stables, but their flight being soon afterwards discovered, a domestic of the Duke's was dispatched to Mr. Polito's Managerie, at Exeter Change, to hire two of his quadruped keepers to attend, and if possible to secure the animals, which was at length effected, after two days incessant labour.' At Bartlemy Fair, the great elephant, with his hinder parts, squeezed an urchin of a schoolboy against-but I had forgotten the elephants prey only upon sugar-canes and comfits. To conclude then, as if we were not enough beset with monsters with long claws, in this same month of August does there appear a public advertisement of a living Boa Constrictor, to be seen in Piccadilly; a horrible Indian serpent, that cracks the ribs of his game between his folds, and swallows you bull buffaloes whole at a mouthful; and no other, as I take it, than Ophiucus huge,' come down from the Antarctic to give our comet a meeting. Altogether, I ask, whether in the memory of man, this good city of London ever heard so much about beasts of prey before, or had so much occasion to 'beware' of them. Yet I insist on these undeniable fulfilments only with an ulterior view, that of putting beyond a doubt the prophetical character of Mr. Francis Moore; which done, I venture to ask further, whether any true believers beside myself, while so linx-eyed in discovering our physician's prophecy of the comet, have discovered and given their faith to another of the prophecies which I find in his cabalistic leaves? August, as we have seen, is the season for fires and tigers; in September, 'Some public actions now are surely done."* but in October, Some anxious Spirit would disturb the State, Now, Sir, what I wish to know is, whether the readers of Cobbett and the Sunday papers have discovered, in these verses, any thing relating to the law suit at present pending in the Court of Session at Edinburgh? I admire and follow Mr. Moore's laudable caution, exhibited in the verse— And something else-but what I will not say;' and I too say nothing, except with the lord Hamlet, after the Ghost, that 'there's never a rogue in all Denmark, but's an errant knave! But à-propos of Sir Francis Burdett. A correspondent has given you an account of the celebrated arrest of this patriot, in See page 101. * Vide Moore's Almanac for 1811. ↑ Idem. terms terms of which it is perhaps to be regretted, that by an air of merriment which pervades them, they something soften our just abhorrence of the conduct which they expose.* In this remark, however, I am possibly wrong; and your correspondent has possibly done most service, by chusing the language of ridicule, rather than that of indignation. In that account, your correspondent declines following his hero, both on his way into the Tower, and on his way out of the Tower, and therefore we are there left uninformed as to that mysterious transaction-the escape of Sir Francis by water. For my part, I recur every now and then with delight to that part of the programme, (to adopt a term of your correspondent's,) in which the arrangements for the procession are set forth; a procession, a popular cavalcade,' intended as a means of proving the sentiments of the nation on the power assumed by the House of Commons. I read, and am ravished while I read, of six trumpeters on horseback-band of music, six abreast-gentlemen on foot, six abreast-band of music, six abreast-large dark-blue streamers: motto, Hold to the Laws-fifty-two gentlemen on horseback, four abreast-Sir FRANCIS BURDETT, in an elevated carriage, drawn by four horses, supported by six gentlemen on horseback, on each side, bearing white wands, followed by gentlemen on horseback, four a breast-carriages to close, to fall in at the end of John-street, Minories-procession to form on Towerhill, to proceed up Cooper's-row, John-street, America-square, Minories, Aldgate, Leadenhall-street, Cornhill, Poultry, Cheapside, St. Paul's Church-yard, Ludgate-hill, Fleet-street, through Pickettstreet, Strand, Cockspur-street, Haymarket, Piccadilly. The only distinguishing mark to be worn, a dark-blue favour; members of the common-council and livery of London will join the procession on Tower-hill; a numerous body of Westminster electors will also proceed from the parish of St. Ann's, Soho, with their band of music, and with the following banners: sky-blue banner, motto, The Constitution--dark-blue banner, ditto, Magna Charta-ditto, Trial by Jury-dark-blue streamer, Burdett and Freedom; they will fall into the procession on Tower-hill. The benevolent society called the Hope (the forlorn hope?) will join the procession on Tower-hill, with a band of music and banner, mottoes, Magna Charta on one side, on the other, Lex, Justitia, et Libertas,'-and what was better than all the banners, and streamers, and