proving, in peace, the arts of commerce and agriculture, under a settled administra tion, we were harraffed by the turbulence of five fucceffive minorities; and at luft our monarchs, leaving their ancient and natural kingdom, and governing it by English councils, our intereft were totally neglected, and we became the starved ftep: children, while they were the pampered favourites. A D At the union, the advantages for England were eafily perceived, our's were more remote. Its first and most immediate effe&t, was to load us with taxes we never knew before, to pay the intereft of debts we never contracted. It was then we first B knew the bleffings of an English excife, and the firft South Britons we faw among us were collectors, tide-waters, gaugers, and informers, famples no ways calculated to give us a high idea of the flock. We at this time allo renounced, in favour of our new brethren, the beneficial trade we carried on with Holland and France, from C whence, in return for our commodities, we were in ufe to fupply ourfelves with the manufactures we wanted, much cheaper than we could from them; and we agreed to drink port in preference to claret, becaufe the English carried on a lucrative trade with Portugal, in which, even to this day, we have not come in for the smallest fhare. To what a height our consumption of Englife commodities has encreased fince that time, may be estimated from the vaft importation to Leith alone; and in what light of importance they view this branch of trade, is beft fhewn by the keenness with which they follicit it, their riders fwarming to the most remote corners of E Scotland in queft of cuftom. On the other hand it must be confeffed, that the English take off many of our commodities, and that in feveral branches we have extended our commerce in confequence of the union; but it is evident that all our acquifitions in trade tend to the advantage of England, even confidered as a feparate ftate F because the more confiderable our gains are, the more are we enabled to confume of their manufa&tures; and in fact we find this consumption to encreafe daily, even beyond the encrease in our ability to pay: So that nearly the whole produce of our mines, fisheries, manufactures, and foreign commerce is obliged to be remitted to London, to answer the balance against us. And to add ftill to the advantages of our neighbours, our nobility and landed gentry fpend at least one third of the rents of all Scotland among them. Thus while we fcorned to become a province to England, we are in fact become its most valuable colony, and the English owe a confiderable art of their riches to the very people whofe rry they affect to defpife. they owe their liberty also in a G H great meafure to a people whofe princi ples they have falfely and ignorantly repre fented as inclined to defpotifm and flavery, will appear by the hiftory of their own kingdom: And if any Englifeman will give himself the trouble to read what none of his country was ever yet found capable to write, he will there fee that the Scotch knew to defend their liberties, as well from the ufurpations of their own princes, as from the attacks of foreign powers. How well we did the laft, the Englife annals bear witnefs, when for a course of al-. moft five centuries, we withstood the efforts of a too powerful neighbour. Even when the ambitous and ungenerous Longfhanks, taking advantage of our civil diffentions had reduced us to the last extremity; all at once the spirit of the nation roufed itfelt, parties united, the tyrant was driven out of the kingdom, and his fon fent home in a fishing boat, which ought to he preserved in Weftminfer-Abbey along with the regal chair which the father stole from Scoone, as a monument of the end, as well as the beginning of all his ambitious projects. The English ought alfo to remember, that at a time when their military fame was at the highest, under their gallant Edwards and Henrys, it was the Scotch who gave the firft check to their victorious arms abroad. It was a Bucban and a Douglas that first taught the trembling French to face the terrible English bowmen, and Scoreb valour then refcued the liberty of France, as it had formerly maintained that of Scotland, against the unbounded ambition of the Plantagenets.