in the literary circle with which his Lordship was well acquainted, and was, indeed, himself one of its ornaments. "Dr. Adams expoftulated with Johnfon, and fuggefted, that his not being admitted when he called on him, was, probably, not to be imputed to Lord Chefterfield; for his Lordship had declared to Dodley," that he would have turned off the beft fervant he ever had, if he had known that he denied him to a man who would have been always more than welcome;" and, in confirmation of this, he infifted on Lord Chefterfield's general affability and eafinefs of accefs, especially to literary men. "Sir (faid Johnfon), that not Lord Chesterfield, he is the proudest man this day existing.” "No, (faid Dr. Adams) there is one person, at leaft, as proud; I think by your own account, you are the prouder man of the "But mine (replied Johnson, inftantly) was defenfive pride." This, as Dr. Adams well obferved, was one of thofe happy turns for which he was fo remarkably ready. two." Johnfon having now explicitly avowed his opinion of Lord Chesterfield, did not refrain from expreffing himself concerning that Nobleman with pointed free dom: This man (faid he) I thought had been a Lord among wits; but I find, he is only a wit among Lords!" And when his letters to his natural fon were published, he observed, that" they teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing-mafter*. "The character of a " refpectable Hottentot," in Lord Chesterfield's Letters, has been generally understood to be meant for Johnfon, and I have no doubt but it was. But I remember when the literary property of thofe Letters was contested in the Court of Seffion in Scotland, and Mr. Henry Dundas, one of the Counsel for the proprietors, read this character as an exhibition of Johnson, Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, one of the Judges, maintamed with fome warmth, that it was not intended as a portrait of Johnion, but of a late noble Lord, diftinguished for abftrufe fcience. I have heard Johnson himself talk of the character, and say that it was meant for George Lord Lyttelton, in which I could by no means agree; for his Lordfhip had nothing of that violence which is a confpicuous feature in the compofition. Finding that my iliuftrious friend could not bear to have it fuppofed that it might be meant for him, I said, laughingly, that there was one trait which unquestionably did not belong to him; "he throws his meat any where but down his throat.” "Sir (faid he), Lord Chesterfield never faw me eat in his life." (To be continued.) The Life of Thomas Pain, the Author of " Rights of Man," with a Defence of his Writings. By Francis Oldys, A. M. of the University of Pennsylvania. (Concluded from Page 126.) WE left Mr. Pain in perfect fecurity at Margate, after his precipitate retreat from Sandwich; but in this new afylum he either could not, or would not find any reft for the foles of his feet; if his Biographer may be credited, "When be had difpofed of Mr. Rutter's goods at Margate, he once more mingled with the crowds of London.' Of the fate of his wife, rumour has spoken variouly. By fome the is faid to have died on the road of ill usage, and a premature birth. The women of Sandwich are .pofitive, that he died in the « * That collection of letters cannot be vindicated from the serious charge of encouraging, in fome paffages, one of the vices most destructive to the good order and comfort of fociety, which his Lordship reprefents as mere fashionable gallantry; and, in others, of inculcating the base practice of diffimulation, and recommending, with difproportionate anxiety, a perpetual attention to external elegance of manner. But it muft at the fame time be allowed, that they contain many good precepts of conduct, and much general information upon life and manners, very happily expreffed; and that there was confiderable merit in paying fo much attention to the improvement of one who was dependent upon his Lordship's protection; it has, probably, been exceeded in no instance by the most exemplary parent; and though I can by no means approve of confounding the distinction between lawful and illicit offspring, which is, in effect, infulting the civil establishment of our country, to look no higher; I cannot help thinking it laudable to be kindly attentive to thofe of whofe exiftence we have, in any way, been the caufe. Mr. Stanhope's character has been unjustly represented 25 diametrically oppofite to what Lord Chesterfield wished him to be. He has been called dull, grofs, and aukward: but Lknew him at Drefden, when he was envoy to that court; and though he could not boaft of the graces, he was a well-behaved man. VOL. XX. C c Briti British Lying-in Hofpital, in Brownlowftreet, Long-acre; but the regifter of this charity, which is kept with commendable accuracy, evinces that the had not been received into this laudable refuge of female wretchednefs. And there are others who have convinced themselves by diligent enquiry, that he is ftill alive, though the extreme obfcurity of her retreat prevents ready difcovery. A premeditated defign to exhibit Mr. Pain, in