini-, on of its being the fperm or feed of the whale, was about as early as the firft difcovery that it belonged to that animal, and feems to have been formed merely on account of its whiteness. The fpecies of whale, from the head of which fpermaceti was firit prepared, and to get it was long thought peculiar (fo gradually in fome things does the knowledge of them open unto us) is of the number of thofe ranged in a peculiar genus, by Artedi, under the name of Catodon, from their having teeth in their under jaw. He has diftinguifhed this fpecies by the name of Catodon, Fiftula in Cervice, the toothed whale, with a pipe or opening for the discharge of water in its neck. The fperaceti of the fhops was firft made from the oil of the head of this fith, the oil obtained from its brain, and the diploe of its cranium, furnifhing all that we had of it; and hence the confiderable price it was long kept at. It was fome time after found out, however, that any whale-oil would do as well as this, which occafioned the price to fall confiderably. At prefent it is made in England from whale-oil of any kind, the fettlings of our oil-men's larger veffels particularly, which are boiled with a lixivium of German pot-ath, or pearl-afhes, till white and firm; and after feveral other meltings, and a thorough feparation of what faline particles might have got into the matter. It is, when cold, cut out with knives into the flakes we fee it in. The procefs is eafy, but it requires care and a nice infpection towards the end: if not enough boiled, it is apt to turn yellow, and foon grows rancid. Spermaceti is, therefore, oil of the animal kind, rendered very neat and fweet, and fit for internal ufe: in the art of doing which Mr. John Morton, druggift, at the Three Angels, in Leaden-hall-itreet, was an adept, who used to prepare it in his garret, and kept it a great fecret, intruffed to none but his own family; though now it is become common, as that medicine is become cheap. Mr. Watfon, in his Animal World dif· played, p. 169, writes thus: "The trit knowledge of the drug called Spermaceti was owing to accident; one of thefe (whales he had been describing) had been hurt, and died: as the carcafe fell to pieces, and the oil of the head floated on the water, and the weather bleached it, it hardened into that flaky matter. It was found that the oil of this whale's head would make the drug; and foon after they found the way of doing it by art, they made other oil ferve; and at prefent it is made from that of any kind of whale." As fpermaceti (improperly fo called) is fuch an unctuous flaky fubftance, of a fnowy whiteness, and a soft butyraceous tafte, without any remarkable smell, prepared from any whale oil by bo ling, and purifying it with alkaline lixivia, it follows that the virtues of this concrete are thofe of a mild emollient, and pectoral, confequently it is good againit coughs and fharp catarrhs, and other diforders of the breafts. It is alfo of confiderable ufe in pains and erofions of the intestines. Given, rubbed well with fugar, equal parts, and a tenth of powder of annifeed, it is excellent for children's convulfions, called fits, whofe feat is generally in that bowel. It obtunds all fharp and acrid defluxions, and in genetal is good in all cafes where the folids require to be relaxed, or acrimonious humours to be foftened; confequently is proper to cure gripes in infants, and thereby prevent their convulfions. In fhort, it is a noble medicine in many cafes, though chiefly ufed in bruifes, inward hurts, and after delivery. It is an excellent balfamic in many diftempers of the breaft, and gently deterges and heals. In coughs, from fharp rheums, erofions, and ulcerations, it is very fafe, pleafant, and effectual, as alfo in pleurifies and inward impothumations, where the mucus of the bowels has been abraded by acrimony and choler, as in diarrhoeas and dyfenteries, where it is a very good healer. In ulcerations of the kidnies, and bloody urine, it is likewife a very suitable medicine, and by softening and relaxing the fibres, it contributes frequently to the expulfion of gravel by enlarging |