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policy or solicitation of succours could attempt, to recover his crown. At last, when he had discharged his duty to his subjects and himself, he chose this country for his retirement, not to indulge a voluptuous inglorious ease, but to enjoy the participation of those blessings, which he had so vainly endeavoured to fix to his Corsicans. Here for some months he bore with more philosophic dignity the loss of his crown than Charles the Fifth, Casimir of Poland, or any of those visionaries, who wantonly resigned theirs, to partake the sluggish indolence, and at length the disquiets, of a cloister. Theodore, though resigned to his fortunes, had none of that contemptible apathy, which almost lifted our James the Second to the supreme honour of monkish sainthood. It is recorded of that prince, that talking to his courtiers at St. Germain, he wished for a speedy speedy peace between France and Great Britain, 'for then,' said he, we shall get English horses easily.'

The veracity of an historian obliges me not to disguise the situation of his Corsican majesty's revenue. which has reduced him to be a prisoner for debt in the King's-Bench; and so cruelly has fortune exercised her rigours upon him, that last session of parliament he was examined before a committee of the House of Commons, on the hardships to which the prisoners in that jail had been subject. Yet let not ill-nature make sport with these misfortunes! His majesty had nothing to blush at, nothing to palliate, in the recapitulation of his distresses. The debt on his civil list were owing to no misapplication, no improvidence of his own, no corruption of his ministers, no indulgence to favourites or mistresses. His diet was philosophic, his palace humble, his robes decent yet his butcher, his landlady, and his tailor, could not continue to supply an establishment, which had no demesnes to support it, no taxes to

maintain it, no excises, no lotteries, to provide funds for its deficiencies and emergencies.

A nation so generous, so renowned for the efforts it has always made in the common cause of liberty, can only want to be reminded of this distressed king to grant him its protection and compassion. If political reasons forbid the open espousal of his cause, pity commands the assistance which private fortunes can lend him. I do not mean at present that our gallant youths should offer themselves as volunteers in his service, nor do I expect to have a small fleet fitted out at the expense of particular persons to convey him and his hopes to Corsica. The intention of this paper is merely to warm the benevolence of my countrymen, in behalf of this royal captive. I cannot think it would be beneath the dignity of majesty to accept of such a supply as might be offered to him by that honorary (and to this country peculiar) method of raising a free gift, a benefit play. The method is worthy of the Grecian age; nor would Asiatic monarchs have blushed to receive a tribute from genius and art. Let it be said, that the same humane and polite age raised a monument to Shakspeare, a fortune for Milton's granddaughter, and a subsidy for a captive king, by dramatic performances ! I have no doubt but the munificent managers of our theatres will gladly contribute their parts. That incomparable actor who so exquisitely touches the passions and distresses of self-dethroned Lear (a play which from some similitude of circumstances, I should recommend for the benefit) will, I dare say, willingly exert his irresistible talents in behalf of fallen majesty, and be a competitor with Louis le Grand for the fame which results from the protection of exiled kings. How glorious will it be for him to have the King's-Bench as renowned for Garrick's generosity to King Theo

dore, as the Savoy is for Edward the Third's treatment of King John of France.

In the mean time, not to confine this opportunity of benevolence to so narrow a sphere as the theatre, I must acquaint my readers, that a subscription for a subsidy for the use of his Corsican majesty, is opened at Tully's-head in Pall-Mall, where all the Generous and the Fair are desired to pay in their contributions to Robert Dodsley, who is appointed high-treasurer and grand librarian of the island of Corsica for life -posts, which, give me leave to say, Mr. Dodsley would have disdained to accept under monarch of arbitrary principles.

any

A bookseller of Rome, while Rome surviv'd,
Would not have been lord-treas'rer to a king.

I am under some apprehensions that the intended subscription will not be so universal as for the honour of my country I wish it. I foresee that the partisans of indefeasible hereditary right will withhold their contributions. The number of them is indeed but small and inconsiderable: yet as it becomes my character, as a citizen of the world, to neglect nothing for the amendment of the principles and morals of my fellow-creatures, I shall recommend one short argument to their consideration; I think I may say, to their conviction. Let them but consider, that though Theodore had such a flaw (in their estimation) in his title, as to have been elected by the whole body of the people, who had thrown off the yoke of their old tyrants: yet as the Genoese had been the sovereigns of Corsica, these gentlemen of monarchic principles will be obliged, if they condemn King Theodore's cause, to allow divine hereditary right in a republic; a problem in politics which I leave to be solved by the disciples of the exploded Sir Robert Filmer: at the same time declaring by my censorial authority all persons to be

Jacobites, who neglect to bring in their free gift for the use of his majesty of Corsica; and I particularly charge and command all lovers of the glorious and immortal memory of King William, to see my orders duly executed; and I recommend to them to set an example of liberality in behalf of the popular monarch, whose cause I have espoused, and whose deliverance, I hope, I have not attempted in vain.

N. B. Two pieces of King Theodore's coin, struck during his reign, are in the hands of the high-treasurer aforesaid, and will be shewn by the proper officers of the exchequer of Corsica, during the time the subscription continues open at Tully's-head above-mentioned. They are very great curiosities, and not to be met with in the most celebrated collections of this kingdom.

N° 9. THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1753.

I AM that unfortunate man, Madam,' was the saying of a gentleman, who stopped and made a low bow to a lady in the Park, as she was calling to her dog by the name of Cuckold.

What a deal of good might be expected from these essays, if every man who should happen to read his own character in them, would as honestly acknowledge it as this gentleman! But it is the misfortune of general satire, that few persons will apply it to themselves, while they have the comfort of thinking that it will fit others as well. It is therefore, I am afraid, only furnishing bad people with scandal against their neighbours: for every man flatters himself that he has the art of playing the fool or knave so very secretly, that, though he sees plainly how all else

are employed, no mortal can have the cunning to find him out.

6

Thus a gentleman told me yesterday, That he was very glad to see a particular acquaintance of his exposed in the third number of the World. The parson who wrote that letter,' continued he,' was determined to speak plainly; for the character of my friend was so strongly marked, that it was impossible to mistake it.' He then proceeded to inform me that he had read Seneca, by observing, That there should be no mixture of severity and reproof in the obligations we confer; on the contrary, if there should be only occasion for the gentlest admonition, it ought to be deferred to another season; for men, added he, are much more apt to remember injuries than benefits; and it is enough if they forgive an obligation that has the nature of an offence.'

My reader may, possibly, be surprised, when I tell him, that the man who could commit to memory those maxims of Seneca, and who could rejoice to see such a character exposed as the curate's friend in my third paper, is an old bachelor with an estate of three thousand pounds a year, and fifty thousand in ready money; who never was known to lend a guinea in his life, without making the borrower more miserable by the benefit than he had been before by his wants. But it is the peculiar talent of this gentleman to wound himself by proxy, or (in the sportsman's phrase) to knock himself down by the recoiling of his own gun. I remember he told me some time ago, after having harangued very learnedly upon the detestable sin of avarice, That the common people of a certain county in England were the most covetous and brutal in the whole world. I will give you an instance,' says he. About three years ago, by a very odd accident, I fell into a well in that county, and was absolutely within a few mi

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