to
suppress these riots, and papers, with menaces against the Government,
are publicly thrown about. Among others, these words were dropped in a
court of justice: "France wants a Ravilliac or a Jesuit to deliver her."
Besides this universal distress, there is a contagious sickness, which,
it is feared, will end in a pestilence. Letters from Bordeaux bring
accounts no less lamentable: the peasants are driven by hunger from
their abodes into that city, and make lamentations in the streets
without redress.

We are advised by letters from the Hague, dated the 10th instant, N.S.,
that on the 6th, the Marquis de Torcy arrived there from Paris; but the
passport, by which he came, having been sent blank by Monsieur Rouille,
he was there two days before his quality was known. That Minister
offered to communicate to Monsieur Heinsius the proposals which he had
to make; but the pensionary refused to see them, and said, he would
signify it to the States, who deputed some of their own body to acquaint
him, That they would enter into no negotiation till the arrival of his
Grace the Duke of Marlborough, and the other Ministers of the Alliance.
Prince Eugene was expected there the 12th instant from Brussels. It is
said, that besides Monsieur de Torcy and Monsieur Pajot,
Director-general of the Posts, there are two or three persons at the
Hague whose names are not known; but it is supposed that the Duke
d'Alba, ambassador from the Duke of Anjou, was one of them. The States
have sent letters to all the cities of the Provinces, desiring them to
send their deputies to receive the propositions of peace made by the
Court of France.[171]

[Footnote 163: The word "Miss" was still confined, in Steele's day, to
very young girls or to young women of giddy or doubtful character. Thus
Pastorella in No. 9 is called "Miss," and similarly we find "Miss Gruel"
in No. 33. In the "Original Letters to the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_,"
printed by Charles Lillie (i. 223) there is a "Table of the Titles and
Distinctions of Women," from which what follows is extracted. "Let all
country-gentlewomen, without regard to more or less fortune, content
themselves with being addressed by the style of 'Mrs.' Let 'Madam'
govern independently in the city, &c. Let no women after the known age
of 21 presume to admit of her being called 'Miss,' unless she can fairly
prove she is not out of her sampler. Let every common maid-servant be
plain 'Jane,' 'Doll,' or 'Sue,' an