"V. If the person be under the age of fourteen years, unless his parents shall be present, and consent, he is not to be carried on shipboard, till a fortnight at least after he becomes bound, to the intent that if there be any abuse, it may be discovered before he be transported. And where his parents do not appear before the magistrate, notice is to be sent to them; or where they cannot be found, to the churchwardens or overseers of the parish where he was last settled, in such manner as the said magistrates shall think fit and direct. "And because Clerks of the Peace may conceive this not to be any part of the duty of their office, and may therefore exact unreasonable rewards for their trouble and pains therein, his Majesty doth declare, that if any merchants or other persons shall be aggrieved thereby, and upon complaint to the Justices, cannot obtain relief, his Majesty will take such further care for their ease herein, as in his royal wisdom he shall think meet. "And his Majesties further pleasure is, that this order be printed and published, to the end all persons whom it may concern may take notice thereof, and govern themselves accordingly. "W. BRIDGEMAN." I shall have occasion hereafter to introduce the fraternity of Quacks to the notice of my readers through the medium of their own advertisements, and shall now prepare the way by giving the en suing excellent sketch from one of Hippocrates Ridens, May 17, 1686. "His sagacity is remarkable, for he hath found out an art both to conceal his own ignorance, and impose on that of other folks to his own advantage; his prime care and greatest concern is, to get the names of diseases without book, and a bead-roll of rattling terms of art, which he desires only to remember, not to understand; so that he has more hard words than a juggler, and uses them to the same purpose, viz. to amuse and beguile the mobile, first of their senses, and next of their pence. Thus when people acquaint him with their grief, and their ails, though he know what the disease is no more than a horse, he tells them 'tis a scorbutick humour, caus'd by a defluxion from the os sacrum afflicting the diaphragma and cricoary thenoidal muscles, proceeding from heats and colds, with which the poor souls are abundantly satisfy'd, and wonder. he should hit upon their distemper so exactly. He undertakes to spy out diseases whilst they are yet lurking in their remotest causes; has an excellent talent in persuading well people they are sick, and by giving them his trash verifies the prediction and is sure to make them so. When he walks the streets (which is with a Spanish gravity), if he light upon a well-dressed woman, with a child in her arms, he stops on a sudden, and clapping his hand on his breast to witness his sin cerity, cerity, cries, Ah! sweet babe, what pity 'tis it should be lost for want of looking after! The good dame being frighted, a confederate that follows comes up, and asks what the gentleman said? Tells her he knows him by sight, and that he is one of the ablest doctors in the kingdom, especially for women and children; and withall, acquaints her with his lodging; away troops she next morning, and purchases not only a dose for her child, but for herself too; for I never yet knew a female but ail'd something when she came in presence of a doctor." December 1688 was a most important æra in the history of Great Britain, caused by the abdication of James II. When it became generally known that the King had fled, the populace recurred to their favourite custom of expressing their political opinions by the labour of their hands, and accordingly we find them employed in the manner described in the succeeding extracts from the English Courant and London Mercury. London, December 12.- No sooner was the King's withdrawing known, but the mobile consulted to wreak their vengeance on papists and popery; and last night began with pulling down and burning the new-built Mass-house near the arch, in Lincoln's Inn fields; thence they went to Wild-house, the residence of the Spanish Ambassador, where they ransackt, destroy'd, and burnt burnt all the ornamental and inside part of the chappel, some cart-loads of choice books, manuscripts, &c. And not content here, some villanous thieves and common rogues, no doubt, that took this opportunity to mix with the youth, and they plunder'd the Ambassador's house of plate, jewels, mony, rich goods, &c.; and also many other who had sent in there for shelter their money, plate, &c.; among which, one gentlewoman lost a trunk, in which was £800. in mony, and a great quantity of plate. Thence they went to the Mass-house at St. Jones's, near Smithfield, demolisht it quite; from thence to Blackfryers near the Ditchside, where they destroy'd Mr. Henry Hills printing-house, spoil'd his forms, letters, &c. and burnt 2 or 300 reams of paper, printed and unprinted; thence to the Mass-house in Bucklersbury and Lime-street, and there demolisht and burnt as before; and this night they pulled down the resident of Florences Chappel in the Haymarket, where a company of the Middlesex militia, commanded by one Captain Douglas, a cheesemonger, was killed as thought by one of his own men, whom he commanded to fire upon the rabble; thence they went to the Nuncio's, and other places at that end of the town; but finding the birds flown, and bills on the door, they drew off; thence they went into the city, threatning to pull down all papists houses, particularly one in Ivy-lane, and the market house upon upon Newgate Market, for no other reason but that one Burdet, a papist, was one of the farmers of the market; but by the prudence of the citizens and some of the trained-bands, they were got off without mischief doing any where." Tuesday night last, and all Wednesday, the apprentices were busie in pulling down the chappels, and spoiling the houses of papists; they crying out the fire should not go out till the Prince of Orange came to town. There were thousands of them on Wednesday at the Spanish Ambassador's, they not leaving any wainscoat withinside the house or chappel, taking away great quantities of plate, with much money, household goods and writings, verifying the old proverb, Ali fish that came to the net. The spoil of the house was very great, divers papists having sent their goods in thither, as judging that the securest place. "Then they went to the Lord Powis's great house in Lincoln's Inn fields, wherein was a guard, and a bill upon the door, This house is appointed for the Lord Delameer's quarters;' and some of the company crying, Let it alone, the Lord Powis was against the Bishops going to the Tower, they offered no violence to it "Afterwards they marched down the Strand with oranges upon their sticks, crying for the Prince of Orange, and went to the Pope's Nuncio's, but finding a bill upon the door, This house |