PRICE 20.

66

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR..

it lay contiguous to his own, and that we both

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may, perhaps, appear to be rather the detail of a domestic grievance, than a matter connected with the defign of this Paper; yet, as it represents the diftreffes of a female and an Irish woman, we could not refufe it admiffione.

I

SIR,

en

AM a young woman defcended of a very ancient family, but owing to the thoughtleffnefs of my ancestors, and fome foolish difputes between them, aggravated by obftinate litigation, as to the title of a fmall family eftate, I was at a very early period of life, thrown, as I may fay, upon the world, with little more than youth, health, and a good temper, to fupport me. I fet up a fhop furnifhed with but a few trifling articles, and although I countered many difficulties, my fituation gra-.. dually improved, and in the course of a few years, I began to think of enlarging my trade, and bettering my condition. The chief obftacle I had to encounter in this, was the jealoufy and ill-nature of a diftant relation by the mother's fide, who lived at no great distance from me, and who had taken advantage of my infancy and poverty, to treat me as a mere dependant, and to counteract all my efforts for opulence and comfort. Thefe pretenfions of his arose from the natural pride and imperioufnefs of his difpofition, joined to a fordid and difhoneft wish to get poffeffion of my family ef tate, to which he had no other claim, than that

lar period which I have already alluded to, my project of more extended commercial dealings, alarmed all his bad feelings; our trade was of the fame kind, I was placed in a fituation more. convenient for cuftomers, and although my capital was fmaller, yet as I was fubject to lefs house rent, he apprehended I might deal on more advantageous terms. He infifted therefore, that I fhould fubmit all my affairs to his management, that I fhould not engage in any bufinefs without his permiffion, and that all my receipts and expenditures, fhould be regulated by perfons of his appointment, and accountable merely to him. Thefe propofals were fo prepofterous and unjust, that I pofitively refufed to comply with them, and having now got. fome money, and many friends, who were all hearty in my caufe, I fpoke out boldly to Mr. Bull, and told him plainly, that he must not intermeddle in my concerns; that I was willing to live on terms of friendship with him, as relations should do, and that he might probably find his account in fuch a commerce, but that if he would attempt to force me into compliance, his friends and mine, must try whose heads were hardest.

These representations had fo great an effect, that in the year 1783, he bound himself by a deed under his hand and feal, never to interfere with me or my business, but that I should have the exclufive management of, and dominion over it. This fatisfaction, and, as I then thought, unimpeachable fecurity on his part,

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produced the füileft return of friendship and confidence, on mine-my trade, under my own management, rapidly increased, my knowledge of bufinefs ripened, my capital doubled, many of the incumbrances on my estate were cleared off, 'the tenants who used to be at conftant logger-heads, forgot their animofities, and paid their rents punctually, and I indulged myself in the fond hope of years of comfort and profperity before me.-Nor had my kinsman any reafon to be uninterested in my good for tune, for, as I am naturally of an open and generous heart, I felt warm gratitude to him, for doing me no injury, and was always ready to affift him with my credit and friends; indeed to borrow a phrafe from Mr. Sampfon's Pamphlet on the Union," my intereft was his intereft, my prosperity his profperity, and my power his aggrandizement ;" infomuch fo, that tho' he had difgufted one of his own nearest relations, and most valuable connections, by the fame mercenary and tyrannical conduct, which he had mrnifefted towards me, and had forced him totally to renounce all bonds of alliance with him; yet ftill I remained so closely attached to him, and by my heartiness in his cause, especially in his shipping business, did him fo much fervice, that his beft friends acknowledge, he would have made a forry figure without me. Well! fo far as it depended upon me, things might have gone in the same happy way to this hour; for although I am perfuaded that Mr. Bull never was fincere in his accomodation with me, even at the time when he figned the deed (he having, in fact, made an attempt to violate it, in two or three years after its execution,) yet ftill I would, for peace fake, have submitted to fome impofition, and would have trufted to my own temper and vigilance, to prevent any serious rupture.-But he is now bringing matters between us, to an extremity which makes it neceffary for me to take a decided part.

It seems that for fome time. paft he has en

Arguments for and against an Union confidered—now known to be written by Counsellor Sampfon, notwithstanding the contradiction thereof in Saunders's News-Letter.

