naked stalks. Immense swarms of insects suck out their vital sap; and no sooner does a leaf appear than a caterpillar siezes on it, warps it up like a garment around her, and soon consumes it. It is true that a few insects sometimes are found attempting to prey upon this plant of mine too; but I have people constantly upon the watch to brush them off with a feather. By this gentle kind of remedy we have contrived to keep them under; and though we never can eradicate these insects entirely, we so diminish their power, that they do no material damage to the plant: And if, at a time, a caterpillar should chance to seize upon a leaf, it is soon discovered, and picked off by hand, and singly destroyed. Under this mode of management has our rose flourished for ages; and has at length attained the envied pre-eminence it now enjoys: And though it, indeed, cannot boast of perfection, yet by the same mode of management, and the blessing of heaven, we hope to be able to make it attain a still higher degree of beauty. 'Go elsewhere then, Mr Quack, and sell your boasted wares. Britain is not the place for you to

succeed in.'

Here ends, for the present, the lucubrations of TIMOTHY HAIRBRAIN *.

*The above remarks of our friend Hairbrain, many will think, are more plain than pleasing. And on the first glance, we were in some doubt whether the inserting of them might not give umbrage to some of our readers. But, on a second perusal, there seemed to be in good truth so much good humour, and so very little gall in every part of them, that it seemed to be impofsible any one could be seriously displeased to see our facetious correspondent making game of all who came in his way as he patsed along If any one should find himself disposed to be piqued at seeing

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SIR,

Scribendi recte sapere est et principium et fons.
A little learning is a dangerous thing,
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierean spring:

To the Editor of the Bee.

As fire is struck out by the friction of certain bodies so truth frequently fhines forth amidst the collisions and jarrings of opposite opinions and sentiments. For this reason the following animadversions on a very censurable performance, entitled remarks on the political progrefs of Britain, by Timothy Thun derproof," will hardly need an apology to one whose chief aim in his present lucubrations is the discovery of truth, as well as the difsemination of useful knowledge.

I fhall confine myself entirely to those "remarks," contained in your Bee of February 29th; not that these are more faulty than their predecessors, but because I fhould otherwise swell my letter to a very inconvenient size.

be

Mr Thunderproof's arguments, if such they may called, hardly merit a serious refutation. He seems to be a gentleman whose temper of mind is soured by disappointment, perhaps by misfortune, and on that

his favourites treated with a little freedom, he has only to go on a little, and he will be put into good humour, by seeing those he does not like become in their turn the butt of this droll;who, like the wife of Bath, (not Chau cer's wife, but the old Scotch wife of Bath) reads every one their ditty, in or der to silence them; to humble their pride, by fhewing them that they are themselves no better than they should be, and that therefore they have no right to hold others in contempt, who have not perhaps been so fortunate as themselves in their journey through life. Men are perhaps as, nearly alike by their parity in follies, as by any other circumstance. Edit.

account ought no doubt to be treated with greater lenity than his performance deserves.

The first thing Mr Thunderproof quarrels with, in these latter remarks, is the fortrefs of Gibraltar, the retention of which, by Britain, he considers as highly criminal as well as absurd. Whether this garrison has produced advantages to Britain equivalent to the enormous expence it has cost her, may perhaps be difficult to say: Could it be razed to the ground, or overwhelmed by an earthquake, or some convulsion of nature, without occasioning the lofs of any lives, either of these events might perhaps be auspicious to this country; but as we can have no reasonable expectation of getting rid of it in this manner, it is certain that if we do give it up, it must pafs into the hands of the Spanish monarch, or at least into those of some of the other European princes; and its importance is such as must make it add considerably to the weight and consequence of the sovereign to whom it belongs. Now, as it is a settled maxim in politics, that in proportion as any nation rises in strength and power, its neighbours sink into insignificance and obscurity, perhaps this consideration alone may afford a sufficient reason for its retention; not to mention that it fhelters our fleets in the time of war; that it ren-ders our commerce in the Mediterranean and Le-vant more secure than that of any other European nation; and, besides, that it materially contributed to the preservation of our West India islands in our late wars with France and Spain. Mr T, as it is natural to suppose, would fain make us believe that: these wars, on the part of the latter power, drew their origin chiefly from our pofsefsion of this fortrefs.

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He surely cannot be ignorant that they originated altogether in the family compact, which was undoubtedly powerful enough to give birth to them, without the intervention of any other cause.

The war of the Spanish succefsion, which, on the part of the allies, was undertaken solely to preserve an equality in the balance of power among the Eu-, ropean princes, was evidently a wise and necefsary war in its beginning, whatever it was before its conclusion; yet Mr T afserts, in defiance of common sense, and in his usual petulant manner, that "England, with a degree of insolence, unmatch"ed in history, interfered in favour of an Austrian

candidate." This Mr T no doubt admiresas a smart exprefsion. Indeed the quality of smartnefs is all that he seems to aim at ;-common sense. and regard to truth are out of the question. Mr. T fhould, however, reflect, that though a smart and lively exprefsion, when it conveys a meaning, affords us much pleasure, yet, when it conveys. no meaning at all, or covers an absurd or an unfounded afsertion, it is the more reprehensible, that. it proves the writer, though ignorant and weak, to be nevertheless vain and afsuming. Of this kind, too, is the following paragraph, which is indeed as extravagant as any ever committed to paper. After praising James I. for his pacific measures, Mr T-— adds, "Had it been pofsible to prolong the life of "this monarch to the present day," (an uninterrupted peace would no doubt have followed as a necefsary consequence,) Britain would long before this "time have advanced to a state of cultivation not in"ferior to that of China." James was by no means

a warlike monarch, because the bent of his mind lay more to books than to the bustle of war; but can any man be so void of intellect as to maintain this ridiculous paradox, that peace can always be preserved, consistently with national safety, because a particular prince may, and did preserve it for a considerable time, by putting up, in a dastardly manner, with the insults and buffetings of the nations around him? It is certain, indeed, that nations, like men, are always quarrelling among themselves, and encroaching upon each other's privileges; and it is no lefs certain that insults and encroachments of this kind increase according to the backwardnefs or pusillanimity discovered by any particular state in defending itself, and repelling the invaders; nor will they be discontinued till such state be entirely stripped of its commerce and its appendages, and itself, at last, -dismembered and parcelled out among its more enterprising and warlike neighbours: At least we must fairly acknowledge that this would be the necefsary consequence, were it not for the wise and cautious policy of the balance of power, so well known to modern times; though this prudential system was entirely overlooked in the case of the dismemberment of Poland, I think about twenty years ago by the Shakespeare of kings. In fact it wild be as ridiculous and unaccountable in a nation, to 'behold with indifference the insults and infractions of its neighbours, as it would be in a man to allow himself to be beaten, or run through the body, without making any exertion in his own defence.

On this principle we were under the necefsity of resenting the late infraction of the Spaniards, though