Influence of Appellations.

WHAT is there in a name,” says Juliet, "that which we call a rofe, by any other name would fmell as sweet." No doubt, if the rose had not that appellation, its sweetness would fpeak for itfelf; but if distinguished by a word to which we had previously attached some disagreeable meaning, the affociation of ideas might produce a fenfation to the disadvantage even of this lovely flower.

Montaigne, and Sterne (his imitator) think that a man's fuccefs in life may depend on his name; which is not altogether fo fanciful-how many owe their fortune to their being called after a godfather?

There are fome inftances of our continuing in a conftant state of misconduct, from a mifapplication of names, or by applying the ufual meaning of a term to a purpose with which it is totally difconnected. Thus, when Boniface is told, "that his ale is confounded strong," he replies, "how elfe fhould we be ftrong that drink it?" When the common people are depreffed, they take a dram because it is called fpirit; they then conceive they have got what they wanted, and must of course be merry. Had it not been for the unfortunate epithet of Strong, applied to beer, and the term Spirit being given to brandy, people would never have gueffed that ale gave them ftrength, or brandy created fpirits. It is an unfortunate circumftance that brandy is called alfo aqua-vitæ, and eau-de-vie, by which it has proved to nations, who never heard of the English term, Spirit, to be aqua-mortis and eau-de-mort. This liquid having a name fo contrary to its

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real effect, has been, and will continue to be, the cause of more deftruction than the fword or the peftilence.

The common disorder, a cold, by being fo named, has been the death of thoufands-being called a cold, people conceive it should be oppofed by heat, and heat must necessarily expel cold. By acting upon this principle, a flight fever becomes dangerous, and what the ufual efforts of nature would have cured in a few days, is now changed to a diforder frequently beyond the reach of medicine.

The word Tax is deteftable, although the thing be unavoidable; it is therefore prudent in a minifter to prevent (if poffible) its being ever pronounced. He does prevent it, by concealing the tax in the price of the commodity instead of keeping it distinct-Thus, if we buy a pair of fhoes, and the tax is included in the coft, we only buy the shoes dear, we Dd 3

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do not pay a tax; but if we gave half the price for the shoes, and paid, feparately, a tax, the fifth part of that included in the shoes, the burthen would be thought intolerable. A two-fhilling ftamp being separated from the price of the hat, is a tax that is felt; but the five-fhilling tax included in the fhoes is unnoticed. We are content to buy dear, but much difpleased at being taxed-let the rose have its perfume, but call it by another name.

The word excife is rather worfe than tax, and an excifeman the worst of all tax-gatherers. The late Duke of Bedford had nearly loft his life at Exeter, by fimply giving his vote for making a commodity subject to the excife-had it been only taxed, he might have paffed to Taviftoke unmolested.

When the people of Europe first began to cultivate the lands in the Weft-Indies, they foon experienced that the climate

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was too hot for hard work-they had recourse to Africa for labourers, in which they did no more on the western coast, than had been done in the eastern part of that vaft continent, from the earliest antiquity. The flave-trade on the shore of the Red-fea, as Bruce informs us, takes off thousands of negroes for Arabia, Perfia, and India; fo that the inhabitants of Africa feem to be doomed to labour, that the rest of the world may live in luxury.

In those days of philanthropy, when prisons must be palaces, when the rich must be the poor, poor rich, and all men and things reduced to a happy equality— who can bear the thought of eating the produce of a plant which is watered with the tears and blood of its miferable cultivators? This might be made a most pathetic picture, but does it not owe all its effect to the word flave? Suppofe at first the planters had called thefe labourers black fervants, would any person have

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