Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

you will improve yourself, and when you return to America, you will set up to greater advantage.

We both of us happened to know, as well as the stationer, that Riddlesden, the attorney, was a very knave; he had half ruined Miss Read's father, by persuading him to be bound for him. By his letter it appeared there was a secret scheme on foot to the prejudice of Mr. Hamilton, (supposed to be then coming over with us;) that Keith was concerned in it, with Riddlesden. Denham, who was a friend of Hamilton's, thought he ought to be acquainted with it; so when he arrived in England, which was soon after, partly from resentment and ill will to Keith and Riddlesden, and partly from good will to him, I waited on him, and gave him the letter. He thanked me cordially, the information being of importance to him; and from that time he became my friend, greatly to my advantage afterwards on many occasions.

public amusements; we had nearly consumed all my pistoles, and now just rubbed on from hand to mouth. He seemed quite to have forgotten his wife and child; and I by degrees my engagements with Miss Read, to whom I never wrote more than one letter, and that was to let her know I was not likely soon to return. This was another of the great errata of my life which I could wish to correct, if I were to live it over again. In fact, by our expenses I was constantly kept unable to pay my passage.

At Palmer's I was employed in composing for the second edition of Woollaston's Religion of Nature. Some of his reasonings not appearing to me well-founded, I wrote a little metaphysical piece, in which I made remarks on them. It was intitled "A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain." I inscribed it to my friend Ralph; I printed a small number. It occasioned my being more considered by Mr. Palmer, as a young

But what shall we think of a governor play-man of some ingenuity, though he seriously ing such pitiful tricks, and imposing so grossly upon a poor ignorant boy! It was a habit he had acquired; he wished to please every body, and having little to give, he gave expectations. He was otherwise an ingenious, sensible man, a pretty good writer, and a good governor for the people; though not for his constituents the proprietaries, whose instructions he sometimes disregarded: several of our best laws were of his planning, and passed during his administration.

Ralph and I were inseparable companions. We took lodgings together in Little Britain, at 3s. 6d. per week; as much as we could then afford. He found some relations, but they were poor, and unable to assist him. He now let me know his intentions of remaining in London, and that he never meant to return to Philadelphia. He had brought no money with him, the whole he could muster having been expended in paying his passage. I had fifteen pistoles; so he borrowed occasionally of me to subsist, while he was looking out for business. He first endeavoured to get into the play-house, believing himself qualified for an actor; but Wilkes, to whom he applied, advised him candidly not to think of that employment, as it was impossible he should succeed in it. Then he proposed to Roberts, a publisher in Pater-Noster Row, to write for him a weekly paper like the Spectator, on certain conditions; which Roberts did not approve. Then he endeavoured to get employment as a hackney writer, to copy for the stationers and lawyers about the Temple; but could not find a vacancy.

For myself I immediately got into work at Palmer's, a famous printing house in Bartholomew Close, where I continued near a year. I was pretty diligent, but I spent with Ralph

expostulated with me upon the principles of my pamphlet, which to him appeared abominable. My printing this pamphlet was another erratum. While I lodged in Little Britain, I made acquaintance with one Wilcox, a bookseller, whose shop was next door. He had an immense collection of second-hand books. Circulating libraries were not then in use, but we agreed that, on certain reasonable terms, (which I have now forgotten,) I might take, read, and return any of his books; this I esteemed a great advantage, and I made as much use of it as I could.

My pamphlet by some means falling into the hands of one Lyons, a surgeon, author of a book intitled "The Infallibility of Human Judgment," it occasioned an acquaintance between us; he took great notice of me, called on me often to converse on those subjects, carried me to the Horns, a pale alehouse in lane, Cheapside, and introduced me to doctor Mandeville, author of the Fable of the Bees, who had a club there, of which he was the soul, being a most facetious, entertaining companion. Lyons too introduced me to doctor Pemberton,* at Baston's coffeehouse, who promised to give me an opportunity, some time or other, of seeing sir Isaac Newton, of which I was extremely desirous; but this never happened.

I had brought over a few curiosties, among which the principal was a purse made of the asbestos, which purifies by fire. Sir Hans Sloane heard of it, came to see me, and invited me to his house in Bloomsbury square, showed me all his curiosities, and persuaded me to add that to the number; for which he paid me handsomely.

