1769. The Benevolent Society. with fome rather peculiar indulgences, with your fociety. We would be told how to regulate the youthful imagination by the rules of reafon and propriety. We would learn how to acquire the most latting perfections, and enfure, not only our own efteem, but the esteem of our friends, to the end of our existence. There is one piece of difcipline we are well broke into, and that is fubmitting our will to the humour of others, and, however hard in the first inftance, as our dear mother was all tenderness, and had ftood between us and our father's wrath, we can now do it unrepiningly. Could you but behold us, dreffed in all our not taftelefs fimplicity, with the glow of health and contentment upon our cheeks, and innocent vivacity in our hearts, how would you pity us! Compelled, as we frequently are, to entertain, for hours at a fitting, the ftrangeft of all human beings; for to endure a kind of temporary fuffocation, under the cloud of their railing, and trembling, every moment they open their lips, left ribaldry, or brutality, fhould fhock us beyond all toleration. I have thus given you, though not a perfect, a true defcription of our circumftances, which, in conjunction with our youth, cannot fail to recommend us to the compaffionate confideration of the Benevolent Society. I am, ladies, To the BENEVOLENT SOCIETY. "IF there are fuch people in exiftence, I do profefs myself your very humble fervant. Young fellows of any reflexion have long been deterred from venturing upon matrimony, by the extravagant and unpromifing education of your fex. If a man of moderate fortune unites himself to the fpirit of a duchefs, or his grace marries the woman whose ambition would grafp a fcepter, I only beg to know what profpect there can be of conjugal felicity? But to take our view a little lower: the customs, the laws of fociety are fuch, that an unmarried man is a kind of forlorn object in the crea 609 tion; his fervants think him their Your humble fervant, POSTHUMOUS. To To the BENEVOLENT SOCIETY. IN the name of a little million of diffatisfied females, I now addrefs the Benevolent Society, to inform them, that, notwithstanding we are their conftant readers, we have been conftantly difappointed in our expectations, of the affairs of which they were to have taken cognizance. In all the fucceeding months, fince the first opening of their aflembly to the knowledge of the public, the fame unvarying track has been purfued by them; not one mention of the fashions, or fashionable amufements, has fallen from their pen; and I am thus enjoined to tell them, that thofe are the fubjects that would be moft acceptable with their youthful readers at a diftance from the metropolis, no less than with those who are the happy refidents of that delightful fpot. I have actually waited for the making up of a cap and pair of ruffles thefe three months, in hopes of receiving inftructions at their hands, and was glad when I found many of my lively acquaintance under the fame predicament, as to amount to an abfolute charge, appeal, or complaint, against them, and which I moft chearfully took upon me to communicate. We will accept of neither excufes nor arguments; the fashions fhall be laid before us, or you forfeit all our favour. We confefs you of confequence to us, and only afk this proof of the approbation being reciprocal. So, trufting that you will not deem our request unreasonable, nor fail to comply with it, I do not hesitate to fubfcribe my felf Your friend and admirer, CALISTA. The Benevolent Society have received fo many letters this last month, that it is not poffible to oblige their correfpondents with their fentiments, but they may depend upon receiving full fatisfaction in all their interrogatories, complaints, and wishes, in a fhort time, to the utmost of the Society's power. So far from being hurt, or offended, they are much pleafed with the rebuke they have met with; convinced that, however they were intended, they fhall derive an opportunity from them of thining beyond their utmost hope, or expectation. All let ters, fent to the publisher of the Lon Dec. don Magazine, are duely and timely remitted to them; and they thus return abundant thanks to very many of their correspondents for useful hints, and entertaining fuggeftions. The let ters figned Matilda, Abraham, a FoxHunter, and a Country Parfon, are received, and fhall have a place in their next publication. [To be continued in our Appendix.] To his Grace the D— of G—, My Lord, Find, with fome furprize, that you are not fupported as you deserve. Your most determined advocates have fcruples about them, which you are unacquainted with; and though there be nothing too hazardous for your grace to engage in, there are fome things too infamous for the vileft prostitute of a news-paper to defend. In what other manner thall we account for the profound fubmiffive filence, which you and your friends have observed upon a charge which called immediately for the cleareft refutation, and would have juftified the fevereft measures of relentment? I did not attempt to blast your character by an indirect, ambiguous infinuation, but candidly stated to you a plain fact, which ftruck directly at the integrity of a privy counsellor, of a first commiffioner of the treasury, and of a leading minifter, who is fuppofed to enjoy the first thare in his majefty's confidence. In every one of thefe capacities, I employed the most moderate terms to charge you with treachery to your fovereign and breach of truft in your office. I accused you of having fold, or permitted to be fell, a patent place in the collection of the customs at Exeter to one Mr. Hine, who, unable or unwilling to depofit the whole purchase-money himself, raised part of it by contribution, and has now a certain Doctor Brooke quartered upon the falary for one hundred pounds a year. No fale by the can, dle was ever conducted with greater formality.