by the Independents. Milton was even with him, in the firm and severe character he draws of the presbyterian administration, which you will find in the beginning of one of his books of the History of England, in the late uncastrated editions. In the course of the study of these writers, you will have perpetual occasion to verify or refute what they deliver, by turning over the authentic pieces in Nalson's, and especially Rushworth's, voluminous collections, which are vastly curious and valuable. The Elenchus motuum of Bates, and Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs, may be worth reading. Nor must that strange thing of Hobbes be forgot, called The History of the Civil Wars: it is in dialogue, and full of paradoxes, like all his other writings. More philosophical, political, or any thing rather than historical; yet full of shrewd observations. When you have digested the history of this period, you will find in Thurloe's large Collection many letters that will let you thoroughly into the genius of those times and persons." P. 148-150. The last topic we shall notice is the character of the celebrated antiquary, Dr. Stukeley, and antiquarian literature. "You say true, I have a tenderness in my temper which will make me miss poor Stukeley; for not to say that he was one of my oldest acquaintance, there was in him such a mixture of simplicity, drollery, absurdity, ingenuity, superstition, and antiquarianism, that he often afforded that kind of well-seasoned repast, which the French call an ambigu; I suppose, from a compound of things never meant to meet together. I have often heard him laughed at by fools, who had neither his sense, his knowledge, nor his honesty; though it must be confessed that in him they were all strangely travestied. Not a week before his death [at 84], he walked from Bloomsbury to Grosvenor-square, to pay me a visit; was cheerful as usual, and as full of literary projects. But his business was to solicit for the prebend of Canterbury : For,' added he, one never dies the sooner, you know, for seeking ⚫ preferment.' 6 "It is as you say of Percy's Ballads*. Pray is this the man who wrote about the Chinese? Antiquarianism is, indeed, to true letters, what specious funguses are to the oak; which never shoot, out and flourish till all the vigour and virtue of that monarch of the grove be effete, and near exhausted t." * Similar allusions occur very often in these letters; and, whereever Dr. Hurd has first made an observation on any writer or his work, Dr. Warburton contents himself with expressing his approbation in this manner: the reader of course is obliged to guess or remain totally ignorant of the opinion of both writers, in consequence of Dr. Hurd's letters being withheld from the public.-This is not one of the least faults of this publication. Rev. + This condemnation of " antiquarianism," will be of "infinite service" to the Bridge-street knight, who may found a volume or two on it, as he did on a sentence in Gray's Letters respecting travellers' descriptions. Rev. We must now take our leave of the interesting conversations of these truly learned and, we doubt not, good men. The style of these epistles, which is not very dissimilar to that of the more finished works of their respective authors, is simple, sufficiently elevated, and perspicuous, but by no means either very correct or elegant. There is throughout these letters a philosophical and a sincere conviction of the importance of Christian faith and duty; yet they are as perfectly devoid of all affected piety, or the odious "cant of methodism," as they are of superstition, of which they are much freer than those of Hume or Voltaire.-Those who absurdly pretend that Christian faith is incompatible with rigid reason, need only read these confidential and private communications of two distinguished prelates, to be convinced of the falsehood of this notion. True Christianity indeed is but the perfection of right reason, and science is a necessary handmaid to both. We shall only observe, that our quotations have been taken from the octavo edition; and we cannot express our approbation too warmly of the honest plan of enabling the public to indulge individual taste, by the purchase either of a costly splendid quarto, or a modest octavo at half the price. Independent also of the charitable purpose to which the profits of these volumes are consigned―their intrinsic merit, notwithstanding their personalities and too often repeated complimentary expressions, will recommend them to the serious perusal of a very numerous and very respectable class of readers. Malcolm's London during the Eighteenth Century. IN the anecdotes of depravity we find many particulars of that infamous deception, the South-Sea scheme, and a long list of other plans intended to get money by other practices than industry: gaming was the favourite of that day, as much as of the present; and the public were as easily duped by the bold assertions of projectors.-In this chapter occur the following particulars of the Cock-lane ghost, which we extract for the information of the present age, as we are well aware that several attempts have been. made of late years again to take advantage of popular credulity, in regard to presumed supernatural agencies. To deprive these practices of their force and mischief, is best effected by an exposure of the arts that have been detected on similar occasions. "There is something so absurd and ridiculous in the terrors spread by Miss Parsons, that I think it hardly fair to class her operations with really serious offences against the laws of morality; but, recollecting that her knockings indicated a charge of poisoning, my scruples are removed, and I proceed to sketch the principal outlines of an incident that agitated the public mind till 1762, when all who had three ideas in continuity" were convinced that the spirit possessed no supernatural powers. "For two years previous to the above date, knockings and scratchings had frequently been heard during the night in the first floor of a person named Parsons, who held the office of Clerk to St. Sepulchre's church, and resided in Cock-lane, near West Smithfield. This man, alarmed at the circumstance, made several experiments to discover the cause, and at last had the amazing good fortune to trace the sounds to a bedstead, on which two of his children reposed after the fatigues of the day; the eldest of whom, though a most surprizing girl of her age, had numbered but twelve winters. Justly supposing the children might suffer some dreadful injury from the knocker, this affectionate parent removed them a story higher; but, horror upon horror, the tremendous noise followed the innocents, and even disturbed their rest for whole nights. But this was not all: a publican, resident in the neighbourhood, was frightened into serious illness by the form of a fleeting female ghost, which saluted his vision one fatal evening when in Parsons's house; nay, that worthy clerk saw it himself about an hour afterwards. "Facts of this description cannot be concealed: reports of the noises and of the appearance of the phantom spread from the lane into a vast circle of space; numbers visited the unfortunate house, and others sat the night through with the tortured infant, appalled by sounds terrific; at length a Clergyman determined to adjure the Spirit, and thus obtain direct replies to the following questions: Whether any person in that house had been injured?' The answer, expressed by the number of knocks (as the ghost was denied the power of speech, and of shewing herself within reach), was in the affirmative. Was she a woman?'