* F. R. S. author of "A View of sir Isaac Newton's in 1771.

a good deal of my earnings, at plays and sophy," and "A Treatise on Chemistry,;" died

VOL L-C

2*

I

In our house lodged a young woman, a mil- | ed to take some liberties with her, (another liner, who, I think, had a shop in the cloisters; erratum,) which she repulsed, with a proper she had been genteelly bred, was sensible, degree of resentment. She wrote to Ralph lively, and of a most pleasing conversation.- and acquainted him with my conduct; this Ralph read plays to her in the evenings, they occasioned a breach between us; and when grew intimate, she took another lodging, and he returned to London, he let me know he he followed her. They lived together some considered all the obligations he had been time, but he being still out of business, and under to me as annulled; from which I conher income not sufficient to maintain them cluded I was never to expect his repaying me with her child, he took a resolution of going the money I had lent him, or that I had adfrom London, to try for a country school, which vanced for him. This however was of little he thought himself well qualified to under- consequence, as he was totally unable; and by take, as he wrote an excellent hand, and the loss of his friendship I found myself rewas a master of arithmetic and accounts.- lieved from a heavy burden. I now began to This however he deemed a business below think of getting a little beforehand, and exhim, and confident of future better fortune, pecting better employment, I left Palmer's to when he should be unwilling to have it known work at Watts's, near Lincoln's Inn Fields, a that he once was so meanly employed, he still greater printing house; here I continued changed his name, and did me the honour to all the rest of my stay in London. assume mine; for I soon after had a letter from him, acquainting me that he was settled in a small village in Berkshire, (I think it was where he taught reading and writing to ten or a dozen boys, at 6d. each per week,) recommending Mrs. T.... to my care, and desiring me to write to him, directing for Mr. Franklin, schoolmaster, at such a place. He continued to write to me frequently, sending me large specimens of an epic poem, which he was then composing, and desiring my remarks and corrections. These I gave him from time to time, but endeavoured rather to discourage his proceeding. One of Young's satires was then just published: I copied and sent him a great part of it, which set in a strong light the folly of pursuing the Muses.* All was in vain, sheets of the poem continued to come by every post. In the mean time, Mrs. T.... having on his account lost her friends and business, was often in distresses, and used to send for me and borrow what money I could spare to help to alleviate them. I grew fond of her company, and being at that time under no religious restraint, and taking advantage of my importance to her, I attempt

"Th' abandoned manners of our writing train
May teinpt mankind to think religion vain;
But in their fate, their habit, and their mien,
That Gods there are, is evidently seen:
Heav'n stands absolv'd by vengeance on their pen,
And marks the murderers of fame from men;
Through meagre jaws they draw their venal breath,
As ghastly as their brothers in Macbeth;
Their feet thro' faithless leather meets the dirt,
And oftener chang'd their principles than shirt;
The transient vestments of these frugal men
Hasten to paper for our mirth again:
Too soon (O merry, melancholy fate!)
They beg in rhyme, and warble thro' a grate;
The man lampoon'd forgets it at the sight;
The friend thro' pity gives, the foe thro' spite;
And though full conscious of his injur'd purse,
Lintot relents, nor Curll can wish them worse."

"An author, 'tis a venerable name!
How few deserve it and what numbers claim!
Unbless'd with sense, above the peers refin'd,
Who shall stand up, dictators to mankind?
Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue's cause?
That sole proprietor of just applause.

At my first admission into the printing house took to working at press, imagining I felt a want of the bodily exercise I had been used to in America, where press-work is mixed with the composing. I drank only water; the other workmen, near fifty in number, were great drinkers of beer. On occasion I carried up and down stairs a large form of types in each hand, when others carried but one in both hands; they wondered to see from this and several instances, that the Water-American, as they called me, was stronger than themselves who drank strong beer! We had an alehouse boy, who attended always in the house to supply the workmen. My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner; a pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom; but it was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer that he might be strong to labour. I endeavoured to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer, could only be in proportion to the grain or

"Ye restless men! who pant for letter'd praise, With whom would you consult to gain the bays? With those great authors whose fam'd works you read?

'Tis well; go, then, consult the laurell'd shade,
What answer will the laurell'd shade return?
Hear it and tremble, he commands you burn
The noblest works, his envied genius writ,
That boasts of naught more excellent than wit.
If this be true, as 'tis a truth most dread,
Wo to the page which has not that to plead!
Fontaine and Chaucer dying, wish'd unwrote
The sprightliest efforts of their wanton thought;
Sidney and Waller, brightest sons of fame,
Condemn'd the charm of ages to the flame."

