motest situations from them. By briefs the whole country rebuilt villages burnt by accident, churches in decay, and, above all, they rescued Britons from slavery, and Protestants from persecution. For a long time, they were extremely successful; and would perhaps have continued so, had they not become too frequent, and thus enabled villainy to interpose with false appeals to the charitable. The frequent notices in the Gazette, issued before the year 1700, warning the publick against impostors then passing through the country, served to annihilate all confidence in any assertion made by strange collectors, however honest.

It may be proper to mention, that in no way is the reformation of manners amongst the inferior classes more observable, than in the cessation of sudden and dangerous riots in the streets. From the Restoration to the close of the year 1700, the diurnal publications gave very numerous instances of the extreme turbulence of individuals, whose example generally produced partizans. To relate many of the horrid stories scattered in them would be unpleasant: I shall therefore confine myself to one specimen of the manner in which bailiffs were frequently treated, extracted from the Domestic Intelligence of February 13, 1681-2. “A bailiff and his son, belonging to the Marshalsea, went into Hungerford-market to arrest a butcher; and the bailiff told him privately he had a writ against him, and asked him what house he would

go

go to; and the butcher immediately, upon having the writ, fell to hacking the bailiff; insomuch that his left hand is almost cut off, and his right arm cut through the bone; besides other cuts designed upon his head, and other parts of his body, as appears by his hat and clothes: upon which his son (the bailiff's), seeing his father lying wallowing in his blood, and not knowing whether he was dead or alive, withdrew at a distance, and called out murder, and for a constable :

upon which the butcher fell upon the son, and

received a mortal wound by the son's own defence. The coroner's inquest brought the son in guilty of manslaughter."

The dreadful revenge of Count Coningsmarke upon Mr. Thynne occurred at the same time, but, as no Englishman was concerned in the base assassination of that gentleman, any further notice of it is deemed unnecessary; though the affair will answer another purpose, by shewing the manner in which the publick were daily amused by the newspapers. "There is also another brother in iniquity, the Northfolk fellow, that Observator 101, out of his due course, vomits nothing but gall, green with malice, against Langley Curtiss, for publishing an elegy on Mr. Thynne. Sure the man is mad, raves, and crys out, as if the was in his bones: O the d-d elegy! Why, man, are you angry, because the duke of Monmouth was not shot? or that any one thanked

God

God for his escape? being so lately before in the coach," &c. &c.

Nat Thompson (who published the Loyal Protestant) gives the two instances, now introduced, of the manners of 1681. "An honourable lady going to Exchange, in London, where she had laid out a great sum of money in necessaries; but, before she had concluded, some persons (no doubt out of a good design) gave out that it was the lady Ogle; whereupon the mobile cried out, that she was a murderer, &c. (alluding to her connection with Conyngsmarke and Thynne) and what not; withall adding, Let us pull her in pieces! whereupon the honourable lady was necessitated privately to withdraw herself, and take a hackney-coach; and went away in it, for fear of being exposed to the insolence and danger of the rabble; and was forced to leave her goods, though paid for, behind her.-Another exploit, not much unlike the former, take as follows: About the same time, the daughter of an honourable lord going in a sedan towards the same place, and perceiving their going with the sedan upon the broad stones might prove troublesome to the passengers, she commanded her servants to give way, and not hinder any person: upon which (they observing her, by her speech, to be a French-woman) they immediately cried out, it was the duchess of Portsmouth-a lady now in France: whereupon, in a rude and barbarous

manner,

:

manner, they endeavoured to overturn the sedan; which they had certainly effected, had not a gentleman come and prevented them, and convinced them of their mistake."

It was a great defect, in the administration of Charles II., that the apprentices of London were permitted to act as a deliberative body, which was ready with its opinion on all political questions: an address, signed by many thousands of young inen, expressing their determination to support the government, was presented to the king in 1682; which procured them, in return, a very splendid entertainment at Merchant Taylor's Hall, lent to them on this occasion. The duke of Grafton, the earl of Mulgrave, lord Hyde, and sir Joseph Williamson, acted as stewards; and 1500 tickets were distributed, gratis. The tickets were in these words: "You are invited, and desired by the right honourable, and others of the stewards, elected at a meeting of the loyal young men and addressors, July 28, 1682, to take a dinner (together with other loyal young freemen and apprentices of the city of London), at Merchant Taylor's Hall, on Wednesday, the 9th of this instant, August, at 12 o'clock," &c. That the king might himself convince these youthful politicians how well pleased he was with their address, he directed the following warrant to be issued to "Walter Dicker-Pray kill a brace of very good bucks, and only paunch them; and

carry

'carry them whole, put upright in a cart, stuck with boughs, to Merchant Taylor's Hall, on Tuesday next, for the Apprentice's Feast, on Wednesday, being the 9th of August." Fifty tables were provided; and it was computed, that each accommodated sixty persons; so that double the number expected attended.

The Gazette of August 7, 1682, contains an advertisement from Dr. Pierce, dean of Sarum ; offering a reward of forty pounds for the discovery of the person who sent a dead female infant (apparently fourteen days old) to the King's-arms, Holborn-bridge, directed to him, in a fir-box; which he received, and, upon opening it, discovered that the child had been embalmed, rolled in leather, placed in a leaden coffin, and that wrapped in a different coloured silk rug: several old diaper napkins and coarse towels, and an old black stuff apron, completed the contents of the box; which was accompanied, or preceded by this letter:

"GOOD MR. DEAN, Normandy, May 12. "Think me not confident in giving you this trouble, without which I am incapable of performing the will of the dead; whose last request it was, to have this infant (if it should do otherwise than well) to be laid in the parish church you now live in; and you being his very good friend in his life, makes me hope you will see this charitable act performed for him; and having no