110 

 BACHELORS' BLESSEDNESS, No. IT. 



MY DEAR EDITOR, In answer to the correspondent 

 who, you tell me, doubts my veracity in stating that I 

 carried home four dozen offish, each above three pounds 

 weight, and who asserts that not a fishing basket in 

 Plymouth would hold such a quantity ; I submit the 

 following reply : that /also believe there is not a fish- 

 ing basket, in Plymouth, of such goodly size ; and that, 

 if he continue to doubt the capacity of my piscatory 

 receptacle, I will undertake, after doubling him up 

 into a compact bulk and strapping his limbs neatly 

 together, to stow him into the bottom of my basket, and 

 find room for four dozen of fish on the top of him : but 

 to change the theme. 



I assure you, on the word of a fisherman, that I mean 

 to get married some day and therefore hope you \\ill 

 allow me to say a word or two, in the spirit of Christian 

 kindness, to the " blessed" bachelor who favored you 

 with a paper,* on the felicity enjoyed by himself and 

 his bretheren of the solitary bed-place. 



In the first place, I would most humbly ask him 

 why he should fix his clenched fists on his hips and 

 become red with passion, like a Billingsgate virago, 

 whilst he showers forth abusive epithets on the writer 

 whose opinions he calls in question : when at the same 

 time he might effect his purpose much better by a tem- 

 perate demeanour and a calm train of argument? does 

 he really suppose that discussion cannot be carried on 

 without calling names, or that it is needful for him to 

 designate his unconscious opponent as an " audacious 

 scribbler," and his writing as " wretched absurdity and 

 falsehood," "quagmire of absurdity and falsehood," 

 " strange nonsense," " absurd and untrue" &c. &c. 



It appears to me that the abused writer and the 

 " blessed" bachelor are much upon a par ; the one takes 

 an extreme case among bachelors, the other an extreme 

 case among married men, and this being evident, I think 



* No. 7, Vol. II. Ed. 



