This same Charles leaves it to me to say what I will of him, and I am not a little pleased with the ingenuous manner of his address. Taking snuff is what I have declared against; but as his Holiness the Pope allows whoring for the taxes raised by the ladies of pleasure, so I, to repair the loss of an unhappy trader, indulge all persons in that custom who buy of Charles. There is something so particular in the request of the man, that I shall send for him before me, and believe I shall find he has a genius for baubles: if so, I shall, for aught I know, at his shop, give licensed canes to those who are really lame, and tubes to those who are unfeignedly short-sighted; and forbid all others to vend the same.
FOOTNOTES:
[272] The royal children were at one time punished by proxy. Burnet ("History of his Own Time," 1823, i. 102) gives an account of a whipping boy to King Charles I. (See also the Spectator, No. 313; and Hawkins's "History of Music," iii. 252.)
[273] Pasquinades.
[274] See Horace's lines prefixed to this paper.
[No. 93. [Steele and Addison.]
From Thursday, Nov. 10, to Saturday, Nov, 12, 1709.