upon your good-nature--There are a sort of people in the world (one or
two in a large extent of country) rare enough to meet with--and you
are one whom nature hath left entirely defenceless to the depredations
of knaves;--for my part, I own I have no remorse when I tax your
good-nature--which proceeds from your having obliged me so much--that I
think with the street paupers--when they cry--“Good your Ladyship, give
me something--you always used to remember your poor old woman!”--Well
but to conclude--we courtiers are all alive upon this great good
news--the Queen, God bless her--safe;--another Princess--Oh the cake
and cawdle!--Then the defeat of Washintub’s army--and the capture of
Arnold and Sulivan with seven thousand prisoners;--thirteen counties
return to their allegiance;--all this news is believed--the delivery of
her Majesty is certain--pray God the rest may be as certain--that this
cursed carnage of the human species may end--commerce revive--sweet
social peace be extended throughout the globe--and the British empire
be strongly knit in the never-ending bands of sacred friendship and
brotherly love!--Her good Grace of P---- is just arrived:--the gardens
would look as they were wont--but for you. But to conclude--the little
dance (which I like because I made it)--I humbly beg you will make
Jacky play--and amongst you contrive a figure.--The Dutchess of ----
visits the Queen this evening--which being a piece of news you may
credit--and of the utmost consequence--I close my very sensible decent
epistle with--And so God bless you!--Pray tell Mr. K---- my thanks for
his obliging letter--and that I join him and all his friends in honest
gladness--upon his brother’s account.--I fear, also, he has had, and
still has, too much practice.--I have this opinion of him, that his
humanity will ever be found equal to his skill--and that he will be a
credit to his profession--as well as a blessing to his patients.--My
humble respects and best wishes attend Miss ---- and Messieurs B----
and S----, &c.
The grand news is not yet officially authenticated--as no express is
yet arrived from the Howes--the Isis man of war, which is supposed
to have the dispatches, not being got in;--but the K---- and Cabinet
believe the news to be true, though brought by hear-say--at sea.
LETTER LVI.
TO MR. S----.
December 20, 1777.
WITH the old story of the Season, &c. &c. most sincerely, and amen.
When Royal David--in the intoxication of success and fullness of
pride--imprudently insisted upon the numbering of his people--we are
told, the Prophet was sent to announce the Divine displeasure--and to
give him the choice of one of the three of the Almighty’s heaviest
punishments:--in his choice--he shewed both wisdom and true piety--you
know the rest.--Now, my friend--thou knowest my weakness;--I
sincerely believe the Sacred Writ--and of course look upon war in
all its horrid arrangements as the bitterest curse that can fall
upon a people; and this American one--as one of the very worst--of
worst things:--that it is a just judgement, I do believe;--that the
eyes of our rulers are shut, and their judgements stone-blind, I
believe also.--The Gazette will give you a well-drest melancholy
account--but you will see one thing in it which you will like--and
that is, the humane solicitude of General Burgoyne--for the safety
and good treatment indiscriminately of all his camp-artificers and
attendants:--he is certainly a man of feeling--and I regard him
more for the grandeur of his mind in adversity--than I should in
all the triumphal pomp of military madness.--But let me return, if
possible, to my senses:--for God’s sake! what has a poor starving
Negroe, with six children, to do with kings and heroes, and armies and
politics?--Aye, or poets and painters!--or artists--of any sort? quoth
Monsieur S----. True--indubitably true.--For your letter, thanks--It
should have come sooner--better late, &c. &c.--What have I to do with
your good or evil fortune--health or sickness--weal or woe?--I am
resolved from henceforth to banish feelings--Misanthrope from head
to foot!--_Apropos_--not five minutes since I was interrupted, in
this same letter of letters, by a pleasant affair--to a man of no
feelings.--A fellow bolted into the shop with a countenance in which
grief and fear struggled for mastery.--“Did you see any body go to my
cart, Sir?”--“No, friend, how should I? you see I am writing--and how
should I be able to see your cart or you either in the dark?”--“Lord in
heaven pity me! cries the man, what shall I do? oh! what shall I do?--I
am undone!--Good God!--I did but go into the court here--with a trunk
for the lady at Captain G----’s (I had two to deliver), and somebody
has stole the other;--what shall I do?--what shall I do?”--“Zounds,
man!--who ever left their cart in the night with goods in it, without
