the payment of it. On the death of Captain Tempeft, which happened fhortly after, the money was replaced. That Mr. Elwes was no lofer by the event, does not take away from the merit of the deed; and it lands amongst thofe fingular records of his character, that reafon has to reconcile or philofophy to account for, that the fame man, at one and the fame moment, could be prodigal of thoufands, and yet almost deny to himself the necessaries of life!

As no gleam of favourite paffion, or any ray of amufenient, broke through this gloom of penury, his infatiable defire of faving was now become uniform and fyftematic. He used still to ride about the country on one of these mares-but then he rode her very œconomically; on the foft turf adjoining the road, without putting himself to the expence of fhoes as he obferved,

The turf was fo pleasant to a horfe's foot!" And when any gentleman called to pay him a vifit, and the boy who attended in the ftables was profufe enough to put a little hay before his horfe, old Elwes would flily fteal back into the ftable, and take the hay very carefully away.

That very ftrong appetite which Mr. Elwes had in fome measure reftrained during the long fitting of parliament, he now indulged moft voraciously, and on every thing he could find. To fave, as he thought, the expence of going to a butcher, he would have a whole fheep killed, and fo eat mutton to the end of the chapter. When he occafionally had his river drawn, though fometimes horfe-loads of fmall fish were taken, not one would he fuffer to be thrown in again, for he obferv

4

ed, "He fhould never fee them again!" Game in the laft state of putrefaction, and meat that walked about his plate, would he continue to eat, rather than have new things killed before the old provifion was finished.

With this diet-the charnel-house of fuftenance his drefs kept paceequally in the laft ftage of abjolute diffolution. Sometimes he would walk about in a tattered browncoloured hat: and fometimes in a red and white woollen cap, like a ; prifoner confined for debt.

When any friens, who might occafionally be with him, were abfent, he would carefully put out his own fire, and walk to the house of a neighbour; and thus make one fire ferve both. In fhort, whatever Cervantes or Moliere have pictured, in their most fportive moods, of avarice in the extreme, here might they have feen realized or furpaffed!

His hoes he never would fuffer to be cleaned, left they should be worn out the fooner.

The fcene of mortification, at which Mr. Elwes was now arrived, was all but a denial of the common neceffaries of life: and indeed it might have admitted a doubt, whether or not, if his manors, his fish-ponds, and fome grounds, in his own hands, had not furnished a fubfifte ence, where he had not any thing actually to buy, he would not, rather than have bought any thing, have ftarved-ftrange as this may appear, it is not exaggerated.-He, one day, during this period, dined upon the remaining part of a moorhen, which had been brought out of the river by a rat! and at another, eat an undigested part of a pike, which the large one had fwallowed,

C 4

fwallowed, but had not finished, and which were taken in this ftate in a net! At the time this laft circumftance happened, he difcovered a ftrange kind of fatisfaction, for he faid to me-" Aye! this was killing two birds with one ftone!" In the room of all comment of all moral-let me fay, that at this time, Mr. Elwes was perhaps worth nearly eight hundred thousand pounds! and, at this period, he had not made his will, of course, was not faving from any fentiment of affection for any perfon.

As, in the day, he would now allow himself no fire, he went to bed as foon as day closed, to fave candle; and had began to deny himfelf even the pleasure of fleeping in beets. In hort, he had now nearly brought to a climax the moral of his whole life-the perfect vanity of wealth.

On removing from Stoke, he went to his farm-houfe at Thaydon Hall; a scene of more ruin and defolation, if pomble, than either his houfes in Suffolk or Berkshire. It ftood alone, on the borders of Epping Foreft; and an old man and woman, his tenants, were the only perfons with whom he could hold any converfe. Here he fell ill; and, as he would have no affistance, and had not even a fervant, he lay, unattended and almoft forgotten, for nearly a fortnight-indulging, even in death, that avarice which malady could not fubdue. It was at this period he began to think of making his will.

The property difpofed of to two natural children, may amount, perhaps, to five hundred thousand pounds. The entailed eftates fall to Mr. 'Timms, for of the late Richard Timms, Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Troop of Horse Guards.

The clofe of Mr. Elwes's life was ftill referved for one fingularity more, and which will not be held lefs fingular than all that has paffed before it, when his difpofition and his advanced age are confidered. He gave away his affections: he conceived the tender paffion.-In plain terms, having been accuftomed for fome time to pass his hours, out of oeconomy, with the two maid fervants in the kitchen-one of them had the art to induce him to fall in love with her; and it is matter of doubt, had it not been discovered, whether he would not have had the power over him to have made him marry her.

But good fortune, and the atten tion of his friends, faved him from this laft act-in which, perhaps, the pitiable infirmity of nature, weakened and worn down by age and perpetual anxiety, is in fome meafure to be called to account.