-I affirm that the price, at which the place was knocked down (and which, I have good reason to think) was not lefs than three thoufand five hundred pounds) was, with your connivance and consent, paid to Colonel Burgoyne, to reward him, I prefume, for the decency of his de portment at Preston; or to reimburse 1769: Junius's Letter to the Duke of him perhaps for the fine of one thoufand pounds, which, for that very deportment, the Court of King's Bench thought proper to fet upon him.-It is not often the chief justice and the prime minifter are fo ftrangely at variance in their opinions of men and things. 611 to the heart? Have you a fingle friend We are told, by the highest judicial I thank God there is not in human nature a degree of impudence daring enough to deny the charge I have fixed upon you. Your courteous fecretary, your confidential architect are filent as the grave. Even Mr. Rigby's countenance fails him. He violates his fecond nature, and blushes whenever he fpeaks of you.-Perhaps the noble colonel himself will relieve you. No man is more tender of his reputation. He is not only nice, but perfectly fore, in every thing that touches his honour. If any man, for example, were to accufe him of taking his ftand at a gaming-table, and watching with the fobereft attention, for a fair opportunity of engaging a drunken young nobleman at piquet, he would undoubtedly confider it as an infamous afperfion upon his character, and refent it like a man of honour.-Acquitting him therefore of drawing a regular and fplendid fubfiftance from any unworthy practices either in his own houfe or elfewhere, let me ask your grace, for what military merits you have been pleased to reward him with a military government? He had a regiment of dragoons, which, one would imagine, was at least an equivalent for any fer vices be ever performed. Befides, he is but a young officer confidering his preferment, and, excepting his activity at Preston, not very confpicuous in his profeffion. But it feems, the fale of a civil employment was not fufficient, and military governments, which To the AUTHOR of the LONDON were intended for the fupport of wornout veterans, must be thrown into the scale to defray the extenfive bribery of a contefted election. Are these the fteps you take to fecure to your lovereign the attachment of his army! With what countenance dare you appear in the royal presence, branded as you are with the infamy of a notorious breach of truft? With what countenance can you take your feat at the treafury board, or in council, when you feel that every circulating whifper is at your expence alone, and stabs you This affair, my lord, will do infinite credit to government, if, to clear your - of. character, you fhould think proper to -, or into bring it into the the Court of K―'s B———But, my lord, you dare not do either. SIR, T - MAGAZINE. JUNIUS. HERE is an ingenious account, if I remember right, (in the works of Mr. Hutchinfon) of the difpenfation of God in the instance of the Egyptian plagues, viz. that in the in, fiction of these plagues God converted the objects of their idolatry into the inftruments of their punishment. I do not recollect the proof of this in that gentleman's works, nor in Spearman's enquiry, nor other collateral publications, feveral of which I have read; but 612 A PHILISOPHICAL QUESTION. MAGAZINE. Dec, but being all for many years out of the To the AUTHOR of the LONDON reach of my perufal, I do, bona fide, want to be informed in this particular, and prefume that the intelligence fug gefted on this head will neither be unamufing nor uninftructive to others of your readers as well as myself... Now, fir, what I crave to know is, how the abovementioned doctrine ap. pears; by what authorities of the text, or history, &c. It feems that the power of God in preferving his own people, in for vifible and confpicuous a manner (Exod. viii. 22. ix. 6, 26. x. 23.) from each of thefe plagues, occafionally, was effectual to the purpofe, which it pro fefled to accomplish, namely, the re duction of the tyrant's pride, and the vindication of Ifrael's innocence. Is not this inftance of general difference put between Gohen and Egypt fuffi cient to convince the perfecuting prince and his deluded people, that they were both under the immediate power of the God of Ifrael? But had the inten tion of heaven extended farther, as to recover the Egyptians from idolatry, and compel them, by thefe figns and wonders, to renounce their idols, in this cafe there had been eminent pro priety in the proceeding abovemen tioned, and the idolater thrown into confufion upon feeing, directed to his view, the ruin of the power of his idols executed by the power of Elohim, and all the power of second causes, or material agents, which they are fuppofed to have worshipped under emblematis cal figures, profeffedly made the in ftruments of their deftruction. But there does not feem fuch immediate propriety in this proceeding, when the end of it was only the departure of one people from the other, and the means of it the compulfion of the prince's leave and for this purpofe is not a general manifestation of the power of Elohim, as fupreme in the creation, fufficient to produce the effect mentioned, Exod. viii. ro. ix. 14? For public plagues cannot be inflicted except in a public manner; and the vindication of God's own honour feems to have been as much confulted in thewing that he had the elements in his difpofal, as in making thofe elements, as idols, the material means of their confufion and ruin. Your's, SIR, Hand finding you have but fer correfpondents that way, upon feeing your question concerning the legacies, I applied myself to give it a folution, which I have fent you, and which if you will please to infert in your