leaving some one to watch?”--“Alack, Sir, I left a boy, and told him I
would give him something to stand by the cart, and the boy and trunk
are both gone!”--Oh nature!--oh heart!--why does the voice of distress
so forcibly knock at the door of hearts--but to hint to pride and
avarice our common kindred--and to alarm self-love?--Mark, I do think,
and will maintain it--that self-love alone, if rightly understood,
would make man all that a dying Redeemer wills he should be.--But this
same stolen trunk;--the ladies are just gone out of my shop--they have
been here holding a council--upon law and advertisements;--God help
them!--they could not have come to a worse--nor could they have found
a stupider or sorrier adviser:--the trunk was seen parading between
two in the Park--and I dare say the contents by this time are pretty
well gutted.--Last Sunday I met, coming from church, Mr. C----; he
looks well, better than when you left him.--I took occasion, as we were
prating about and about your worship--to pin Mr. de Groote’s interest
upon the skirts of his feelings;--he desired, when I saw him next,
I would send him into Crown-street--which I religiously performed,
but have not seen Mr. de Groote since;--in truth, there is (despight
of his nose) so much of the remains of better times--somewhat of the
gentleman and artist in ruins--something creative of reverence as well
as pity--that I have wished to do more than I ought--though at the
same time too little for such a being to receive without insult from
the hands of a poor Negroe--(pooh, I do not care for your prancings, I
can see you at this distance).--We have agreed upon one thing;--which
is, I have undertaken to write to Mr. G---- for him, in the way of
local relief;--I will wager a tankard of porter I succeed in some
sort;--I will aim at both sides of him--his pity and his pride--which,
alas!--the last I mean, finds a first-floor in the breast of every
son of Adam. S---- called on me this day, and left a picture for you
at your lodgings--and a very spirited head in miniature, of your own
doing, with me--which I like so well--you will find it difficult to get
it from me--except you talk of giving me a copy--Self-love again!--How
can you expect business in these hard times--when the utmost exertions
of honest industry can scarce afford people in the middle sphere of
life daily provisions?--When it shall please the Almighty that things
shall take a better turn in America--when the conviction of their
madness shall make them court peace--and the same conviction of our
cruelty and injustice induce us to settle all points in equity--when
that time arrives, my friend, America will be the grand patron of
genius--trade and arts will flourish--and if it shall please God to
spare us till that period--we will either go and try our fortunes
there--or stay in Old England and talk about it.--While thou hast
only one mouth to feed--one back to cloath--and one wicked member to
indulge--thou wilt have no pity from me--excepting in the argument of
health. May that cordial blessing be thine--with its sweet companion
ease!--Peace follows rectitude--and what a plague would’st thou have
more?--Write soon if thou dar’st--retort at thy peril--boy--girls--and
the old Duchess, all pretty well--and so, so, is yours,
I. SANCHO.
LETTER LVII.
TO J. S----, Esq.
Charles Street, December 26, 1777.
I HAD the favor of a letter--replete with kindness which I can never
deserve--and have just now received the valuable contents--of which
said letter was harbinger--without either surprize or emotion--save a
kind of grateful tickling of the heart--the child of respect--and I
believe twin-brother of gratitude.----Now had I heard of an A--hb--p
(at this sacred season especially)--gladdening the hearts of the
poor, aged and infirm--with good cheer--informing the minds of the
young with Christian precepts, and reforming his whole See by his
pious example--that would have surprized me:--had I been informed of
a truly great man--who, laying aside party and self-interest, dared
to step forth the advocate of truth, and friend to his country; or
had any one told me of a lord--who was wise enough to live within
bounds--and honest enough to pay his debts--why it would have surpriz’d
me indeed.--But I have been well informed there is a Mr. S---- at
Bury--and I think I have seen the gentleman--who lives in a constant
course of doing beneficent actions--and, upon these occasions, the
pleasure he feels constitutes him the obliged party.--You, good
Sir, ought of course to thank me--for adding one more to the number
you are pleased to be kind to--so pray remember, good Sir, that my
thanks--(however due in the eye of gratitude) I conceive to be an act
of supererogation--and expect that henceforth you will look upon the
Sancho’s--as a family that have a rightful call upon your notice.--Mrs.
