1796. ] 
then appointed, to draw up, and point 
out to the general court, what meatures 
appeared to them moft proper to be 
adopted. This committee has, we under- 
ftand, met feveral times; and from the 
well known abilities and virtues of fe- 
veral of its members, we make no doubt 
that the beft poflible meafures will be 
adopted. But fs it not furprifing, Mr. 
Editor, that though it is a well co 
fact that the hofpital has been for more 
than a twelvemonth feveral hundred 
pounds in debt, and has, in confequence, 
been obliged to borrow that money ; 
though it has long been known ‘that the 
annual receipts are inadequate to the 
expenditure; yet it is notorious, that there 
is {carcely a town in the county of Devon 
but has feveral men of property in its 
neighbourhood,who do not fubfcribe even 
their annual mite towards fo excellent 
an inftitution? It is difficult to account 
for fuch a faét. Vhat public fpirit is 
wanting in the county, I can hardly 
think poffible eo see to judge only 
from the numbers and refpectability of 
thofe gentlemen who ee fubf{cribe 
towards the hofpital ; but there appears 
to me a fort of liftleffnefs and inachivity 
in fome men, which require the imme- 
diate {pur of a perfonal ae to 
urge them on. Such men probably for- 
ect that provifions are much enhanced 
in price within thefe laft twenty years: 
what could then be purchafed for one 
fhilling, cannot now be had for half-a- 
erown. It is not, then, to be expected 
that an inftitution fhould continue to 
flourifh, when the annual fubfcriptions, 
by which it is chiefly fupported, are not 
increafed in proportion to the expence of 
its maintenance. To obtain this in- 
creafe is the purpofe of this letter: it is 
a caufe which the writer has much at 
heart; and if the defired effect be pro- 
duced, his trouble in writing will be am- 
ply compentated. DEVONIENSIS. 
Devonfhire, Fuly 5, 1796. 
ER 
Mysterious Mornrer. 
Zo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE itory of the res Met 
is of an- earlier date than the noble 
author imagined: it may be found ina 
work of bithop Hall, entitled Refolutions 
and Decifions of er Praétical Cafes of 
Conicience, in, continual Ufe amongtt 
Men ; of which the fecond edition, dated 
3650, is now lying, beroreumies 7) Qi ine! 
bit oe fays, he had it long ago from the 
Myfrerious Mather... « Ufeful Society propofed. 
edition was publithed, 
447 
relation of Mr. Perkins, and fince that, 
met with it in the report of two feveral 
German authors.’ 
Fuller, in his Holy State, fays of this 
Perkins, that 4§ he was an excellent 
chirurgeon at joynting of a broken foul ; 
and would pronounce the word ‘Damn’ 
with fuch an emphafis, as left a doleful 
echo in his auditors’ ears a good while 
after.’’ He was lame of the right hand; 
and Hugh Holland, in his Icones, faith 
of hum >. 
Dextera quantumv is fuerat tibi manca, docenda 
Pollebas mira dexteritate tamen. 
Tho’ Nature thee of thy vee hand bereft, 
Right well thou write with thy hand that’s 
left. 
The fame ftory 1s told by Julian de Me- 
drano, of whofe Common-place Bock an 
1608, by Cefar 
interpreter to 
‘The Spanifh 
Oudin, fecretary and 
Henry IV, of France. 
writer fays, he heard the ftory in the 
Bourbonois, where the people fhowed 
him the houfe the parties had lived in, 
and tne place where they were buried, 
and repeated to him the epitaph : 
Cy-gift la fille, cy-gift le pere, 
Cy-gitt la feur, cy-gift le frére ; 
Cy-gift la femme & le mary, 
Et fi n’y a que deux corps icy. 
The author of the Myfterious Mother 
adds, in his preface, that there is a fimilar 
ftory in the Tales of the oe of Na~ 
varrc. It may be worth remarking, that 
Julian Medrano was a cavalier a her 
court, and dedicated his book to that 
princefs ; he, of courfe, would never have 
taken the Rory from a book of tales, and 
given it as a faét that he had learned in 
his travels. 
June 23,1796. B. 
sone a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
sIR, 
qt was with infinite fatisfaction I pe- 
ruled the obfervations of your intelli- 
gent correfpondent, J. W. on the vil- 
lainy of pettifoggers, in your Magazine, 
No. IV, and [ imcerely lament the mal-_ 
pragtice af the lower clafs of profeffors of 
the law. ‘The profeffion of an attorney is 
no defs honourable and lucrative, than 
useful to fociety ; his real duty being to 
Windicate the caufe of the weak and the 
poor, againft.the opprefiions of the ftrong 
and the rich.—That this is not the prac- 
tice, the almoft daily applications to the 
courts of law for redrefs, againft needy or 
unprincipled pradtitioners,.convince us : 
and. 
