THIS order, which feems daily encreafing upon us, was first instituted by some ladies éminent for their public spirit, with a view of raising their half of the fpecies to a level with the other in the unbounded licence of their enjoyments. By this artifice the moft open violation of modefty takes the name of innocent freedom and gaiety; and as long as the laft failing remains a fecret, the lady's honour is spotless and untainted. In a word, a DEMI-REP is a lady, whom every body thinks, what nobody chufes to call her.

It is abfolutely neceffary, that every lady of this order fhould be married. Cuftom has given a certain charm to wedlock, which changes the colour of our actions, and renders that behaviour not improper, which in a state of celibacy would be accounted indecent and fcandalous. As to the promises made in marriage "to love, "honour and obey," cuftom has made them alfo merely ceremonial, and in fact as little binding as the wedding-ring, which may be put on or pulled off at pleasure.

RELIGIOUS and political writers have both for different reafons endeavoured to encourage frequent marriages: but this order, if it maintains its ground, will more certainly promote them. How

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How inviting must such a state appear to a woman of spirit! An English wife with all the indifcretions of a girl may affume more than the privileges of a woman; may trifle publickly with the beaus and fmarts, introduce them to her toilette, and fix it as a certain rule in all her converfation and behaviour, that when once márriage has (in Lucy's phrafe)" made an honeft "woman of her," she is intitled to all the licence of a courtefan.

I HAVE lately feen, with a good deal of compaffion, a few forward maiden ladies investing themselves with the dignities, and incroaching on the privileges, of this order. It may not be improper to caution them to recede in time. As their claim to these liberties is unwarranted by custom, they will not retain that ambiguous reputation enjoyed by the DEMI-REPS, whofe whole fyftem of conduct is founded on the bafis of matrimony. Every lady therefore, inclined to indulge herself in all those little innocent freedoms, fhould confine herself within the pale of matrimony, to elude cenfure; as infolvent debtors avoid a jail, by lodging within the verge of the court.

A DEMI

A DEMI-REP then must neceffarily be married Nor is it eafy for a lady to maintain fo critical a character, unless fhe is a woman of fashion. Titles and eftates bear down all weak cenfures, and filence fcandal and detraction. That good-breeding too, fo inviolably preserved among perfons of condition, is of infinite fervice. This produces that delightful infipidity so remarkable in persons of quality, whose conververfation flows with an even tenor, undisturbed by fentiment, and unruffled by paffion: infomuch that husbands and wives, brothers, fifters, coufins, and in fhort the whole circle of kindred and acquaintance, can entertain the most thorough contempt and even hatred for each other, without tranfgreffing the minutest article of good-breeding and civility. But those females, who want the advantages of birth and fortune, must be content to wrap themselves up in their integrity; for the lower fort are fo notoriously deficient in the requifites of politeness, that they would not fail to throw out the most cruel and bitter invectives against the pretty delinquents.

THE great world will, I doubt not, return me thanks for thus keeping the Canaille at a distance, and securing to them a quiet poffeffion of their enjoyments. And here I cannot but

obferve, how refpectable an order the DEMIREPS compofe, of which the lovely fifterhood muft all be married, and almoft all Right Honourable.

FOR this order, among many other embellishments of modern life, we are indebted to the French. Such flippant gaiety is more agreeable to the genius of that nation. There is a native bafhfulness inherent in my country-women, which it is not eafy to furmount: But our modern fine ladies, who take as much pains to polish their mind as to adorn their perfons, have got over this obftacle with incredible facility. They have fo fkilfully grafted the French genius for intrigue upon British beauty and liberty, that their conduct appears perfectly original: Though we muft do the French the juftice to allow, that when a lady of this airy disposition vifits Paris, fhe returns most wonderfully improved. Upon the whole, France appears the propereft school to inftruct the ladies in the theory of their conduct; but England, and more especially London, the most commodious place to put it in practice. In this town, indeed, a lady ftudious of improvement may in a very short time become a confiderable proficient, by frequenting the several academies kept conftantly open for her profit and inftruction.

inftruction. The card-tables and masquerades in particular have trained up fome ladies to a furprifing eminence, without the least affiftance from a foreign education.

IT is obferved, that the difference between the several species in the scale of beings is but juft fufficient to preserve their distinction; the highest of one order approaching so near to the lowest of the other, that the gradation is hard to be determined; as the colours of the rainbow, through an infinite variety of shades, die away into each other imperceptibly. The DEMI-REPS hold this intermediate station, in the characters of females, between the modeft women and the women of pleasure; to both which they are in fome meafure connected, as they ftand upon the utmost verge of reputation, and totter on the brink of infamy. It were therefore to be wifhed, that these ladies wore some symbol of their order, or were distinguished by fome peculiar mode of drefs. The Romans affigned different habits to perfons of different ages and stations; and I hope, that when the buftle of the enfuing elections is over, the new parliament will take this matter into confideration, and oblige the several claffes of females to distinguish themselves by fome external marks and badges of their principles.