moderate their verdict. The jury therefore retired, and being willing to comply with the advices of the Cenfor, after an hour's confultation, declared their opinion as follows: ཁྱབ་པ་ That in confideration this was Peter Plumb's first of: fence, and that there did not appear any malice prepenfe in it, as alfo that he lived in good reputation among his neighbours, and that his taking the wall was only fe defendendo, the profecutor fhould let him efcape with life, cutting off'ubimfelf with the flitting of his nofe, and the the court, told them, that he froRickerftaff, fmiling upon under its prefent mitigation, too fevere; and that penalties might be of ill confequence in a trading nation. He therefore pronounced fentence against the criminal in the following manner: That his hat, which was the inftrument of offence, should be forfeited to the court; that the criminal fhould go to the warehouse from whence he came, and thence, as occafion fhould require, proceed to the Exchange, or Garraway's coffee-house, in what manner he pleased; but that neither he nor any of the family of the Plumbs fhould hereafter appear in the streets of London out of their coaches, that fo the footway might be left open and undisturbed for their betters. Dathan, a pedling Jew, and T. R▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ a Welshman, were indicted by the keeper of an alehoufe in Westminfter for breaking the peace and two earthern mugs, in a dispute about the antiquity of their families, to the great detriment of the house, and disturbance of the whole neighbourhood. Dathan faid for himself, that he was provoked to it by the Welfhman, who pretended that the Welsh were an ancienter people than the Jews; whereas, fays he, I can fhew by this genealogy in my hand, that I am the son of Mefheck, that was the fon of Naboth, that was the son of Shalem, that was the fon of The Welshman here interrupted him, and told him, that he could produce shennalogy as well as himself; for that he was John ap Rice, ap Shenken, ap Shones. He then turned himself to the Cenfor, and told him in the fame broken accent, and with much warmth, that the Jew would No. 256. would needs uphold, that king Cadwalladar was younger than Iflachar. Mr. Bickerftaff feemed very much inclined to give fentence against Dathan, as being a Jew; but finding reafons, by fome expreffions which the Welshman let fall in afferting the antiquity of his family, to suspect that the faid Welfhman was a Præ-Adamite, he suffered the jury to go out, without any previous admonition. After fome time they returned, and gave their verdict, that it appearing the perfons at the bar did neither of them wear a fword, and that confequently they had no rvolous quarrel upon a point of honour; tooth of them be appeals for the franket, and there adjust the fuperiority ency could agree on it between themselves. The Cenfor confirmed the verdict. Richard Newman was indicted by major Punto, for having used the words, Perhaps it may be fo,' in a difpute with the faid major. The major urged, that the word perhaps was questioning his veracity, and that it was an indirect manner of giving him the lie. Richard Newman had nothing more to fay for himself, than that he intended no fuch thing; and threw himself upon the mercy of the court. The jury brought in their verdict fpecial. Mr. Bickerstaff ftood up, and after having caft his eyes over the whole affembly, hemmed thrice. He then acquainted them, that he had laid down a rule to himself, which he was refolved never to depart from, and which, as he conceived, would very much conduce to the fhortening the business of the court; I mean, fays he, never to allow of the lie being given by conftruction, implication, or induction, but by the fole ufe of the word itself. He then proceeded to fhew the great mifchiefs that had arifen to the English nation from that pernicious monofyllable; that it had bred the moft fatal quarrels between the dearest friends; that it had frequently thinned the guards and made great havoc in the army; that it had fometimes weakened the city trained bands; and, in a word, had defroyed many of the bravest men in the ifle of Great Britain. For the prevention of which evils for the future, he inftructed the jury to prefent the word itself as a nuifance fance in the English tongue; and further promifed them, that he would, upon fuch their preferment, publish an edict of the court, for the entire banifhment and exclufion of it out of the difcourfes and converfations of all civil focieties. This a true copy, CHARLES LILLIE.' N. B. The cafe of the haffock will come on between the hours of nine and ten.' : No. 257. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1710, In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas Afpirate meis! OVID. Met. lib. 1. ver. 1. Of bodies changed to various forms I fing; From my own Apartment, November 29. 