Sancho joins me in repetition of the customary wishes.--Give me credit
for having a heart which feels your kindness as it ought.--That Heaven
may lengthen your days for the good of mankind--and grant every wish of
your heart--is the true conclusion of
Your greatly obliged
and respectful humble servant,
I. SANCHO.
LETTER LVIII.
TO MR. F----.
Charles Street, January 27, 1778.
FULL heartily and most cordially do I thank thee, good Mr. F----, for
your kindness in sending the books--that upon the unchristian and most
diabolical usage of my brother Negroes--the illegality--the horrid
wickedness of the traffic--the cruel carnage and depopulation of the
human species--is painted in such strong colours--that I should think
would (if duly attended to) flash conviction, and produce remorse, in
every enlightened and candid reader.--The perusal affected me more
than I can express;--indeed I felt a double or mixt sensation--for
while my heart was torn with the sufferings which--for aught I
know--some of my nearest kin might have undergone--my bosom, at the
same time, glowed with gratitude and praise toward the humane--the
Christian--the friendly and learned Author of that most valuable
book.--Blest be your sect!--and Heaven’s peace be upon them!--I, who,
thank God! am no bigot--but honour virtue and the practice of the
great moral duties equally in the turban or the lawn-sleeves--who
think Heaven big enough for all the race of man--and hope to see
and mix amongst the whole family of Adam in bliss hereafter--I with
these notions (which, perhaps, some may style absurd) look upon the
friendly Author--as a being far superior to any great name upon your
continent.--I could wish that every member of each house of parliament
had one of these books.--And if his Majesty perused one through before
breakfast--though it might spoil his appetite--yet the consciousness
of having it in his power to facilitate the great work--would give
an additional sweetness to his tea.--Phyllis’s poems do credit to
nature--and put art--merely as art--to the blush.--It reflects nothing
either to the glory or generosity of her master--if she is still his
slave--except he glories in the _low vanity_ of having in his wanton
power a mind animated by Heaven--a genius superior to himself. The list
of splendid, titled, learned names, in confirmation of her being the
real authoress, alas! shews how very poor the acquisition of wealth
and knowledge are--without generosity--feeling--and humanity.--These
good great folks all knew--and perhaps admired--nay, praised Genius in
bondage--and then, like the Priests and the Levites in sacred writ,
passed by--not one good Samaritan amongst them.--I shall be ever glad
to see you--and am, with many thanks,
Your most humble servant.
IGNATIUS SANCHO.
LETTER LIX.
TO MR. W----E.
Charles Street, March 12, 1778.
WILL you forgive me--if I take the liberty to trouble you with getting
my enclosed plan inserted in the General Advertiser, or Morning
Intelligencer, as speedily as they conveniently can, if after you have
perused it, you think it admissable?--if not, destroy it; for I have
not yet vanity sufficient to think whatever I privately approve must
of course be approveable.--I send you the copy of what real affection
made me draw up for the late unfortunate Dr. Dodd[5] (which, as it
never was inserted, I must believe the learned editor thought it too
insignificant for the laudable service it was meant to help).--My
respects attend your whole family.--I am, dear Sir,
Yours, &c. &c.
I. SANCHO.
I prefer Mr. Parker’s paper for many reasons;--let me have your opinion
of my plan--for, in serious truth, I think it ought to be put in
execution.
[5] Mr. Sancho also wrote to Dr. Dodd when in prison.
For THE GENERAL ADVERTISER.
Palace Yard, March 12, 1778.
SIR,
THE Romans were wont to decree public honors on the man who was so
fortunate as to save the life of a citizen; a noble act of policy,
founded on true humanity, to stimulate the endeavours of every
individual towards acts of benevolence and brotherly regard to each
other. Actuated by zeal to my prince, and love to my country--I mean
to deserve well of both, by publishing, through the channel of your
paper, a plan for greatly diminishing the national debt; or, in case
a war with the House Bourbon should be inevitable, for raising three
or four years supplies, without oppresing the merchant, mechanic,
or labouring husbandman; in short, without abridging one needful
indulgence, or laying any fellow-subject under the least self-denying
restraint.
