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fully examined also. The chamber-maid in particular undergoes a severe examination, and crossexamination: but the fact is not yet sufficiently established. The modest, the beautiful Mrs Ludlow herself is hauled into court, weeping and sinking with shame: neither tears nor entreaties can avail her: sworn she must be; but just as the playbook, on which the other witnesses had given their testimony, was tendered to her, "Hold!" cried the judge, "let her be sworn on the very vessel itself; it is an emblem of her purity:" and poor Mrs Ludlow, sobbing and blushing, is compelled to kiss the filthy mirror of her purity. Her testimony closes the scene: Swift sums up the evidence in form, gravely leaving the whole of the case to the consideration of the jury. Their verdict, as might be expected, is that of guilty; and Swift, with all the solemnity of justice, pronounces sentence of death on the trembling Sheridan, awfully concluding with "The Lord have mercy on your soul!" A rope is produced: Sheridan sees he shall be hanged pro forma; out of the dock he springs, and flies up stairs, the whole court in full cry after him. But fear having added wings to his feet, he had sufficient time to bolt his chamber door, which he barricadoed as well as he could with what furniture was in the room. Here for two hours he remained besieged: at length he capitulated, on a solemn assurance that he should not be hanged.

In a day or two the judges arrive; and hearing the contempt that Swift had put upon them, send an express with an account of it to the lord lieutenant, who very wisely laughed at the frolic. Not

finding the redress they expected, they make a formal complaint to the bishops, who had nearly resolved to take up the matter seriously; but one among them, somewhat more prudent than the rest, recommended that the whole should be hushed up.

Swiftiana, v. 2, p. *213.

LE PERE ARRIUS said-When le Perre Bourdaloue preached at Rouen, the tradesmen forsook their shops, lawyers their clients, physicians their sick; but, when I preached the following year, I set all to rights-every man minded his own busi

ness.

BONOMI, the Italian architect, walking along Pall-Mall, wrote the following pasquinade on one of the columns, which, contrary to every rule and principle of architecture, stand insulated in the front of Carleton House, supporting nothing:

Care colonne

Che fate qua
"Non lo sappiamo
"In verita."

Ah! my dear columns,
Why stand ye so?
"Indeed, my good sir,
"We do not know."

M. S.

To dine out when you are going to play, is thought wrong, but foolishly so, unless there is some other objection besides that of getting drunk. Recollect that you are in England. The audience

с с

is English, and the greater part will have a fellow feeling for you. Some two or three sober blockheads may hiss, but you'll benefit by this, for it will bring down all your friends. When you can't speak, and they hiss, don't leave the stage, but. make a speech. Press your hand to your heart, turn up your eyes, and give them to understand that it is grief, and not liquor, and you have them If you feel hurt, (as you ought, and indignant too) at their disapprobation, when you quit the scene, drink more.

at once.

In singing, never mind the music-observe what time you please. It would be a pretty degradation indeed, if you were obliged to confine your genius to the dull regularity of a fiddler-" horse hairs and cat's guts"-no, let him keep your time and play your tune.-Dodge him.

Swift's Directions to Players.

PLATO spent his time in celibacy, observed the strictest rules of decorum, and never transgressed the laws of continence. Such was his self-command, that, even in his youth, he was never observed to laugh immoderately; and so completely had he the mastery over his passions, that he was never observed to be angry. Connected with this, is the account given us of a young man, who had been brought up with him. This youth having been afterwards brought home by his parents, was one day surprised at seeing his father in a rage, and could not refrain remarking, "that he had never seen any thing like this in Plato's house." It never happened but once, that he was a little irritated

against one of his slaves, who had committed a considerable fault. He made him bé corrected by another; saying, that, "as he was a little angry, he himself was not in a capacity to punish him." Fenelon's Life of Plato, v. 2, p. 32.

A sailor, who had been many years absent from his mother, who lived in an inland county, returned to his native village, after a variety of voyages to different parts of the globe, and was heartily welcomed home by the good old woman, who had long considered him as lost. Soon after his arrival, the old lady became inquisitive and desirous to learn what strange things her son John had seen upon the mighty deep. Amongst a variety of things that Jack recollected, he mentioned his having seen flying fish. "Stop, Johny" says his mother, "don't try to impose such monstrous impossibilities upon me, child; for, in good truth, I could as soon believe you had seen flying cows; for cows you know, John, can live out of water. Therefore tell me honestly what you have seen in reality, but no more falsehoods Johny."

Jack felt himself affronted; and, turning his quid about, when pressed for more curious information, he said, prefacing it with an oath, "May hap, mother, you wont believe me, when I tell you, that, casting our anchor once in the Red Sea, it was with difficulty we hove it up again; which was occasioned, do you see, mother, by a large wheel hanging on one of the flukes of the anchor. It appeared a strange old Grecian to look at; so we hoisted it in, and our captain, do ye mind me,

being a scholar, overhauled him and discovered it was one of Pharaoh's chariot-wheels, when he was capsized in the Red Sea." This suited the meridian of the old lady's understanding; "Ay, ay, Johny," cried she, "I can believe this, for we read of it in the bible; but never talk to me of flying fish." Struggles through Life, by lieut. John Harriott, Introd. p. xii.

THE custom of visiting Rome to receive a plenary absolution of all sins was begun in 1300, from a rumour that this had been practised before. It was not, however, to be found in the ancient records: but an old man, aged 107, being questioned about it, said he remembered that, in the year 1200, his father, who was a laborer, went to Rome to gain this indulgence. It was accordingly confirmed by the bull of pope Boniface; and Clement VI. gave it the name of the jubilee, who, in a clause of the bull issued for fixing its celebration at every fifty years, is said to speak as follows: "The sovereign pontiff, in virtue of the authority he holds from the apostles, renews the souls of those who receive this indulgence to the same state they were in after baptism; and he orders the angels to introduce them immediately to paradise, without obliging them on their way thither to pass through purgatory.' Dobson's Petrarch, v. 2, p. 44.

WHEN lord Howe commanded in America, he sent orders to a certain officer of rank to defend, at all events, a post he then occupied. The officer returned for answer that it could not be done with

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