140 
The Italian opera, in its early eftablith- 
ment, was confidered as.a pernicious fpe- 
cies of exotic, only tran{planted on a Bri- 
tith foil to effeminize the public tafte. 
But the gradual power it has eviuced, has 
proved that harmony can exterminate the 
moit rooted prejudices; for a box at aa 
Italian opera houfe, at tiis period, is rent- 
ed at the rateof two hundred pounds per 
annum! and, fuch is the avidity with 
which they are fecured, that the lift is 
filled, before the manger has time to 
make hisyearly enlargements forthe accom- 
modation of the nobility! It may appear 
fomewhat evigmatical, that enormous 
fums are lavifhed on foreign fingers, and 
foreign muficians, ~hile this iflaind has 
the proud boatt of having produced a Bil- 
lington, a Bufby, a Shield, a Storace*, a 
_Jackfon, and many others, well known in 
the higheft circles of the harmonic {ci- 
ence. 
Lonion has innumerable hofpitals for 
all {pecies of maladies. They are hand- 
fome regular buildings, and conveniently 
arranged, aired and cleaned, for the advan- 
tage of the patien's. Yet it isa melan- 
choly truth, that while the opera-fubfcrip- 
‘tion annually overflows, while two hun- 
dred pounds (and upwards) are paid for 
fmall boxes to hear an Italian finger, or 
to fee a French dancer, the voluntary con- 
tributions to public charities are almof 
diminifhed intonothing. This faét is well 
known, and is no lefs incontrovertible, 
than itis degrading to. the humanity of 
the country. 
The cuftom which prevails, in many 
hofpitals, of anatomizing the dead bodies, 
cannot fail to prove extremely injurious to 
the repofe of the living. A patient who 
finds himfelf dangeroufly ill, cannot be 
fppofed to derive much advantage either 
from medicine or attention, whilft his 
mind is impreficd with an idea that his 
corpfe will be expofed to experimental 
practices. There is one hofpital, not far 
from Hyde Park Corner, from which thofe 
bodies which are quietly configned to the 
earth are interred at the end of a nurfery- 
ground ; the coffins laid, thinly covered, 
one over the other, and fo carclefsly in- 
clofed, that the common rules of decency 
are fcarcely obferved. 
The vice of GamMING feems to have 
reached its climax at the tafhionable end of 
the metropolis : and though the magiftrates 

* Stephen Storacey born in Devonfhire. 
State of Manners, Sc. of the Metropolis of England. 
[Sept. 1, 
have endearoured to check its progrefs 
among the {ubordinate ranks of fociety, 
it is till not only winked at, but tolerated, 
in the higher circles. The petty gambler, 
who opens his fhop of iniquity with the 
puny traffic of filver, is without mercy 
punifhed, and held up as an example of 
depraved manners: while the nobles hold 
their public clubs, gamble for thoufands, 
out-face the magiftrates, and defy the 
laws, with boldnefs and impunity! Itis 
at the gaming-tables of the exalted that 
our legiflators, our nobility, our generals, 
and our country-gentlemen, practice thofe 
very vices which the needy and the private 
individual is punifhed for attempting. It 
is at thofe ennobied midnight fcenes of 
folly and rapacity, that the DEMON oF 
SUICIDE anticipates his triumphs over 
the weakne(s, avarice, and falfe pride of 
mortals. The effects of thofe fcenes have 
recently prefented HoRRORS and DEaTH! 
yet the magiftrates are paffive, and the 
laws tardy in the occupation of adminifter- 
ing jultice; and it is with forrow that the 
moralit and the philanthrépift have traced 
the progre{s of this pernicious propenfity 
even to the private aflemblies of the moft 
elegant women ; while the ruined huf 
band, and the thoughilefs wife, have, by 
diffipating their children’s patrimony, ex- 
pofed the femaies to the miferies of feduc- 
tion, and fet an example to the males 
which has undermined both the wealth 
and the honcur of their family. Indeed, 
to this fatal employment may be attributed 
the many domettic expofures which have 
taken place within the laft twenty years. 
Men now devoie their hours te clubs, to 
gaming-tables, to tennis-courts, and to 
cricket-grounds. Wives are left toroam, 
or permitted to hold their midnight orgies, 
with the moft diflivated of their own, as 
well as of the other fex. Play involves 
them in debts of honour, which the 
facrifice of honour too frequently dif- 
charges: and it is an abfolute faét, that 
even the family jewels and the family 
plate have been difpofed of to fupply the 
FARO BANK of one cf thofe infamous 
fcenes of profligate debafement ; while the 
hufband has been the paffive fpectator, 
and the daughters employed at places of 
public entertainment, as decoys to enfnare 
the young, the wealthy, and the un- 
wary ! M. R 
(Tobe continued.) 
Extrads 
