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looking on: men in- fuchcircum- llances will aft bravely even from motives of vanity; but he who, in the vale of obfcurity, can -brave adverfity; who, without friends to encourage, acquaintances to pity, 0r even without hope to alleviate lllS misfortunes, can behave with tranquillity and indifference, is truly great; whether peafant or courtier, he deferves admiration, and lhould be held up for our imi- tation and refpecl.

While the flightell inconvenien- cies of the great are magnified into calamities: while tragedy mouths out their [offerings in all the firaios of eloquence, the miferies of_ the poor are entirely difregarded ; and yet fome of the lower rank of people undergo more real hard- flrips in one (fay, than thole of a more exalted llation fuPfer in their whole liyes. ‘Lgigvingorrceivable what difficulties the meanell of our common foldiers ‘and lailors‘ en- dure without murmuring or regret; without pafiionately declaiming-a- gainft Providence, or calling their lellotvs to be gazers on their in.- trepidity. Every day is to them a day of mifery, and yet they entertain their hard fate without repiningi.

With what indignation do I hear an Ovid, a Cicero, or a Rabutin, complain of their misfortunes and hardlhips, whofe greatefl calamity was that of being unable ‘to vifit a certain fpot of earth, to which they had foolilhly attached an idea of happinefs. Their difirelles were pleafurcs, compared to what many of the atlventnring poor every day endure xvithout murmuring. They eat, drank, and flept; they had llaves to attend them, and were fure of fubliftence for life; while many of

ANNUAL REGISTER, 1766.

their fellow-creatures are obliged to wander, without a friend to comfort or aflifi them, and even

without a lhelter from the feverity of the feafon. _ » -

I have been led into thefe re- flections from accidentally meet- ing, fotne days ago, a poor fellow whom l knew when a boy, dreffed in a failor’s jacket, and begging at one of the outlets of the town, with-a wooden legs ‘I knew him to be honelt and indultrious when in the country, and was curious tolearn what had reduced him to his prelent fituatiom. Wherefore, after giving him what I thought proper, l delired IQ know the hifiory of his life and misfortunes, and the manner in which he was reduced to his prefent dillrefs. The difabled foldier, for fuch he was, though drelled in a failor’s habit, fcratching his head, and leaning on his crutch, put himfelf into an attitude to comply with my rcquell, and gave me his hilltory as follows :

“ As for my misfortunes, mailer, I can’: pretend to have gone thro’ any more than other folks ; for ex- cept the lofs of my limb, and my being obliged to beg, I don’; know any reafon, thank‘ Heaven, that I have to complain; there is Bill Tibbs, of our regiment, _he_ has lolt both his legs, and an eye to boot; but, thank Hea_ven, it is not f0 bad with me yet, _ _

“ I was born in Shroplhire, my father was a labourer, and died when I was five years old; f0 I was put upon the parilh. As he had been a wandering fort bf a man, the parilhioners were not able to tell to what parilh I tbe- longed, or where I was born, fo they fent me to another parilll, mid

3 that