His age, as inscribed upon his coffin, was fifty

nine. PRATT, (EDWARD). The hero of these memoirs was an officer in the service of the East India company, and half brother to a late venerable and illustrious peer of the same name. This singular character is introduced as a remarkable instance of unconquerable taciturnity, and tenacious accuracy of memory. Though by no means an avaricious man, he always preferred the upper floor of a house for his residence, on account of its tranquillity; and regularly, while on shore, dined in a room by himself at a tavern, where he daily drank a solitary bottle of wine, without intoxication. He seldom was heard to speak, but no circumstance, however urgent, could prevail on him to break silence at whist, the favourite amusement, or rather occupation, of his life; and, at the conclusion of each rubber, he could correctly call over the cards in the exact order in which they were played, and enumerate various instances of error or dexterity in his associates, with practical remarks. But taciturnity was the favourite, the habitual, or the affected pleasure of his life: he chose to forego many little satisfactions and comforts, rather than be at the trou ble. of asking for them. The endearing chitchat of friendship or affection, the familiar small talk of domestic life, the lively intercourse and spirited conversation of polished circles, which the sons of solitude sometimes relifh, he sedulously avoided. In his voyages to the east, he often doubled the Cape without opening his lips. On a certain occasion, the ship had been detain

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ed by a long and troublesome calm, more distressing to a British sailor than a tempestuous sea. The anxious and dispirited crew were at last revived by the wished-for breeze springing. up; a shabby seaman at last proclaimed the welcome tidings of land from the top-mast.While the officers and ship's company were congratulating each other on the approaching comforts of terra firma, the features of Mr. Pratt were observed somewhat to alter, and unbend.

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knew, said he, you would enjoy the sight of "land; I saw it an hour before the careless raggamuffin aloft."And these were the first, the last, and the only words he uttered during the voyage. This unsocial and reserved behaviour probably originated from ill-treatment on his first voyage, a hasty unfavourable opinion of his associates, the boisterousness of the waves, or an ill-founded and ungenerous prejudice, in which he was supported by a learned writer."I prefer a prison to a ship," said Dr. Johnson, "for you have always more room, and generally "better company. This illiberal sarcasm, from a man who knew and taught better things, seems highly reprehensible. FRENTICE, (HARRY) the first who introduced the culture of potatoes into this country, was born in 1703. In 1784, he sunk 1401. with the managers of the Cannongate poor-house, for a weekly subsistence of seven shillings, and has fince made several small donations to that charity. - His coffin, for which he paid two guineas, with the year of his birth on it, had hung nine years in his house; and he had the undertaker's written obliga.

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obligation to screw him down with his own hands gratis. The managers were bound to bury him with a hearse and four coaches at Restalrig. PRICE, (CHARLES) alias the social monster, was descended from a salesman in Monmouth-street. The father, presaging perhaps that his son Charles was designed to make a conspicuous figure in the world, placed him under the tuition of a French teacher. But, at that early period, he gave many proofs of those great talents which afterwards rendered him so eminent; for, stealing a strip of old gold lace from the shop, he artfully dressed himself in his brother's cloaths, and sold it to a Jew; in consequence of which, the robbery was afterwards fixed on the innocent youth, for which he suffered a severe flagellation. We cannot, however, progressively give a detail of all the villainies which are placed to the account of our hero, as some are not perfectly ascertained, and others are not sufficiently interesting. At the age of twentyfive, he had been a barker in Monmouth-street: servant to a hatter and hosier in St. James's street; clerk to a city merchant, of extensive foreign connections; and engaged in the same capacity to a diamond merchant in Amsterdam, whose daughter he debauched; and, lastly, manager to the gentleman who conducted his Majesty's small beer brewery at Weovil, in Hampshire. At intervals, this great man sometimes engaged in lottery offices, and at others in adver tising for wives with such and such fortunes, qualifications, &c. and thus obtaining considerable sums from unthinking youth, to procure them what

what never existed but in idea. But this hero's grand and most successful scheme was to appear in different characters to one person, by which means the injured party, more than once, employed Mr. Price to detect Mr. Patch, for in this latter habit he generally placed a black patch over one of his eyes. Thus disguised, he is said to have actually received money from the bank directors, in order to discover himself. Having, under the name of Wilmot, paid Mr. Spilsbury for some medicines (and received the change) with a forged note, that gentleman one day related the circumstance at the Percy coffee-house, in the presence of the culprit, who kept frequently crying out " Lack-a-day! Good God! who could "conceive such knavery could exist! What, "did the Bank refuse payment, Sir?" " O yes" said Mr Spilsbury, "and yet the bills were so inimitably well done, that the nicest judges "could not distinguish them!" "Good God! lack-a-day," said Price, "he must have been "an ingenious villain! What a complete old "scoundrel!" Price had often been at the shop of a Mr. Roberts, grocer, in Oxford-street. Here he now and then bought a few articles, and took many opportunities of shewing his im portance. One day he called there in a hackney coach, disguised as an old man, and bought some few things. In a day or two afterwards he repeated his visit; and on a third day, when he knew Mr. Roberts was from home, he went again, with his face so painted that he seemed diseased with the yellow jaundice. The shopman, to whom he enumerated his complaints,

gave him a prescription for that disorder, such as had cured his father of it. Price gladly accepted of the receipt, promising that if it succeeded, he would very liberally reward him for his civility. In a few days, he called again, when he appeared perfectly free from the complaint, and acknowledged his great obligations to the shopman, to whom, after he had expatiated on his affluent circumstances, the short time he had to live in the world, and the few relations he had to leave any thing to, he made a present of a ten pound bank note. The reader need not be told it was a counterfeit one; but, at the same time, he said, that he wanted cash for another, which was a fifty pound note, and the obliging shopman got change for it of an opposite neighbour. The next day, in Mr. Roberts's absence, he called again, and entreated the lad to get five other fifty pound notes changed for small ones; who, telling him his master was not in the way, Price begged he would take them to his master's banker, and there get them changed. This request the servant complied with. The bankers, Harley, Burchall, and Co. complied with Mr. Roberts's supposed request, changed them without suspicion, and small notes were that day given for them to Mr. Price. Having found out a fit object to practise his deceptions on in the person of Mr. E. who was an eminent merchant in the city; and having traced his connections at Amsterdam, even to the obtaining a letter which came from a merchant there to Mr. E. he He began his attack on that gentleman as follows: accosted him on the Change in another disguised