boys part of the way; and, at taking leave of them, felt a pang I then endeavoured to conceal, and which I need not now attempt to defcribe.

I had the fatisfaction to receive, from time to time, the most pleasing accounts of their progrefs; and, after they went to Paris, I was ftill more and more flattered with what I heard of their improvement.

At length the wifhed-for period of their return approached: I heard of their arrival in Britain, and that, by a certain day, we might expect to see them at home. We were all impatience my daughter, in particular, did nothing but count the hours and minutes, and hardly fhut her eyes the night preceding the day on which her brothers were expected: her mother and I, though we fhewed it lefs, felt, I believe, equal anxiety.

When the day came, my girl, who had been conftantly on the look-out, ran to tell me fhe faw a post-chaife driving to the gate. We hurried down to receive the boys. But, judge of my aftonishment, when I faw two pale emaciated figures get out of the carriage, in their drefs and looks refembling monkies rather than human creatures. What was still worse,

their manners were more displeasing than their appearance. When my daughter ran up, with tears of joy in her eyes, to embrace her brother, he held her from him, and burst into an immoderate fit of laughter at fomething in her dress that appeared to him ridiculous. He was joined in the laugh by his younger brother, who was pleased, however, to say, that the girl was not ill-looking, and, when taught to put on her clothes, and to use a little rouge, would be tolerable.

Mortified as I was at this impertinence, the partiality of a parent led me to impute it, in a great measure, to the levity of youth; and I ftill flattered myself that matters were not so bad as they appeared to be. In these hopes I fat down to dinner. But there the behaviour of the young gentlemen did not, by any means, tend to leffen my chagrin: There was nothing at table they could eat; they ran out in praise of French cookery, and feemed even to be adepts in the science; they knew the component ingredients of the most fashionable ragoos and fricandeaus, and were acquainted with the names and characters of the most celebrated practitioners of the art in Paris.

To ftop this inundation of abfurdity, and, at the same time, to try the boys further, I introduced fome topics of converfation, on which they ought to have been able to say something. But, on thefe fubjects, they were perfectly mute; and I could plainly fee their filence did not proceed from the modefty and diffidence natural to youth, but from the most perfect and profound ignorance. They foon, however, took their revenge for the restraint thus imposed on them. In their turn they began to talk of things, which, to the reft of the company, were altogether unintelligible. After fome converfation, the drift of which we could not discover, they got into a keen debate on the comparative merit of the Dos de Puce, and the Puce en Couches; and, in the courfe of their argument, used words and phrases which to us were equally incomprehenfible as the subject on which they were employed. Not long after my poor girl was covered with confufion, on her brother's afking her, If fhe did not think the Cuiffe de la Reine the prettiest thing in the world?

But, Sir, I fhould be happy, were I able to fay, that ignorance and folly, bad as they are, were all I had to complain of. I am forry to add, that my young men feem to have made

an

an equal progress in vice. It was but the other day I happened to obferve to the eldest, that it made me uneafy to fee his brother look so very ill; to which he replied, with an air of the most eafy indifference, that poor Charles had been a little unfortunate in an affair with an Operagirl at Paris; but, for my part, added he, I never ran those hazards, as I always confined my amours to women of fashion.

In fhort, Sir, these unfortunate youths have returned ignorant of every thing they ought to know; their minds corrupted, and their bodies debilitated, by a courfe of premature debauchery. I can eafily fee that I do not poffefs either their confidence or affection; and they even seem to despise me for the want of those frivolous accomplishments on which they value themselves fo highly. In this fituation, what is to be done? Their vanity and conceit make them incapable of liftening to reason or advice; and to use the authority of a parent, would, probably, be as ineffectual for their improvement, as to me it would be unpleafant.

I have thus, Sir, laid my cafe before you, in: hopes of being favoured with your fentiments upon it. Poffibly it may be of fome benefit to C 3

the

the public, by ferving as a beacon to others in fimilar circumftances. As to myself, I hardly expect you will be able to point out a remedy for that affliction which preys upon the mind, and, in all likelihood, will fhorten the days, of

Your unfortunate humble fervant,

L. G.

NOTES to CORRESPONDENTS.

VITREUS's favours have been received, and shall be duly attended to.

A Letter figned A. Z. and an Essay fubfcribed D. are under confideration..

On Wednesday next (Tuesday being appointed for the day of the National Faft) will be publifhed N° 5.

R