492 Declaimers against the TIMES fatirized. of the time being has always heen reckoned the worst and most degenerate. A Authors, especially poets, tho' great men, are, alas! but men ; and, like other men, fubject to the weakneffes of human nature, tho' perhaps in a less degree; but it is however certain, that their breafts are not abfolutely strangers to the paffions of jealousy, pride and envy. Hence it is that they are very apt to meafure merit by the century, to love dead authors better than living ones, and to Jove them the better the longer they have been dead. The Auguftan age is therefore their favourite æra, being at leaft 1700 years diftant from the prefent. That emperor was not only a judge of B wit, but, for an emperor, a tolerable performer too; and Mæcenas, his first minifter, was both a patron and a poet : He not only encouraged and protected, but. fed and fattened men of wit at his own table, as appears from Horace : No fmall encouragement for panegyric. Thofe were times indeed for genius to difplay itfelf in! It was honoured, tafted and rewarded. But now-0 tempora! O mores! One must however do juftice to the authors, who thus declaim against their own times, by acknowledging that they are feldom the aggreffors; their own times having commonly begun with them. It is their refentment, not their judgment (if they have any) that fpeaks this language. Anger and defpair make them endeavour to lower that merit, which till brought very low indeed, they are confcious they cannot equal. feat of the foundest politics in this great metropolis, and fate myfelf down within ear-fhot of the principal council table. Fortunately for me, the prefident, a perfon of age, dignity and becoming gravity, had just begun to fpeak. He ftated, with infinite perfpicuity and knowledge, the prefent state of affairs in other countries, and the lamentable fituation of our own. He traced, with his finger upon the table, by the help of fome coffee which he had fpilt in the warmth of his exordium, the whole courfe of the Ohio, and the boundaries of the Ruffian, Pruffian, Austrian and Saxon dominions; forefaw a long and bloody war upon the continent, calculated the fupplies neceffary for carrying it on, and pointed out the best methods of raifing them, which, for that very reafon, he intimated would not be purfued. He wound up his difcourfe with a moft pathetic peroration, which he concluded with faying, "Things were not carried on in this way in queen Elizabeth's days; the public was confidered, and able men were confulted and employed. Thofe were days!" "Aye, Sir, and nights too, I prefume, (faid a young fellow who ftood near him) fome longer and fome fhorter, according to the variation of the feafons; pretty much like ours." Mr, Prefident was a little furprized at the fuddennefs and pertnefs of this interrup Dtion, but recompofing himself, answered with that cool contempt that becomes a great man," I did not mean aftronomical days, but political ones." The young fellow replied, "O then, Sir, I am your fervant," and went off in a laugh. There is another, and much more numerous fet of much greater men, who ftill more loudly complain of the igno. Fance, the corruption, and the degeneracy of the prefent age. These are the confummate volunteer, but unregarded and unrewarded politicians, who, at a modeft computation, amount at least to three mil lions of fouls in this political country, and who are all of them both able and willing to fteer the great veffel of the state, and to take upon themfelves the whole load of bufinefs, and burthen of employments, for the fervice of their dear country. The adminiftration, for the time being, is always the worst, the most incapable, the moft corrupt that ever was, and negligent of every thing but their own intereft. Where are now your Cecils and your Walfinghams? Thofe who ask that question could answer it, if they would fpeak out. G Themselves. For they are all that, and more too. I ftept the other day, in order only to enquire how my poor country did, into a coffee-house, that is, without difpute, the F Thus informed and edified, I went off too, but could not help reflecting, in my way, upon the fingular ill-luck of this my dear country, which, as long as ever 1 remember it, and as far back as I have read, has always been governed by the two or three people, out of two or three millions, totally incapable of governing, and unfit to be trufted. But thef reflec tions were foon interrupted by numbers of people, whom I obferved crowding into a public houfe. Among them I dif covered my worthy friend and taylor, that induftrious mechanic, Mr. Regnier, I