six trumpeters on horseback, put together, the worthy sheriffs of London, aldermen Wood and Atkins, to be at the head of the party! Oh! blessed, and thrice blessed, I cry, the Saturnalia in which the very magistrates, *Gen. Chron. vol. ii, p. 121. kicking kicking the fasces over their heads, grasp bludgeons, and break windows with the mob! But alas! and alas! and alas! while every body thought of Tower-hill, nobody thought of Tower-wharf! Nobody but Sir Francis himself, and there did he, who was to have been the foremost man of all the world; there did he, silently and unceremoniously, take his departure by water, while music was heard in every [other] direction!" On the day following, the statement, which I shall immediately subjoin, was given to the public. With this statement closes the sal, eventful history of the arrest; unless, indeed, we bring it down to the events-sadder still-when the Constitution, Magna Charta, Law, Justice, and the Trial by Jury, defeated all the hopes of all the hopeful patriots and politicians of this realm.* But it is with this statement that I have at present immediate concern. If the statement of Tower-hill falsely foretold what was to happen, the statement of Tower-wharf as falsely relates what did : 'June 22, 1810. In consequence of Sir F. Burdett not appearing in the procession yesterday, two gentlemen, belonging to the committee of his friends, waited upon him at Wimbledon, to seek an explanation. Sir Francis received them in company with his brother; and stated, that his withdrawing on the preceding day had been the result of the deepest reflection; that his enemies had been base enough to charge him with the blood that had been shed on a former occasion; and had he, by gratifying his personal vanity, been the cause of a single accident, he should have reflected upon it with pain for the remainder of his life. An expression of public sentiment was necessary, it had been complete; and his being in the procession could not have added thereto. Had he made his friends acquainted with his intentions under an injunction of secresy, it would have had the appearance of finesse. On the whole, he was convinced that the public cause would be benefited by the conduct he had pursued; and of that, he entertained no doubt, his friends would ultimately be persuaded.' But this statement is a false one. The true reason, why Sir Francis Burdett did not accept of the procession is this: he learned from his friends, that the intention of the committee was, to bestow equal honour on himself and on Mr. Gale Jones, now sometimes called, by paltry punsters, Mr. Gaol Jones; and that it was part of their programme, though by no means of his own, that the elevated carriage, drawn by four horses, supported by six gentlemen on horse-back, and followed by gentlemen on horseback, should stop, amid its joyous career, at the well-known corner * See Reports of all the proceedings in the causes Burdett v. Abbott, Burdett v. Colman, and Burdett v. the Earl of Moira, Gen. Chron. vol. i, 425; vol. ii, 333, 450. GEN. CHRON, VOL. III. NO. XII. of of the Old Bailey, while, all the six trumpeters on sounding, the aforesaid Mr. Jones was to be broug gaol, and seated cheek by jowl with Sir Francis Bu Francis, not absolutely dead to every sentiment of selfmembered, that in the lowest deep there is a lower lower deep he fancied to be Mr. Jones, and he shrunk in and irresistibly from the association. In consequence, but one way left him to avoid a direct breach with the way by Tower-wharf. Sir, I have not acquired this information from the rom the comet, but I have it from very good munda rity, and I challenge contradiction. As to collateral pro you to compare the language in which the intended proce announced, with the manner in which Mr. Jones was trea subsequent dinner at the Crown and Anchor, of which something in the newspapers, and the merits of which, even remember, were brought by Mr. Jones himself befor quenters of his spouting-room. The previous language w 'June 21, 1810. The prorogation of parliament took place was universally expected, that Sir Francis Burdett and Mr. G were to be drawn from their respective prisons in popular ca as a means of proving the sentiment of the nation on the power by the House of Commons.' Thus, if there are fallacies in prophecy, there are also fal history; and therefore I hope to stand excused, if, at least October, I pin my faith upon Moore's Almanac: For th' Starry Science, well the Reader knows, PHILO-V Sept. 15, 1811. THE form of the Fourth Room is circular, like that of th cond, already described; and it is here represented, as it former instance, as if reduced to a plane surface. This arra ment has some inconveniences, but none which do not vanish be Moore's Almanac. |
