they turn themselves, as usual, to the Speaker, and so, whilst their address is directed to him, they fancy they violate neither the rules of parliament, nor those of good breeding and decorum, whilst they utter the most cutting personal sarcasms against the member, or the measure they

oppose.

Two shorthand writers have sat sometimes not far distant from me, who (though it is rather by stealth) endeavour to take down the words of the speaker; and thus all that is very remarkable in what is said in parliament, may generally be read in print the next day. The shorthand writers, whom I noticed, are supposed to be employed and paid by the editors of the different newspapers. . . . There appears to be much more politeness and more courteous behaviour in the members of the upper house. But he who wishes to observe mankind, and to contemplate the leading traits of the different characters most strongly marked, will do well to attend frequently the lower, rather than the other, house.

SOURCE: As No. 27.

30. HIGHWAYMEN

Richmond, 21st June, 1782. Yesterday afternoon I had the luxury, for the first time, of being driven in an English stage. These coaches are at least in the eyes of a foreigner, quite elegant, lined in the inside; and with two seats large enough to accommodate six persons; but it must be owned, when the carriage is full, the company are rather crowded.

At the White Hart from whence the coach sets out, there was, at first, only an elderly lady who got in; but as we drove along, it was soon filled, and mostly by ladies, there being only one more gentleman and myself. The conversation of the ladies among themselves, who appeared to be a little acquainted with each other, seemed to me to be but very insipid and tiresome. All I could do was, I drew

out my book of the roads, and marked the way we were going.

Before you well know that you are out of London, you are already in Kensington and Hammersmith; because there are all the way houses on both sides, after you are out of the city; just as you may remember the case is with us when you drive from Berlin to Schoneberg; although in point of prospect, houses, and streets, the difference, no doubt, is prodigious.

It was a fine day, and there were various delightful prospects on both sides, on which the eye would willingly have dwelt longer, had not our coach rolled on past them, so provokingly quick. It appeared somewhat singular to me, when, at a few miles from London, I saw at a distance a beautiful white house; and perceived on the high road, on which we were driving, a direction post, on which were written these words: "that great white house, at a distance, is a boarding-school!"

The man who was with us in the coach pointed out to us the county seats of the lords and great people, by which we passed; and entertained us with all kinds of stories of robberies which had been committed on travellers, hereabouts: so that the ladies at last began to be rather afraid; on which he began to stand up for the superior honour of the English robbers, when compared with the French: the former he said robbed only, the latter both robbed and murdered.

Notwithstanding this, there are in England another species of villains, who also murder, and that oftentimes for the merest trifle, of which they rob the person murdered. These are called Footpads, and are the lowest class of English rogues; amongst whom, in general there reigns something like some regard to character.

The highest order of thieves are the pick-pockets, or cutpurses, whom you find every where; and sometimes

even in the best companies. They are generally well and handsomely dressed, so that you take them to be persons of rank; as indeed may sometimes be the case: persons who by extravagance and excesses have reduced themselves to want, and find themselves obliged at last to have recourse to pilfering and thieving.

Next to them come the highwaymen, who rob on horseback; and often, they say, even with unloaded pistols they terrify travellers, in order to put themselves in possession of their purses. Among these persons, however, there are instances of true greatness of soul, there are numberless instances of their returning a part of their booty, where the party robbed has appeared to be particularly distressed; and they are seldom guilty of murder.

Then comes the third and lowest, and worst of all thieves and rogues, the footpads before mentioned; who are on foot, and often murder in the most inhuman manner, for the sake of only a few shillings, any unfortunate people who happen to fall in their way. Of this several mournful instances may be read almost daily in the English papers. Probably they murder because they cannot like highwaymen, aided by their horses, make a rapid flight; and therefore such pests are frequently pretty easily pursued and taken, if the person robbed gives information of his robbery in time.

But to return to our stage, I must observe, that they have here a curious way of riding, not in, but upon a stage coach. Persons to whom it is not convenient to pay a full price, instead of the inside, sit on the top of the coach, without any seats or even a rail. By what means passengers thus fasten themselves securely on the roof of these vehicles, I know not; but you constantly see numbers seated there, apparently at their ease, and in perfect safety.

This they call riding on the outside; for which they pay only half as much as those pay who are within.

31. A BOAT RACE

SOURCE: Horace Walpole, Letters (1735–1797). To Miss Berry.

Aug. 23, 1791.-On Monday was the boat-race. I was in the great room at the Castle, with the Duke of Clarence, Lady Di, Lord Robert Spencer, and the House of Bouverie, to see the boats start from the bridge to Thistleworth, and back to a tent erected on Lord Dysart's meadow, just before Lady Di's windows; whither we went to see them arrive, and where we had breakfast. For the second heat, I sat in my coach on the bridge; and did not stay for the third. The day had been coined on purpose, with my favourite south-east wind. The scene, both up the river and down, was what only Richmond upon earth can exhibit. The crowds on those green velvet meadows and on the shores, the yachts, barges, pleasure and small boats, and the windows and gardens lined with spectators, were so delightful, that when I came home from that vivid show, I thought Strawberry [Strawberry Hill, Walpole's residence] looked as dull and solitary as a hermitage. At night there was a ball at the Castle, and illuminations, with the Duke's cypher, etc., in coloured lamps, as were the houses of his Royal Highness's tradesmen. I went again in the evening to the French ladies on the Green, where there was a bonfire; but, you may believe, not to the ball.

32. SUNDAY SCHOOLS [1791]

SOURCE: Madame D'Arblay, Diary and Letters, 1842–1846.

Aug. 31, 1791.-The name of Mrs Trimmer led us to talk of the Sunday-schools and Schools of Industry. They are both in a very flourishing state at Bath, and Lady Spencer has taken one school under her own immediate patronage.

. . On Sunday she sent me a message upstairs to say she would take me to see the Sunday-school if I felt well enough

to desire it. It was a most interesting sight. Such a number of poor innocent children all put in a way of right, most taken immediately from every way of wrong, lifting their little hands, and joining in those prayers and supplications for mercy and grace, which, even if they understood not, must at least impress them with a general idea of religion, a dread of evil, and a love of good.

33. DISCOVERY OF VACCINATION

SOURCE: Baron, Life of Edward Jenner, 1838.

(a) Jenner's Petition to Parliament [1802].

To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled.

The humble Petition of Edward Jenner, Doctor of Physic, SHEWETH,

That your petitioner having discovered that a disease which occasionally exists in a particular form among cattle, known by the name of the cowpox, admits of being inoculated on the human frame with the most perfect ease and safety, and is attended with the singularly beneficial effect of rendering through life the persons so inoculated perfectly secure from the infection of the small-pox.

That your petitioner after a most attentive and laborious investigation of the subject, setting aside considerations of private and personal advantage, and anxious to promote the safety and welfare of his countrymen and of mankind in general, did not wish to conceal the discovery he so made on the mode of conducting this new species of inoculation, but immediately disclosed the whole to the public; and by communication with medical men in all parts of this kingdom, and in foreign countries, sedulously endeavoured to spread the knowledge of his discovery and the benefit of his labours as widely as possible.