not only by my conviction, that what I was writing was truth, but also by penitence for my previous apostacy, and anxiety to make reparation. The work, when finished, received my patron's most unqualified approbation. It was published, admired, and abused in the different Coffee-houses, and attributed to half the leaders of the opposition party. My patron rewarded me with ten guineas, and a promise of hearing from him in a short time. Several weeks passed on without my getting employment, and my heart grew heavy in proportion as my purse became light. I summoned up courage enough to wait upon the great man, and solicited his influence and assistance in procuring me some permanent situation. This he promised very frankly; but time stole on, and I only met with disappoint

ment.

Having now got so deeply into debt, that I durst no longer venture out, I wrote a supplicating letter, stating my necessities, and my having renounced a situation, which, although against my principles,

had afforded me the means of subsistence, and begged of him to save me from prison. I stated the amount of my debts, and he was generous enough to comply with my request, by transmitting a sufficient sum to discharge them, leaving a surplus of about five guineas; but intimated, that he could make no regular provision for me.

"I now wrote a political poem-a most virulent satire against Ministers; dedicated it to a celebrated oppositionist, and sent him a copy; for this I received five guineas. This supply was soon exhausted, and I again besieged the doors of my patrons, but could never find either of them at home; and I now experienced the truth of Gay's observation:

"The child whom many fathers share,
Hath seldom known a father's care."

Again in debt, and starving, I became a misanthrope-left London, and joined a set of strolling players, with whom I contrived to protract my existence for twelve months. Nature had not qualified me for either sock or buskin-and when the company broke up, I returned to London.

My patron being now in power, I again solicited his protection; obtained an interview, and had a subject prescribed for my pen. The task was executed, but not to his satisfaction; for, my thoughts, he said, were too free, and my principles incompatible with good order; in short, I was not the same man that he formerly knew me. Alas! his situation was changed; but mine, as well as my opinions, was the same. The pamphlet was remodelled to his own standard, and after receiving a promise of something being done for me, I took my leave, and, doubtless, was immediately forgotten; for I never after could obtain access to him. I wrote to him often, until at last my letters were returned unopened.

"I now became a mere mercenary Swiss in literature; hiring myself out, not to the best, but generally to the first bidder; for my necessities rendered delay impracticable. I wrote political pasquinades and election songs, composed eastern tales, or propounded mathematical questions for magazines. A catch-penny bookseller employed me to

translate a novel from the French; but he became bankrupt when I was within a few sheets of the conclusion; however, I sold the translation for three guineas. Having caught something of the spirit of novel-writing, during the above-mentioned translation, I attempted an original work, and, surrounded on all sides by wretchedness, cold, famine, and bailiffs, I wrote at least sixteen hours every day. As necessity made me temperate, my head was always clear, and my conceptions vivid. Having finished my work, I, one dark night, stole out, like a hunted badger from his hole; left my work with an eminent novel-publisher for perusal ; called again, and received ten guineas for the performance. I hastened home with my prize, cancelled my debts, and got gloriously drunk with the surplus.

"You will not be surprised when I say, that I again got into debt; and, as a natural progression, into jail. I will not shock your feelings with what I witnessed and endured in that horrible sink of wretchedness, where profaneness, obscenity, blasphemy, and

every species of vice, reigned triumphant. During the six weeks I lay there, I do not think that I slept two hours successively

66

"Oh! 'twas a dreadful interval of time!"

'My creditor, finding that nothing was to be gained by my confinement, at length set me at large. Although I had no prospect before me but misery and want, yet, I felt an elasticity, both of body and mind, on finding myself at liberty to retire from what I had considered as no faint emblem of the infernal regions.

"During my peregrinations, I had become known to many politicians on both sides; my political aberrations were as public as my face, and having lost the confidence of both parties, I could find no permanent employment. I attempted another novel; subsisting, in the mean time, upon an essay, a satire, or perhaps an atrocious murder, which was never committed but in my imagination. I once procured five shillings for a dreadful relation of a ghost, which had alarmed half the coast of Cornwall; although