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cultivating his faculties. The school of Rugby, in which he had, by the rules of its foundation, a right to be instructed, was then in high reputation, under the Rev. Mr. Holyock, to whose care most of the neighbouring families, even of the highest rank, entrufted their fons. He had judgement to discover, and, for fome time, generofity to encourage the genius of young Cave; and was fo well pleased with his quick progrefs in the fchool, that he declared his refolution to breed him for the university, and recommended him as a fervitor to some of his scholars of high rank. But profperity which depends upon the caprice of others is of fhort duration. Cave's fuperiority in literature exalted him to an invidious familiarity with boys who were far above him in rank and expectations; and, as in unequal affociations it always happens, whatever unlucky prank was played was imputed to Cave. When any mischief, great or fmall, was done, though perhaps others boasted of the ftratagem when it was fuccessful, yet upon detection or mifcarriage the fault was fure to fall upon poor Cave.

At laft, his miftrefs by fome invisible means loft a favourite cock. Cave was with little examination ftigmatized as the thief or murderer; not because he was more apparently criminal than others, but because he was more easily reached by vindictive juftice. From that time Mr. Holyock withdrew his kindness vifibly from him, and treated him with harshness, which the crime, in its utmost aggravation, could fcarcely deferve; and which furely he would have forborn, had he considered how hardly the habitual influence of birth and fortune is refifted; and how frequently men, not wholly without fenfe of virtue, are betrayed to acts more atrocious

than

than the robbery of a hen-rooft, by a defire of pleasing

their fuperiors.

Those reflections his mafter never made, or made without effect; for under pretence that Cave obftructed the discipline of the school, by selling clandeftine affiftance, and supplying exercises to idlers, he was oppreffed with unreasonable tasks, that there might be an opportunity of quarrelling with his failure; and when his diligence had furmounted them, no regard was, paid to the performance. Cave bore this perfecution a-while, and then left the school, and the hope of a literary education, to feek fome other means of gaining a livelihood.

He was first placed with a collector of the excife. He used to recount with fome pleasure a journey or two which he rode with him as his clerk, and relate the victories that he gained over the excifemen in grammatical difputations. But the infolence of his mistress, who employed him in fervile drudgery, quickly dif gufted him, and he went up to London in quest of more fuitable employment,

He was recommended to a timber-merchant at the Bankfide, and, while he was there on liking, is said to have given hopes of great mercantile abilities; but this place he foon left, I know not for what reason, and was bound apprentice to Mr. Collins, a printer of fome reputation, and deputy alderman.

This was a trade for which men were formerly qualified by a literary education, and which was pleafing to Cave, because it furnished some employment for his fcholaftic attainments. Here, therefore, he refolved to fettle, though his master and mistress lived in perpetual difcord, and their house was therefore no com

fortable

fortable habitation. From the inconveniences of these domeftic tumults he was foon released, having in only two years attained fo much skill in his art, and gained fo much the confidence of his mafter, that he was fent without any fuperintendant to conduct a printing-house at Norwich, and publish a weekly paper. In this undertaking he met with fome oppofition, which produced a public controverfy, and procured young Cave the reputation of a writer.

His mafter died before his apprenticeship was expired, and he was not able to bear the perverfeness of his miftrefs. He therefore quitted her houfe upon a ftipulated allowance, and married a young widow with whom he lived at Bow. When his apprenticeship was over, he worked as a journeyman at the printing-house of Mr. Barber, a man much diftinguished, and employed by the Tories, whofe principles had at that time fo much prevalence with Cave, that he was for some years a writer in "Mift's Journal;" which, though he afterwards obtained by his wife's interest a fmall place in the Poft-office, he for fome time continued. But as intereft is powerful, and converfation, however mean, in time perfuafive, he by degrees inclined to another party; in which, however, he was always moderate, though fteady and determined.

When he was admitted into the Poft-office he still continued, at his intervals of attendance, to exercise his trade, or to employ himself with some typographical bufinefs. He corrected the "Gradus ad Parnaffum;' and was liberally rewarded by the company of Stationers. He wrote an "Account of the Criminals," which had for fome time a confiderable fale; and published many little pamphlets that accident brought into

his

his hands, of which it would be very difficult to recover the memory. By the correspondence which his place in the Poft-office facilitated, he procured country news-papers, and fold their intelligence to a Journalist in London, for a guinea a week.

He was afterwards raised to the office of clerk of the franks, in which he acted with great spirit and firmnefs; and often ftopped franks, which were given by members of parliament to their friends, because he thought fuch extension of a peculiar right illegal. This raifed many complaints, and having ftopped, among others, a frank given to the old duchess of Marlborough by Mr. Walter Plummer, he was cited before the house, as for breach of privilege, and accufed, I fuppofe very unjustly, of opening letters to detect them. He was treated with great harshness and severity, but, declining their questions by pleading his oath of fecrecy, was at laft difmiffed. And it must be recorded to his honour, that, when he was ejected from his office, he did not think himself discharged from his truft, but continued to refufe to his nearest friends any information about the management of the office.

By this conftancy of diligence and diverfification of employment, he in time collected a fum fufficient for the purchase of a small printing-office, and began the "Gentleman's Magazine," a periodical pamphlet, of which the scheme is known wherever the English language is fpoken. To this undertaking he owed the afflu ence in which he paffed the last twenty years of his life, and the fortune which he left behind him, which, though large, had been yet larger, had he not rafhly and wantonly impaired it by innumerable projects, of which I know not that ever one fucceeded.

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"The Gentleman's Magazine," which has now fubfifted fifty years, and ftill continues to enjoy the favour of the world *, is one of the most fuccessful and lucrative pamphlets which literary history has upon record, and therefore deferves, in this narrative, particular notice.

Mr. Cave, when he formed the project, was far from expecting the fuccefs which he found; and others had fo little profpect of its confequence, that though he had for feveral years talked of his plan among printers and bookfellers, none of them thought it worth the trial. That they were not reftrained by their virtue from the execution of another man's defign, was fufficiently apparent as foon as that defign began to be gainful; for in a few years a multitude of magazines arofe, and perifhed; only the London Magazine, fupported by a powerful affociation of bookfellers, and circulated with all the art, and all the cunning of trade, exempted itself from the general fate of Cave's invaders, and obtained, though not an equal, yet a confiderable fale.

Cave now began to afpire to popularity; and being a greater lover of poetry than any other art, he fometimes offered fubjects for poems, and propofed prizes for the best performers. The firft prize was 50 l. for which, being but newly acquainted with wealth, and thinking the influence of 501. extremely great, he expected the first authors of the kingdom to appear as competitors; and offered the allotment of the prize to the universities. But when the time came, no name was feen among the writers that had been ever seen before; the universities and several private men rejected * This was faid in the beginning of the year 1781; and may be repeated in 1786.

The London Magazine ceased to exist in 1785.

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