WHEN

BERNARD DE MANDEVILLE

OF EXECUTION DAY

HEN the day of execution is come, among extraordinary sinners and persons condemned for their crimes, who have but that morning to live, one would expect a deep sense of sorrow, with all the signs of a thorough contrition, and the utmost concern; that either gravity or a sober silence should prevail; and that all, who had any business there, should be grave and serious, and behave themselves, at least, with common decency, and a deportment suitable to the occasion. But the very reverse is true. The horrid aspects of turnkeys and gaolers, in discontent and hurry; the sharp and dreadful looks of rogues, that beg in irons, but would rob you with greater satisfaction, if they could; the bellowings of half a dozen names at a time, that are perpetually made in the inquiries after one another; the variety of strong voices, that are heard, of howling in one place, scolding and quarrelling in another, and loud laughter in a third; the substantial breakfasts that are made in the midst of all this; the seas of beer that are swilled; the never-ceasing outcries for more; and the bawling answers of the tapsters as continual; the quantity and variety of more intoxicating liquors, that are swallowed in every part of Newgate; the impudence and unseasonable jests of those who administer them; their black hands and nastiness all over; all these, joined together, are astonishing and terrible, without mentioning the oaths and imprecations, that from every corner are echoed about, for trifles; or the little light and general squalor of the gaol itself, accompanied with the melancholy noise of fetters, differently sounding according to their weight. But what is most shocking to a thinking man, is the behaviour of the condemned, whom (for the most part) you'll find, either drinking madly, or uttering the vilest ribaldry, and jeering others, that are less impenitent; whilst the ordinary bustles

among them, and, shifting from one to another, distributes scraps of good counsel to unattentive hearers; and near him, the Hangman, impatient to be gone, swears at their delays, and, as fast as he can, does his part, in preparing them for their journey.

At last, out they set; and with them a torrent of mob bursts through the gate. Amongst the lower rank and working people, the idlest, and such as are most fond of making holidays, with prentices and journeymen to the meanest trades, are the most honourable part of these floating multitudes. All the rest are worse. The days being known beforehand, they are a summons to all thieves and pickpockets of both sexes to meet. Great mobs are a safeguard to one another, which makes these days Jubilees, on which old offenders, and all who dare not shew their heads on any other, venture out of their holes; and they resemble free marts, where there is an amnesty for all outlaws. All the way from Newgate to Tyburn is one continued fair, for whores and rogues of the meaner sort. Here the most abandoned rakehells may light on women as shameless: here trollops, all in rags, may pick up sweethearts of the same politeness and there are none so lewd, so vile, or so indigent, of either sex, but at the time and place aforesaid, they may find a paramour. Where the crowd is the least, which, among the itinerants, is nowhere very thin, the mob is the rudest; and here, jostling one another, and kicking dirt about, are the most innocent pastimes. Now you see a man, without provocation, push his companion in the kennel: and two minutes after, the sufferer trips up the other's heels, and the first aggressor lies rolling in the more solid mire: and he is the prettiest fellow among them, who is the least shocked at nastiness, and the most boisterous in his sports. No modern rabble can long subsist without their darling cordial, the grand preservative of sloth, Geneva, that infallible antidote against care and frugal reflection; which, being repeated, removes all pain of sober thought, and in a little time cures the tormenting sense of the most pressing

necessities. The traders, who vent it among the mob on these occasions, are commonly the worst of both sexes, but most of them weather-beaten fellows, that have misspent their youth. Here stands an old sloven, in a wig actually putrefied squeezed up in a corner, and recommends a dram of it to the goers-by: there another in rags, with several bottles in a basket, stirs about with it, where the throng is the thinnest, and tears his throat with crying his commodity; and further off, you may see the head of a third, who has ventured in the middle of the current, and minds his business, as he is fluctuating in the irregular stream: whilst higher up, an old decrepit woman sits dreaming with it on a bulk; and over against her, in a soldier's coat, her termagant daughter sells the sots-comfort with great dispatch.

