one must be damned except herfelf. § 136. On the affected Strangeness of fome

It is no lefs common than extraordinary, to meet a nobleman in London, who ftares you full in the face, and feems quite a ftranger to it; with whom you have spent the preceding fummer at Harwich or Brighthelmftone; with whom you have often dined; who has often fingled you out, and taken you under his arm, to accompany him with a tête à tête walk; who has accofted you, all the fummer, by your furname, but, in the winter, does not remember either your name, or any feature in your

face.

I fhall not attempt to defcribe the pain fuch right honourable behaviour, at first meeting it, gives to a man of fenfibility and fentiment, nor the contempt he must conceive for fuch en. nobled beings. Another clafs of thefe right honourable intimates are indeed fo far condefcending, as to fubmit to own you a little, if it be in a corner of the treet; or even in the Park, if it be at a distance from any real good company. Their porters will even let you into their houfes, if my lord has no company; and they themfelves will receive you very civilly, but will fhun you a few hours after, at court, as a pick-pocket (though you be a man of

very near-fighted) that he fees you, and that he is certain you fee and know him. This done, walk deliberately to the other fide of the Mall, and, my life for it, his lordship either trots over to you, or calls you, by your furname, to him. His pride is alarmed; he cannot conceive the reafon, why one, he has all along confidered would be proud of the leaft mark of his countenance, fhould avoid taking an even chance for fo great an honour as a bow or a nod.-But I would not be understood, that his lordship is not much offended at you, though he make you a vifit the next day, and never did before, in order to drop you for ever after, left you fhould him. This is not conjecture, but what I have often put in practice with fuccefs, if any fuccefs it is to be fo noticed; and as a further proof of it, I do affure you, I had once the honour of being fometimes known to, and by, feveral lords, and loft all their friendfhip, because I would not let them know me at one time very intimately, at another, not at all-for which lofs I do not at all find myself the worse.

Sir,

I am your humble fervant.
B. Thornton.

thers of Quality.

Though it is commonly faid, that pride and contempt for inferiors are strongly implanted in the breafts of our nobility, it must be allowed, that their politenefs and good-breeding render it, in general, imperceptible; and, as one may well fay,

good fenfe, good family, and good cha- § 137. On the Arrogance of younger Broracter) for having no other blemish than that your modefty or diffidence perhaps has occafioned your being a long time in the army, without attaining the rank of a general, or at the law, withouting called within the bar. I could recite many inftances of this kind of polite high-breeding, that every man of little ftation, who has been a quality-broker, has often experienced; but I fhall wave that, and conclude by thewing you, how certainly to avoid fuch contempt, and even decoy his lordship out of his walk to take notice of you, who would not have known you had you continued in

his.

The method is this: fuppofe we fee my lord coming towards Spring-garden, under Marlborough-garden-walk; inftead of meeting him, approach fo near only, that you are certain, from the convexity of his eye (for they are all

He that has pride, not fhewing that he's proud, Let me not know it, he's not proud at all, one may also affirm, with truth, of the British nobility, that he who has no pride at all cannot fhew lefs than they do. They treat the meanest subject with the greatest affability, and take pains to make every perfon they converfe with forget the distance that there is between him and them.

As the younger brothers, and other near relations of the nobility, have the fame education, and the fame examples 3 E3

ever

ever before their eyes, one might expect to fee in them the fame affable behaviour, the fame politenefs. But, ftrange as it is, nothing is more different than the behaviour of my lord, and my lord's brother. The latter you generally fee proud, infolent, and overbearing, as if he poffeffed all the wealth and honour of the family. One might imagine from his behaviour, that the pride of the family, like the eftates in fome boroughs, always defcended to the younger brother. I have known one of thefe young noblemen, with no other fortune than this younger brother's inheritance, above marrying a rich merchant's daughter, because he would not disgrace himself with a plebeian alliance; and rather choose to give his hand to a lady Betty, or a lady Charlotte, with nothing but her title for Ther portion.

I know a younger brother in a noble family, who, twelve years ago, was fo regardless of his birth, as to defire my lord his father to fend him to a mer chant's counting-houfe for his education but, though he has now one of the best houses of bufinefs of any in Leghorn, and is already able to buy his father's eftate, his brothers and fif. ters will not acknowledge him as a rela tion, and do not fcruple to deny his being their brother, at the expence of their lady-mother's reputation.

It always raifes my mirth to hear with what contempt thefe younger brothers of quality fpeak of perfons in the three learned profeffions, even thofe at the top of each. The bench of bifhops are never diftinguished by them with any higher appellation, than-thofe parfons: and when they fpeak of the judges, and thofe who hold the firft places in the courts of justice, to a gentleman at the bar, they fay-your law yers and the doctors Heberden, Addington, and Afkew, are, in their genteel dialect, called-thefe phyfical people. Trade is fuch a difgrace, that there is no difference with them between the highest and lowest that are concerned in it; they rank the greatest merchants among common tradefmen, as they can fee no difference between a counting-house and a chandler's fhop,

2

They think the run of their father's of their brother's kitchen a more genteel means of fubfiftence than what is afforded by any calling or occupation whatfoever, except the army or the navy; as if nobody was deferving enough of the honour to cut a Frenchman's throat, but perfons of the first rank and diftinction."

