they were on their passage, they fell in with a French vessel, in great
distress, and in daily expectation of foundering at sea, at the same
time that it was almost destitute of provisions. The Frenchman hailed
them, and intreated the English captain, in consideration of his
melancholy situation, to take him and his crew on board. The Englishman
represented in reply, that his stock of provisions was by no means
adequate to such an additional number of mouths, and absolutely refused
compliance. Mary, shocked at his apparent insensibility, took up the
cause of the sufferers, and threatened the captain to have him called
to a severe account, when he arrived in England. She finally prevailed,
and had the satisfaction to reflect, that the persons in question
possibly owed their lives to her interposition.

When she arrived in England, she found that her school had suffered
considerably in her absence. It can be little reproach to any one, to
say that they were found incapable of supplying her place. She not only
excelled in the management of the children, but had also the talent of
being attentive and obliging to the parents, without degrading herself.

The period at which I am now arrived is important, as conducting to the
first step of her literary carreer. Mr. Hewlet had frequently mentioned
literature to Mary as a certain source of pecuniary produce, and had
urged her to make trial of the truth of his judgment. At this time she
was desirous of assisting the father and mother of Fanny in an object
they had in view, the transporting themselves to Ireland; and, as usual,
what she desired in a pecuniary view, she was ready to take on herself
to effect. For this purpose she wrote a duodecimo pamphlet of one
hundred and sixty pages, entitled, Thoughts on the Education of
Daughters. Mr. Hewlet obtained from the bookseller, Mr. Johnson in St.
Paul's Church Yard, ten guineas for the copy-right of this manuscript,