-With what indig-' nation would not these Plantagenets, whose arms shook both France and Scotland, look down upon their degenerate posterity, who lately, when a militia was established in England, to revive the national (pirit of defence that was almost extinét, denied to us what they thought necessary for themselves. Thirty thoufand Englishmen with arms in their hands, were then not ashamed to ex prefs a groundlefs and pufillanimous apprehenfion of danger from fix thousand Scotch, being put on the fame footing :-Sentiments worthy only of a people who, in 1745, had trembled with black fear at the approach of three thousand half-armed Scotch ragamuffins, to a city of a million of inhabitants; or who, in 1756, had ftretched out their weak and defenceless hands, imploring the Dutch, the Hanoverians, and the puiffant prince of Heffe, to fave them from a flat bottomed French invafion. That we knew to defend our rights at home, will alfo appear by the whole tenor of our hiftory, and in particular the famous letter of the Scotch barons to the Pope in 1320, is an authentic testimony of the principles of our ancestors. They there boldly affert their independency on Rome, and their right of chufing a king for themselves; and and this too at a time when their neigh- C about in Scotland, and forced on the crown by a free and enquiring people, was in England impofed on the abject people by the arbitrary will of a luftful and capricious tyrant. If, to enjoy Anna Bullen, Henry muft have turned Turk, the Eaglife nation would undoubtedly have been musfulman at this day. Soon after this period, when our pedantic James, bred up under the controul B of a bold and free nobility at home, fucceeded to the throne of the Tudors, and came to govern a people accustomed to the yoke, he was deceived by their fawning fpeeches, and began to exercise a power nothing new to them, but what he had not abilities to fupport. It was on that occasion the honeft Scat, who beheld with indignation their falfe and flavish profeffions, broke out and fwore by his faul, " thefe cringing falls would spoil a gude king." In the reign of his fon, the virtuous, but deluded Charles, when he, mifled by English and arbitrary councils, wanted to extend his prerogative, the Scotch were the firft to oppofe him. D They did not then waste their time in idle parliamentary debate, but rushed into the field, and our firft nobility were the foremoft in the glorious caufe. Even the gallant Mantrofe, that martyr to loyalty, when put in competition, preferred the duty he owed his country to the love he bore to his king. It is well known the efforts made by Scotland at that time not only faved itfelf, but even England, from the tyranny of a Scotch family, under which the united kingdoms might ftill have groaned at this day, E It is needlefs to take notice of any more of their infignificant charges against us, prompted by malice, and fupported by ig- F norance. I hope they do not proceed from the beft part of the English nation, whom I love, honour, and esteem; and as for the despicable herd who catch the cry from the Grub-freet hounds of fedition, fet on by the rage of a disappointed faction, or perhaps by the fecret intrigues of a foreign enemy, they render themselves compleat objects of G our contempt, by an impolitick hatred of brethren, with whom it is their interest cordially to unite, and by a mean jealoufy of a people to whom they are every way fuperior except in courage and capacity. It is plain the alarm was first rung upon the approach of a Scotchman to the helm of affairs, and it would feem his country is H the only crime they can lay to his charge. But let us not adopt the narrow fpirit of the Englifb: Let my Lord Bute be judged by his actions, but not by the place of his na (Gent, Mag, March 1765.) tivity. We had borne, for fifty years before his promotion, our fhare of all the difgrace abroad, and oppreffion at home, that were brought on the British nation by roguish or blundering English ministers, without ever making their country an fwerable for their crimes. Even when the fpirited Mr Pitt restored the reputation of our arms and councils, no Scotchman ever with-held his fhare of applaufe, because that minifter was born South of Tweed; nor afterwards was England charged with his faults, when he engaged us too deeply in continental affairs, contrary to the tenor of all his former profeffions. Let then my Lord Bute be regarded as a Briton, and as fuch be intitled to no particular share of our love or hatred. It is ftrange that this odious and impoli tick diftinction of country should take place with the ungenerous Engli, at the very time when it was almoft loft with us; when we were become fond of them, imi. tating them even to their faults, united with them in the fame profperous cause, fhedding our blood and acquiring glory out of all proportion to the taxes we pay; that this fhould be the very time they should chufe to quarrel with us, to bely us, grossly to revile us, and to deny us any hare in the administration of affairs. That they quarrel with us and revile us is of no confequence, but our pretensions to employ. ments we shall never give up, and we truft to our capacity for fuccefs; and whenever they begin to think themielves unequally yoked, let them propose a separation.