As love of reputation is a darling passion in great men, so the defence of them in this particular is the business of every man of honour and honesty. We should run on such an occasion (as if a public building was on fire) to their relief; and all who spread or publish such detestable pieces as traduce their merit, should be used like incendiaries. It is the common cause of our country, to support the reputation of those who preserve it against invaders; and every man is attacked in the person of that neighbour who deserves well of him.
The chat I had to-day at White's about fame and scandal, put me in mind of a person who has often written to me unregarded, and has a very moderate ambition in this particular. His name it seems is Charles Lillie, and he recommends himself to my observation as one that sold snuff next door to the Fountain Tavern, in the Strand, and was burnt out when he began to have a reputation in his way.
"I suppose, through a hurry of business, you have either forgotten me, or lost my last of this nature; which was, to beg the favour of being advantageously exposed in your paper, chiefly for the reputation of snuff. Be pleased to pardon this trouble, from,
"I am a perfumer, at the corner of Beauford Buildings, in the Strand."
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.
[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.)