applied to him to know the meaning of that concourfe; to which, with his usual humanity, he anfwered, "We are the master taylors, who are to meet to-night to confider what is to be done about our journeymen, who infult and impofe upon us, to the great detriment of trade." I afked him whether under bis protection I might flip in and hear their deliberations. He faid yes, and welcome; for that they fhould do nothing to be ashamed of. I profited 1756. Polish Minifter's MEMORIAL. profited of this permiffion, and follow- 493 ons, which perhaps I may communicate to my readers in fome future paper. A MEMORIAL prefented to their High Mightineffes the STATES-GENERAL, by bis Majefly the King of POLAND's Redent at the Hague, concerning the Pruffian Invation into the Electorate of Saxony. High and mighty Lords, HE invafion of the electorate of and the exorbitant demands of the jour-Saxony, by the Pruffian troops, is neymen taylors, and concluded with obTerving, "that if the government minded any thing now-a-days but themselves, fuch abufes would not have been fuffered; and had they but been attempted in queen Elizabeth's days, the would have B worked them with a witness." Another one of those attacks against the law of nations which, from the great respect due to it, demands the affiftance of every power interested in the prefervation of its own liberty and independency. The king, my auguft master, has feen his hereditary dominions invaded in a time of the profoundest peace; altho' his majefty avoided with the greatest care every measure that might poffibly give the leaft umbrage to his neighbours. From the first glimple of a mifunderstanding between the courts of Vienna and Berlin, his majesty exprefsly enjoined his ministers at all the courts of Europe to declare, that it was his firm refolution, in the prefent conjuncture of affairs, to obferve the strictest neutrality. A plain recapitulation of the facts alone will be fufficient to demonstrate to your high mightineffes, the outrages that have D been committed in the hereditary dominions of the king, and how much it imports all the powers of Europe to stop a torrent, by which even they themselves may be carried headlong. 1 confefs I could not help fmiling at this fingular conformity of fentiments, and almost of expreflions, of the mafter politicians, the master taylors, and the journeymen taylors. I am convinced, that the two latter really and honestly believed what they faid, it not being in the leaft improbable that their understandings fhould be the dupes of their interefts: But I will not fo peremptorily answer for the interior conviction of the political G orator; tho' at the fame time I must do him the justice to fay, that he fee:ned full dull enough to be very much in earnest. The feveral fcenes of this day suggested to me, when I got home, various reflecti From the account gave the king my mafter, of the first impreffions which the king of Pruffia's hoftile entry into the electorate of Saxony had made upon the people in your high mightineffes dominions, his majefty became highly fenfible of that antient and conftant friendship which has fubfifted between him and your republick. To represent to you, high and mighty lords, a ftate, free, tranquil and neuter, invaded by an enemy who difguifes himfelf under a mask of friendship, whe without alledging the leaft complaint, or any pretenfion whatsoever, but founding himself folely on his conveniency, makes himself master, by armed force, of all the towns, and even of the capital, difmantles places, fuch as Wittemberg, fortifies others, fuch as Torgau ; this is but a feeble sketch of the oppreffions under which the faithful fubjects of his majesty groan; the burghers difarmed, the magiftrates carried off to ferve as hoftages for the unjust and enormous contributions of provifions and forage, the publick coffers 494 DISTRESSES of the SAXON S. coffers feized, the revenues of the electo- standing the reiterated affurances given This auguft and tender mother of her faithful fubjects, who, to make a facrifice of herself to the happiness of the Saxons, had remained at Drefden, expected in the midft of tumult to govern in fecurity the states of her auguft confort, who, prompted by cares equally important, had hafted away to head his army, to defend his injured honour, and give to the zeal and love of his people what they had ground to expect from the valour and firmness of fo magnanimous a prince. This princefs has feen the a@ivity of the privy council abolifhed, and inftead of the lawful go. vernment an arbitrary directory fubfti. tuted, which acknowledges no other law