"Thus ends your courted fame-does lucre then, The sacred thirst of gold, betray your pen? In prose 'tis blameable, in verse 'tis worse, Provokes the Muse, extorts Apollo's curse; His sacred influence never should be sold; 'Tis arrant simony to sing for gold; 'Tis immortality should fire your mind, Scorn a less paymaster than all mankind."

YOUNG, Vol. III. Epist. II. p. 70.

flour of the barley dissolved in the water of composing occasioned my being put upon work which it was made; that there was more flour of dispatch, which was generally better paid; in a pennyworth of bread, and therefore if he so I went on now very agreeably. could eat that with a pint of water, it would give him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank on however, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that vile liquor: an expense I was free from; and thus these poor devils keep themselves always under.

Watts, after some weeks, desiring to have me in the composing room, I left the pressmen; a new bien venu for drink, (being five shillings,) was demanded of me by the compositors. I thought it an imposition, as I had paid one to the pressmen; the master thought so too, and forbade my paying it. I stood out two or three weeks, was accordingly considered as an excommunicate, and had so many little pieces of private malice practised on me, by mixing my sorts, transposing and breaking my matter, &c., &., if ever I stept out of the room, and all ascribed to the chapel ghost, which they said ever haunted those not regularly admitted, that, notwithstanding the master's protection, I found myself obliged to comply and pay the money-convinced of the folly of being on ill terms with those one is to live with continually. I was now on a fair footing with them, and soon acquired considerable influence. I proposed some reasonable alterations in their chapel laws, and carried them against all opposition. From my example a great many of them left their muddling breakfast of beer, bread and cheese, finding they could with me be supplied from a neighbouring house with a large porringer of hot water-gruel, sprinkled with pepper, crumbled with bread, and a bit of butter in it, for the price of a pint of beer; viz., three halfpence. This was a more comfortable as well as a cheaper breakfast, and kept their heads clearer. Those who continued sotting with their beer all day, were often, by not paying, out of credit at the alehouse, and used to make interest with me to get beer, their light, as they phrased it, being out. I watched the pay-table on Saturday night, and collected what I stood engaged for them, having to pay sometimes near thirty shillings a week on their accounts. This and my being esteemed a pretty good rig-ite, that is a jocular verbal satyrist, supported my consequence in the society. My constant attendance, (I never making a St. Monday,) recommended me to the master; and my uncommon quickness at

A printing-house is always called a chapel by the workmen, because printing was first carried on in England in an ancient chapel, and the title has been preserved by tradition. The bien venu among the printers, answers to the terms entrance and footing among mechanics; thus a journeyman, on entering a printing house, was accustomed to pay one or more gallons of beer for the good of the chapel; this custom was falling into disuse thirty years ago-it is very properly rejected entirely in the United States.

My lodgings in Little Britain being too remote, I found another in Duke street, opposite to the Romish chapel. It was up three pair of stairs backwards, at an Italian warehouse. A widow lady kept the house; she had a daughter, and a maid servant, and a journeyman who attended the warehouse, but lodged abroad. After sending to inquire my character at the house where I last lodged, she agreed to take me in at the same rate, 3s. 6d. per week; cheaper, as she said, from the protection she expected in having a man to lodge in the house. She was a widow, an elderly woman; had been bred a Protestant, being a clergyman's daughter, but was converted to the Catholic religion by her husband, whose memory she much revered; had lived much among people of distinction, and knew a thousand anecdotes of them, as far back as the times of Charles the Second. She was lame in her knees with the gout, and therefore seldom stirred out of her room; so sometimes wanted company; and hers was so highly amusing to me, that I was sure to spend an evening with her whenever she desired it. Our supper was only half an anchovy each, on a very little slice of bread and butter, and half a pint of ale between us; but the entertainment was in her conversation. My always keeping good hours, and giving little trouble in the family, made her unwilling to part with me; so that when I talked of a lodging I had heard of, nearer my business, for 2s. a week, which, intent as I was on saving money, made some difference, she bid me not think of it, for she would abate me 2s. a week for the future; so I remained with her at 1s 6d. as long as I staid in London.