As I live fo far from the polite end of the town as Bedford-row, I undergo much decent raillery on that account, whenever I have the honour of a visit from one of these younger brothers of quality: he wonders who makes my wigs, my cloaths, and my liveries: he praises the furniture of my houfe, and allows my equipage to be handsome; but declares he difcovers more of expence than tafte in either: he can dif cover that Hallet is not my upholsterer, and that my chariot was not made by Butler: in fhort, I find he thinks one might as well compare the Banquettinghoufe at Whitehall with the Manfionhoufe for elegance, as to look for that in Bedford-row, which can only be found about St. James's. He will not touch any thing at my table but a piece of mutton: he is fo cloyed with made difhes, that a plain joint is a rarity: my claret too, though it comes from Meff. Brown and Whitefoord, and no otherwife differs from my lord's than in being bought for ready money, is put by for my port. Though he politely hobs or nobs with my wife, he does it as if I had married my cook; and she is further mortified with feeing her carpet treated with as little ceremony as if it was an oil-cloth. If, after dinner, one of her damask chairs has the honour of his lordly breech, another is indulged with the favour of raifing his leg. To any gentleman who drinks to this man of falhion, he is his moft obedient humble fervant, without bending his body, or looking to fee who does him this honour. If any perfon, even under the degree of a knight, fpeaks to him, he will condefcend to fay Yes or No; but he is as likely as Sir Francis Wronghead to fay the one when he should fay the other. If I prefume to talk about any change in the miniftry before him, he difcovers great forprife at my igno.

rance

fhould be proud of fo valuable an "acquaintance ;" and, refuming his feat, proceeded to finish his pamphlet. Upon taking leave, my lord renewed his former declaration; but his brother was too intent on his reading to obferve the bow made to him by the valuable acquaintance he a few minutes before profeffed himself so proud of.

I am not ignorant, however, that there are many younger brothers to peers, who acknowledge, with much concern, the truth of what has been faid, and are ready to allow, that, in too many families of diftinction, the younger brother is not the finer gentle

§ 138. Perfons of Quality proved to be Traders.

I always reflect with pleasure, that ftrong as the fondnefs of imitating the French has been among people of 3 E 4

fashion, they have not yet introduced among us their contempt for trade. A French marquis, who has nothing to boaft of but his high birth, would scorn to take a merchant's daughter by the hand in wedlock, though her father fhould be as rich as the Buffy of the Eaft Indies; as if a Frenchman was only to be valued, like a black-pudding, for the goodness of his blood; while our nobility not only go into the city for a wife, but fend their younger fons to a merchant's counting houfe for education. But, I confefs, I never confidered, till very lately, how far they have from time to time departed from this French folly in their efteem for trade; and I find, that the greatest part of our nobility may be properly deemed merchants, if not traders, and even fhopkeepers.

In the first place, we may confider many of our nobility in the fame light with Beaver or Henfon, or any other keepers of repofitories. The breed ing of running-horfes is become a favourite traffic among them; and we know how very largely perfons of the first fashion deal this way, and what great addition they make to their yearly income by winning plates and matches, and then felling the horfe for a prodigious fum. What advantages muft accrue to them, if they have a mare of blood to breed from! But what a treasure have they if they are poffeffed of the ftallion in fashion! I can therefore fee no difference between this occupation of my lord and that of any Yorkshire dealer whatfoever and if his lordship is not always fo fucceff. ful in his trade as the jockey of the North, it is not because he does not equally hold it fair to cheat his own brother in horfe flesh. If a duke rides his own horfes on the courfe, he does not, in my judgment, differ from any other jockey on the turf; and I think it the fame thing, whether a man gets money by keeping a ftallion, or whether gets it by keeping a buil or a boar for the parish.

he

We know of many perfons of quality whofe paflion for trade has made them dealers in fighting-cocks; and I heard one declare to me lately, "that there

was no trufting to fervants in that bu finefs; that he fhould make nothing of it, if he did not look after the cocks himself; and that, for a month before he is to fight a match, he always takes care of and feeds them himself; and for that purpofe (ftrange as it may feem) he lies in a little room clofe by them every night. I cannot but admire this induftry, which can make my noble friend quit his lady's bed, while tradefmen of a lower rank neglect their bufinefs for the charms of a kept miftrefs. Butit must be allowed, that thefe dealers in live fowl are to be confidered as poulterers, as well as thofe who fell the deer of their park are to be ranked among the butchers in Clare- market; though the latter endeavour artfully to avoid this, by felling their venifon to paftry-cooks and fishmongers.

What fhall we fay of thofe who fend venifon, hares, pheasants, partridges, and all other game, to their poulterer and fishmonger in London, to receive an equivalent in poultry and fish in winter, when they are in town? Though thefe fportfmen do not truck their commodities for money, they are nothing lefs than higlers and huck fters, dealers and chapmen, in the proper fenfe of the words: for an exchange was never denied to be a fale, though it is affirmed to be no robbery.

I come now to the confideration of thofe who deal in a much larger and more extenfive way, and are properly ftiled merchants, while thofe already mentioned are little more than traders in the retailing bufinefs: what immense fums are received by thofe electioneering merchants, whofe fortunes and influence in many counties and boroughs enable them to procure a feat in parliament for any that will pay for it! How profitable has nurfing the eftates of extravagant perfons of diftinction proved to many a right honourable friend! I do not mean from his fhewing himself a true fteward, but from the weight and intereft he has got by it at a general election. What Jew deals larger than many of our nobility in the flocks and in lottery tickets? And, perhaps, one fhould not find more bulls and bears at Jonathan's than at Arthur's. If you

cannot ;