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28 speech could draw to an end; therefore I shall only touch upon two observations. The first is that the compass of the coat serves to keep the men at a decent distance, and appropriates to every lady a spacious verge sacred to herself. In the second place the compliment allowed at all times of comparing a lady to a star, will now quadrate in every respect, when it may properly be said of every fair female that she moves in her orb and shines in her sphere in proportion to a star of the first mag­nitude.

"I might here mention the vast benefit the public reaps from this dress, and take notice of the great number of hands employed in building and repairing these beautiful edifices, were it not too well known to my hearers. I cannot, how­ever, pass over in silence the particular encou­ragement which this mode has given to whale-­fishing, no inconsiderable branch of the British commerce.

"Go on, then, adorable creatures, to cherish and improve an ornament every way praiseworthy; suffer not yourselves to be persuaded to your down­fall by those who would undermine your main sup­port. Suspect the artifices of such as would narrow your foundation, and resolve to maintain the