but its own will.. C D Such are, high and mighty lords, the propofals, which had been made to him, The caufe of Saxony, is a common Your high mightineffes will fee by the annexed copy of the declaration, which the king has caused to be published in his camp, that the king of Pruffia, while he protefts not to have entered Saxony but as a friend, infifts on no less than the en thefe enormous pretenfions have obliged tire facrifice of that electorate; that his majesty to declare to that prince, that he is refolved to defend his just cause to the laft drop of his blood, rather than accept of conditions fo infamous and fo injurious to his glory. By the fecond annexed copy, your high filed Pruffian directory, in the declaration mightineffes will obferve, that the foof motives, published under the nofe of a prince to whom friendship is pretended, think it fuperfluous to alledge even any pretext, to colour the ufurpation of his majefty's territories and revenues. In thefe circumstances the king promifes himself, that all states to whom honour is dear, and in particular your high mightineffes, who in all times have been to jealous of your liberty and independency, will give his majesty, by employing their good offices, and by other more efficacious means, thofe fuccours which every state, for its own intereft, owes to another that is unjustly oppreffed, even altho' not bound by any treaty. At the Hague, Signed, KAUDERBACK, Account of the BRITISH PLANTATIONS in AMERICA, continued from p. 431. UT the French foon began their ufual treacherous practices, for the very poffeffion of Cape-Breton, they fet their moment after we had put them again in priests in Nova-Scotia to work, and by their means they induced the Indians to attack our infant colony at Halifax, which they did before the end of September, and killed fome of the people whom they found cutting wood at a distance from the town, for they never durft ven A folemn treaty of neutrality, which The king retired within his camp, could from this time they continued to hover about at a distance, and cut off, or made captive, every ftraggler they could meet with, fo that our people could never go about any bufinefs at a distance but in • See Lond. Mag. 1749, P. 574. great 1756. French Machinations in NoVA-SCOTIA. great parties, which very much retarded As thefe Indians were always headed, 495 tain was, that he had orders to defend his poft, fo that the major was obliged to return without doing any thing, as his party was not frong enough to attack their united force, and probably he had orders to avoid committing any hoftilities against the French *. But as foon as major Lawrence, with the forces under his command had retired, these French inhabitants not only returned, and took poffeffion of the country they had abandoned, but continued to make inroads upon, and to plunder, and murder or captivate, our people, 'therefore col. Cornwallis, our governor of Nova-Scotia †, refolved to drive them out of that country. For this purpofe major Lawrence was again fent with about 1000 regular troops by fea to Chignecto, where he found the French had intrenched them felves to prevent his landing. This obliged him to land with a detachment of chofen men at about a mile and a half from their intrenchment, and marching up by land attacked and forced their intrenchment, after killing ☛ great number of them, and with the lofs on his fide of only five or fix men. their intrenchment was juft upon the fouth fide of Chignecto river, they foon faved themfelves by crofing that river, and putting themfelves under the protection of the French regular troops, who As and the moft violent refentment; how- D stood ready upon the north fide to receive E ever, we continued to negotiate, and the See Lond. Mag. 1759, P. 521. F them; and the major, it feems, had orders not to pass that river to attack the French. However, he built a fort upon the fouth fide of that river, which was called from him, St. Lawrence Fort, and was fituated almoft over against the French fort, which they had called Beau Sejour; and as he left a ftrong garrison in that fort, it prevented any of the French inhabitants from returning, but fuch as were willing to live peaceably, and fubmit to our government. Yet this did not prevent our people in the interior part of the peninfula from. being often attacked by the Indians and the French rebels, as they ought to be called, and not French neutrals, as we had most ridiculoufly accustomed our-. felves to call them. In June, 1751, a. party of them came by furprise upon the little town of Dartmouth upon the other fide of Chebu to