some account of the Behaviour of our
Hackney-Coachmen since my last. These indefatigable Gentlemen, without
the least Design, I dare say, of Self-Interest or Advantage to
themselves, do still ply as Volunteers Day and Night for the Good of
their Country. I will not trouble you with enumerating many
Particulars, but I must by no means omit to inform you of an Infant
about six foot high, and between twenty and thirty Years of Age, who
was seen in the Arms of a Hackney Coach-man driving by _Will's_
Coffee-house in _Covent-Garden_, between the Hours of four and five in
the Afternoon of that very Day, wherein you publish'd a Memorial
against them. This impudent young Cur, tho' he could not sit in a
Coach-box without holding, yet would he venture his Neck to bid
defiance to your Spectatorial Authority, or to any thing that you
countenanced. Who he was I know not, but I heard this Relation this
Morning from a Gentleman who was an Eye-Witness of this his Impudence;
and I was willing to take the first opportunity to inform you of him,
as holding it extremely requisite that you should nip him in the Bud.
But I am my self most concerned for my Fellow-Templers,
Fellow-Students, and Fellow-Labourers in the Law, I mean such of them
as are dignified and distinguish'd under the Denomination of
Hackney-Coachmen. Such aspiring Minds have these ambitious young Men,
that they cannot enjoy themselves out of a Coach-Box. It is however an
unspeakable Comfort to me, that I can now tell you, that some of them
are grown so bashful as to study only in the Nighttime, or in the
Country. The other Night I spied one of our young Gentlemen very
diligent at his Lucubrations in _Fleet-Street_; and by the way, I
should be under some concern, lest this hard Student should one time
or other crack his Brain with studying, but that I am in hopes Nature
has taken care to fortify him in proportion to the great Undertakings
he was design'd for. Another of my Fellow-Templers, on _Thursday_
last, was getting up into his Study at the Bottom of _Grays-Inn-Lane_,
in order, I suppose, to contemplate in the fresh Air. Now, Sir, my
Request is, that the great Modesty of these two Gentlemen may be
recorded as a Pattern to the rest; and if you would but give them two
or three Touches with your own Pen, tho' you might not perhaps prevail
with them to desist entirely from their Meditations, yet I doubt not