Mr. Editor, we all know that in noble families plate is merely ideal
wealth--and in very many houses of your first connexions and over-grown
fortunes, there are vast quantities of it old and useless, kept merely
for the antiquity of its fashion, and the ostentatious proof of the
grandeur of ancestry. Our neighbours the French (if I mistake not) in
the last war had the spirit (when the treasures of their Grand Monarque
were nearly exhausted) to send their plate generously to the mint,
in aid of national honour and security. Their churchmen have often
shewn the laity the glorious example of aiding the state. We, to our
immortal honour, have never yielded them the palm in courage, wisdom,
or gallantry. Let every gentleman, whose landed property exceeds
500_l._ _per annum_, give up, without reserve, his useful family plate,
all except knives, forks, and spoons, which may be deemed useful and
necessary. I trust, such is the exalted spirit of the British nobility
and gentry, that they will resign with chearfulness what they can so
well do without. Should this meet (as I hope it will) with the chearful
assent of the public, let the quantities, so nobly given, be printed
against the names of the patriotic donors, as a lasting testimony of
their zeal for the public good, and a glorious proof of the internal
riches of this queen of isles!
+Africanus.+
To the Editor of the MORNING POST.
SIR,
I AM one of the many who have been often edified by the graceful
eloquence and truly Christian doctrine of the unfortunate Dr. Dodd.--As
a Divine, he had, and still has, my love and reverence; his faults I
regret; but, alas! I feel myself too guilty to cast a stone: justice
has her claims;--but Mercy, the anchor of my hope, inclines me to
wish he might meet with Royal clemency--his punishments have already
been pretty severe!--the loss of Royal favor--the cowardly attacks of
malicious buffoonry--and the over-strained zeal for rigid justice in
the prosecution.--Oh! would to God the reverend bishops, clergy, &c.
would join in petitioning the Throne for his life!--it would save the
holy order from indignity, and even the land itself from the reproach
of making too unequal distinctions in punishments. He might, by the
rectitude of his future life, and due exertion of his matchless
powers, be of infinite service--as chaplain to the poor convicts
on the river, which would be a punishment, and, at the same time,
serve for a proof or test of his contrition--and the sincerity of a
zeal he has often manifested (in the pulpit) for the service of true
Religion--and he may rise the higher by his late fall--and do more real
service to the thoughtless and abandoned culprits, than a preacher,
whose character might perhaps be deemed spotless. If this hint should
stimulate a pen, or heart, like the good B----p of Chester’s, to exert
itself in the behalf of a man who has formerly been alive to every act
of heaven-born charity--the writer of this will have joy, even in his
last moments, in the reflection that he paid a mite of the vast debt he
owes Dr. Dodd as a preacher.
I---- S----.
LETTER LX.
TO MRS. H----.
Charles Street, April 9, 1778.
DEAR MADAM,
I HAVE to thank you for repeated favors--and I do most sincerely.--You
have a pleasure in doing acts of kindness--I wish from my soul that
your example was more generally imitated.--I have given to the care
of Mr. W---- one of Giardini’s benefit-tickets--which I present not
to you, Madam, but to Mr. H----, that he may judge of fidlers’ taste
and fidlers’ consequence in our grand metropolis--the ticket was a
present from the great Giardini to the lowly Sancho--and I offer it as
a tribute of musical affection to thy worthy partner--and with it, to
both, the sincereest best wishes and respects of their much obliged
servant,
IGN. SANCHO.
LETTER LXI.
TO MR. J---- W----E.
May 4, 1778.
MY DEAR W----E,
YOUR short letter gave me much pleasure--which would have been
enlarged, had your epistle been longer;--but I make allowances--as I
ought--for the number of friends who wish equally with me--and expect
to be gratified. You are greatly fortunate in enjoying your health--for
which I doubt not but you are truly thankful to the Almighty Giver.--As
to your success, it is the best comment upon your conduct;--for
rectitude of principle and humble deportment, added to strict attention
and good-nature, must make even fools and knaves wish you well--though
envy will mix itself with the transient kindness of such--but with
such noble natures as you went out happily connected with, you are
every day sowing the good seeds of your future fortune.--I hope to
live to see you return--the comfort and honor of your good father and
family;--but observe--I do not wish you half a million, clogged with
the tears and blood of the poor natives;--no--a decent competence got
with honesty--and that will keep increasing like the widow’s cruse,
and descend down to posterity with accumulated blessings.--You desire
to transfer your share in me to your brother Joe;--now be it known to
you--Joe has interest sufficient in his own natural right with me, to
secure him every attention in my poor power. But you flatter, my good
friend--though your flattery carries a good excuse with it--you flatter
the poor.