In a garret of her house there lived a maiden lady of seventy, in the most retired manner, of whom my landlady gave me this account: that she was a Roman Catholic, had been sent abroad when young, and lodged in a nunnery with an intent of becoming a nun ; but the country not agreeing with her, she returned to England, where there being no nunnery, she had vowed to lead the life of a nun, as near as might be done in those circumstances. Accordingly, she had given all her estate to charitable purposes, reserving only twelve pounds a year to live on, and out of this sum she still gave a part in charity, living herself on water-gruel only, and using no fire but to boil it. She had lived many years in that garret, being permitted to remain there gratis by successive Catholic tenants of the house below, as they deemed it a blessing to have her there. A priest visited her, to confess her every day: "from this I asked her," said my landlady, "how she, as she lived, could possibly find so much employ

ment for a confessor?" "Oh," said she, "it is impossible to avoid vain thoughts." I was permitted once to visit her; she was cheerful and polite, and conversed pleasantly. The room was clean, but had no other furniture than a mattress, a table with a crucifix, and a book, a stool which she gave me to sit on, and a picture over the chimney of St. Veronica displaying her handkerchief, with the miraculous figure of Christ's bleeding face on it, which she explained to me with great seriousness. She looked pale, but was never sick, and I give it as another instance on how small an income life and health may be supported.

At Watts's printing house I contracted an acquaintance with an ingenious man, one Wygate, who having wealthy relations, had been better educated than most printers; was a tolerable Latinist, spoke French, and loved reading. I taught him and a friend of his to swim, at twice going into the river, and they soon became good swimmers. They introduced me to some gentlemen from the country, who went to Chelsea, by water, to see the college and Don Saltero's curiosities. In our return, at the request of the company, whose curiosity Wygate had excited, I stripped and leaped into the river, and swam from near Chelsea to Blackfriars; performing in the way many feats of activity both upon and under the water, that surprised and pleased those to whom they were novelties. I had from a child been delighted with this exercise, had studied and practised Thevenot's motions and positions, added some of mine own aiming at the graceful and easy, as well as the useful. All these I took this occasion of exhibiting to the company, and was much flattered by their admiration; and Wygate, who was desirous of becoming a master, grew more and more attached to me on that account, as well as from the similarity of our studies. He at length proposed to me travelling all over Europe together, supporting ourselves every where by working at our business. I was once inclined to it; but mentioning it to my good friend Mr. Denham, with whom I often spent an hour when I had leisure, he dissuaded me from it, advising me to think only of returning to Pennsylvania, which he was now about to do.

I must record one trait of this good man's character: he had formerly been in business at Bristol, but failed in debt to a number of people, compounded and went to America; there, by a close application to business as a merchant, he acquired a plentiful fortune in a few years. Returning to England in the ship with me, he invited his old creditors to an entertainment, at which he thanked them for the easy composition they had favoured him with, and when they expected nothing but the treat, every man at the first remove

found under his plate an order on a banker for the full amount of the unpaid remainder, with interest.

He now told me he was about to return to Philadelphia, and should carry over a great quantity of goods in order to open a store there. He proposed to take me over as his clerk, to keep his books, (in which he would instruct me,) copy his letters, and attend the store; he added, that as soon as I should be acquainted with mercantile business, he would promote me, by sending me with a cargo of flour and bread, &c., to the West Indies, and procure me commissions from others which would be profitable; and, if I managed well, would establish me handsomely. The thing pleased me, for I was grown tired of London; remembered with pleasure the happy months I had spent in Pennsylvania, and wished again to see it; therefore I immediately agreed on the terms of fifty pounds a year, Pennsylvania money; less indeed than my present gettings as a compositor, but affording better prospects.

I now took leave of printing, as I thought, for ever, and was daily employed in my new business: going about with Mr. Denham among the tradesmen to purchase various articles, and see them packed up, delivering messages, calling upon workmen to dispatch, &c.; and, when all was on board, I had a few days' leisure. On one of these days, I was, to my surprise, sent for by a great man, I knew only by name, (Sir William Wyndham,) and I waited upon him; he had heard by some means or other of my swimming from Chelsea to Blackfriars, and of my teaching Wygate and another young man to swim in a few hours: he had two sons, about to set out on their travels; he wished to have them first taught swimming, and proposed to gratify me handsomely if I would teach them. They were not yet come to town, and my stay was uncertain, so I could not undertake it; but from the incident I thought it likely, that if I were to remain in England and open a swimming school, I might get a good deal of money; and it struck me so strongly, that had the overture been made me sooner, probably I should not so soon have returned to America. Many years after, you and I had something of more importance to do with one of those sons of Sir William Wyndham, become earl of Egremont, which I shall mention in its place.

