a clerk to a counting-house. The breaking out of the war, and the straits to which we were at first reduced, threw the army open to all young men who were disposed to embrace that mode of life; and Brown, whose genius had a strong military tendency, was the first to leave what might have been the road to wealth, and to chuse that of fame. The rest of his history is well known to you; but conceive the irritation of my father, who despises commerce, (though, by the way, the best part of his property was made in that honourable profession by my great uncle,) and has a particular antipathy to the Dutch; think with what ear he would be likely to receive proposals for his only child from Van-beest Brown, educated for charity by the house of Van-beest and Van-bruggen! O, Matilda, it will never do—nay, so childish am I, I hardly can help sympathizing with his aristocratic feelings.—Mrs Van-beest Brown! The
