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question. "What do you know about the world?” "I know," returned I, "'tis a very good one as God makes it, and a very bad one as we make it ; and I know the wisest man in it, is he who tries to pass the easiest through it; that is, who studies to be quiet, and to do his own business.” "Aye, that's a maxim that will do very well for old codgers like you," returned Mr. Spade," but we young ones think of those who are to come after us, and we do right to seek for reform in the nation.” "And we do best of all," returned I," when we leave works we don't understand to be done by those who do. Thank God there's some good as well as bad parliament-men, and if He grants a blessing, (not else) they'll bring about a reformation in a quiet, right way.” "And poor folks starve in the mean while," said Mr. Spade, again taking up the newspaper, from which he read a melancholy account of the distresses of poor manufacturers, .omitting to turn to the side which told of the charitable assistance given them, and then concluded with the observation, "that all was owing to the war, and that as nothing but peace could remedy the evil, the great folks should be made to make peace by foul means, if they would not by fair, and that the nation at large had only now to settle what was the best way to set about it." " And then," returned I, "while we are fighting with one another, slap dash comes in Boney and takes us altogether." "So much the better," exclaimed the

Blacksmith, to my great surprise and vexation. "I tell you what, some French gentlemen called the other day at my shop to have their horses shod, and they talked to one another (I making believe not to hear them) in their broken English way, what a rare country this would be, if there was but a revolution, which, they said, there would never be unless the French landed. bank-money would go to pay off the national debt,

They said all the

and every body knows that if that was paid off we should have no taxes '17 way of paying it off," observed Mr. Grumbleton, "but what else did they say?” "" 'They said," returned the Blacksmith," that if there was no King, there would be no court, and if there was no court, there would be no place-men, and if there were no placè-men, there would be no treasury, and if there was no treasury,' there would be no abuse of treasury-money." "Well," returned the farmer,

“That would not be a fair

and did they say how the nation was to be govern ed, if all these things were made away with ?” Their horses were ready before they came to that part of their discourse: but it was good to hear it as far as it went,” concluded the Blacksmith. “Truly," said I, as good as to hear that if we had no house, we should have no rent to pay. I suppose these wise French gentlemen did not say, that if their countrymen landed, they would set fire to1our villages, abuse our wives and daughters, and after

murdering our good old King, and turning out all the great men, take possession of their power and places, and shew us the difference between real and imaginary calamities,

CHAP. VIII.

The Stone-Mason's Cottage.

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"EVERY VERY man can talk in his own cause," observed the farmer," and I don't pin my faith on the sleeve of a French-man, I don't want old England to fall under their management, tho' I should like a revolution as well as any one, chiefly, because if the state were overturned, the church would too; and then, as the French-men say, if there was no church, there would be no parsons; and if there were no parsons, there would be no tithes ;' and if there were no tithes, one might look round one's farm-yard and say this is all my own." "You can't prove that if there were no churches, there would be no parsons," observed Mr. Spade; you forget the meetingers." "True," returned Mr. Grumbleton, "I suppose they would swarm more than ever; but one can't have every thing to one's mind, and tho' I hate every one of them more than I do old nick, I hate more the man I'm obliged to give money to."

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"If I may be so bold in my turn," said I, to ask a question of you gentlemen, I would ask what was the cause of the war, which truly we know is the cause of most of our grievances." "Our ministers," replied Mr. Spade, assuming the most important air he had yet done, "knew no more what they went to war for, than the child unborn." "Alas! poor silly gentlemen,'' returned I," then they deserve our pity; and why don't they make peace?” "Because," returned Mr. Spade," they have not sense enough to see the advantage of it, or to know how to set about it." "Alas! poor gentlemen," repeated I,

'tis a folly then in us to be angry with them. I don't see any thing can be done by us, (as we can't be parliament-men ourselves) but to pray night and day, that God would put knowledge into their heads, and grace into their hearts.” "But all the world, Sir, is fond of fighting." "Do you know why other nations make war?'' "I never," re

turned Mr. Spade, "dive into any other politics, but what relates to my own country."

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pity you don't then, Sir," replied I," because I dare say, if you did, you would know all the sides of the question: for mayhap the politicians of one country, may force the politicians of another to make war, and at this very moment, we, only for want of knowing the true state of the case, may be blaming the English, instead of the French Governors. When I was a young man," continued I,

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