' and was for some years commonly known by the ' name of Jack Anvil. I have naturally a very happy 'genius for getting money, insomuch that by the ' age of five and twenty I had scraped together four 'thousand two hundred pounds, five shillings and a 'few odd pence. I then launched out into considerable business, and became a bold trader both by 'sea and land, which in a few years raised me a very 'considerable fortune. For these my good services I ' was knighted in the thirty-fifth year of my age, and lived with great dignity among my city neighbours by the name of Sir John Anvil. Being in my tem'per very ambitious, I was now bent upon making a family, and accordingly resolved that my descen'dants should have a dash of good blood in their veins. In order to this, I made love to the lady Mary Oddly, an indigent young woman of quality. To cut short the marriage treaty, I threw her a carte blanche, as our newspapers call it, desiring her to write upon it her own terms. She was very concise in her demands, insisting only that the dis'posal of my fortune and the regulation of my family 'should be entirely in her hands. Her father and 'brothers appeared exceedingly averse to this match, ' and would not see me for some time; but at pre'sent are so well reconciled, that they dine with me ' almost every day, and have borrowed considerable 'sums of me; which my lady Mary very often twits me with, when she would show me how kind her relations are to me. She had no portion, as I told 6 you before; but what she wanted in fortune she makes up in spirit. She at first changed my name to Sir John Enville, and at present writes herself ‹ Mary Enville. I have had some children by her, whom she has christened with the surnames of her family, in order, as she tells me, to wear out the 'homeliness of their parentage by the father's side. • Our eldest son is the honourable Oddly Enville,

Esq; and our eldest daughter. Harriot Enville. Upon her first coming into my family, she turned off a parcel of very careful servants, who had been long with me, and introduced in their stead a couple ' of black-a-moors, and three or four very genteel fellows in laced liveries, besides her French woman, who is perpetually making a noise in the house in a language which nobody understands, 'except my lady Mary. She next set herself to reform every room in my house, having glazed all my chimney-pieces with looking-glasses, and planted every corner with such heaps of china, that I am 'obliged to move about my own house with the 'greatest caution and circumspection, for fear of hurting some of our brittle furniture. She makes an illumination once a week with wax candles in one of the largest rooms, in order, as she phrases it, to see company. At which time she always desires me to be abroad, or to confine myself to the cockloft, that I may not disgrace her among her visitants of quality. Her footmen, as I told you before, are such beaus that I do not much care for asking them questions; when I do, they answer me with a saucy frown, and say that every thing that I find fault with was done by my lady Mary's order. She tells me that she intends they shall ‹ wear swords with their next liveries, having lately observed the footmen of two or three persons of • quality hanging behind the coach with swords by their sides. As soon as the first honey-moon was over, I represented to her the unreasonableness of those daily innovations which she made in my family; but she told me I was no longer to consider myself as Sir John Anvil, but as her husband; and added, with a frown, that I did not seem to 'know who she was. I was surprised to be treated thus, after such familiarities as had passed between us. But she has since given me to know, that

'whatever freedoms she may sometimes indulge me in, she expects in general to be treated with the respect that is due to her birth and quality. Our 'children have been trained up from their infancy 'with so many accounts of their mother's family, ' that they know the stories of all the great men and 6 women it has produced. Their mother tells them, that such an one commanded in such a sea-engage'ment, that their great grandfather had a horse shot under him at Edge-hill, that their uncle was at the 'siege of Buda, and that her mother danced in a ball at 'court with the duke of Monmouth; with abundance ' of fiddle-faddle of the same nature. I was the other day a little out of countenance at a question of my 'little daughter Harriot, who asked me with a great 'deal of innocence, why I never told them of the 'generals and admirals that had been in our family. As for my eldest son Oddly, he has been so spirited up by his mother, that if he does not mend his 6 manners I shall go near to disinherit him. He drew his sword upon me before he was nine years • old, and told me that he expected to be used like ' a gentleman; upon my offering to correct him for his insolence, my lady Mary stept in between us, and told me, that I ought to consider there was 'some difference between his mother and mine. She is perpetually finding out the features of her own ' relations in every one of my children, though by I the way I have a little chub-faced boy as like me as he can stare, if I durst say so; but what most an< gers me, when she sees me playing with any of 'them upon my knee, she has begged me more than ⚫ once to converse with the children as little as pos'sible, that they may not learn any of my awkward

• tricks.

You must farther know, since I am opening my heart to you, that she thinks herself my superior in sense, as much as she is in quality, and there

'fore treats me like a plain well-meaning man, who does not know the world. She dictates to me in · my own business, sets me right in point of trade, ' and if I disagree with her about any of my ships at 6 sea, wonders that I will dispute with her, when I know very well that her great grandfather was a 'flag-officer.

To compleat my sufferings, she has teazed me for this quarter of a year last past, to remove into one ' of the squares at the other end of the town, pro'mising for my encouragement, that I shall have as good a cockloft as any gentleman in the square; to which the honourable Oddly Enville, Esq; always adds, like a jack-a-napes as he is, that he hopes it will be as near the court as possible.

In short, Mr. Spectator, I am so much out of my • natural element, that to recover my old way of life I would be content to begin the world again, and ‹ be plain Jack Anvil; but alas! I am in for life, and am bound to subscribe myself, with great sorrow of heart,

L

Your humble servant,

JOHN ENVILLE, Knt.'

WHEN you talk of the subject of love, and 'the relations arising from it, methinks you should 'take care to leave no fault unobserved which concerns the state of marriage. The great vexation, 'that I have observed in it is, that the wedded couple seem to want opportunities of being often enough, alone together, and are forced to quarrel and be 'fond before company. Mr. Hotspur and his lady, in a room full of their friends, are ever saying something so smart to each other, and that but just within 'rules, that the whole company stand in the utmost 'anxiety and suspense for fear of their falling into 'extremities which they could not be present at. On the other side, Tom Faddle and his pretty spouse, wherever they come, are billing at such a rate, as they think must do our hearts good to behold them. 'Cannot you possibly propose a mean between being wasps and doves in public? I should think if you ' advised to hate or love sincerely it would be better: for if they would be so discreet as to hate from the < very bottom of their hearts, their aversion would be too strong for little gibes every moment; and if they loved with that calm and noble value which dwells in the heart, with a warmth like that of lifeblood, they would not be so impatient for their 'passion as to fall into observable fondness. This 'method, in each case, would save appearances; but as those who offend on the fond side are by much the fewer, I would have you begin with them, and