attempt this, they never fail to attack the passengers with all kind of scurrilous, abusive, and indecent terms, which indeed they claim as their own, and call mob language.

The second exclusive right which they insist on, is to those parts of the streets, that are set apart for the foot-passengers. 5 In asserting this privilege, they are extremely rigorous; insomuch, that none of the other orders can walk through the streets by day without being insulted, nor by night without being knocked down. And the better to secure these footpaths to themselves, they take effectual care to keep the said 10 paths always well blocked up with chairs, wheel-barrows, and every other kind of obstruction; in order to break the legs of those who shall presume to encroach upon their privileges by walking the streets.

Here it was hoped their pretensions would have stopped; 15 but it is difficult to set any bounds to ambition; for, having sufficiently established this right, they now begin to assert their right to the whole street, and to have lately made such a disposition with their waggons, carts, and drays, that no coach can pass along without the utmost difficulty and danger. With 20 this view we every day see them driving side by side, and sometimes in the broader streets three a breast; again, we see them leaving a cart or waggon in the middle of the street, and often set a-cross it, while the driver repairs to a neighbouring ale-house, from the window of which he diverts himself 25 while he is drinking, with the mischief or inconvenience which his vehicle occasions.

The same pretensions which they make to the possession of the streets, they make likewise to the possession of the high-ways. I doubt not I shall be told they claim only an 30 equal right: for I know it is very usual when a carter or a dray-man is civilly desired to make a little room, by moving out of the middle of the road either to the right or left, to

hear the following answer: "D-n your eyes, who are you? Is not the road, and be d—n'd to you, as free for me as you?" Hence it will, I suppose, be inferred that they do not absolutely exclude the other estates from the use of the com5 mon high-ways. But notwithstanding this generous concession in words, I do aver this practice is different, and that a gentleman may go a voyage at sea with little more hazard than he can travel ten miles from the metropolis.

I shall mention only one claim more, and that a very new 10 and a very extraordinary one. It is the right of excluding all women of fashion out of St. James's-Park on a Sunday evening. This they have lately asserted with great vehemence, and have inflicted the punishment of mobbing on several ladies, who had transgressed without design, not having been apprised of the 15 good pleasure of the mob in this point. And this I the rather publish to prevent any such transgressions for the future, since it hath already appeared that no degree of either dignity or beauty can secure the offender.*

Many things have contributed to raise this fourth estate to 20 that exorbitant degree of power which they at present enjoy, and which seems to threaten to shake the balance of our constitution. I shall name only three, as these appear to me to have had much the greatest share in bringing it about.

The first is that act of parliament which was made at the 25 latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and which I cannot help considering as a kind of compromise between the other three estates and this. By this act it was stipulated, that the fourth estate should annually receive out of the possessions of the others, a certain large proportion yearly, upon an implied 30 condition (for no such was exprest) that they should suffer the other estates to enjoy the rest of their property without loss or molestation.

* A lady of great quality, and admirable beauty, was mobbed in the park at this time.

This law gave a new turn to the minds of the mobility. They found themselves no longer obliged to depend on the charity of their neighbours, nor on their own industry for a maintenance. They now looked on themselves as joint proprietors in the land, and celebrated their independency in 5 songs of triumph; witness the old ballad which was in all their mouths,

Hang sorrow, cast away care;

The parish is bound to find us, &c.

A second cause of their present elevation has been the 10 private quarrels between particular members of the other estates, who, on such occasions, have done all they could on both sides to raise the power of the mob, in order to avail themselves of it, and to employ it against their enemies.

The third and the last which I shall mention, is the mis- 15 taken idea which some particular persons have always entertained of the word liberty; but this will open too copious a subject, and shall be therefore treated in a future paper.

But before I dismiss this, I must observe that there are two sorts of persons of whom this fourth estate do yet stand in 20 some awe, and whom consequently they have in great abhorrence: These are a justice of peace, and a soldier. To these two it is entirely owing that they have not long since rooted all the other orders out of the commonwealth.

5

IO

An untouched subject.

It hath been observed, that characters of humour do abound more in this our island, than in any other country; and this hath been commonly supposed to arise from that pure and perfect state of liberty which we enjoy in a degree greatly superior to every foreign nation.

This opinion, I know, hath great sanction, and yet I am inclined to suspect the truth of it, unless we will extend the meaning of the word liberty farther than I think it hath been yet carried, and will include in it not only an exemption from all restraint of municipal laws, but likewise from all restraint of 15 those rules of behaviour which are expressed in the general term of good breeding. Laws which, though not written, are perhaps better understood, and though established by no coercive power, much better obeyed within the circle where they are received, than any of those laws which are recorded in books, 20 or enforced by public authority.

A perfect freedom from these laws, if I am not greatly mistaken, is absolutely necessary to form the true character of humour; a character which is therefore not [to] be met with among those people who conduct themselves by the rules of 25 good breeding.

For, indeed, good breeding is little more than the art of rooting out all those seeds of humour which nature had originally implanted in our minds.

To make this evident, it seems necessary only to explain the terms, a matter in which I do not see the great difficulty which hath appeared to other writers. Some of these have spoken of the word humour, as if it contained in it some mystery impossible to be revealed, and no one, as I know of, hath undertaken 5 to shew us expressly what it is, though I scarce doubt but it was done by Aristotle in his treatise on comedy, which is unhappily lost.

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But what is more surprising, is, that we find it pretty well explained in authors who at the same time tell us, they know 10 not what it is. Mr. Congreve, in a letter to Mr. Dennis, hath these words: "We cannot certainly tell what wit is, or what humour is," and within a few lines afterwards he says, "There is a great difference between a comedy wherein there are many things humourously, as they call it, which is pleasantly spoken; 15 and one where there are several characters of humour, distinguished by the particular and different humours appropriated to the several persons represented, and which naturally arise from the different constitutions, complexions, and dispositions of men. And again, I take humour to be a singular and una- 20 voidable manner of saying or doing any thing peculiar and natural to one man only; by which his speech and actions are distinguished from those of other men. Our humour hath relation to us, and to what proceeds from us, as the accidents have to a substance; it is a colour, taste, and smell diffused through 25 all; though our actions are ever so many, and different in form, they are all splinters of the same wood, and have naturally one complexion, &c."

If my

reader hath any doubt whether this is a just description of humour, let him compare it with those examples of humor- 30 ous characters, which the greatest masters have given us, and which have been universally acknowledged as such, and he will be perhaps convinced.