428 $tepkensi(ina,—No. III. [Dec. 1, 
give him a receipt for the past, and fur¬ 
ther credit to any amount, if he would 
only return to the house; “ for,” said 
she, 4 * if he never paid us, he was one of 
the best customers we ever had, contriv¬ 
ing, by his stories and conversation, to 
keep a couple of boxes crowded the 
whole night, by which we made more 
punch, and morebrandy and water, than 
from any other single cause whatever.” 
I, however, never saw Wilson again, 
and suppose he is dead or gone abroad. 
Jacob, afterwards an alderman and 
M.P., was a frequent visitor, and then 
as remarkable for his heretical, as he 
was subsequently for his orthodox, opi¬ 
nions. 
Waithman, the active and eloquent 
Common Councilman, often mixed 
with us, and w r as always clear-headed 
and agreeable. One James, w 7 ho had 
made a large fortune by vending tea, 
contributed many good anecdotes of the 
age of Wilkes. 
Several stock-brokers visited us, and 
among others of that description, v r as 
Mr. Blake, the > banker. of Lombard- 
street, a remarkably intelligent old gen¬ 
tleman ; and there w r as a Mr. Patter¬ 
son, a North Briton, a long-headed 
speculator, who had the reputation of 
being a skilful mathematician. 
Some young men of talent came among 
us from time to time, as Lovett, a 
militia-officer ; Hennell, a coal-mer¬ 
chant, and some others, whose names I 
forget, and these seemed likely to keep 
up the party; but all things have an 
end—Dr. Buchan died, some young 
sparks affronted our Nestor, Hammond, 
on which he absented himself, after 
nearly fifty years attendance, and the 
noisy box of the Wittinagemot has for 
some years been remarkable for its si¬ 
lence and dulness. The two or three 
last times I w 7 as at the Chapter, I heard 
no voice above a whisper, and I almost 
shed a tear on thinking of men, ha¬ 
bits, and times gone by for ever. 
FRENCH EMIGRANTS. 
France was originally enslaved by 
the passive obedient doctrines of the 
clergy, aided by the ever obedient 
swords of a mercenary soldiery. No 
winder, therefore, when virtue, under 
the pristine regimen, had been convert¬ 
ed into crime, and right into force, that 
on a revolution taking place, popular 
violence should play the part of public 
justice, and that the priests and war¬ 
riors should either perish with the mo¬ 
narchy, or be driven to mendicate for 
a subsistence, in foreign countries, in a 
crisis of general subversion. 
A REPUBLICAN ANSWER. 
In the virtuous and heroic period of 
the Helvetic republic, the ambassadors 
of Zurich and Berne, visiting the 
French plenipotentiary, who washed 
to deliver up the citizens of Geneva to 
the vengeance of a domineering senate, 
his Excellency, the Chevalier de Bea- 
teville, exclaimed with some w armth : 
Sgavez vous , Messieurs , que je suis le 
Representant du rot , mon maitre ? Do 
you know, gentlemen, that I am the 
representative of the king, my master? 
With a vigour and energy worthy of a 
people in wdiom the flame of publitr 
spirit w T as not extinguished, one of the 
republicans made answer : Spavez vous , 
Monsieur le Chevalier , que nous sonunes 
les representans de nos egaux ? Do you 
know 7 , sir, that we are the representa¬ 
tives of our equals ? 
In this answer we see a noble and 
animating proof of a republican spirit. 
The view 7 s and interests of arbitrary 
pow 7 er are partial and separate ; a free 
state finds strength in united hearts 
and counsels. 
REFORMERS. 
It is an undertaking of some delicacy 
to examine into the cause of public 
disorders. If a man happens not to 
succeed in such an inquiry, he wall be 
thought w 7 eak and visionary: if he 
detects the true grievance, there is 
danger that he may come near to per¬ 
sons of weight and consequence, w r ho 
w 7 ill rather be exasperated at the dis¬ 
covery of their errors, than thankful 
for the occasion of correcting them. 
letter wrote by count o’rourke to 
LORD GEORGE GORDON, Nov. 24, 
1784. 
My lord. —I shall be glad to know 
what motives or what interest you can 
have in being so vehement against the 
antient catholic religion: has your 
lordship forgot that you are sprung 
from ancestors who looked on that way 
of thinking to be right, and that at 
this moment your aunt professes that 
religion w ith all its original forms ? 
that which w T as your family religion 
should not be so reviled by you , especi¬ 
ally w 7 hen so late as in the time of your 
grandfather. Give me leave to ask 
wdiat religion you profess w hich recom¬ 
mends persecution ? Surely not the 
protestant. I acknowledge that I am, 
and all my forefathers were, Roman 
catholics; my family can boast of an¬ 
tiquity before that of the Gordons, well 
know n to the British court, w ell known 
to all the courts in Europe. I am at 
present 
