However that be, these dignified families are, according to Fashionable computation, almost the only standing members of the community; and, if these be excepted, all the rest of their body is mutable in the extreme. There is a perpetual reciprocation of numbers between them and the society in which they reside. Scarcely an hour passes without some interchange. The gossip of every day announces that some have migrated from the region of Fashion, and that others have made their appearance within it for the first time. The causes which produce these variations, and the reasons by which they are defended, are in some instances too mysterious, and in others too frivolous, to become subjects of recital. In general it may be affirmed, that though persons become Fashionable _with_ the concurrence of their will, they cease to be such _against_ it. For, if a few accidental converts to plain sense and sober piety be excepted, the greater part of those who retire have been superseded; and resign their places, only because they cannot any longer retain them. However that be, the fluctuation thus occasioned in the numbers and characters of those who compose this Fashionable Community, diversifies its complexion daily; and renders a precise account of its population and totality utterly impossible. The form of government subsisting among this people, so far as it can be traced out, is Oligarchical, and the spirit of it is absolute and despotical. The few in whose hands the supreme authority resides, do not consist of any regular or definite number, nor are they confined to any particular sex. In general, they are composed of persons out of both sexes, who, while they exercise a separate influence in things relating to the sexes respectively, possess also a common jurisdiction in matters of universal concern. The governing few are not invested with their authority by any formalities of law; nor do they obtain their station by any specific qualifications. The magistracy which they hold, appears to be neither hereditary nor elective, but contingent. The term of their continuance in power is also as indefinite and capricious, as the right by which they acquire it. One thing, however, is certain, that as a moral reputation has no influence in recommending them to the stations they fill, so the forfeiture of it in no degree weakens the stability, or abridges the duration of their power. That a government of this independent description should exist in the heart of the British empire, an _imperium in imperio_, will appear scarcely credible to my reader. He may, however, rely upon it, that the fact is as I have stated it; and if he should express his wonder, that such contempt of the sovereign authority as it eventually leads to, has not been properly resisted, he will only do what thousands have done before him.