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TO THЕ

EARL OF SUNDERLAND*.

MY LORD,

VERY

[1712-13.]

many favours and civilities (received from you in a private capacity) which I have no other way to acknowledge, will, I hope, excufe this prefumption; but the juftice I, as a SPECTATOR, Owe your character, places me above the want of an excufe. Candour and openness of heart, which fhine in all your words and actions, exact the highest esteem from all who have the honour to know you; and a winning condefcenfion to all fubordinate to you, made business a pleasure to those who executed it under you, at the fame time that it heightened her Majefty's favour to all those who had the happiness of having it conveyed through your hands. A Secretary of State, in the interest of mankind, joined with that of his fellow-subjects, accomplished with a great facility and elegance in

Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who fucceeded to He was made Secretary of State, Dec. 5, 1706; and dismissed, that title, Sept. 21, 1702, on the death of his father Robert. June 14, 1710. Sept. 1, 1715, he had a pension of 1200l. per annum fettled on him. April 16, 1717, was again appointed Secretary of State; March 16, 1717-18, Lord Prefident of the Council; Feb. 6, 1718-19, Groom of the Stole; and died April 19, 1722. He married Lady Anne Churchill, fecond daughter of John Duke of Marlborough; to whofe titles her eldeft furviving fon, Charles, fucceeded in 1733.

VOL. VI.

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all the modern as well as antient languages, was a happy and proper member of a Miniftry, by whose fervices your Sovereign is in fo high and flourishing a condition, as makes all other Princes and Potentates powerful or inconfiderable in Europe, as they are friends or enemies to Great-Britain. The importance of thofe great events which happened during that Administration, in which your Lordship bore fo important a charge, will be acknowledged as long as time fhall endure. I fhall not, therefore, attempt to rehearse those illuftrious paffages; but give this application a more private and particular turn, in defiring your Lordship would continue your favour and patronage to me, as you are a gentleman of the moft polite literature, and perfectly accomplished in the knowledge of books and men, which * makes it neceflary to befeech your indulgence to the following leaves, and the Author of them: who is, with the greatest truth and respect, my Lord, your Lordship's obliged, obedient, and humble fervant,

THE SPECTATOR.

His Lordfhip was the founder of the fplendid and truly valuable library at Althorp.

THE

THE

SPECTATOR.

N° 395

Tuesday, June 3, 1712.

-Quod nunc ratio eft, impetus antè fuit. 'Tis reafon now, 'twas appetite before.

B

Ovid.

EWARE of the Ides of March," faid the Roman Augur to Julius Cæfar: "Beware of "the month of May," fays the British Spectator to his fair countrywomen. The caution of the first was unhappily neglected, and Cæfar's confidence coft him his life. I am apt to flatter myself that my pretty readers had much more regard to the advice I gave them *, fince I have yet received very few accounts of any notorious trips made in the last month.

But though I hope for the beft, I fhall not pronounce too pofitively on this point, 'till I have feen forty weeks well over, at which period of time, as my good friend. Sir ROGER has often told me, he has more business as a juftice of peace, among the diffolute young people in the country, than at any other feason of the year.

* See SPECT. Vol. V. N° 365.

B 2

Neither

Neither muft I forget a letter which I received near a fortnight fince from a lady, who, it feems, could hold out no longer, telling me he looked upon the month as then out, for that she had all along reckoned by the new file.

On the other hand, I have great reafon to believe, from feveral angry letters which have been sent to me by disappointed lovers, that my advice has been of very fignal fervice to the fair fex, who, according to the old proverb, were "Forewarn'd, forearm'd."

One of these gentlemen tells me, that he would have given me an hundred pounds, rather than I should have published that Paper, for that his mistress, who had promised to explain herself to him about the beginning of May, upon reading that difcourfe told him, that fhe would give him her anfwer in June."

Thyrfis acquaints me, that when he defired Sylvia to take a walk in the fields, she told him, “ The Spectator had forbidden her."

Another of my correfpondents, who writes himself Mat Meager, complains, that whereas he conftantly ufed to breakfast with his mistress upon chocolate, going to wait upon her the firft of May he found his ufual treat very much changed for the worfe, and has been forced to feed ever fince upon green tea.

As I begun this critical feafon with a caveat to the ladies, I fhall conclude it with a congratulation, and do most heartily wish them joy of their happy deli

verance.

They may now reflect with pleasure on the dangers they have escaped, and look back with as much fatiffaction on the perils that threatened them, as their great grandmothers did formerly on the burning plough-fhares, after having paffed through the ordeal trial. The inftigations of the fpring are now abated. The nightingale gives over her love-labour'd fong," as MILTON phrafes it, the bloffoms are fallen, and the beds of flowers swept away by the fcythe of the

mower.

I fhall now allow my fair readers to return to their romances and chocolate, provided they make ufe of them with moderation, 'till about the middle of the

month,

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