ke Notice, that a
daily Repetition of the same over-bearing Insolence is yet more
insupportable, and a Confirmation of very extraordinary Dulness. The
sudden Publication of this, may have an Effect upon a notorious
Offender of this Kind, whose Reformation would redound very much to the
Satisfaction and Quiet of

_Your most humble Servant_,

F.B. [3]

[Footnote 1: William Congreve upon Arabella Hunt.]

[Footnote 2: Mrs. Tofts, see note on p. 85, vol, i. [Footnote 3 of No.
22.]

[Footnote 3: Said to be the initials of Francis Beasniffe.]

* * * * *

No. 444. Wednesday, July 30, 1712. Steele.

['Parturiunt montes.'

Hor. [1]]

It gives me much Despair in the Design of reforming the World by my
Speculations, when I find there always arise, from one Generation to
another, successive Cheats and Bubbles, as naturally as Beasts of Prey,
and those which are to be their Food. There is hardly a Man in the
World, one would think, so ignorant, as not to know that the ordinary
Quack Doctors, who publish their great Abilities in little brown
Billets, distributed to all who pass by, are to a Man Impostors and
Murderers; yet such is the Credulity of the Vulgar, and the Impudence of
these Professors, that the Affair still goes on, and new Promises of
what was never done before are made every Day. What aggravates the Just
is, that even this Promise has been made as long as the Memory of Man
can trace it, and yet nothing performed, and yet still prevails. As I
was passing along to-day, a Paper given into my Hand by a Fellow without
a Nose tells us as follows what good News is come to Town, to wit, that
there is now a certain Cure for the _French_ Disease, by a Gentleman
just come from his Travels.

"In Russel-Court, over-against the Cannon-Ball, at the Surgeon's Arms
in Drury-Lane, is lately come from his Travels a Surgeon who has
practised Surgery and Physick both by Sea and Land these twenty four
Years. He (by the Blessing) cures the Yellow Jaundice, Green Sickness,
Scurvy, Dropsy, Surfeits, long Sea Voyages, Campains, and Womens
Miscarriages, Lying-Inn, &c. as some People that has been lame these
thirty Years can testifie; in short, he cureth all Diseases incident
to Men, Women, or Children [2]."

If a Man could be so indolent as to look upon this Havock of the human
Species which is made by Vice and