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moscheas, are by him instructed in the Mohammedan ritual. The Disdár Agá is the governor of the fortress of Athens, which was anciently called the Acropolis; and the Azáp Agá is an officer who commands a few soldiers in that fortress.

DUKE OF MEDINA CELI.

In consequence of the defeat at Saragossa, and the very low state to which France was reduced, Philip* apprehended he should be obliged to relinquish his pretensions to the throne of Spain. Amongst others, it was suspected, that the Duke of Medina Celi was in the interest of his competitor, Charles. To render so powerful a prince inactive, would be almost equal to a victory; but the method to effect it seemed difficult, especially in the exhausted state to which Philip was reduced. Sir Patrick Lawless, an Irish gentleman, then a colonel in the French service, charged himself singly to secure the person of the Duke. Having previously concerted all his measures, he repaired to the ducal palace, as charged with a special commission from Philip. He invited the Duke to take a walk on a fine terrace, in order to converse the more freely. As the conversation was interesting, they insensibly rambled to a considerable distance from the suite of the Duke, until they came to a passage which led to the high road, where the Colonel had a carriage in waiting. Lawless in a few words told his Highness, that he must directly, and without the least appearance of constraint, take a seat in the coach; as he had engaged, at the hazard of his head, to bring him to Madrid, where he would find Philip ready to receive him with open arms. The determined tone with which these words were uttered, the appearance of the man, and above all, his character for resolution and bravery, induced the Duke to resort to the only alternative. They soon arrived at Madrid, where he met with a most gracious reception. The battle of Almanza, which happened some time after, made the Duke deem his visitor, his preserver, as well as that of his immense estate. Lawless was raised in a short time to the rank of Lieutenant-general, and governor of Majorca, and in the course of a few years, Philip appointed him his ambassador to the court of Versailles.

* Philip V.

THE ADVANTAGES OF A PROFESSION.

MR. WILLIAMS was the school-fellow, the confidential friend, and afterwards, the private secretary, of Richard West, Esq. Keeper of the seals in Ireland, in the reign of George the first.

This gentleman is mentioned for the sake of introducing part of a letter well worth recording, which, in the anxiety of real friendship, he wrote to the widow of his patron, on the subject of her son, Mr. Richard West, young man of lively imagination and elegant manners; who, vibrating between a love of literary leisure, and the severity of professional study, incurred the risk of sinking into sordid supineness.

A tendency to this inglorious ease is the misfortune of the age, the natural effect of morbid refinement on an immense population, from which, and from the circumstance of genteel employments, sufficiently numerous, not offering, our coffee-houses are filled with listless loungers, and our jails with wretched prisoners, the unhappy victims of pride and vanity.

The lady to whom the letter is addressed, was a daughter of Bishop Burnet; and the young man, who is the subject of it, was in the habits of the closest intimacy with Mr. Gray, a man scrupulously nice in the choice of his associates. Several of his letters are preserved by Mr. Mason, and his Ode to May, deserved and obtained the praise of Dr. Johnson.

Lyons, Jan. 12, 1739.

"I often think of my friend Dick, and write on purpose that you may communicate what I say to him. You have not spoke of him a great while; from whence I conclude two things, that he is pretty well, but does not study the law; if he did, your satisfaction and his,

would soon make me hear of it.

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Young people do not see far, and, what is worse, do not care to be advised by those who can. They will not be the better for our experience. What would I not undertake, were I twenty years of age, and with my present knowledge of the world! It is at his service.

"I have often considered his aversion to the law, and lament it, because it is a natural, and almost a sure method of advancing himself. His father's name so much esteemed, his friends and mine, with his own parts,

VOL. IV.

could scarcely have failed. He has no fortune, at least, none sufficient to keep him clean, unless in retirement, which I know (though perhaps he does not) he never will chuse.

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"My case and his were much the same. With small expectations of fortune, and lively parts, I was soon introduced into good company; they were pleased, and I was flattered. My boy,' said my father, who was an excellent mathematician, but knew very little of the world; My boy shall qualify himself for polite circles, and some one or other of these great men will provide for him.'

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"I directly studied French, Italian, dancing, fencing, riding, drawing, heraldry and music. In short, I was made a fine gentleman, instead of being educated to a profession; instead of acquiring knowledge, that was useful and necessary to mankind, I was furnished only with the superfluities of life. Without a fortune, I was taught to live as if I had one. Habits were formed, which if I did not succeed, would make me miserable for the rest of my days.

