1797]. 
ful when we perceive that their parents 
rob them of that circulating medium of 
honour, honefty, bravery, and patriotifm, 
which has flowed uninterruptedly for cen- 
turies in the family, and which is their 
natural birthright; and inftead thereof 
leave them to the little, paultry and 
ftraggling qualities they may pick up ia the 
veins of a creature, without any title in 
the world, the wife of one as poor as her- 
felf, and not worth twenty pounds a 
year ? Why fir, what are we to expect 
from fuch heterogeneous compofitions ? 
Precifely what happens : namely, that we 
are not able to purfue a clafs of virtues for 
two generations without ftumbliag on an 
ax or a halter. How thoughtlefs muft 
thofe perfons be, to whom is entrufted the 
circulation of iiluftrious virtues! And, 
above all, che blood royal.— 
Sir, Tl with to fpeak delicately upon 
delicdte fubjeéts. T fhall offend none, if I 
can avoid it, and I well know the prefent 
is aot the time tourge difcuffions of cer- 
tain deferiptions. However, I do not 
think it is the time to be wholly filent, 
efpecially as nothing I have to advance, 
does in the leaft concern the prefent 
race of fovereigrs. —But I may furely 
back, and atk why we find, upon 
the fame lift an Alfred and a John, a 
Mary anda lady Jane Grey, a Richard IfJ, 
and an Edward V1 ? Evidently, fir, it was 
the fauit of the parents.—On this fubjeét, 
however, I do not mean to prefs farther, 
Wher I have faid may afford aclue, in 
eafe other anomalies fhall arife. 
With regard to perfons of inferior, and 
yet of Srzb and noble rank, the cafe is truly 
lamentable ; yet what more eafily to be 
» accounted for? At leaft f may fay, with- 
out vanity, that thefe things . feldom 
puzzle me. When I meet with a young 
lord, for inftance, who indulges with im- 
‘punity, in the loweft vices and crimes, I 
do not blame his anceftors; I do not vifit 
the fins of the children upon the fathers. 
Econclude direétly, that he received all 
thefe wicked propenfities by his blood 
being contamimated by the daughter of 
{ome man who was hanged for fuch crimes, 
And when, again, I obferve another 
young man of family purfuing every 
pretty girl he meets, with a view to ruin 
her reputation, or, perhaps, infinuating 
himfelf into his’ friends’ houfe, with 4 
deliberate defign on the virtue-of his wife, 
fifter, or daughter, I never fail, upon en- 
quiry, to learn that he was the fofter-bro- 
ther of the: unceremonious produétion of 
a Kentith clown, and a hop-picker. In 
truth, J have often Been enabled to puth 
Noble Blood fpoilt by Suckhnge 421 
my enquiries on this fubjeét to a wonder ~ 
ful degree of accuracy, a volume of which 
(I mean my enquiries) I purpofe fome 
day to publifh, if I can agree with the 
proprietors of Collins's Peerage. You 
may think it fanciful, fir, but I have had 
no difficulty in tracing that propenfity 
to gaming, the fin that fo eafily befets 
people of rank, to their having been 
fackled by the wives of fellows wha 
have. been tran{ported for picking pockets ; 
and a certain noble lord muft excufe me, 
if I prove, moft demonftratively, that his 
ele€tioneering dexterity is entirely owin 
to his having been ‘* nurfed and dandled 
into a legiflator,” by the wife of a man 
who ftood in the pillory for perjury. 
If there was a myfterious veil caft over 
thofe ftrange and unnaturaldeviations from 
noble blood and hereditary virtues, which 
are fo frequently obferved, and fo much 
wondered at, I hope, Mr. Editor, I have 
been the humble inftrument of removing 
it. FE hope your readers will hereafter be | 
at no lofs to account for the ftrange beings 
fometimes prefented to their fight, as 
placed entirely out of the order of nature. 
I hope they will underftand why fome 
men poflefs rank, who would have made 
a much better figure at the plough; and 
why others are greeted with titles, who 
ought to be faluted with horfe-whips. 
Wefometimes meet with a lord, and we 
know not how to confider him as fuch, 
but we can plainly difcern that he would 
have made a much more refpeétable figure 
behind acoach than in it. We obferve 
another attempting to difplay his talents 
near Weftmintter-hall, who might have 
plyed with greater fuccefs at Weftminter 
bridge; and a third boafling of the gallan- 
try of his military exploits, who would 
have benefited his country, had he ex- 
changed the marfhall’s truncheon for the 
butcher’s knife. Allthefe phenomena are 
eafily folved on my principles, which are 
likewife not lefs ferviceable in explain- 
ing, what has hitherto been thought very 
wonderful, namely, that one man of rank 
fhould look like a barber, a fecond like a 
tailor, and athird like a fool. 
Why is it, fir, that perfons of rank have 
never confidered this fubjeét before, or if 
confidering be, with them, a duty perform. 
ed by deputy, why has not fome one fug- 
gefted to them, that there can be no more 
efieétual way of mixing high and low, 
illuftrious and obfcure in one undiftinguifh- © 
able mafs, than this praétice of nourifhing 
the opes of one family by the difappoint- 
ments of another ? Why thould this matter 
have fo long been kept a fecret ? We fee 
every 