Mr. George Elwes having now fettled at his feat at Marcham, in Berkshire, he was naturally defirous, that in the affiduities of his wife, his father might at length find a comfortable home. In London he was certainly most uncomfortable: but ftill, with these temptations before and behind him, a journey, with any expence annexed to it, was infurmountable. This, however, was luckily obviated by an offer from Mt. Partis, a gentleman in the law, to take him to his ancient feat in Berkshire, with his purfe perfectly whole-a circumftance fo pleafing, that the general intelligence which renders this gentleman fo entertaining, was not adeqnate to it in the opinion of Mr. Elwes. But there was one circumstance still very diftreffing-the old gentleman had now nearly worn out his laft coat, and he would not buy

a new

first day he was conveyed to bed from which he rofe no more. His appetite was gone-he had but a faint recollection of any thing about him; and his laft coherent words were addreffed to his fon, Mr. John Elwes, in hoping he had left him what he wished." On the morning of the 26th of November, he expired without a figh!-with the eafe with which an infant goes to fleep on the breaft of its mother, worn out with "the rattles and the toys" of a long day.

Anecdotes relative to the English Nation; from D'Archenholz's Picture of England.

HE national pride of the English is a natural confequence of a political conftitution, by which every citizen is exempted from any other dependence than that impofed by the laws.

This pride is carried among them to a great length. Indeed, how is it poffible to know and to feel all the merit of fuch a fyftem of liberty, without attaching an uncommon value to it? This fame fentiment, with which we fo violently reproach the English of the prefent times, has always been felt by the mot enlightened nations in the world.

The Greeks and Romans carried it ftill farther. This laudable pride, which with them was united to a lively and fervid patriotifm, occafioned thofe heroic actions which will for ever be engraved in the records of immortality. If the modern hiftory of England be equally filled with glorious atchievements, it is to a love of their country that all this ought to be afcribed; a love

which, carried to the extreme, as it has been, by ho haughty iflanders, cannot be conceived without a certain degree of contempt for those nations who do not poffefs fimilar fenfations.

This fault, if it is one, is ftill more common amongst the Spaniards than them; but being founded on no folid grounds, it has become very juftly a fubject of ridicule. The English themselves are hated on this account, although their very enemies, at the bottom of their hearts, pay tribute to their extraordinary merit:-Envy will glide into nations, as well as individuals.

There are, perhaps, no people in Europe who poffefs fo much natural pride as the French: it will be easy, with a little penetration, to reconcile this with that urbanity and thofe polite manners for which they are fo diftinguished. It is under this mask that the fly Frenchman conceals thofe marks of envy with which he views his English neighbours.

It was this offenfive pride of the English that fo many nations ftrove to humble during the American war. Many even of the fates of Germany, among whom the fpirit of imitation exercifes fuch a defpotic rule, that they neither think, live, nor exift but after the French, were animated with the fame defire. They carried their madness fo far as to forget the blood and the treafures, which that nation, in the prefent century, has facrificed for the advantage and repofe of their country. They even withed, without knowing why, to fee the fource of her greatnefs dried up.

It ought, however, to be remarked, that the principal members of the empire, guided by a more found

and

and judicious policy, trembled for England; even Switzerland, which was neither connected with her by politics nor commerce, offered up continual vows for her preferva

tion.

A traveller, more efpecially if he paffes immediately from France into Great Britain, in looking for that politeness at once fo fplendid and fo trifling, which he has been ufed to, will not fail to imagine the English rude and uncultivated; and this merely because he does not give himself the trouble to fearch beyond the furface of their character.

Grofley, a member of the French academy, recounts, with fome humour, in one of his letters, a circumftance that happened to him. He had gone to England, prejudiced with the idea, that he was about to vifit the moft unpolished nation in Europe. A few days after his arrival he went to the theatre. The pit was very crowded; and being there alone, and exceedingly inquifitive, he began to recollect the little English of which he was mafter, and put several queftions to the perfon next him. His neighbour, who did not understand a word of the jargon which he uttered, rifes precipitately, turns his back to him, and departs. Grofley was but little furprised at this conduct, fo extremely ungenteel in appearance, and which, for fome moments, only ferved to confirm him in his former opinion but he was foon put to the blush when he faw the Englishman return. This good-natured man had perceived, at the other end of the pit, one of his friends who fpoke French; and having pierced the crowd which feparated them, he returned with much difficulty, leading him in his hand.-I afk, whe

:

ther this is true politenefs or not? A Frenchman, by paying him a handfome compliment, would have imagined that he had done enough; the Engliman, on the contrary, thought that he ought to do more, and he accordingly did it. If it is then in actions, and not in fimple words, that real urbanity confifts, one is obliged to confefs that the English are the most polished nation in Europe.

The principle of fuch actions is' there alfo more pure, because a beggar has no occafion to humble himself before the most wealthy, and a citizen in easy circumstances knows no bounds to his independ

ence.

The moral character of the English has indeed degenerated, bat, notwithstanding this, it is ftill eftimable; for it is not from its parliaments, its oriental depredators, and the crews of its privateers, who all aim at a certain end, that we ought to judge of the nation. Many members of parliament afpire at eminent fituations, and allow themfelves to be corrupted; fo alfo do the adventurers who leave Europe with an intention to plunder Afia; and it is the very nature of pirates to rob and laughter.

Is it from the refufe of a community that we are to imbibe our opinions of the moral character of a people; or from a multitude of godlike actions, which are performed every day, by thoufands in this island?

An extraordinary event, which occurred a few years fince, wili ferve to elucidate the noble and generous manner of thinking among the Englith. The emigrations from the empire, of which fuch fad complaints are made, even at this day, and