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his recovery.Saturday last, Philip Frost, a dealer in gunpowder, died at his house on Snow-hill, of a high fever, caught by overheating himself in walking for a wager from No Man's Land to the World's End.Last week, Mr. John Fog, teacher of astronomy in Rotherhithe, was married to the widow Fairweather, of Puddledock. We hear from Bath, that on Thursday last a duel was fought on Lansdown, by Captain Sparrow, and Richard Hawke, Esq. in which the latter was mortally wonnded.-Friday last ended the sessions at the Old Bailey, when the following persons received sentence of death: Leonard Lamb, for the murder of Julius Wolf; and Henry Grave, for robbing and assaulting Dr. Death, whereby the said Death was put in fear of his life. Giles Gosling, for defrauding Simon Fox of four guineas and his watch by subtle craft, was transported for seven years; and David Drinkwater was ordered to be set in the stocks, as an habitual drunkard. The trial of Thomas Green, whitster, of Fulham, for a rape on the body of Flora White, a mulatto, was put off till next sessions, on account of the absence of two material evidences; viz. Sarah Brown, clear-starcher, of Pimlico, and Anthony Black, scarlet-dyer, of Wandsworth."-I ask thee, Peacock, whether a sensible foreigner, who understood the literal meaning of these names, which are all truly British, would not think ye were a nation of humourists, who delighted in cross-purposes and ludicrous singularity? But, indeed, ye are not more absurd in this particular than some of your neighbours.I knew a Frenchman, of the name of Bouvier, which sig nifies Cow-keeper, pique himself upon his noblesse ; and a General, called Valavoir, is said to have lost his life by the whimsical impropriety of his surname, which signifies go and see,-You may remember an Italian minister, called Grossa-testa, or Great-head, though, in fact, he had scarce any head at all. That nation has, likewise, its Sforzas, Malatestas, Boccanigras, Porcinas, Guidices; its Colonnas, Muratorios, Medices, and Gozzi; Endeavours, Chuckle-heads, Black-muzzles, Hogs, Judges, Pillars, Masons, Leeches, and Chubby-chops. Spain has its Almohadas, Girones, Utreras, Ursinas, and Zapatas; signifying Cushions, Gores, Bullocks, Bears, and Slippers. The Turks, in other respects a sensible people, fall into the same extravagance with respect to the inheritance of surnames. An Armenian

merchant at Aleppo used to dine at the house of a cook, whose name was Clock-maker; and the handsome Ichoglan in the Bashaw's seraglio was surnamed Crookback. Q.

THE FRENCH MISER.

AVARICE, of all other passions, is the least to be accounted for, as it precludes the miser from all pleasure except that of hoarding; the prodigal, the gamester, the ambitious, having something to plead by way of pallia tives for their inordinate affections to their respective objects and pursuits; but the miser gratifies his passion at the expense of every conveniency, indulgence, or even necessary of life. He is aptly compared to the magpie, who hides gold which he can make no use of

M. Vandille was the most remarkable man in Paris, both on account of his immense riches, and his extremé avarice. He lodged as high up as the roof would admit him, to avoid noise or visits, maintained one poor old woman to attend him in his garret, allowed her only seven sous per week, or a penny per diem. His usual diet was bread and milk, and, for indulgence, some poor sour wine on Sunday, on which day he constantly gave one farthing to the poor, being one shilling and a penny per annum, which he cast up, and, after his death, his extensive charity amounted to forty-three shillings and fourpence. This prudent œconomist had been a magistrate, or officer, at Boulogne, from which obscurity he was promoted to Paris, for the reputation of his wealth, which he lent upon undeniable security to the public funds, not caring to trust individuals with his life and soul. While a magis trate at Boulogne, he maintained himself by taking upon him to be milktaster-general at the market, and from one to another filled his belly, and washed down his bread at no expense of his own, not, doubtless, from any other principle than that of serving the public in regulating the goodness of milk. When he had a call to Paris, knowing that stage vehicles are expensive, he determined to go thither on foot; and, to avoid being robbed, he took care to export with himself neither more nor less than the considerable sum of threepence sterling, to carry him one hundred and thirty miles; and with the greater facility to execute his plan of operation, he went in the quality of a

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poor priest or mendicant, and no doubt gathered some few pence on the road from such pious and well-disposed persons of the country who were strangers to him.

The great value a miser anexes to a farthing will make us less surprised at the infinite attachment he must have to a guinea, of which it is the seed, growing by gentle gradations into pence, shillings, pounds, thousands, and ten thousands, which made this worthy connoisseur say, take care of the farthings, and the pence and shillings will take care of themselves; these semina of wealth may be compared to seconds of time, which generate years, centuries, and even eternity itself.