-In the mean time, by imitating their industry, let us endeavour, by degrees, to leffen the only fuperiority over us they ever could I pretend to, while we ftill preferve all we ever poffeffed over them. While they, by narrow minded and impolitick combinations against Scotch pedlars and mechanics, are doing a real injury to themfelyes, let us profit by their folly, and receive our countrymen back with open arms, and ftill more, let us encourage their industrious 'workmen to come and fettle among us. That truely English maxim of employing men in public affairs not according to their abilities, but in proportion to the taxes they pay, or in other words, in proportion to their money, deserves no ferious answer. They, I own, would have the fame advantage over us by this rule, that we should have over them by the other. But I wonder the following objections never occurred, that my Lord Bute, even at that rate, might pretend to a great share of the adminißration of affairs, while the ftate would be certainly deprived of the patrio tic virtues of Mr Wilkes, who is as poor as if he were a North Briton indeed, and on whom his friend Churchill's Prophecy of Famine is likely to be fulfilled. A Citizen of Edinburgh. Mr URBAN, THE following Account of an Event that bappened lately at Aix la Chapelle, I think cannot fail of affording Entertainment Readers. I am, &c. Perfon who kept a lodging-house A near the Springs, having lost his wife, committed the management of his family to his daughter, afprightly well made handsome girl, about 20. to your A There were at that time in the house two ladies and their waiting woman, two Dutch officers, and a Dominican fryar. It happened that as the young woman of the house was afleep one night, in her bed, she was awakened by fomething that attempted to draw the cloaths off the bed: She was at firft frighted, but thinking, upon recollection, that it might be the house dog, fhe called him by his name: The cloaths, however, were ftill pulled from her, and the ftill imagining it was by the dog, took up a brush that lay in her reach, and attempted to ftrike him. At that moment fhe faw a flash of fudden light that filled the whole room; upon which the fuhrieked out, at the fame time covering her face with the fheet: When the again ventured to look out all was dark and filent, and the cloaths were no longer drawn from her. In the morning when the related this flory, every one treated it as a dream, and the girl herself at last took it for granted that it was no more than an illufion. B C D E The night following the was again awakened by fomething that jogged her, and the thought the felt a hand in the bed; upon endeavouring to reprefs it, another flash of lightening threw her into a fit of terror; the thut her eyes and croffed herself: When he ventured to open her eyes again, the light was vanished, but in a fhort time the felt what the fuppofed to be a hand again in the bed; the again endeavoured to reprefs it; but looking towards the foot of the bed, fhe law a large luminous cross, on which was written distinctly, as with light, the G words BE SILENT. She was now fo terrified that he had not power to break the injunction, but the shrunk down into the bed, and covered herself all over with the cloaths. In this fituation fhe continued a conderable time, and being no longer molested, the ventured once more to peep out, when, to her unspeakable aonibment, the faw a phantafm stand H ing by the fide of her bed, almost as high as the ceiling, a kind of glory encircled its head, and the whole was in the form of a crucifix, except that it feemed to have feveral hands, one of which again approached the bed. Suppofing the phænomenon to be fome cæleftial vifion, the exerted all her fortitude, and leaping out of bed, threw her felf upon her knees before it; but the inftantly found herself affaulted in a manner which convinced her the was mistaken; she had not ftrength to difengage herself from fomething that embraced her, and therefore screamed out as loud as the could to alarm the houfe, and bring fomebody to her affistance. Her fhrieks awakened the ladies who lay in an adjacent chamber, and they fent their woman to see what was the matter. The woman, upon opening the room, faw a luminous phantafm, which greatly terrified her, and heard in a deep threatening tone the words AT THY PERIL BE GONE. The woman inftantly fcreamed out, and withdrew; the ladies rofe in the utmoft confternation and terror, but nobody came to their affiftance; the old man, the father of the girl, was afleep in a remote part of the house; the fryar alfo refted in a room at the end of a long gallery in another story; and the two Dutch officers were abfent on a vifit at a neighbouring village. No other violence, however, was offered to the girl