- Yes;' the Spirit then explained, that she had been kept by Mr., who poisoned her when ill of the Small-pox, and that her body was deposited in the vault of St. John's church, Clerkenwell.' During this examination, the girl exhibited a considerable deal of art, but betrayed herself decidedly in several instances. The result was, that the Spirit ardently desired the murderer might be punished for her alledged death. A wise-acre, who narrated the above particulars in a newspaper of the time, observes, with wonderful sagacity, What is remarkable is, that the Spirit is never heard till the children are in bed. This knocking was heard by the supposed woman when alive, who declared it foretold her death.' Another account of the affair asserts, that the person accused had married two sisters, and that Fanny, the daughter of Parsons, had slept. with the lady that appeared by knocking and scratching during her husband's absence at a wedding; but the knocking the deceased heard, was declared by the girl to be caused by the spirit of the previously deceased sister; if so, the girl's infernal acts may have caused the death of the woman, as it is well known the agitation of a mind under the terrors of supposed supernatural visitation must have a fatal tendency in such a disorder as the small-pox. "The gentleman intended to be accused in this affair, of perpetrating upon two wives the most atrocious of all crimes, was married about six months since, to a very agreeable young lady, with a fortune of 3000l. The unhappy situation in which they must both be, from so horrid an aspersion upon the former, may be more easily conceived than expressed.' "This shameful affair terminated in the manner described in the ensuing words, extracted from one of the newspapers published in February 1762. February 1. On this night many gentlemen, eminent for their rank and character, were, by the invitation of the Rev. Mr. Aldrich, of Clerkenwell, assembled at his house for the examination of the noises supposed to be made by a departed Spirit, for the detection of some enormous crime. About ten at night, the gentlemen met in the chamber, in which the girl supposed to be disturbed by a Spirit had, with proper caution, been put to bed by several ladies.' They sat rather more than an hour, and hearing nothing went down stairs; when they interrogated the father of the girl, who denied, in the strongest terms, any knowledge or belief of fraud. The supposed Spirit had before publicly promised, by an affirmative knock, that it would attend one of the gentlemen into the vault, under the Church of St. John's Clerkenwell, where the body is deposited, and give a token of her presence there, by a knock upon her coffin. It was therefore determined to make this trial of the existence or veracity of the supposed Spirit. While they were enquiring and deliberating, they wer summoned into the girl's chamber by some ladies, who were near her bed, and who had heard knocks and scratches. When the gentlemen entered, the girl declared that she felt the Spirit like a mouse upon her back, and was required to hold her hands out of bed. From that time, though the Spirit was very solemnly required to manifest its existence, by appearance, by impression on the hand or body of any present, by scratches, knocks, or any other agency, no evidence of any preternatural power was exhibited. "The Spirit was then very seriously advertised, that the person to whom the promise was made, of striking the coffin, was then about to visit the vault, and that the performance of the promise was then claimed. The company, at one, went into the Church; and the gentleman to whom the promise was made went with one more into the vault. The Spirit was solemnly required to perform its promise; but nothing more than silence ensued. The person supposed to be accused by the Spirit then went down with several others, but no effect was perceived. Upon their return, they examined the girl, but could draw no confession from her. Between two and three she desired, and was permitted to go home with her father. "It is therefore the opinion of the whole assembly, that the child has some art of making or counterfeiting particular noises*, and that there is no agency of any higher cause.' "Completely exasperated at the base methods adopted by his enemies to ruin his character, if not to affect his life, the injured party at length had recourse to the justice of his Country; and exactly one year after the exposure of this ridiculous as well as wicked imposture, the principals made him pecuniary satisfaction, to avoid worse consequences; but Parsons received sentence of imprisonment for two years, and to be pillored three times; his wife imprisonment one year, and their servant six months. Thus ended the serio-comedy of Fanny the Phantom, which afforded fine sport for the wits of the day; nay, Parsons shared in the joke, for the populace pitied his unmerited sufferings, and, instead of pelting, cherished him when on the pillory, and even gathered money for him." P. 102. The chapters on Manners and Customs,' and that on 'Eccentricities,' are the most entertaining of the whole, though too much confined to the walks of low and middle life. Some of the anecdotes are very whimsical; and others possess great interest, from unfolding the varieties of the human character: many of them however ought to have been included in the chapter on Depravities. Here we are treated with a long detail of the directions for the ceremonial attending the entry of George the First into London, after his arrival in England, and the death of Queen Anne; from the conclusion of which we learn that, during the whole proceeding from St. Margaret's Hill, "the conduits at Stock's-market, and other parts of the city, ran with wine as usual." The following singular advertisement, for procuring custom to a public tea-garden, recurs under the date 1716. "Sion Chapel at Hampstead, being a private and pleasant place, many persons of the best fashion have been lately married there. Now, as a minister is constantly obliged to attend, this is to give notice, that all persons, upon bringing a license, who shall have their wedding-dinner at the House in the Gardens, may be married in the said Chapel without any fee or reward; and from such as do not keep their wedding at the Gardens, only five shillings will be demanded of them for all fees." Of the famous female bone-setter at Epsom, Mr. Malcolm has inserted the following particulars from the Weekly Miscellany of August 7, 1736. * In other words, a ventriloquist. |