we should hang our
acquaintance for nothing, when our betters will hardly save theirs
without being paid for it?"--Act II., sc. x. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 13: The rivalry between Handel and the Italian composers had
then been keen for nearly twenty years. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 14: The edition of 1729 has "the fore-runner." [T.S.]]

THE INTELLIGENCER, NUMB. XIX[1].

_Having on the 12th of October last, received a letter signed_ ANDREW
DEALER, _and_ PATRICK PENNYLESS; _I believe the following_ PAPER, _just
come to my hands, will be a sufficient answer to it[2]._

_Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves._
VlRG.[3]

SIR,

I am a country gentleman, and a Member of Parliament, with an estate of
about 1400_l_. a year, which as a Northern landlord, I receive from above
two hundred tenants, and my lands having been let, near twenty years ago,
the rents, till very lately, were esteemed to be not above half value;
yet by the intolerable scarcity of silver[4], I lie under the greatest
difficulties in receiving them, as well as in paying my labourers, or
buying any thing necessary for my family from tradesmen, who are not able
to be long out of their money. But the sufferings of me, and those of my
rank, are trifles in comparison, of what the meaner sort undergo; such as
the buyers and sellers, at fairs, and markets; the shopkeepers in every
town, the farmers in general. All those who travel with fish, poultry,
pedlary-ware, and other conveniencies to sell: But more especially
handicrafts-men, who work for us by the day, and common labourers, whom I
have already mentioned. Both these kinds of people, I am forced to
employ, till their wages amount to a double pistole,[5] or a moidore,
(for we hardly have any gold of lower value left among us) to divide it
among themselves as they can; and this is generally done at an ale-house
or brandy shop; where, besides the cost of getting drunk, (which is
usually the case) they must pay tenpence or a shilling, for changing
their piece into silver, to some huckstering fellow, who follows that
trade. But what is infinitely worse, those poor men for want of due
payment, are forced to take up their oatmeal, and other necessaries of
life, at almost double value, and consequently are not able, to discharge
half their score, especially under the scarceness of corn, for two years
past, and the melancholy disappointment of the present crop.

The causes of this, and a thousand other evils, are c