gaged in a courfe of very ridiculous extravagance, and wafted a great part of his property. in groundless litigation. This has been partly owing to his haughty, purfe-proud temper, but principally to the ill-advised, chimerical plans, of a Head Clerk, whom he has employed in his office, and to whom he has committed the management of all his affairs, with a blind and unaccountable infatuation. This perfon, whofe father was very worthy and refpectable, and who fet out in life himself, with a good character, has played the ftrangeft fet of pranks that ever were thought of by mortal man. Το defcribe to you the dance he has led Mr. Bull, would be an endless task, vapouring about œconomical expenditure, and increafed` revenue, till he has left him without a guinea, and swaggering in support of the relations of amity and peace, till he has involved him in deadly variances with all his neighbours-suffice it to say, that he has fo bewildered the mind, and fatigued the body, and exhausted the wealth, of his unfortunate employer, that from a reasonable, healthy, affluent man, he has become a flimsy invalid, and in point of credit, little better than a kite-flyer. But to come to what chiefly concerns myfelf:-This adventurer, finding that all his projects are nearly blown up, and dreading the fatal confequences which must enfue from an abrupt disclosure to Mr. Bull and his family, of the miferable extremity to which he has reduced them, has formed the scheme of getting poffeffion of me and all I am worth, in the hope of making what they call a stop-gap of me, and fo protracting, for a while, the inevitable hour of his own difgrace and punishment.-For this unworthy purpose, he has contrived to introduce into my house, a fet of his own creatures whofe object is to excite diffenfion amongst the family.-One, particular, who called himself a Cook, but really had been a fcullion in Mr. Bull's family, I was prevailed on to hire as a fhop boy, tho' he was very ragged, and had no discharge to produce; and notwithstanding his being very ufelefs, and very faucy, yet having taken him. through folly, I kept him through charity; but bitter caufe indeed have I to repent my indif

in

cretion in this particular, for I have difcovered that this wretched creature, tho' he neither knows how to speak or write, yet by the force of impudence and cunning, and by means of a falfe key to my till, has been able to corrupt many of my domeftics, to fow the most virulent animofities amongst others, and to blacken my reputation with numbers of credulous and fimple people. Some of my fervants he has perfuaded (by infusing groundless fears and jealoufies into their minds) to put on orange liveries, and to threaten death and deftruction to the reft; those others again, by similar misreprefentations, he has induced to array themfelves in green, and to commit the most horrible exceffes, and others he has actually and openly paid with my own money, to aggravate and perpetuate the quarrels between the two former-but this is a mere prelude to the remainder of his plan, for I have discovered that this complicated fyftem of vice and treachery, has been adopted merely for the purpose of compelling me to marry Mr. Bull; and this contemptible wretch, has had, within thefe few days, the prefumption to avow to me all his enormities, and to tell me that he has fo impaired my means, blafted my character, and exasperated my family, that I have no refource but in the match, nay, he has actually been base enough, to publish an advertisement, informing all my friends, that I have been debauched by Mr. Bull, through his procure ment, and lived in a ftate of grofs proftitution with him, for many years paft. If this were true, need I comment on the treachery of difclcfing the past, and the meanness of propofing the future connection.

But fir, conceive, I beg of you, the ridi culoufnefs of this overture. I to marry Mr. Bull! Mr. Bull, whom, in the year 1783, when he was tolerably vigorous, and reafonably wealthy, and well reputed, I would have rejected with contempt! Mr. Bull, now that he has had repeated fits of the falling sickness, and that a commission of bankrupts is ready to iffue against him!-I could not have believed the propofal ferious, if the old gentleman himfelf had not gravely avowed it. Hear, I beg

of you, the inducements which he holds out to me. There is to be no cohabitation, for we are still to continue to live on different fides of the water no reduction of expences, for our separate establishments are to be kept up-all my fervants to be paid by me, but to take their orders from him-the entire profits of my trade to be fubjected to his management, and applied in discharge of his debts-my family estate to be affigned to him, without any fettlement being made on me or my iffue, or any provifion for the event of a feparation. He tells me, at the fame time, that I am to reap great advantages, the particulars of which he does not think proper to disclose and that, in the mean time, I muft agree to the match, and that a fettlement fhall hereafter be drawn up agreeable to his directions, and by his lawyers. This, you will fay, is rather an extraordinary carte blanche, from an infolvent gentleman, paffed his grand clima&èric, to a handfome young woman of good character and eafy circumstances. But this is not all; the pride of the negociation ́is equal to its dishonesty, for, though I am beset and affailed in private, and threatened with actual force if I do not confent to this unnatural alliance, yet, in order to fave the feelings of the Bull family, and to afford a pretext for an inadequate fettlement, I am defired, in defpite of all maidenly precedent, to make the first public advances, and to fupplicate, as a boon, that he will gratify my amorous defires, and condefcend to receive me and my appurtenances under his protection. Still one of the principal features of this odious tranfaction remains. to be detailed; would you believe it, that this old finner, feveral years ago, married a lady, who, though of harsh features and flender fortune, was of honourable parentage and good character, and who is, at this hour, alive, and treated by him with every mark of flight and contumely; and it is worthy of obfervation, that many of the claufes in the articles, which were very carefully drawn up previous to his marriage with this lady, have been fcandaloufly violated by him.

Some few of my friends at firft teized me to yield to this fcandalous propofal, partly appre