I say nothing of politics--I hate such subjects;--the public papers
will inform you of mistakes--blood--taxes--misery--murder--the
obstinacy of a few--and the madness and villainy of a many.--I expect
a very, very long letter from you--in answer to a sermon I wrote you
last year.--Miss ---- is still divinely fair;--she is a good girl, but
no match for Nabobs.--Mrs. C---- is as handsome as ever--and R---- as
friendly. God bless them! feasting or fasting! sleeping or waking!
May God’s providence watch over and protect them--and all such!--Your
brother Frank is a sweet boy--a painter, who would wish to draw a
cherub, will find no fitter subject.--The C----ds--but what have I to
do with good people, who will of course all write for themselves?--so
let them.--Your father--Oh Jack! what a cordial!--what a rich luxury is
it to be able to contribute, by well-doing, to a father’s, nay a whole
family of kindred love, and heart-felt affection! what a bliss to add
to all their happiness--and to insure your own at the same time!--May
this high pleasure be thine! and may the God of truth and fountain of
all good enrich thy heart and head with his spirit and wisdom--crown
your labours with success--and guard you from avarice--ambition--and
every Asiatic evil--so that your native land may receive you with
riches and honor--your friends with true joy--heightened with sincere
respect! So wishes--so prophesies--thy true friend and obliged servant,
I. SANCHO.
LETTER LXII.
Charles Street, May 9, 1778.
TO MISS C----.
THE Sanchos--in full synod--humbly present their respectful compliments
to the good Mrs. C---- and Miss ---- (what a C----!) are happy in
hearing they got well into Suffolk--that they continue so--and
enjoy the beauties of this sweetest of seasons--with its attendant
dainties--fresh butter--sweet milk--and the smiles of boon nature--on
hill and dale--fields and groves--shepherds piping--milk-maids
dancing--and the chearful respondent carolings of artless joy in the
happy husbandmen--Should you perchance rise early in pursuit of May
dew--I earnestly make it my request--you will save--and bring to town
a little bottle of it for my particular use.--Happy--thrice happy
nymphs--!--be merciful to the poor hapless swains. The powerful little
god of mischief and delight now--at this blest season--prunes his
beauteous wings--new feathers and sharpens his arrows--tight strings
his bow--and takes too sure his aim.--Oh! lads, beware the month of
May. For you, blest girls--nature, decked out as in a birth-day suit,
courts you with all its sweets where-e’er you tread--the grass and
wanton flowerets fondly kiss your feet--and humbly bow their pretty
heads--to the gentle sweepings of your under-petticoats--the soft and
amorous southern breezes toy with your curls, and uncontroul’d steal
numberless kisses--the blackbirds and thrushes suspend their songs--and
eye beauty and humanity with pleasure;--and, could their hearts be
read, thank most sincerely the generous fair hands that fed them in the
winter;--the cuckoo sings on every tree the joys of married life--the
shrubbery throws out all its sweets to charm you--though, alas! an
unlucky parciplepliviaplemontis seizes my imagination--my brains are
on the ferment--Miss C---- will excuse me.--Make my best wishes to
Mrs. C----, tell her I hope she rides and walks in moderation--eats
heartily, and laughs much--sleeps soundly, dreams happily--that
she--you--my R---- and your connexions--may enjoy the good of this life
without its evil--is the true Black-a-moor wish of
I. SANCHO.
Now mark, this is not meant as a letter--no--it is an address to the
ladies.--Pray our best respects to Mr. and Mrs. B----; it is an address
to Spring-birds and flowers--and when you see Johnny, our loves--it
is a caution to the swains against the popery of Love.--The K---- and
Q---- are just now returned from Portsmouth.--I said nothing in regard
to the month by way of advice to the ladies.--The Spectator--blessings
on his memory--has.--They say the Royal chaise was covered with
dirt--even the very glasses.--Quistus Quirini--was found very late last
night.--Nothing broke--except the hemmings of advantage.--They say the
Queen never looked better.--But what amaz’d most people--both the Royal
postillions rode the off-horses--which it is expected the Gazette of
this night will explain--Adieu.
Is not that--_a good one_.
From the PUBLIC ADVERTISER of May 13th, 1778.
Inserted unknown to Mr. Sancho.
TO MR. B----.
DEAR SIR,