there, and return, out roared one of them in the voice of one in haste, and exactly resembling Astley's, the sound being pitched to the roof of the mouth, and imitating the London cockney dialect"Halloo! you 'tilleryman! let auf that there rocket!" Away went the rocket, and off went the fire-works; of which there was not one scintilla remaining by the time the cortége arrived from the castle; to the extreme joy and amusement of the Dublin wags; but to the great mortification of poor Astley, who stamped and swore like a trooper. He offered twenty guineas reward for the discovery of the delinquent; but this only made the affair more public, for no one would 'peach, and whenever he performed at his theatre, his ears were sure to be saluted, from the gallery, with the ominous words-" Halloo! you 'tilleryman! let auf that there rocket!"—Clubs. SINGULAR WILL. THE following singular will of William Hickington, was proved in the Deanery Court of York, in the year 1789. This is my last will, J insist on it still, So sneer on, and welcome, (Though thou 'rt not my wife,) This twelfth of July, DEMETRIUS AND THE RHODIANS. WHEN Demetrius, the celebrated commander, attacked the Island of Rhodes, and laid siege to the principal and richest town in it, he was preparing to attack and destroy, and consume by fire, some public buildings without the walls of the town, which were protected only by a slight guard. These buildings contained the famous picture of Jalysus, the work of that illustrious painter Protogenes.Enraged against the Rhodians, he envied their possession of so beautiful a work; but the Rhodians sent ambassadors to Demetrius with this message :-" What is the reason," say they, "that setting fire to the building you would destroy this picture, when, if you conquer us, you will possess the whole town, and by right of victory the picture unhurt will be yours but if you are unable to subdue us, we desire you to consider whether it is not dishonourable, because you cannot conquer the Rhodians, to make war upon the deceased Protogenes.' Having attentively listened to the message sent by the ambassador, he considered within himself, and resolved to relinquish the siege, and spare at once the picture and the town. The true effigies here you may behold, Of him who, for preventing others ill, Hath gain'd a medicine far exceeding gold, And known to all the world for Lockyer's pills." HIS EPITAPH RECORDS, THAT "His virtues and his pills were so well known, That envy can't confine them under stone, But they'll survive his dust, and not expire, Till all things else, at the universal fire. This verse is lost; his pills embalm him safe, To future times, without an epitaph." Jan. 15. Tues. St. Paul, the first Jan. 15. The life of St. Paul is said to have been written by Hermit. St. Jerome in 365, who received the account from St. Anthony, St. Paul when twenty-two years of age, fled from the persecutions of Decius to a cavern, and was fed the latter part of his life by a raven, until he was ninety, and then died. Born on this day, B. c. 105, at Arpinum Mar. Tull. This Cicero, the illustrious Román Orator. great man was sacrificed by Augustus to the resentment of Marc Antony, to whom his head and bands were carried in triumph. 1776. Anniversary of the birth of H. R. H. the 16 St. Marcellus succeeded Marcellinus in the Ponifi- 1809.-Died the gallant commander Sir John Moore, 18 This saint is considered to have been the first Catholic Bishop; he is said to have kept the key of Heaven. Hence many churches dedicated to this saint have a vane on their steeples. 1776.-Died on this day, John Baskerville, the celebrated printer and letter founder of Birmingham. The types of Baskerville were famed for the beauty and sharpness which they possessed. 19 St. Martha was married to St. Maris, and with their sons, St. Audifax, and Abachum, were put to death by the orders of Aurelian, A. D. 270. 1729. Died on this day, William Congreve the dramatist and poet, ÆT 57. 20 St. Fabian was the nineteenth bishop of Rome : he was chosen to that office in the year 241, and suffered martyrdom in the Decian persecution. 1779.-On this day died the famed actor and au thor, David Garrick, at his house in the Adelphi. 1790.-Died at Cherson, in Russia on this day, John Howard, the philanthropist. This generous and humane man was born in the parish of Hackney, 1726. 21 St. Agnes. the patroness of purity, was beheaded at the age of 13, by order of Dioclesian, whose cruel edicts were issued March A. D. 303. 1766.-Expired on this day at Bath, James Quin, 22 This saint was born at Ossa, in Grenada. He suf- 1800.-Died at Hampstead on this day, G. Stevens, THE following extracts are from the life of Judge Jeffreys, sometime Lord Chancellor of England, in the reign of James II, which we insert, to show as far as such illustration will allow, the infamous conduct of this inhuman judge, and how justly he deserved the opprobrium cast upon him by his countrymen in his own time, as well as at the present hour. The first extract exhibits his barbarous conduct on the western circuit, where his condemnations were immense. Our next is the severe speech of Lord Delamere against him for his corrupt character as a Judge, while holding the office of Lord Chief Justice of the County Palatine of Chester. The last is a petition against him, when a prisoner in the Tower, after the flight of his once great upholder in iniquity, James the Second, from the widows and fatherless children in the West of England, (who had been deprived of their husbands and parents by his malignant tyranny,) desiring that he might be delivered up to them, as a retaliation for the wrongs they had received from him; the VOL. I. E whole of which may be looked upon as curious memorials, and of sufficient interest to warrant our giving them a place within these pages: CRUELTY OF JUDGE JEFFREYS IN DOR SETSHIRE. Mr. Battiscomb, a man of very tolerable estate and engaging manner, was so ill-fated as to become an inmate of Dorchester Gaol, and so ill-advised as to defend the equity of his cause, which had liked to have choked Jeffreys, who furiously