that night. As foon as the morning dawned the got up, ran down to her father, and told all that had happened; the two ladies were not long abfent; they did not fay much, but difcharged their arrears, and quitted the house. The fryar afked the girl feveral queftions, and declar'd that he had heard other inftances of the like nature, but said the girl would do well to obey the commands of the vifion, and that no barm would come of it. He faid he would remain to fee the iffue, and in the mean time he ordered proper prayers and masses to be faid at a neighbouring convent of his order, to which he most devoutly joined his own. The girl was comforted with this fpiritual affiftance, but, notwithstanding, took one of the maids to be her bedfellow the next night. In the dead of the night the flaming cross was again vifible, but no attempt was made on either of the women. They were, however, greatly terrified, and the fervant faid he would ra ther ther leave her place than lie in the room again. The fryar the next morning took the merit of the spirit's peaceable behaviour to himself. The prayers and maffes were renewed, and application was made to the convents of Liege for auxiliary affiftance. The good fryar in the mean time, was by no means idle at home; he performed his devo tions with great ardour, and towards evening he bestowed a plentiful libation of holy water on the chamber and the bed. The girl, not being able to perfuade the fervant to fleep with her again in the haunted room, and being encou raged by the friar to abide the iffue, having alfo great confidence herself in the prayers, maffes, and sprinklings that had been used on the occafion, the ventured once more to fleep in the fame room by herself. A B In the night, after hearing fome c flight noifes, the faw the room all in a blaze, and a great number of small luminous croffes, with fcrips of writing here and there very legible, among which the precept to be filent was most confpicuous. Ꭰ In the middle of the room she saw fomething of a human appearance, which feemed covered only with a linnen garment, like a fhirt; it appeared to diffuse a radiance round it, and at Jength, by a flow and filent pace, approached the bed: When it came up E to the bed-fide, it drew the curtain more open, and lifting up the bedcloaths was about to come in. The girl, now more terrified than ever, fcreamed out with all her power; as every body in the houfe was upon the watch, the was heard by them all, but the father only had courage to go to F her affiftance, and his bravery was probably owing to a confiderable quantity of reliques which he had procured from the convent, and which he bro't in his hand. When he came, however, nothing was to be feen but fome of the little G croffes and infcriptions, feveral of which were now luminous only in part. Being himself greatly terrified at these appearances, he ran to the friar's apartment, and with fome difficulty prevailed upon him to go with him to the haunted room, the Friar at first excufed himself upon account of the young woman's being there in bed. As foon as he entered and faw the crosses, he proftrated himself on the ground, and uttered many prayers and incan H tations, to which the honeft landlord moft heartily faid Amen. The poor girl, in the mean time, lay in a kind of trance, and her father, when the prayers were over, ran down ftairs for fome wine, a cordial being neceffary to recover her; the friar, at the fame time, ordered him to light and bring with him a confecrated taper, for hitherto they had had no light but that of the vifion, which was still trong enough to discover every thing in the room. In a fhort time the old man entered with a taper in his hand, and in a moment all the luminous appearances vanished. The girl, foon after, recovered, and gave a very fenfible account of all that had happened, and the landlord and the friar fpent the reft of the night together. The friar, however, to fhew the power of the dæmon, and the holy virtue of the taper, removed it feveral times from the chamber before the day broke, and the croffes and infcriptions were again vifible, and remained fo till the taper was brought back, and then vanished as at first. When the fun arofe, the friar took his leave to go to Mattins, and did not return till noon. In the mean time the two Dutch officers came home, and foon learnt what had happened, tho the landlord took all the pains he could to conceal it. The reports they heard were confirmed by the pale and terrified appearance of the girl; their cu riofity was greatly excited, and they afked her innumerable questions. Her anfwers, instead of extinguishing, increased it: They afflured the landlord that they would not leave his house, but, on the contrary, would afford him all the affiftance in their