When he became extensively rich, being, in the year 1735, worth seven or eight hundred thousand pounds, which he begot or multiplied on the body of a single shilling, from the age of sixteen to the age of seventytwo; one day he heard a woodman going by in summer, at which season they stock themselves with fuel for the winter; he agreed with him at the lowest rate possible, but stole from the poor man several logs, with which he loaded himself to his secret hiding-hole, and thus contracted, in that hot season, a fever; he then sent, for the first time, for a surgeon to bleed him, who asking half a livre for the operation, was dismissed; he then sent for an apothecary, but he was as high in his demand; he then sent for a poor barber, who undertook to open a vein for threepence a time; but, says this worthy economist, Friend, how often will it be requisite to bleed? Three times, said he. And what quantity of blood do you intend to take? About eight ounces each time, answered the barber. That will be ninepence-too much, too much, says the old miser: I have determined to go a cheaper way to work; take the whole quantity you design to take at three times at one time, and that will save me sixpence; which being insisted on, he lost twenty-four ounces of blood, and died in a few days, leaving all his vast treasures to the King, whom he made his sole heir. Thus he contracted his disorder by pilfering, and his death by an unprecedented piece of parsimony.

OLD NICK.

NOBODY has accounted for the Devil's having the name of Old Nick. Keysier de Dea Nehaleunia, p. 33. and Antiq. Septentr. p. 261, mentions a deity of the waters,

worshipped by the ancient Germans and Danes, under the name of Nocca, or Nicken, styled in the Edda Nikur, which he derives from the German nugen, answering to the Latin necare. Wormius, Mon. Dan. p. 17, says the redness in the faces of drowned persons was ascribed to this deity's sucking their blood out at their nostrils.. Wasthovius, pres. ad Vit. Sanctor. and Loccenius, Antiq. Sueo-Goth. p. 17, call him Neccus, and quote from a Belgo-Gallic Dictionary, Neccer, Spiritus Aquaticus, and Necce, necare. The Islandic Dict. in Hickes' Thes. P. III. p. 85, renders Nikur, bellua aquatica. Lastly, Rudbekius, Atlant. p. 1. c. 7. §. 5, p. 192, & c. 30. p. 719, mentions a notion prevalent among his countrymen, that Neckur, who governed the sea, assumed the form of various animals, or of a horseman, or of a man in a boat. He snpposes him the same with Odin; but the above authorities are sufficient to evince that he was the Northern Neptune, or some subordinate sea-god of a noxious disposition. Wormius queries whether a figure said to be seen, 1615, on the river Lan, and called Wasser Nichs, might not be of this kind. Probably it was a sea-monster of the species called Mermen, and by our Spenser, FairyQueen. II. 12, 14,

The griesly Wasserman.

It is not unlikely but the name of this evil spirit might, as Christianity prevailed in these northern nations, be transferred to the father of evil.

If it would not be thought punning on names, I would hazard another conjecture.-St. Nicholas was the patron of mariners, consequently opponent to Nicker. How he came by this office does not appear. The Legend says, "Ung jour que aucuns mariniers perissoyent fi le prierent ainsi a larmes, Nicolas, serviteur de Dieu, si les choses sont vroyes que nous avons vuyes, si les esprouve maintenant. Et tantot ung-homme s'apparut au la semblance de luy, & leur dit, Veez moy, se ne m'appellez vous pas : & leur commenca, a leur ayder en leur exploit: de la ne fet tantost la tempestate cessa. Et quant ils furent venus a son Eglise ilz se cogneurent sans demonstrer, & si ne l'avoient oncques veu. Et lors rendirent graces a Dieu & a luy de leur delivrance; et il leur dit que ilz attribuassent a le misericorde de Dieu et a leur creance, et non pas a ses merites."-Then follow other miracles, not peculiarly appropriated to him under this character. We have afterwards, indeed, another story of his delivering from an

illusion of the Devil certain pilgrims qui alloient a luy a nage, which I understand to mean only by water. Legende d'or. fol. viii. See also Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk, II. P. 861. PALEOPHILUS,

CHARACTER OF THE SPANIARDS.

A WAR with the Saracens, prolonged, with few intervals, for eight hundred years, nourished in the Spaniards a vigour of character, a love of their country, and a passion for glory. The necessity of continually engaging formed as many heroes as there were men in each city: military renown was the great object of their vows; and the tombs of the deceased were adorned with a number of obelisks equal to that of the enemy they had slain in battle*. While they lived exposed to continual dangers they acquired that gravity of deportment, that deliberate valour, that perseverance and vigilance, which still distinguish the Spanish nation. Before the ambitious and warlike reigns of Ferdinand, the Emperor, and Philip II. the sagacity and vigilance of the Spaniards appeared formidable to the other nations of Europe t. These reigns continued to call forth and exercise the spirit of the nation, and to support, if not to heighten, that national character which had been formed by the wars with the Moors. And this national character still shone forth with undiminished lustre after the imprudence of the court and exhausted resources had undermined the foundations of the grandeur of the empire. As prosperous war rouses the genius of a nation, the glory of letters would have corresponded to that of the Spanish arms, had not the progress of taste and knowledge been checked by the tyranny of the inquisition, and that despotism which was introduced into the government. But although these circumstances have prevented among the Spaniards the growth of sound philosophy, in their poetry, history, romances, and even

↑ Johannes Genesius Sepulveda de Rebus Gestis, Caroli V. lib. 1. † Machiavel says, in his Account of the State of France, that the French were afraid of the Spaniards on account of their sagacity and vigilance. It is true that this account was written after Ferdi. nand had begun to reign: but it was before the exertions of that Prince could have stamped on the minds of his subjects a national character.

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