"Something more than Greek, Latin, French, Italian, &c. was necessary; and I was shut up for two years, in order to study the History of Europe, Domat on the Civil Law, Grotius, Puffendorff, and lastly, four folio volumes of Treaties. This labour gone through with tolerable success, I was next to find a patron. My great friends had not been used to hear me speak of wanting employment; they relished my conversation, and praised my Odes; however, they smiled on, till my father's pockets grew low, and dress and chair hire became too expensive.

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Luckily a patron was at last found, who understood what wit and parts were, as he excelled in them himself; but he knew, that these alone, were not enough; I endeavoured to convince him, I had more material furniture in my head, and succeeded. We went abroad together; the weight of his character, which was excellent, and his being a near relation of the minister, gave ine reason to expect the most flattering consequences.— What hindered? Why, the commonest thing upon earth, my patron turned out, and Mr. Secretary had to seek for another.

"With better luck than ordinary, and two or three great men's recommendation, another was found, and my little boat was again afloat; the gale was prosperous

and

the weather fine; but in a twelvemonth, the envoy died. These changes astonished me; I was a young man, and did not recollect that people were to die, or ministers to be turned out.

"What was to be done now? No money, and my former patron in disgrace. Friends timid and cold, unable or unwilling to serve me. In this condition, in want of every thing but a fine coat and a laced shirt, Ilanguish ed on for three long melancholy years; sometimes elevated for a moment, by a smile or a nod, but for the most part solitary, dejected, and reduced to the agony of talking of my misfortunes and wants, and that basest of all conditions, the intolerable slavery of borrowing to support an idle, useless being. What would I then have given for a profession. My Greek, my wit, my Italian, my dancing, and my treaties, were entirely useless to

me.

"In this wretched situation, retired eighteen miles from London to an obscure village, in debt to tailors, drapers, butchers, and chandlers shops, I received a letter from an intimate friend, acquainting me, that he was just appointed to a considerable employment; and desiring me to come directly to town, and determine which of the considerable places, he had to bestow, would be most agreeable to me.

Guess at my joy and gratitude, I can express neither, any more than my grief, but by those tears which now flow from my eyes, because that my friend is no

more.

"He overlooked my unfitness for any place under him, from the ignorance of the law; and obliged me to take the best he had to give, which was full a thousand pounds a year. His age and my own, promised riches for many years to come; but it was permitted that he should die too, with which I end the history of myself.

"My reason for reciting it, you and Dick know too well, is to make him sensible, that WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF SOMETHING, WHICH MANKIND CANNOT DO WITHOUT, NEITHER WIT, PARTS, FRIENDS, NOR PATRONS, CAN SECURE A MAN FROM WANT.

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"Let us suppose for a moment as law is not his favou rite study, that he should succeed in the diplomatic path, and be appointed Secretary to a Minister at a Foreign. Court: let it be remembered, that he cannot obtain that without a kind of knowledge to the full as difficult and disagreeable in acquiring as the law of England: as re

mote from wit and poetry, and those pursuits with which he has too long amused himself. But, supposing him to have so far succeeded, as to be King's Secretary to the first embassy in Europe, he will not be in half so comfortable a condition to a man of sense, as if he was in a three pair of strairs chamber at the Temple, in the way of getting only 2001. a year.

"In short, places are so precarious, the attendance in search of them, so mean and unmanly, refusals and delays so insupportable, and the loss of them, when obtained, so dreadful to one who has not a good private fortune, that it is a line no reasonable man would ever adopt by choice; A USEFUL PROFESSION IS BETTER THAN

A THOUSAND PATRONS.

"I grieve when I recollect, that my friend Dick is now twenty-two, and has not yet read one book since he left Eton, for which he or his family, will be at all the better as long as he lives."

We are not able to say what effect so much good advice produced; but fear the result was not that which the giver of it wished, as Mr. West, with a good heart, and many companionable qualities, was infected with the cacöethes scribendi, which, generally speaking, disqualifies those who labor under that incurable disease, for performing either the common business, or the moré important duties of life, with efficacy and spirit.

MILITARY HINTS.

THE army is perpetually changing its fashions, and not always for the better. Formerly the officers in the ranks were continually dressing their divisions with their espontons, and were much distinguished by their clothes from the soldiers. Now they are expected to be as steady under arms as their men; and their dress is nearly the same. This may have a better effect at a review, and in real service contribute something perhaps to the officer's safety, though not so much as has been imagined. Yet

* Much was said of the American riflemen picking out our officers, especially at the battle of Bunker's Hill. The writer of this compared the list of the killed and wounded there, with these of the first unsuccessful attack on Quebec and the subsequent victory, too dearly bought by the fall of Wolfe, in the seven years war. In both these last, the proportion of officers killed and wounded to that

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