power. As they were young gentlemen, of a military profeffion, and Protettants, they were at once bold and incredulous. They pretended, however, to adopt the opinion of the landlord, that the appearances were fupernatural, but it happened that upon going into the room they found the remainder of the taper, on the virtues of which the landlord had largely expatiated, and immediately perceived that it was only a common candle of a large fize, which he had brought by mistake in his fright. This difcovery convinced them that there was a fraud, and that appearances that vanished at the approach of un con A This plan was accordingly, with B great feçrcy, carried into execution. For two hours after the officer had been in bed, all was filent and quiet, and he began to fufpect that the girl had either been fanciful, or that their fecret had tranfpired; when all on a fudden he heard the latch of the door gently raised, and perceived fomething approach the bed and attempt to take up the cloaths; he refifted with fufficient ftrength to fruftrate the attempt, and immediately the room appeared to be all in a flame; he faw many croffes and infcriptions injoining filence, and C he had rendered himself and his appá ratus vifible in the dark by phosphorusi The landlord contented himself with giving his reverence a good drubbing, and then turning him out of doors, with a ftrict injunction to quit the territory of Leige for ever, upon pain of being much more feverely treated. This ftory, Mr Urban, will naturally put your readers in mind of fome pranks that were played at Oxford by Funny Joe, (See Vol. xxxii. p. 63.) and which, by credulous people, were im puted to fupernatural caufes. It will not, perhaps, be thought incredible by thofe who reflect that it is but a few years ago that a poor woman was killed within 20 miles of the metropolis of this great Proteftant and learned country, upon fuppofition that she was a Witch; and that it is not quite three years fince the Cock lane ghost found advocates among those who, before, were never accounted fools, even in the heart of the metropolis itself. a in DI fhould happen; he saw also in the middle of the room fomething of a human appearance, very tall and very luminous. The officer was at first struck with terror, and the vifion made a fecond approach to the bed side, but the gentleman recovering his fortitude the first moment of reflection, dexterously threw a flip knot which he had fastened to one of the bed pofts, over the phantom's neck; he inftantly drew it clofe, which bro't him to the ground, and then threw himself upon him; the fall and the struggle' made so much noise that the other officer and the landlord ran up with lights and weapons, and the goblin was found to be no other than the good friar, who having conceived fomething more than a fpiritual affection for his landlord's pretty daughter, had played this infernal farce to gratify his paffion. Being now fecured and detected beyond hope of fubterfuge or escape, he made a full confeffion of his guilt, and begged earnestly for mercy. It appeared that this fellow, who was near fix feet high, had made himfelf appear till higher, by putting up E F G Mr URBAN, Send you a curiofity; a Scotch Note: the fum, to prevent erafure and fraud is printed in black letter, there is a check at the margin to tally with a book, out of which it is cut, and it is figned by the Accomptant and Teller in due form, The reader will not think these precautions unneceffary, when he fees that the note is for fo confiderable à fum as one Shilling Scots, and is told that one fhilling Scots is no less than one penny fterling: As the fum is large, it was forefeen that the company might not have cash in hand fufficient to pay it on demand, and therefore the note imports that it fhall either be paid on demand, or at the end of fix months at the option of the directors; fix months is indeed a confiderable time, and the poffeffor might poffibly fuffer fome inconvenience from the delay, but then he is entitled to legal interest upon his pen Sh. 1. Scots. No. Edinburgh The Mason Barrowmes Company oblige themselves to pay to Solomon Hod or the Bearer One Shilling Scots on demand, or in the option of the DirectorsOne thiling Scots with the legal intereft at the end of SIX Months after the day of the demand, and for afcertaining the demand and option of the Directors the Accomptant on his head a kind of tiara of imbof-with one of the Tellers of the Company are bere. fed paper, and had also thrust a stick through the deeves of his habit, which formed an appearance of a crofs, and fill left his hands at liberty; and that by ordered to mark and fign the day of pr efenting this Hote on the back of the fame. By Order of the Court of Directors. $ W. J. Accomp tape G.D. Teller ny |