To the Treafury; or Admiralty-To the Right Honourable the Lords Commiffioners of the Treafury; or Admiralty.. To the Commiffioners of the Cuftoms; or Excife-To the Ho nourable the Commiffioners of His Majefty's Customs; Revenue of the Excife, &c. To any of the Companies of the City of London-To the Master, Wardens, and Court of Affiftants of the Worshipful Company of, &c. To the Governors of Chrift's Hofpital-To the Right Worfhipful the Governors of Chrift's Hospital. To the Eaft India Company-To the Honourable Court of Directors of the United Company of Merchants trading to the Eaft Indies. To the Inns of Court-To the Honourable Society of the Inner, or Middle Temple; or Gray's Inn, &c. The governors, trustees, &c. of hofpitals, colleges, &c. are ftyled Worshipful or Right Worfiipful, or Honourable or Right Honourable, if any of them poffefs any of those titles. It is alfo neceffary to know how to begin a letter to any of the foregoing characters. For the Beginning of Letters. To the King-Sire, or May it please your Majefty. To a Marquis, Earl, Vifcount, or Baron My Lord, or May it please your Lordship. To their Conforts-Madam, or May it please your Ladyhip. To a Bishop My Lord, or May it please your Lordship. To their Conforts-Madam, or May it pleafe your Lady fhip. To all the other Clergy-Reverend Sir, or Sir. To an Ambajador-Sir, or Your Excellency. To the Lord Mayor of London, York, or Dublin, and Lord Provost of Edinburgh, during their office-My Lord, or May it please your Lordship. To an Alderman, Recorder, or Sheriff-Sir, or May it please your Worship. To the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland-My Lord, or May it please your Lordship.' To the Houfe of Lords My Lords, or May it please your Lordships. To the House of Commons--May it please your Honours. To the Lords of the Treasury, or Admiralty-My Lords, or May it please your Lordships To the Commiffioners of the Cuftoms, or Excise-Gentlemen, or May it please your Honours. To the Bencher's of an Inn of Court-Gentlemen, or May it please your Honours... To the Directors of the Eaft India Company-Gentlemen, or May it please your Honours. To the Governors of Cbrif's Hofpital-Gentlemen, or May it please your Worships.' - To a Company of the City of London-Gentlemen, or May it please your Worships. It may not be amifs, in this place, to infert a table of precedence, by which the reader will fee the rank which each individual bears in England, according to his office and occupation. Taken from the Heralds' books. Mårried women and widows are entitled to the fame rank among each other as their husbands would have been entitled to among themselves; except fuch rank be merely profeffional, or official :-and unmarried women to the fame rank as their eldest brothers would bear during the lives of their fathers. SECT. IV. THE ART OF STENOGRAPHY, OR SHORT HAND. STENOGRAPHY, or Short Hand, is the art of writing in a more expeditious manner than by the common mode, for the purpose of taking down a speech, or discourse, as delivered by the speaker. For this purpose, the writer of short hand is permitted to avail himself of feveral advantages which no other writer is allowed. He has the liberty of inventing an alphabet of his own, confifting of certain arbitrary marks, or characters, which, for the fake of expedition, are of a lefs complex form than those of the other alphabets. He may reject any of the letters in the common alphabet, which are not abfolutely neceffary for the writer to recollect the fenfe; or fubftitute one and the fame character to serve for two diftin&t letters; as is done here in the short-hand alphabet, where ƒ and vare used indiscriminately the one for the other, and represented by the same character; as are alfo the k and hard c, the s and the foft. He also omits the vowels, except where they are indifpenfably neceffary to discover the fenfe. Confequently, he is not to follow the customary mode of fpelling; but is to infert no more letters in a word than are precifely neceffary to express the found. The The short-hand writer, befides these advantages, fometimes makes ufe of fingle characters to exprefs whole words, and even whole fentences; but of this hereafter. The first and principal rule in fhort hand is, to make use. of no more letters than are necessary to give the reader an idea of the found of the word. For if the writer ufe all the letters that are neceffary to exprefs the found itself, he will gain but little advantage by it; as he will be obliged to use too many letters to be very expeditious. But it must be here obferved, that this rule must not be followed too ftrictly at firft, and during the learner's exercifes; left it render his writing too imperfect, and unintelligible to himself. He fhould, therefore, at first, content himfelf with ufing every character for every confonant, till he be perfectly acquainted with them all, and can very readily form them; marking the points for the vowels, as is bereafter directed. Of the Short-hand Aiphalet. The fhort-hand alphabet confifts of the following confonants: b, d, f or v, g or j, kor hard c, l, m, n, fl, qy T, 5 or soft c, and %, t, w, x: each of which has its proper character, as feen in the plate. The characters ftanding for thefe letters are to be neatly joined together, to form, words; and written in the most expeditious manner poffible, without taking the pen off the paper till the word be finifled; and the vowels are to be noted afterwards (if neceffary) by points. Though the omiffion of the vowels may at first fomewhat puzzle the reader, to read even his own writing, yet a little practice will render it perfectly familiar to him; as the chief difficulty, both in writing and reading fhort hand, arifes from the novelty of the characters, and from the want of a familiar acquaintance with them.. In order to perfect the learner in the conftruction of all the characters in the fhort-hand alphabet, it is abfolutely neceffary that he frequently copy them. He should, daily, |