almost every occurrence of his private and public life, as an odious and contemptible character, obliges the Biographer to throw out infnuations to his prejudice, whenever facts, fupported by evidence, fail him. As Pain married again, this imperfect memoir concerning his first wife is intended to con. vey an idea to the reader that he was guilty of bigamy in the fecond marriage; but from what immediately follows, candour would fuggeft that the firft Mrs. Pain died, perhaps from the confequences of a premature birth, but not " of ill-usage," on the road to London; for we are told "that he renounced his original trade, or rather art, of stay-making at this time, forever; that when a youth he had enquired into the duty, and envied the perquifites, of an excifeman; that his wife had doubtless fpoken of the honours and emoluments of her father; and that he was induced by thefe confiderations in July 1761 to feek for thelter in his father's (it hould be father-in-law's) houfe." Here is a strong prefumption that Mrs. Pain no longer exifted; for had the been living, her father would hardly have received the husband without, or inftead of his own daughter, if poverty drove one or both to feek a refuge: befide, it is very improbable that he should harbour the man who had ufed his daughter fo ill as is reprefented unfortunately, however, for the reputation of Mr. Oldys, or whoever was the real writer of this partial life of Thomas Pain, he gives us the following narrative of the family, p. 8, 9: "Thomas Pain married Mary Lambert the 27th of Sept. 1759," (and the entry from the marriage-regifter of St. Peter's Church, Sandwich, is annexed in a note). "She was the daughter of James Lambert, who with his wife Mary came to Sittingbourne as an excifeman, fome time before the year 1736; and who was foon after ditimilled for misconduct : on this difmiffal he fet up a fhop, and made greater gains by acting as bum-bailiff of Sittingbourne: yet he died in bad circumftances, on the 24th of May 1753 (Parifh Regifter of Sittingbourne, in a note), his wife dying about the fame time in a mad-houfe." But at p. 19. he rifes again, fhelters his fon-in-law in July 1761, who, after fourteen months of study and trials with this refurgent father-inlaw, is established in the Excise, December 1762. "He was fent as a fupernumerary to gauge the brewers of Grantham; and in Auguft 1764, he was employed to watch the fmugglers of Alford. Whether, while he thus walked at Grantham, or rode as an excifeman at Alford, his practices had been mireprefented by malice, or his dif honefty had been detected by watchfulness, tradition has not told us; but it is certain that he was difiniffed from his office in " August 1765." Here again we must notice the uncharitable difpofition of his Biographer. If detected dishonefty had been the caufe of his difimiffion, how came he to be re-inftated, and fent'as Excife-officer to Lewes in Suffex, in March 1768? In no office under Government is any man employed again, who has been discharged for difhoneft practices. Candour, therefore, would have ftopped at the first cause affigned for his difmiffion. During his fufpension, it is said, he was in London, reduced to extreme wretchednefs, being abfolutely without food, without raiment, and without fhelter. "Bad, alas! muft that man be who finds no friends in London." Mr. Pain, it seems, was not fo bad but that he met with perfons who, from difinterested kindness, gave him clothes, money, and lodging. In the interval between his bare reitoration and being fent on actual fervice by the Excife-office, he was engaged as an English ufher by Mr. Noble, Matter of an Academy in Lemon-street, and afterward by Mr. Gardnor, who then kept an academy in Kenfington-iquare. His de fire of preaching returned, and not being qualified for regular ordination, he exhibited in Moorfields, and in various po pulous places of England. At Lewes, however, his affairs took a better turn; but here, as in every station in life, his Biographer loads him with invective, by faying, that " he lived on fulpected as an exciseman, and unbeloved as a friend." Once for all, we must reprobate and then bid adieu to the numerous malignant reflections of the fame kind, which are to be met with in almost every page, but which are to equivocally worded as just to steer clear of being actionable. We shall pafs them over, and felect only interefting narrative. He lodged with Mr. Samuel Olive, a tobacconift and fhop-keeper of repute in Lewes, until the death of Mr. Olive, which happened ་ in July 1769. In 1770 he opened the thop as a grocer in his own name, and in March 1771 he married Elizabeth Olive, daughter to his deceafed friend. Here he is accufed of perjury, by fwearing that he was a bachelor, for it is fo expressed in the license, when he knew he was a widower, and this is faid to be a felony by the well-known Marriage Act of 26. Geo. II.c. 33. This point we leave to be fettled by the Ecclefiaftical Court, to which it belongs to investigate all frauds of this nature. We are informed, p. 22. that while at Lewes, he was rather ambitious to fhine