G. SAVILE, EARL OF HALIFAX

OUR LADY OF ROME

S for the late King (Charles I.) though he gave the most glorious evidence that ever man did of his being a Protestant, yet, by the more than ordinary influence the Queen was thought to have over him, and it so happening that the greatest part of his anger was directed against the Puritans, there was such an advantage to men disposed to suspect, that they were ready to interpret it a leaning towards Popery, without which handle it was morally impossible that the ill affected part of the nation could ever have seduced the rest into a rebellion.

That which helped to confirm many well-meaning men in their misapprehensions of the King was the long and unusual intermission of Parliaments; so that every year that passed without one, made up a new argument to increase their suspicion, and made them presume that the Papists had a principal hand in keeping them off: this raised such heats in

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men's minds, to think that men who were obnoxious to the laws, instead of being punished, should have credit enough to serve themselves, even at the price of destroying the fundamental constitution; that it broke out into a flame, which, before it could be quenched, had almost reduced the nation to ashes.

Amongst the miserable effects of that unnatural war, none hath been more fatal to us than the forcing our princes to breathe in another air, and to receive the early impressions of a foreign education; the barbarity of the English, towards the king and the Royal Family, might very well tempt him to think the better of every thing he found abroad, and might naturally produce more gentleness, at least, towards a religion by which he was hospitably received, at the same time that he was thrown off and persecuted by the Protestants (tho' his own subjects) to aggravate the offence. The Queen Mother (as generally ladies do with age) grew most devout and earnest in her religion; and besides, the temporal rewards of getting larger subsidies from the French clergy, she had motives of another kind to persuade her to shew her zeal; and since by the Roman Dispensatory a soul converted to the church is a sovereign remedy, and lays up a mighty stock of merit; she was solicitous to secure herself in all events, and therefore first set upon the Duke of Gloucester, who depended so much upon her goodwill, that she might for that reason have been induced to believe the conquest would not be difficult; but it so fell out, that he, either from his own constancy, or that he had those near him by whom he was otherwise advised, chose rather to run away from her importunity, than by staying to bear the continual weight of it: It is believed she had better success with another of her sons, who, if he was not quite brought off from our religion, at least such beginnings were made, as made them very easy to be finished; his being of a generous and aspiring nature, and in that respect, less patient in the drudgery of arguing, might probably help to recommend a church to him, that exempts the Laity from the vexation of enquiring; perhaps he might,

(though by mistake) look upon that religion as more favourable to the enlarged power of Kings, a consideration which might have its weight with a young Prince in his warm blood, and that was brought up in arms.

I cannot hinder myself from a small digression, to consider with admiration, that the old Lady of Rome, with all her wrinkles, should yet have charms, able to subdue great princes; so far from handsome, and yet so imperious; so painted, and yet so pretending; after having abused, deposed, and murdered so many of her lovers, she still finds others glad and proud of their new chains; a thing so strange, to indifferent judges, that those who will allow no other miracles in the Church of Rome, must needs grant that this is one not to be contested; she sits in her shop, and sells at dear rates her rattles and her hobby horses, whilst the deluded world still continues to furnish her with customers.

DR SOUTH

OF BENEVOLENCE

OD sometimes, in the way of his providence, calls upon thee, O man, to relieve the necessities of thy brother, to support his blessed cause in the world; and at other times to attend to the wants of thy country in one form or another. Now, before thou hast recourse to the old stale pretence, that it is out of thy power, consider with thyself, that there is a God, who will never be put off with pretences and falsehood, he knows exactly what thou canst do, and what thou canst And consider, in the next place, that it is not the best husbandry in the world to be damned to save charges. The miser, and many such there are, who yet wishes to be thought otherwise, is a pest and a monster; and it is a query whether his heart is hardest or his hand the closest. He is greedier than the sea, and more barren than the shore. A scandal to

not.