useful Magazine next Month you will moch oblige, fir, your conftant feader AVING a little skill in algebra, Goald Cricmort. PUT x and y the first and fecond legacies respectively; the 3d being 183 per question: whence we have 183 +♬ the 4th, 366 +ythe 5th, and 549 +27 the fixth, &c. now the fum of 12 terms of this feries will be 26352 + 88y; this fum, by the queftion, is to be an entire number of thoufands; whence 98y will be648, and the legacies will be as 7 follows, viz, 1757 4 3 ཞ 11 II 8 , 183, 190 ,373,563, 937 — 1500 2. ΤΟ и 8 J1 2437 3938 6376 10315 11 11 Note, this is the least number that will answer the question, and the greatett is 42000; consequently the question will admit of 15 different answers. SIR, A question has fallen in my way, (if it is agreeable you will oblige tome of your readers if you will infert it next month,) which I never yet faw 'any notice taken of, viz. How the multiplicity of the prefent philofophical lights are reconcileable to Mofes in the fixteenth verse of the first chap. of Genefis: Mofes has but a duality of lights, our great philofophers have in all fe venteen; viz. the original primary light the fun, the primary planets, and ten fecondary ones: the fix primary planets fay they are moons, or lights, to the fecondary ones, as the fecondary ones are moons, or lights, to them: for inftance, the earth they fay is a moon, or light, to the moon, as the moon is a moon, or light, to her, and the fame is faid by them with regard to Saturn and Jupiter, and their moons. How then is this multiplicity of moons, or lights, reconcileable, to the Mofaic Dorfet, Dec. 6, 1769. CLERICUS. narration? The 9. The State of the Jefuits in Paraguay. continued from p. 571. HE churches are feldom without a great number of perfons, who e fpend, in prayer, all the time can spare from their neceffary lars. At day-break, the children of fexes affemble there at the ring. of a bell; and, after morning yer, fing the chriftian doctrine till -rife. The men and women then ie to hear mafs; after which they go to their several tasks. In the ning the children return to church e catechifed; which done, evening yers are faid, at which all in geneas much as poffible, affift. Thefe ifpenfable devotions always termie with the rofary. A mafs of the gin, and another for the dead, is g every Monday. On Sundays and idays, all repair to the church by 7-break; and immediately begin to g the christian doctrine, after which prieft performs what marriages or oufals are to be performed. The ofelytes affilt at thefe ceremonies, d even the infidels, if any happen to in the reduction, as they have been and by experience to infpire them th very high notions of our holy reion. The feafts and fafts of the eek are then published; likewife all ders and letters from the bishops. fter mass, ftrict enquiry is made, if my one has abfented himself from it, any diforder has happened, that reires an immediate remedy. The aptifm of the Catechumens, and metimes that of the new born infants, the first function of the afternoon. Then, vefpers are fung; and the day mifhes, as ufual, with evening prayers nd the rofary. But, in the congreations, the vefpers are always folwed by an exhortation. Thefe congregations are on the fame Doting with thofe that have been rected in almoft all the houses of the ociety; and are divided into feveral laffes. There is one for the young men, from twelve to thirty, uner the protection of the prince of he heavenly militia. All the reft re under that of the mother of God. None are admitted members of these affociations, but such as difinguish themselves by their charity to heir neighbours; their zeal for mainDec. 1769, 613 fidels; and their affiduity in approachtaining good order and converting ining the facraments. The apprelienfion of being ftruck out of the table that contains the names of the affo ciates, would alone be fufficient to keep them within the strictest bounds of their duty. The leaft intemperance, if attended with any feandal, is enough to make the perfon guilty of it withdraw of his own ac. cord; and nothing has contributed fo much to extirpate entirely fo dangerous a vice. The miffionaries have even found means to infpire thefe Neophytes with fo great an averfion for drunkenness, the most univerfal of all their vices, and the most difficult to extirpate, that, when their affairs call them to the Spanish towns, it is impoffible to prevail upon them to taste any wine. On thefe occafions, they have been often heard to fay, that wine is the best thing that comes from Spain, but that to them it is downright poison. The fame precautions have been taken to cure them of incontinency, which is one of the ordinary confequences of drunkenness. The flighteft fault of this kind would be fufficient to render any of them unworthy in the eyes of the reft, of being counted among the fervants of the queen of virgins. As to the women, the pains taken to infpire them with a great horror for impurity, have fucceeded fo well, that they readily fubmit to the most ignominious penance, for the leaft liberty they give themfelves in this respect; young girls have often been known to part with their lives, rather than yield to the brutality of infidels into whofe hands they had the misfortune of falling. It has not, however, been as yet thought quite fo fafe to exhort them to celibacy. In fhort the two fexes are no where fuffered to intermix, not even at church, in the middle of which there is a paffage from the door to the sanctuary, which parts the men from the women. They are even divided into claffes, according to their different ages; and every clais has its infpectors, who see that all thofe under their care behave with the strictest decurum. Those who infpect the children carry in their hands long rods, with which they immediately put in mind of their duty those 4 I who |