Thus I passed about eighteen months in London; most part of the time I worked hard at my business, and spent but little upon myself except in seeing plays, and in books. My friend Ralph had kept me poor; he owed me about twenty-seven pounds, which I was nov never likely to receive; a great sum out of my small earnings! I loved him, notwithstanding, for he had many amiable qualities. I had improved my knowledge, however, though I had

by no means improved my fortune; but I had | ed me with an offer of large wages by the year, made some very ingenious acquaintance, to come and take the management of his whose conversation was of great advantage to printing house, that he might better attend to me; and I had read considerably.

We sailed from Gravesend on the 23d of July, 1726. For the incidents of the voyage, I refer you to my journal, where you will find them all minutely related. Perhaps the most important part of that journal is the plan to be found in it, which I formed at sea, for regulating the future conduct of my life. It is the more remarkable, as being formed when I was so young, and yet being pretty faithfully adhered to quite through to old age.

We landed at Philadelphia the 11th of October, where I found sundry alterations. Keith was no longer governor, being superseded by major Gordon: I met him walking the streets as a common citizen; he seemed a little ashamed at seeing me, and passed without saying any thing. I should have been as much ashamed at seeing Miss Read, had not her friends, despairing with reason of my return, after the receipt of my letter, persuaded her to marry another, one Rogers, a potter, which was done in my absence. With him,however, she was never happy, and soon parted from him, refusing to cohabit with him, or bear his name, it being now said he had another wife. He was a worthless fellow, though an excellent workman, which was the temptation to her friends; he got into debt, ran away in 1727 or 1728, went to the West Indies, and died there. Keimer had got a better house, a shop well supplied with stationary, plenty of new types, and a number of hands, though none good, and seemed to have a great deal of business. Mr. Denham took a store in Water street, where we opened our goods; I attended the business diligently, studied accounts, and grew in a little time expert at selling. We lodged and boarded together; he counselled me as a father, having a sincere regard for me: I respected and loved him, and we might have gone on together very happily, but in the beginning of February, 1727, when I had just passed my twenty-first year, we both were taken ill. My distemper was a pleurisy, which very nearly carried me off; I suffered a good deal, gave up the point in my own mind, and was at the time rather disappointed when I found myself recovering; regretting in some degree that I must now, some time or other, have all that disagreeable work to go over again. I forget what Mr. Denham's distemper was; it held him a long time, and at length carried him off. He left me a small legacy in a nuncupative will, as a token of his kindness for me, and he left me once more to the wide world, for the store was taken into the care of his executors, and my employment under him ended. My brother-in-law, Holmes, being now at Philadelphia, advised my return to my business; and Keimer tempt

his stationer's shop. I had heard a bad character of him in London, from his wife and her friends, and was not for having any more to do with him. I wished for employment as a merchant's clerk, but not meeting with any, I closed again with Keimer. I found in his house these hands: Hugh Meredith, a Welsh Pennsylvanian, thirty years of age, bred to country work; he was honest, sensible, a man of experience, and fond of reading, but addicted to drinking. Stephen Potts, a young countryman of full age, bred to the same, of uncommon natural parts, and great wit and humour, but a little idle. These he had agreed with at extreme low wages per week, to be raised a shilling every three months, as they should deserve by improving in their business; and the expectation of these high wages to come on hereafter, was what he had drawn them in with. Meredith was to work at press, Potts at bookbinding, which he by agreement was to teach them, though he knew neither one nor the other. John Savage, an Irishman, brought up to no business, whose service for four years Keimer had purchased from the captain of a ship; he too was to be made a pressman. George Webb, an Oxford scholar, whose time for four years he had likewise bought, intending him for a compositor, (of whom more presently,) and David Harry, a country boy, whom he had taken apprentice.

I soon perceived that the intention of engaging me, at wages so much higher than he had been used to give, was to have these raw, cheap hands, formed through me; and as soon as I had instructed them (they being all articled to him) he should be able to do without me. I went however very cheerfully, put his printing house in order, which had been in great confusion, and brought his hands by degrees to mind their business, and to do it better.

It was an odd thing to find an Oxford scholar in the situation of a bought servant; he was not more than eighteen years of age; he gave me this account of himself: that he was born in Gloucester, educated at a grammar school, and had been distinguished among the scholars for some apparent superiority in performing his part, when they exhibited plays; belonged to the Wit's club there, and had written some pieces in prose and verse, which were printed in the Gloucester newspapers; thence was sent to Oxford; there he continued about a year, but not well satisfied; wishing of all things to see London, and become a player. At length receiving his quarterly allowance of fifteen guineas, instead of discharging his debts he went out of town, hid his gown in a furz bush, and walked to London; where, having no friend to advise

« AnteriorContinuar »