bay, over-against Halifax, where they killed and fcalped a number of people, and carried off 14 prifoners; and as they were always furnished with arms and ammunition, and even fometimes with boats and canoes, by the French, they continued their hoftilities and cruelties, without our attempting to dislodge the French from the 496 CONCLUDING CONNOISSEUR. Reck of land, where, befides Beau Sejour, [To be continued in our next. xt.] The CONNOISSEUR, who has fo frequently imparted bis rational and pleafing Enter tainment to our Readers, baving clofed bis Undertaking, we shall infert part of bis farewel Paper for their Satisfaction, fincerely condoling with the Publick for the Lofs of fo able and fe amafing a Monitor. From the CONNOISSEUR, Sept. 30. ERIODICAL writers, who retail PER oa. often repeated queftion of, Who is Mr. Town? it being the custom for periodical writers, at the fame time that they fend the hawkers abroad with their last dying fpeech like the malefactors, like them alfo to couple it with a confeffion. The general method of unravelling this myAftery is by declaring, to whom the different fignatures affixed to different papers are appropriated. For ever fince the days of the inimitable Spectator, it has been ufual for a bold capital to ftand, like a centry, at the end of our effays, to guard the author in fecrefy: And it is commonly fuppofed, that the writer, who does not chufe to put his name to his work, has in this manner, like the painters and ftatuaries of old, at least fet his mark. But the authors of the Connoiffeur now confefs, that the feveral letters, at first pitched upon to bring up the rear of their effays, have been annexed to different papers at random, and fometimes omitted, on purpose to put the fagacious reader on a wrong scent. It is particularly the intereft of a writer, who prints himself out week by week, to remain unknown during the courfe of this piecemeal publication. The best method, therefore, to prevent a difcovery, is to make the road to it as intricate as poffible; and, inftead of feeming to aim at keeping the reader entirely in the dark, Dto hang out a kind of wandering light, which only ferves to lead him aftray. The defire of giving each writer his due, according to the fignatures, has in the courfe of this undertaking often confused the curious in their inquiries. Soon after the publication of our first papers, fome ingenious gentlemen found out, that T, O, W, N, being the letters that formed the name of TOWN, there were four authors, each of whom sheltered himself under a particular letter; but no paper ever appearing with an N affixed to it, they were obliged to give up this notion. But, if they had been more able decypherers, they would have made out, that tho' T, O, W, will not compofe the name of TOWN, yet by a different arrangement of the letters it will form the word TWO; which is the grand mystery of our fignatures, and couches under it the true and real number of the authors of the Connoiffeur. their fenfe or nonfenfe to the world fheet by fheet, acquire a fort of familiarity and intimacy with the publick peculiar to themfelves. Had the two voJumes in folio, which have fwelled by degrees to their prefent buik, burft forth at once, Mr. Town must have introduced himself to the acquaintance of the pub- E lick with the aukward air and distance of a ftranger: But he now flatters himself, that they will look upon him as an old companion, whofe converfation they are pleafed with; and, as they will fee him no more after this time, will now and then perhaps mifs their ufual vifiter. However this may be, the authors of the Connoiffeur now think proper to clofe F the undertaking, in which they have been engaged for near three years paft: And among their general thanks to the indulgent readers of their papers, they must include, in a particular manner, their acknowledgements to thofe, who have been pleased to appear in them as writers." After having enumerated his correfpondents, and marked their feveral contributions, he, or they, thus proceed : "We now come to the most important difcovery of ourselves, and to answer the Having thus declared Mr. Town to confift of two feparate individuals, it G will perhaps be expected that, like two trade men, who have agreed to diffolve their partnership, we should exactly balance our accounts, and affign to each his due parcel of the Rock. But our accounts are of fo intricate a nature, that it would See our laft vel. p. 349, 350, 359. † These two volumes in folio will make four in duodeime; the two first of which are already published, and the third and fourth preparing for the prefs. |