be hereafter sufficient to stock the country with

the necessary quantity of persons who will condescend to handicraft employments.

There

are some trades which the world very unaccountably stigmatises, or at least mentions with disrespect. I may instance Tailors, Coblers, and some other very useful descriptions of industrious men. Now, if this scheme be adopted, as we may soon expect it will be (for who can resist a French fashion?) we cannot reasonably suppose that such persons will go on propagating the goose and the lap-stone. No; if they are prohibited from making geniuses, they will make what is as bad, Ladies and Gentlemen: even our Farmers will not continually follow the plough, but, by a cross breed with Cornfactors' daughters, will produce a progeny qualified for Bear-key and Mark-lane and thus in other lines we shall, find the genealogy interrupted by Citizen Robert's "perfect organs," without its being in the of power government to prevent it. Templars, instead of producing Cokes and Littletons, will be aiming at Vanburghs and Congreves, and think they have done wonders, if, after many years application to their "organs," they have made a writer of prologues, or Vauxhall songs. And, by what dropped from a

learned Prelate a few days ago, there is reason to fear we shall have Sportsmen and Foxhunters from those whose duty it is to breed Deans and Rectors.

These objections, which I have thrown out perhaps in a desultory manner, will, I hope, draw the attention of the publick to this plan, that it may be placed under proper regulations before it be adopted. I have only one more remark to make, namely, that Citizen Robert does not mention the Fair Sex in his scheme, although it is reasonable to suppose their assistance may be necessary. Perhaps, indeed, he might not think it requisite to mention what was so obvious; but here, I confess, is a new source of fears on my part. Knowing what matrimonial differences arise from such a trifling circumstance as the naming of a child, may we not be afraid that the particular genius of the child will frequently be a source of equally serious dispute? If the father should insist on a girl who can make a pudding, and the mother on a genius who can write novels, by what compromise shall they be brought to agree? Are we to expect often to see a Mrs. Carter, who "could make a pudding as well as translate Epictetus, and work a handkerchief as well as compose a poem?" And, if

such disputes as to what "a child shall be" were frequent long before parents had the advantage of Citizen Robert's preparatory scheme, what will be the case now they are likely to be provided with a set of perfect organs that will manufacture any kind of genius whatever?

These are serious considerations; as such I submit them to my readers in general, and especially to those in France, who, I suppose, will be the first to adopt the plan. It is but fair that it should be tried, and the results known, in that country where it took its rise. As to Citizen Robert, to whom I hope this paper will introduce me, I hail him as a Projector of the very first order, and one who must necessarily be a disinterested Projector; for here is a scheme for which no patent can be procured, which cannot be monopolized, and which is in truth nothing if it be not divulged. For his sake, I could wish it had been sooner known, because in that case, upon his own principle, he might have been enabled to write a more sensible book on the subject!

THE PROJECTOR. N° 18.

"Suburban villas, highway-side retreats,
That dread the encroachment of our growing streets,
Tight boxes, neatly sash'd, and in a blaze
With all a July sun's collected rays,

Delight the citizen, who, gasping there,
Breathes clouds of dust, and calls it country air."

COWPER...

May 1803.

THE time is now come when the industrious Citizen wishes to leave the cares of the shop and the counting-house to the junior partner, or the confidential clerk, and hopes to enjoy a temporary retirement in some of those little Arcadias, and bow-windowed Elysiums, that are so plentifully scattered around the Metropolis. Retirement is the favourite wish of a Citizen's heart; who looks forward with pleas-3 ing expectation, and bustles on with industrious rapidity, to the happy hour when he can afford to bid adieu to anxiety, sell off his cares at prime cost, and enter upon real happiness,

which, he thinks, consists in the absence of business. But, alas! no happiness in this world is exempt from the infirmities of our nature; we have not yet been able even to fix the distance at which trade ends, and retirement begins. Wonderful are the differences of opinion on this subject. My old friend Mr. JOSIAH SANDAL, an eminent hosier in Cheapside, chose for the place of his retirement a house facing Honey-lane market*, and was astonished that his cough increased; while his opposite neighbour, a very topping haberdasher, travelled two hundred miles in quest of peace and salubrity, and died of perpetual visits and hunting dinners in the second of his absence from all that is hurtful.

year

But the retirement most common at this season is of the temporary kind; and consists either in a visit to a watering place, or in the hiring a snug box for the summer in one of the pleasant villages which supply the Metropolis with vegetables and dust. With respect to the former of these schemes, it is not perhaps necessary to point out what connexion it has with solitude, although it may afford

*My distant readers may not perhaps know that Honey-lane-market is but three or four yards from Cheapside.

VOL. I.