as a jolly fellow among his private companions, than to be confidered by his official fuperiors as an exc...man remarkable for diligence and fidelity; but at p. 27. in the fame town, we find " he had rifen by fuperior energy, more than by greater honesty, to be a chief among the excifemen." It is the duty of a reviewer to point out flat contradictions, from whatever motives they may be inferted. It appears, that Mr. Pain's firft pubfication was an Election Song in praife of Mr. Rumbold, who stood candidate to reprefent the Borough of Shoreham in the year 1771. The following year, the inferior excifemen, who had long complained of their scanty falaries, totally inadequate to the increased price of provifions, and to the benefits the public reveque derive from their fervices, formed a delign to apply to Parliament for redrefs; accordingly, a common contribution was made, and Pain was engaged to draw up their Cafe, which he published in an octavo pamphlet, which, befides the introduction, contains, The State of the Salaries of the Officers of Excue; and Thoughts on the Corruption arifing from the Poverty of Excife Officers. On thefe topics, he fays all that the ableft writer could have faid. No relief however was obtained, for no Member could be found to move a fubject fo obnoxious to the Treafury. By neglecting his fhop to attend this bulinets in London he became infolvent, his principal creditor feized his effects, and fold them by public auction, in virtue of a bill of fale. This exasperated the other creditors, who fued hin, and he was obliged to conceal himself from the bailiffs in the cock-loft of an inn at Lewes fome days, in danger of being starved, till Sunday once more came to his affiftance, and he efcaped to London. A very indecent relation of a complaint exhibited against him by his wife, which we fhall not repeat, terminated in a feparation in 1774. The fame year, he was finally dilimissed from the Excife; and no man, except his biographer, will doubt the true reafon, as it is well known, that writing to obtain higher falaries for officers under Government is high-treafon against the Minister of the Department under which they ferve: the application must be directed to fuch Minifter, and if he fignifies his disapprobation, thus the matter muft end. Neither this bankruptcy, nor difmiffal from office, nor feparation from his wife, weakened Pain's intereft with the late George Lewis Scott, one of the Com miffioners of Excise, who, finding he could not get him reftored, ftrongly recom mended him to Dr. Franklin, as a perfon who could, at that epoch, be useful to America; but the Doctor, it seems, difliked the man, and was displeased with Mr. Scott for the recommendation. Pain, however, found means to embark for America in September 1774; he arrived at Philadelphia a few months before the battle of Lexington, fought in April 1775. His firft employment was that of fhopman to Mr. Aitkin, a bookfeller, and this fituation, no doubt, gave him an opportunity, though not noticed by his Biographer, of strengthening his mental abilities by reading, and of qualifying himself for literary purfuits. With thorough knowledge of that burthenfome and flavifh fyftem of taxation, Excife Laws, which, though the neceffities of the State have made them familiar to us in England, had been loudly complained of by the best political writers in all parts of Europe, from the time of their first in ftitution; a more dangerous enemy, as an individual, to the mother country, or a fitter perfon to induce the Americans to revolt, could not have eflcaped from his native land. In popular tumults, men of strong natural abilities, and of a bold, enterprizing genius, are the very charac ters whom the people felect for Chiefs, either in the field: or in their private affemblies; it does not therefore appear in the least wonderful, that at fuch a time, and under fuch circumftances as the people of Philadelphia were then in, "he fhould have fpeedily rifen from a fhopman to a Statesman." Wolfey role from a more obfcure origin to a much higher degree of political elevation. "In 1775 he started from the bookfeller's fhop to the laboratory, and em. ployed his fertile genius in experiments for Cc 3 making making faltpetre for the ufe of Congrefs, Thus encouraged, with the popular voice on his fide, he made politics his chief study, and certainly was the most energetic writer the American Revolutionists could boast of. His next perform ance was an occafional paper, called The Crifis, which baffled the Negociation of the British Commiffioners, and spirited up Here we muft paule to notice, that the fevereft criticisms are made on Tom Pain the staymaker's style, as illiterate and ungrammatical, yet furely there cannot be a worle framed paragraph than the above, by the Rev. Mr. Oldys, A. M. of the University of Pennfylvania, or the real writer, whoever he is, of Pain's Life. The fimple, pure conftruction of the above, appears to us to be as follows: The populace, who faw two brothers of the Virginian Lees in Congrefs, another Ambaflador at Vienua, and a fourth Envoy at