all rogues; but that we are what we are, according to the example of our fuperiors. In the family I anı now in, I am guilty of no one fin but lying; which I do with a grave face in my gown and staff every day I live, and almost all day long, in denying my lord to impertinent fuitors, and my lady to unwelcome 'vifitants. But, Sir, I am to let you know that I am, when I can get abroad, a leader of the fervants: I am he that keep time with beating my cudgel against the boards in the gallery at an opera; I am he that am touched fo properly at a tragedy, when the people of quality are staring at one another during the most important incidents: When you hear in a crowd a cry in the right place, an hum where the point is touched in a fpeech, or an huzza fet up where it is the voice of the people; you may conclude it is begun or joined by,. SIR, . T A MONG the loofe papers which I have frequently spoken of heretofore, I find a converfation between Pharamond and Eucrate upon the subject of duels, and the copy of an edict iffued in confequence of that difcourfe. Eucrate argued, that nothing but the moft fevere and vindictive punishments, fuch as placing the bodies. of the offenders in chains, and putting them to death by the most exquifite torments, would be fufficient to extirpate a crime which had fo long prevailed, and was fo firmly fixed in the opinion of the world as great and laudable; but the king answered, That indeed inftances of ignominy were neceffary in the cure of this evil; but confidering that it prevailed only among fuch as had a nicety in their fenfe of honour, and that it often happen'd that a duel was fought to fave appearances to the world, when both parties were in their hearts in amity and reconciliation to each other; it was evident that turning the mode another way would effectually put a stop to what had being only as a mode. That to fuch perfons, poverty and fhame were torments fufficient: That he would not go further in punishing in others crimes which he was fatisfied he himself was moft guilty of, in that he might have prevented them by fpeaking his difpleasure fooner. Befides which the king faid, he was in general averfe to tortures, which was putting human nature itself, rather than the cria minal, to difgrace; and that he would be fure not to afe this means where the crime was but an ill effect arifing from a laudable caufe, the fear of shame. The king, at the fame time, fpoke with much grace upon the fubject of mercy; and repented of many acts of that kind which had a magnificent afpect in the doing, but dreadful confequences in the example. Mercy to particulars, he obferved, was cruelty in the general: That though a prince could not revive a dead man by taking the life of him who killed him, neither could he make reparation to the next that should die by the evil example; or anfwer to himself for the partiality, in not pardoning the next as well as the former offender. As for me, fays Pharamond, I have conquer'd France, and yet have given laws to my people: The laws are my methods of life; they are not a diminution but a direction to my power. I am still abfolute to diftinguish the innocent and the virtuous, to give honours to the brave and generous: I am abfolute in my good-will; none can oppofe my bounty, or prefcribe rules for my favour. While I can, as I please, • reward the good, I am under no pain that I cannot pardon the wicked: For which reafon, continued. Pharamond, I will effectually put a stop to this evil, by exposing no more the tenderness of my nature to 'the the importunity of having the fame refpect to those who are miferable by their fault, and those who are fo by their misfortune. Flatterers (concluded the king fmiling) repeat to us princes, that we are heaven's vicegerents; let us be fo, and let the only thing out of our power be to do ill. Soon after the evening wherein Pharamond and • Eucrate had this converfation, the following edict ⚫ was published. Pharamond's Edict against Duels. Pharamond, King of the Gauls, to all his loving subjects fendeth greeting. HEREAS it has come to our royal notice W and obfervation, that in contempt of all laws divine and human, it is of late become a custom among the nobility and gentry of this our kingdom, upon flight and trivial, as well as great and urgent ⚫ provocations, to invite each other into the field, there, by their own hands, and of their own authority, to decide their controverfies by combat; We have thought fit to take the faid cuftom into our royal confideration, and find, upon enquiry into the ufual caufes whereon fuch fatal decifions have arisen, that ⚫ by this wicked custom, maugre all the precepts of our holy religion, and the rules of right reafon, the greatest act of the human mind, forgiveness of injuries, is become vile and shameful; that the rules of good fociety and virtuous conversation are hereby inverted; that the loofe, the vain, and the impudent, infult the careful, the difereet, and the modeft; that all virtue is fuppreffed, and all vice fupported, in the one a&t of being capable to dare to the death. We have also further, with great forrow of mind, obferved that this dreadful action, by long impunity, (our royal ⚫ attention being employed upon matters of more general concern) is become honourable, and the refusal to engage in it ignominious. In thefe our royal cares and enquiries We are yet farther made to un⚫derstand, that the perfons of moft eminent worth, and most hopeful abilities, accompanied with the strongest paffion 6 paffion for true glory, are fuch as are most liable to be involved in the dangers arifing from this licence, Now taking the faid premifes into our ferious confideration, and well weighing that all fuch emergencies (wherein the mind is incapable of commanding itself, and where the injury is too fudden or too exquifite to ⚫ be borne) are particularly provided for by laws heretofore enacted; and that the qualities of lefs injuries, like thofe of ingratitude, are too nice and delicate to come under general rules; We do refolve to blot this fashion, or wantonnefs of anger, out of the minds of our fubjects, by our royal refolutions declared in this ⚫edict as follow. No perfon who either fends or accepts a challenge, or the pofterity of either, tho' no death en• fues thereupon, fhall be, after the publication of this our edit, capable of bearing office in thefe our ⚫ dominions. The perfon who fhall prove the fending or receiving a challenge, fhall receive to his own ufeand property, the whole perfonal estate of both par ties; and their real estate fhall be immediately vested in the next heir of the offenders in as ample manner as if the faid offenders were actually deceased. • In cases where the laws (which we have already granted to our fubjects) admit of an appeal for blood; when the criminal is condemned by the faid appeal, He shall not only fuffer death, but his whole eftate, real, mixed, and perfonal, fhall from the hour of his death be vested in the next heir of the perfon whofe blood he fpilt. That it fhall not hereafter be in our royal power, or that of our fucceffors, to pardon the faid offences, or restore the offenders in their eftates, honour, or blood for ever. Given at our court at Blois, the 8th of February, 420, in the fecond year of our reign. T Friday, N° 98 Friday, June 22. Tanta eft quærendi cura decoris. Juv. Sat. 6. v. 500. So ftudiously their persons they adorn. T HERE is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-drefs: Within my own memory I have known it rife and fall above thirty degrees. About ten years ago it fhot up to a very great height, infomuch that the female part of our fpecies were much taller than the men. The women were of fuch an enormous stature, that we appeared as grafhoppers before them: At present the whole sex is in a manner dwarfed and shrunk into a race of beauties that seems almoft another species. I remember feveral ladies, who were once very near feven feet high, that at present want fome inches of five: How they came to be thus curtailed I cannot learn; whether the whole fex be at prefent under any penance which we know nothing of, or whether they have caft their head-dreffes in order to furprise us with fomething in that kind which shall be entirely new; or whether fome of the tallest of the fex, being too cunning for the rest, have contrived this method to make themselves appear fizeable, is ftill a fecret; tho' I find most are of opinion, they are at present like trees new lopped and pruned, that will certainly fprout up and flourish with greater heads than before. For my own part, as I do not love to be infulted by women who are taller than myfelf, I admire the fex much more in their prefent humiliation, which has reduced them to their natural dimenfions, than when they had extended their perfons and lengthened themfelves out into formidable and gigantick figures. I am not for adding to the beautiful edifices of nature, nor for raifing any whimsical fuperftructure upon her plans: I must therefore repeat it, that I am highly pleased with the |