ordered him to a place of execution, there "to be hung by the neck till he should be dead." All the ladies in Dorchester were interested in the fate of the young man, who, by the way, when the judge's fit was over, had offers of life made him on the condition of his betraying some friends, which he resolutely repelled; and thus, having shut out the last hope of mercy, had become doubly an object of admiration several girls, one especially, went to Jeffreys, and asked his life, but he is said to have repulsed them en brute. There are some lines extant, written upon this unhappy damse -SATURDAY, FEB. 2, 1828. The prisoner suffered at Lynne, and his character is thus given us :-" All that knew or saw him, must own Mr. Battiscomb was very much a gentleman. Not that thin sort of animal that flutters from tavern to play-house, and back again, all his life made of wig and cravat, without one dram of thought in his composition; but one who has solid worth. His body made a very handsome and creditable tenement for his mind; and 't had been pity it shou'd have liv'd in any other." Here is another instance of the judge's brutality to females. Two persons named Hewling were among the condemned at Taunton, who had two sisters, and they hung upon the state coach imploring mercy at his hands; whereupon the incensed magistrate bade his coachman lash their fingers with his whip. And he moreover refused one of these sisters a respite of two days only for her brothers, though she offered him one hundred pounds for that little favour. The miseries which were inflicted upon the inhabitants of this county, are concluded with an account of a most hor rible sentence of whipping, which was pronounced upon one Tutchin, a young man of Hampshire. This fellow appeared to a charge of rebellion, under the assumed name of Thomas Pitts, and was acquitted for want of evidence. This happened at Taunton; but as Tutchin was a man of Dorset, and was to be punished in that county, we mention him here. Jeffreys soon found out his true name, and asserted, that " he was never so far outwitted by a young or old rogue in his life." He then tried to fish out of Mr. Tutchin the names of some of his confederates, but failed; upon which he grew furious, and not being able to hang him, issued forth the following sentence: Imprisonment for seven years, and once a year to be whipped through all the market towns in Dorsetshire; to be fined one hundred marks, and find security for his good behaviour during life." This was a blow indeed; and the ladies in court immediately burst into tears; but Jeffreys called out, "Ladies, if you did but know what a villain this is, as well as I do, you would say that this sentence is not half bad enough for him." And the clerk of the arraigns was so much astonished, that he could not help observing upon the number of markettowns in Dorset; he said, that "the sentence reached to whipping about once a fortnight, and that Mr. Tutchin was a very young man."- Ay, he is a very young man, but an old rogue,' retorted the invincible judge; "and all the interest in England shan't reverse the sentence I have passed on him." Tutchin himself had that keen regard for his bones, and was so fully sensible of the discipline intended him, that he actually petitioned the King to be hanged with his fellowprisoners. It seems that the court felt the enormity of the chastisement proposed; but all that transpired was, "Mr. Tutchin must wait with patience." Then the young man tried to buy a pardon, but in vain and then came the small-pox, a day or two before his first lashes were to have taken place, and reduced him so low, as to occasion a reversal of the sentence by Jeffreys himself 66 bable his name is Sir George Jeffreys, who I must say, behaved himself more like a jack-pudding, than with that gravity which beseems a judge: he was mighty witty upon the prisoners at the bar; he was very full of his jokes upon people that came to give evidence, not suffering them to declare what they had to say in their own way and method, but would in terrupt them, because they behaved them selves with more gravity than he; and in truth, the people were strangely perplexed when they were to give in their evidence; but I do not insist upon this, nor upon the late hours he kept up and down our city; it's said he was every night drinking till two o'clock, or beyond that time, and that he went to his chamber drunk; but this I have only by common fame, for I was not in his company: I bless God I am not a man of his principles or behaviour, but in the mornings he appeared with the symptoms of a man that overnight had taken a large cup. But that which I have to say is the complaint of every man, especially of them who had any law-suits. Our chief justice has a very arbitrary power, in appointing the assize when he pleases; and this man has strained it to the highest point; for whereas we were accustomed to have two assizes, the first about April or May, the latter about September; it was this year the middle (as I remember,) of August, before we had any assize; and then he dispatched business so well, that he left half the causes untried; and, to help the matter, has re solved that we shall have no more assizes this year. PETITION AGAINST THE IMPRISONED "The humble Petition of the widows and fatherless children in the west of England: our "We, to the number of a thousand and more, widows, and fatherless childdren, of the counties of Dorset, Somerset, and Devon; our dear husbands and tender fathers having been so tyrannously butcher'd, and some transported; estates sold from us, and our inheritance eut off by the severe and harsh sentence of George Lord Jeffreys, now, we understand, in the Tower of London, a prisoner; who has lately, we hear, endeavoured to excuse himself from those tyrannical and illegal sentences, by laying it on information by some gentlemen who are known to us to be good Christians, true Protestants, and Englishmen. your poor petitioners, many hundreds of us, on our knees have begged mercy for our dear husbands and tender parents from his cruel hands, but his thirst for bloed We, |