Berlia, feared, &c. Innumerable initances might be produced of defective ftyle in this writer, who cafts the firft tone at poor Pain. An imprudent attack upon Deane and Robert Morris, through the channel of the news-papers, betrayed him into a very unjuftifiable measure, for he published therein what he could only know confidentially from the foreign correspondence, as Secretary. The The French Envoy formally complained to Congress of this infidelity, which expofed the intrigues of his Court. Being called upon by Congreis to declare if he was the author of the papers complained of, he avowed it without hefitation, and was obliged to resign his office on the 8th of January 1779. From this period to 1783 we have little concerning him wor thy of notice: " he then publifhed his lafi Crifis, on the fame day that a ceffation of hoftilities was proclaimed. This Ellay was foon after printed as a pamphiet, entitled, Pain's Thoughts on the Peace. In eighteen pages he concluded his valedictory oration in the following fentence: Now, Gentlemen, you are in dependent; fit down, and be happy.” He buried himself for feveral years, after this, in foliciting the American Af femblies to grant him fome reward, for having contributed, by his labours, to make the American Citizens Independent. New York conferred on him forfeited lands at New Rochelle, which being uncultivated produced no income. Pennfylvania gave him five hundred pounds, which, at fix per cent. may be confidered as a penfion of thirty pounds a year. But as his pen was no longer wanted by the United States, he departed for France in the autumn of 1786. He arrived at Paris the beginning of 1787, and exhibited to the French Academy the model of a bridge, which fhewed that he had a genius equally formed for mechanics and politics. On the 3d of September in the fame year, he arrived at the White Bear in Piccadilly, just thirteen years after his departure for Philadelphia. In London he did not remain long, but hastened to Thetford, where he found his mother, who was now advanced to the age of Ainety, but oppreffed by penury. At the ara of rejoicing for independence, this dutiful fon had remitted his neceffitous parent twenty pounds, in payment, no doubt, of the money which had been lent him on bond before his emigration. He now talked of allowing his mother nine fhillings a week, to be paid by Whitefide, an American merchant in London; but owing to the confufion of that trader's affairs, or to fome other cause, the allowance was foon ftopt. "Before the end of the year he returned to London, and published his Profpects on the Rubicon; or, an Inveftigation into the Caufes and Confequences of the Politics to be agitated at the Meeting of Parliament. This is an octavo tract, of fixty-eight pages, which treats of the ftate of the nation." It fhould feem that he treated the affairs of Holland in a masterly manner, by the flight notice with which his Biographer palles over this fubject."The affairs of Holland, which were then unsettled, are now a subject of hiftory, whofe pen will do justice to the conductors of a great tranfaction to happy end." "During the year 1788, Mr. Pain' was chiefly occupied in building his bridge. For this end he made a journey to Rotherham in Yorkshire, in order to fuperintend the cafting of the iron, by that ingenious and respectable citizen Mr. Walker. This project colt him a large fum, which was mottly furnished by Mr. Whitefide. The bridge remains to this day, erected on a piece of ground behind the Yorkshire Stingo, oppofite Liffon Green, and is fhewn at one fhilling each perfon, As this was not the firit iron bridge that was known to the English world, it is not ealy to difcover, why the projector, having a model, fhould incur fo great an expence merely to make a, fhow." This is the language of his Biographer; but if ever there was an inttance of genius deriving advantage from the very obfcurity and low occu pation fo much derided in Paine, it is this of the bridge in queftion. It might have been the invention, and have done honour to the talents of a Marlborough or a Saxe; being an arch constructed of iron, one hundred and ten feet in the span, five feet from the fpring, and twenty two feet in breadth. On the fame principle that pieces of whalebone of the proper length for itays are run up between the stitched. tabby or jane, iron bars pafs up through pieces of fhaped iron, not above a foot long, refembling the reprefentation of an hour-glafs, when drawn or engraved on a flat furface; of thefe pieces, the fides, baluftrades, and whole compact union of the bridge are formed; the iron rods paffing through the centres, are faftened by iron keys: it may be thrown over a river for an army to pafs, and afterwards be taken to pieces and packed up in military chefts or camp waggons. The model could not demonftrate the practicability and use, fo well as the Bridge itself; of this circumftance, however, Mr. Oldys chofe to be ignorant. His next work was "Rights of Man," in anfwer to Mr. Burke's Obfervations on the French Revolution. Mr. Pain's was only one, of a fwarm of anfwers to Mr. Burke, |