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GOLDSMITH. 195 paper, (my name is Goldsmith,) reflecting upon a young lady. As for myself, I do not mind it.” Evans, at this moment, stooped down to examine a file for the paper referred to, when Goldsmith, observing his back to present a fair mark for his cane, laid it on lustily. Evans, as soon as he could recover himself from the surprise caused by this sudden attack, defended himself, and a scuffle ensued, in which Goldsmith received considerable injury. Dr. Kenrick, who was sitting in Evans's counting-house, (and who was strongly suspected to have been the writer of the offensive letter,) now came forward and separated the combatants, and Goldsmith was sent home in a coach, grievously bruised. This foolish quarrel afforded consi derable sport for the newspapers for some days, and an action at law was threatened. By the interposition, how ever, of some friends, the affair was finally compromised, and on March 31st, an address to the public inserted by Goldsmith in the Daily Advertiser, put an end to the affair. In the following year, he published his “History of the Earth and Animated Nature.” This was one of his latest publications, and he received 850l. for the copy; and during the time he was engaged in this undertaking, he had received also the profits of “She Stoops to Conquer,” which amounted to the same sum. His biographer, how ever, informs us, “he was so liberal in his donations, and profuse in his disbursements; he was unfortunately so attached to the pernicious practice of gaming; and from his unsettled habits of life, his supplies being precarious and uncertain; he had been so little accustomed to regu late his expenses by any system of economy, that his debts far exceeded his resources; and he was obliged to take up money in advance from the managers of the two theatres for comedies which he engaged to furnish to each, and from the booksellers, for publications which he was to finish for the press. All these engagements he fully in tended, and doubtless would have been able, to fulfil with the strictest honour, as he had done on former occasions