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of christianity, enforce its duties, display the celestial blessings which await the good, and denounce the punishment which will one day tread on the heels of transgression. His labours and the example of other distinguished persons, will, I trust, arrest you in your wicked career. Nor am I without the hope, that the following pages, humble and inferior as they are, and must be, will be found to aid the cause of virtue; that they will tend to diminish your abominable influence, to restore the reign of decency, decorum, and good morals, and promote a saving sense of honour, virtue, and religion, among the female youth of my country.-A. T."

To the honour of Mrs. Thicknesse, all her works have been dedicated to the promotion of virtue and religion and even the account of herself, under a feigned name, carries a moral along with it for the benefit and instruction of young women: as she observes, "That by preserving unsullied her reputation and virtue, Euterpe obtained the greatest bliss heaven could bestow, in giving her to a man of sense, honour, and virtue. Their conjugal happiness," it is added," was almost without example, nothing but death being able to interrupt it, during the space of thirty years."

So exquisite is her respect for female delicacy, that the subject of this memoir loudly condemns the custom of applying to male accoucheurs; and she herself was delivered of all her children, two of whom only survive,* by the assistance of her own sex alone. Neither her literary admonitions, however, nor the brilliant and uniform example of the queen,(with the

A son, Captain John Thicknesse, promoted to the rank of a commander in the navy, Jan. 29, 1800, and a married dauhtegr. exception

exception of one solitary instance) has been able to abolish a custom which becomes daily more prevalent.

The masculine habiliments, and equestrian attire, of fashionable life, has also been considered as a fit subject for her satire: and it must be allowed, that there is something truly ridiculous in a delicate young lady wearing a large great coat, crowded with capes, and affecting to drive with all the prim precision, vulgar attitudes, and affected grimace of her own coachman.

Mrs. Thicknesse possesses a sincere belief in the truths of revelation. She is a member of the church of England, without pretending to blame, or even to criticise, those of a different persuasion; and she evinces on all proper occasions that decorous attachment to the interests of religion and humanity, so becoming in any, and so indispensable in a woman of a certain age,

Without meaning to flatter, it is here freely, but şincerely observed, that in point of the languages, music, drawing, and other similar acquirements, few, very few, if even one lady, is to be met with who has retained either a knowledge of, or a taste for them, to so remote a period in life. Age seems to have spared her accomplishments, like her teeth and hair, from decay; and that she may enjoy and exhibit the talents of a Ninon to the same remote period as that celebrated Frenchwoman, is the sincere and ardent wish of the author of this article.

MR.

MR. JOSEPH PASLEY,

THE GRETNA-GREEN

worthy thou of Egypt's wise abodes;

PARSON.

A decent priest, where monkeys are the gods.

POPE.

IF the following account of this extraordinary PUBLIC CHARACTER appears in any instance to be somewhat fabulous, the writer begs leave to inform his readers that the anecdotes are authorized by his own declarations. Should it still be urged that some allowance ought to be made when a man boasts of such extraordinary personal achievements, the objection, at least in this instance, is misapplied; as what is most extraordinary in this relation has been confirmed by witnesses worthy of credit.

Joseph Pasley was born in the parish of Kirkandrews upon Esk, in the county of Cumberland, in the year 1732. His father was a dissenting clergyman, and he himself, when young, was bound apprentice to a tobacconist, but left that business as soon as he possibly could. He then earned a livelihood as a fisherman, in which capacity he was distinguished by his great dexterity, as well as by the extraordinary fatigues to which he submitted. He asserts, that he was superior to all his neighbours in the use of the lister, which is an instrument in the form of a trident generally from twelve to fourteen feet long, used in the north of England to strike the salmon when they are observed either swimming or at rest, both in fresh

and

and salt water. He adds, that he has stood up to the middle in the sea twenty hours together, until he became so weak as scarcely to be able to leave it.

He states, that he entered upon his present, a far less fatiguing vocation, near half a century since. The profession did not exist, or at least was not very necessary, and perhaps not very lucrative, before the passing of the statute commonly called Lord Hardwicke's act, containing the existing English law upon marriage, which was about fifty years ago. Joseph Pasley has therefore been first a tobacconist, then à fisherman, and now he officiates in one of the essential characters at least of a clergyman; but never was a blacksmith, according to vulgar and unauthorized report. When he had assumed the office of marrying such as applied to him for that purpose, he was styled the "Gretna Priest;" after a rival had started up, he was, and still is, denominated the "Gretna High Priest."

What concurrence of fortunate events introduced him into this situation, is not distinctly known. As it cannot be attributed to instinct, it must be considered as chance: for let it not be understood that Joseph Pasley, although a high priest, ever was a pastor either in kirk or church. He does not appear, indeed, to practise any other part of the ecclesiastical functions than that of joining of hands. His conversation seldom, if ever, turns upon religious subjects. His delight indeed is, with brandy before him, to talk about brandy until he cannot talk at all.

For this favourite liquor he has such a marked predilection, that he never willingly permits it to be

debased by any intermixture whatsoever. After a long acquaintance with it, he pronounces that those fiery particles which induce others to dilute it with water, exist only in a disordered imagination. And the writer of this article, after seeing him drink off an immoderate quantity, to all appearance with infinite satisfaction, has heard him declare that it went down like new milk.

His exploits as a drinker of brandy have been, as might be expected from a man of such singular opinions, extraordinary in the extreme. He is accustomed to relate, in the presence of concurring witnesses, that he has swallowed a pint of it at one draught. Hedwells with complacency on a celebrated achievement, of which he shared the glory with a great brother-drinker: they consumed without any assistance whatsoever, no less than ten gallons of liquor in three days! When nature was exhausted, they retired to a bed with their favourite beverage beside them. He maintains therefore, with seeming justice, that the continuity of drinking was never dissolved, and that he and his friend had the honour of carousing three days and three nights, as well as of quaffing forty quarts of spirits.

This account will appear still more wonderful, when it is added, that in spite of all these excesses, and notwithstanding he has arrived at the advanced age of seventy-two, he stills retains health and strength. With a steady hand, he even now holds out a glass of brandy, to look at, before he swallows it, and is a stranger to head-aches, as well as all the other maladies

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