gether in the wrong, yet I cannot but think he has carried the matter rather too far; however, be that as it may, I think I can pourtray a character infinitely more offensive than poor Mrs. SOFTLY. In my youth, I was rather partial to novels, and perused with avidity every publication of the kind which I could procure; and, as there is no scarcity of this commodity, I will confess my head was tolerably well stored with high flown descriptions of the marriage state. In short, I resolved to avail myself of the first opportunity of becoming a wife. TOM THOUGHTLESS Vowed eternal love; I listened to his protestations, and, in the very short space of a month, accompanied him to the altar of Hymen. I (like many other deluded damsels) fondly imagined that my husband would always be the same good creature I had ever thought him—and that I should taste the purest happiness; and as I really loved him better than any one else, I endeavoured to please him by every means I could devise. I dressed well, saw good company, and was never averse to attend him to any place of fashionable resort. We pursued this mode of life for some time, until I began to be a little satiated with it, and submitted to my husband the propriety of our beginning to be a little more domestic, and that I conceived we ought to omit

seeing company on the Sundays, as by this means we were preventing our servants from properly observing the religious duties of that day.-Alas! little did I think of the impending storm. My loving spouse swore and stamped, and declared that retirement was his utter aversion-that I was in danger of Methodism, and of becoming the greatest mope in the world; that he should soon be ashamed of such a wife, and that he always would spend his time in the manner most congenial to his taste. I was awed to silence: I had vowed to obey, and found resistance would be in vain. But this first quarrel has been productive of painful consequences. My husband generally spends his evenings at some club or tavern,- and from the society he has there met with, has contracted a love of gaming; he returns home, gloomy and discontented; the smiles of his wife have no charms for him; his children are neglected, his affairs deranged, and, in short, his temper has become violent and overbearing. Finding my late dreams of happiness vanished, and my peace of mind broken, I have resolved to use all the means in my power to reclaim him; and, in order to effect this reformation, I request your aid and assistance,-being also in hopes that my melancholy fate may prove a warning to your fair readers, and induce

them to prefer, in their choice of a companion for life, the man of sound sense and solid piety, to the gay votary of vice and dissipation.

I am, Sir, with respect,

Your constant reader,

LYDIA THOUGHTLESS.

We are polish'd all!

NUMBER 24.

The fashion runs

Down into scenes still rural; but, alas!

Scenes rarely graced with rural manners now!-CowPER.

AMONG the various changes which have taken place in society, in this kingdom, during the last century, none is more striking than the great increase of politeness, especially as manifested in the prevalent modes of address. About a hundred years ago, a celebrated writer classed our countrymen under the two heads of gentlemen and mechanics. At present, these classes appear to be intimately blended; and no peculiar marks remain by which such a distinction as the abovenamed author intimates, can be clearly conveyed.

Our gentlemen, indeed, may not all be mechanics; but our mechanics are all gentlemen. We have not only gentlemen of quality and of fortune, but gentlemen of the turf, alias blacklegged gentlemen; gentlemen farmers, gentlemen of the brush, and gentlemen of the thimble. Formerly Mister used to be the appropriate designation of gentility, and the christian name that of mechanics; at present, the latter is so rarely used in company, that a stranger to our manners, who considered it as a distinguishing mark of Christianity, would be apt to infer that we had no religion at all. With regard to the word Mister, on the other hand, it is become a common appendage to every person, from the man of ten thousand a year to the driver of a dust cart. A striking fact, in proof of the pertinacity with which this polite epithet is claimed in the humbler situations of life, lately came to my knowledge. A shoe-black, who had been about a week in the service of a friend of mine, one morning entered his chamber, with a look of solemnity and importance, and hoped he had approved himself to his master's satisfaction. "Perfectly so, Tom," was the reply. Tom, with many bows and scrapes, acknowledged the goodness of my friend's place; but added, that he must beg leave to give him warning, unless the rest of the

servants were ordered in future to call him no more plain THOMAS, but MISTER.

These innovations have not been confined to the male part of the community. It is almost as uncommon to meet with a woman who is not a lady, as with a man who is not a gentleman. The race of old women, who, if I recollect aright, were pretty numerous in my younger years, is now totally extinct. Even the name itself, by long disuse, has lost its original signification; and we now never hear it mentioned, unless when applied to some person, frequently of the male sex, of whose understanding we do not entertain a very high opinion. The old dame, under whose tuition I imbibed the rudiments of learning, was almost the last person whom I recollect bearing that title. Every teacher of a school for twopence a week, is now a governess. A dame, in reference to the head of a family, is now become obsolete, and instead thereof, Mistress, or the diminutive Miss, is generally adopted. Our women of quality have given place to ladies of quality; our country gentlewomen to country ladies; even women of the town, to whom a still more homely appellation was formerly applied, are metamorphosed into ladies of pleasure. The char-women, washer-women, and some few others of such like occupations, have hitherto been bin

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