1 EVERY nation is diftinguifhed by productions that are. peculiar to it. Great Britain is particularly fruitful in religions, that fhoot up and flourifh in this climate more than in any other. We are fo famous abroad for our great variety of fects and opinions, that an ingenious friend of mine, who is lately returned from his travels, affures me, there is a show at this time carried up and down in Germany, which represents all the religions of Great Britain in wax-work. Notwithstanding that the pliancy of the matter in which the images are wrought makes makes it capable of being moulded into all fhapes and figures, my friend tells me, that he did not think it poffible for it to be twifted and tortured into fo many fcrewed faces, and wry features, as appeared in feveral of the figures that compofed the fhow. I was indeed fo pleased with the defign of the German artift, that I begged my friend to give me an account of it in all its particulars, which he did after the following manner. I have often, fays he, been present at a fhow of elephants, camels, dromedaries, and other ftrange creatures, met to fetite fan la great an affembly of fpectators as were work. We were all placed in a large a but hung betohet.we had paid for our feats: the curtain that who had woven it in the made by a mafter of tapestry, hgure ur- monftrous hydra that had feveral heads, which brandifhed out their tongues, and feemed to hiss at each other. Some of these heads were large and entire; and where any of them had been lopped away, there sprouted up feveral in the room of them; infomuch, that for one head cut off, a man might fee ten, twenty, or an hundred of a smaller fize, creeping through the wound. In fhort, the whole picture was nothing but confufion and bloodshed. On a fudden, fays my friend, I was ftartled with a flourish of many mufical inftruments that I had never heard before, which was followed by a fhort tune, if it might be so called, wholly made up of jars and difcords. Among the reft there was an organ, a bagpipe, a groaning board, a ftentorophonic trumpet, with feveral wind inftruments of a moft difagreeable found, which I do not fo much as know the names of. After a fhort flourish the curtain was drawn up, and we were presented with the most extraordinary affembly of figures that ever entered into a man's imagination. The defign -of the workman was fo well expreffed in the dumb fhow before us, that it was not hard for an Englishman to comprehend the meaning of it. The principal figures were placed in a row, confifting of feven perfons. The middle figure, which immediately attracted the eyes of the whole company, and was much much bigger than the reft, was formed like a matron, dreffed in the habit of an elderly woman of quality in queen, Elizabeth's days. The moft remarkable parts of her drefs were the beaver with the fteeple crown, the scarf that was darker than fable, and the lawn apron that was whiter than ermin. Her gown was of the richest black velvet, and just upon her heart she wore several large diamonds of an ineftimable value, difpofed in the form of a cross. She bore an inexpreffible cheerfulness and dignity in her afpect; and though the feemed in years, appeared with so much spirit and vivacity, as gave her at the fame time an air of old age and immortality. I found my heart touched with fo much love and reverence at the fight of her, that the tears ran down my face as I looked upon her; and ftill the more I looked upon her, the more my heart was melted with the fentiments of filial tenderness and duty. I difcovered every moment fomething fo charming in this figure, that I could fcarce take my eyes off it. On its right hand there fat the figure of a woman fo covered with ornaments, that her face, her body, and her hands, were almost entirely hid under them: The little you could fee of her face was painted; and, what I thought very odd, had fomething in it like artificial wrinkles; but I was the lefs furprised at it, when I faw upon her forehead an old-fashioned tower of gray hairs. Her head-drefs rose very high by three feveral stories or degrees; her garments had a thousand colours in them, and were embroidered with croffes in gold, filver, and filk fhe had nothing on, fo much as a glove or a flipper, which was not marked with this figure; nay, fo fuperftitiously fond did she appear of it, that fhe fat cross-legged. I was quickly fick of this tawdry compofition of ribbands, filks, and jewels, and therefore caft my eye on a dame which was just the reverse of it. I need not tell I need not tell my reader that the lady before described was Poverty, or that the I am going to defcribe is Prefbytery. She fat on the left hand of the venerable matron, and so much resembled her in the features of her countenance, that the feemed her fifter; but at the fame time that one obferved a likeness in her beauty, one could not but take notice, that there was fomething 7 |
