LETTER XLIV. Introduction to the adventures of a young Bostonian, who went to London to establish a credit. My excellent Friend, BY the ship O. E. I received a letter from my father's old friend, the elder Mr. *****, desiring some information respecting his nephew, (from whom, it appears, he has received only one letter, merely announcing his safe arrival in London,) and requesting me to aid him with my friendship and advice. I do not apprehend any mischance has or will happen to him, but, if there should, I should be very loth to be the messenger of ill news to that respectable old gentleman. I shall notice his letter in a way which shall be honourable to the nephew, and, consequently, pleasing to the uncle-and refer him to you for any further information, which, if adverse, you can temper, in the communication, so as to accord with the feelings of Mr. *****, whose heart is bound up in the young man. The truth is, I have seen young ***** but once since we parted in Liverpool, two days after our arrival in port. I imagine he is pacing the same rounds of curiosity and amusement so commonly trod by our young Bostonians, and treasuring up a thousand fine sights to amuse and astonish the ladies on his return. About ten days after I arrived in this city, he called on me, dressed in the pink of the mode-his pockets full of cash, and his mouth full of wonder. He had been to dine with Mr. S. to whom his uncle consigned him with an invoice of pot-ash, old pewter, blubber-oil, and bees' wax, and the merchant had sent his clerk to shew him the city. It is astonishing what a power of fine sights he had seen: he had seen the monument, which he assured me was almost as high as the old south steeple and seemed delighted at the discovery that the great fire in London began in pudding-lane and ended at pyecorner: he had seen the lions, the queen's zebra stuffed, and a man who ate fire ;he went to see a man who eat himself, but found this was a joke. He was going to set for his picture to Mather Brown; and when he had seen the king, the infant Roscius, and the learned pig, he GUESSED he should go to Brumajim to see them make Whitechapel needles-and from thence to Liverpool, to get a tea-set of China ware which he had ordered to be marked with his aunt's cypher: that his counting-house friend had introduced him to several London bucks of the first water, and that he was going to be introduced to a young lady of quality, and great fortune, who, he told me as a great secret, P had fallen in love with him at the playhouse. Now, if you can pick out of this rhapsody any thing which can be consolatory to his uncle, pray communicate it. For my own part, I see nothing portentous in all this. I believe ***** will be amply qualified to compare notes, on his return home, with most of our young townsmen who have preceded him. As I have received a bill of exchange upon Mr. S. I shall wait on that gentleman, and make some inquiries respecting our young traveller. At all times, and on all occasions, believe me, most affectionately, Yours. LETTER XLV. Strictures on the English language of the present day. My excellent Friend, YOU request my opinion of the English language, taken in comparison with the various languages of Europe, and desire me to recommend and convey to you the works of those authors of the present day who have written it in its greatest purity. I am incapable of opinion—perhaps no man can form an adequate estimation of his mother tongue. It is extremely difficult for a man to obtain such an intimate acquaintance with foreign languages as to enable him to compare them with his own; for if he had the gift of tongues, |