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the Submiffion of a Son, but the Impatience of a Lover. Pray, Sir, think of three Years; what inexpreffible Scenes of Iniquietude, what Variety of Mifery muft I have gone thro' in three long whole Years? Miranda's Fortune is equal to thofe I have mention'd; but her Relations are not Intimates with mine. Ah! there's the Rub. Miranda's Perfon, Wit, and Humour, are what the niceft Fancy could imagine; and tho' we ⚫ know you to be fo elegant a judge of Beauty, yet there is none among all your various Characters of fine Women preferable to Miranda: In a Word, she is never guilty of doing any Thing but one amifs, (if fhe can be thought to do amifs by me) in being as blind to my Faults, as fhe is to her own Perfections.

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I am, SIR,

Your very humble obedient Servant,
Duftereraftus.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

HEN you spent fo much Time as you did lately in cenfuring the ambitieus young Gentlemen who ride in Triumph through Town and Country in Coach-boxes, I wish you had employed thofe Moments in Confideration of what paffes, fometimes withinfide of those Vehicles. I am fure I fuffered fufficiently by the Infolence and Ill-breeding of fome Perfons who travelled lately with me in a Stage-Coach out of Essex to London. I am fure, when you have heard what I have to fay, you will think there are Perfons under the Cha"racter of Gentlemen who are fit to be no where else but "in the Coach-box. Sir, I am a young Woman of a fober and religious Education, and have preferved thatCharacbut on Monday was Fortnight it was my Misfortune to come to London. I was no fooner clapt in the Coach, but to my great Surprize, two Perfons in the Habit of Gentlemen attack'd me with fuch indecent Difcourfe as I cannot repeat to you, fo you may conclude not fit ⚫ for me to hear. I had no Relief but the Hopes of a fpeedy end of my fhort Journey. Sir, form to yourself what a Perfecution this muft needs be to a virtuous and a chaft Mind; and in order to your proper handling fuch a fubject, fancy your Wife or Daughter, if you had any in fuch Circumftances, and what Treatment you would

ter;

you

think then due to fuch Dragoons. One of them was called a Captain, and entertained us with nothing but filthy ftupid Queftions, or lewd Songs all the way. Ready to burft with Shame and Indignation, I re• pined that Nature had not allowed us as eafily to fhut our Ears as our Eyes. But was not this a kind of Rape? Why fhould there be Acceffaries in Ravishment any more than Murder? Why should not every Contributer to the Abuse of Chastity fuffer Death? I am fure thefe fhameless Hell-hounds deferved it highly. Can exert yourself better than on fuch an Occafion? If you do not do it effectually, I'll read no more of your Papers. Has every impertinent Fellow a Privilege to torment me, who pay my Coach-hire as well as he? Sir, pray confider us in this Refpect as the weake Sex, and have nothing to defend ourselves; and I think it is as Gentleman-like to challenge a Woman to fight as to talk obfcenely in her Company, efpecially when he has not Power to ftir. Pray let me tell you a Story which you can make fit for publick View. I knew a Gentleman, who having a very good Opinion of the Gentlemen of the Army, invited ten or twelve of them to fup with him; and at the fame Time invited two or three Friends, who were 6 very fevere against the Manners and Morals of Gen⚫tlemen of that Profeffion. It happened one of them brought two Captains of his Regiment newly come into the Army, who at firft Onfet engaged the Compalewd Healths and fuitable Difcourfe. ny with very You may eafily imagine the Confufion of the Entertainer, who finding fome of his Friends very uneafy, defired to tell them a Story of a great Man, one Mr. Locke (whom I find you frequently mention) that being invited to dine with the then Lords Hallifax, Anglefey, and Shaftsbury; immediately after Dinner, inflead of Converfation, the Cards were called for, where the bad or good Succefs produced the ufual • Paffions of Gaming. Mr. Locke retiring to a Window, and writing, my Lord Anglefey defired to know what he was writing: Why, my Lords, anfwered he. I • could not fleep laft Night for the Pleafure and Improvement I expected from the Converfation of the greatest

• Men of the Age. This fo fenfibly ftung them, that they gladly compounded to throw their Cards in the Fire if he would his Paper, and fo a Converfation enfued fit for fuch Perfons. This Story preft fo hard upon the young Captains, together with the Concurrence of their fuperior Officers, that the young Fellows left the Company in Confufion. Sir, I know you hate long things, but if you like it, you may contract it, or how you will; but I think it has a Moral in it.

BUT, Sir, I am am told you are a famous Mechanick as well as a Looker-on, and therefore humbly propofe you would invent fome Padlock, with full • Power under your Hand and Seal, for all modeft Perfons, either Men or Women, to clap upon the Mouths ⚫ of all fuch impertinent impudent Fellows: And I wish you would publish a Proclamation, that no modeft Perfon who has a Value for her Countenance, and confequently would not be put out of it, prefume to travel after fuch a Day without one of them in their Pockets. I fancy a fmart Spectator upon this Subject ⚫ would ferve for fuch a Padlock; and that publick Notice may be given in your Paper where they may be had with Directions, Price 2 d. and that Part of the Directions may be, when any Perfon prefumes to be guilty of the above-mentioned Crime, the Party aggrieved may produce it to his Face, with a Request to read it to the Company. He must be very much har⚫dened that could outface that Rebuke; and his further Punishment I leave you to prefcribe.

Your humble Servant,

Penance Cruel.

XX

Wednesday,

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Rarus enim fermè sensus communis in illâ
Fortuna

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

孟孟

Juv.

AM a young Woman of Nineteen, the only Daughter of very wealthy Parents; and have my whole Life been used with a Tenderness which did me no great Service in my Education. I have perhaps an uncommon Defire for Knowledge of what is "fuitable to my Sex and Quality ; but as far as I can remember, the whole Dispute about me has been, ' whether fuch a Thing was proper for the Child to do, 6 or not? Or whether fuch or fuch Food was the more "wholefome for the young Lady to eat? This was ill for my Shape, that for my Complexion, and t'other 6 for my Eyes. I am not extravagant when I tell you, I do not know that I have trod upon the very Earth 'fince I was ten Years old: A Coach or Chair I am obliged to for all my Motions from one Place to 6 another ever fince I can remember. All who had to do to inftruct me, have ever been bringing Stories of the notable Things I have faid, and the Womanly manner of my behaving myfelf upon fuch and fuch 6. an Occafion. This has been my State, till I came to"wards Years of Womanhood; and ever fince I grew towards the Age of Fifteen, I have been abused after another manner. Now, forfooth, I am fo killing, no one can fately speak to me. Our Houfe is frequented by Men of Senfe, and I love to ask Questions when I fall into fuch Converfation; But I am cut fhort with fomething or other about my bright Eyes. There is, Sir, a Language particular for talking to Women in; and none but thofe of the very first good breeding (who are very few, and who feldom come into my way) can speak to us without regard to our Sex. Among the generality

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of those they call Gentlemen, it is impoffible for me to fpeak upon any Subject whatfoever, without provoking fomebody to fay, Oh! to be fure fine Mr. fuch-a-one must be very particularly acquainted with all that; all the World will contribute to her Entertainment and Information. Thus, Sir, I am fo handfome, that I murder all who approach me; fo wife, that I want no new Notices; and fo well bred, that I am treated by all that know me like a Fool, for no one will anfwer as if I were their Friend or Companion. Pray, Sir, be pleafed to take the part of us Beauties and Fortunes into your • Confideration, and do not let us be thus flattered out of our Senfes. I have got an Huffey of a Maid, who is moft craftily given to this ill Quality. I was at first diverted with a certain Abfurdity theCreature was guilty of in every thing the faid: She is a Country Girl,and in the Dialect of the Shire fhe was born in, would tell me that every body reckon'd her Lady had the purest Red and White in the World: Then he would tell me, I was the most like one Sifly Dobfon in their Town, who "made the Miller make away with himself, and walk afterwards in the Corn-Field where they used to meet. With all this, this cunning Huffey can lay Letters in my way, and put a Billet in my Gloves, and then ftand in it fhe knows nothing of it. I do not know, from my Birth to this Day, that I have been ever treated by any one as I ought; and if it were not for a few Books which I delight in, I fhould be at this Hour aNovice to all common Senfe. Would it not be worth your while to lay down Rules for Behaviour in this Cafe, and tell People, that we Fair-ones expect honeft plain Anfwers as well as other People? Why muft I,good Sir, becaufe I have a good Air, a fine Complexion, and am in the Bloom of my Years, be misled in all my Actions and have the Notions of Good and Ill confounded in my Mind, for no other Offence, but becaufe I have the Advantages of Beauty and Fortune? Indeed, Sir, what with the filly Homage which is paid us by the fort of People I have above fpoken of, and the utter Negligence which others have for us, the Converfation of us young Women ⚫ of Condition is no other than what must expofe us to ⚫ Ignorance

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