bawdy dog as he was; and thus faying, fcratched his fingers, as if he would have torn them to pieces, and with a frown, which almoft united a couple of high huge cheek bones with a pair of immenfe red eye brows, turned furiously from me, and ftalked off. The behaviour of this gentleman almost intimidated me from making a fecond enquiry, efpecially when riding up close to the crowd, I difcerned not lefs fury, tho as I found afterward, froin a very different principle, to arimate the faces and behaviour of almost all the people that compofed it. Obferving, however, as I fkirted the multitude, two or three well-dreffed perfons looking calmly, and not without an air of pity upon the tumult, I took courage, and humbly accofting him who had the most humane and fenfible appearance of them, defired he would be fo kind as to inform me of the caufe of that riot, and the crime of the offender in the ftocks. Alas, fir, replied he very courteously, and in a tone of compaffion, the poor gentleman in the flocks is, for any thing I know, a very worthy gentleman, and guilty of no crime at all in the world; he is there only for faying what to be fure every one who knows any thing at all must know to be true, that certain words of

As I could not forbear ftaring and putting on a fmile of incredulity at this ftrange, and to be fure moft ridiculous account. Sir, Sir, faid he, I fee you are an utter stranger to our part of the country; but if you can hear me out with patience, I will explain to you the whole affair. I made a low bow, denoting that I fhould be much obliged to him for his kind information, and he thus went on.

You must know then, that the corporation of this town hold their charter by a very odd tenure-though undoubtedly there are many yet odder tenures in the world-that of keeping up a very fplendid puppet-fhew; which, oftentimes troublefome, and always highly expenfive though it is, yet confidering their great privileges and poffeffions, is no more than what they may well enough afford. The prefent master of this fhew is a Scotchman, an infolent, impudent, and, as I dare fay you will conclude from what I am about to relate to you, a very ignorant fellow. When he first came into this country he was very poor, and carried a pack; but by boasting much of his great family, fome of which, he faid, had been eminent carcafe butchers before Adam, as he would prove from their pictures to any one who would go with him not much above a half hundred miles beyond the world's end; by this means, I fay, he prevailed on a rich farmer's daughter

tq

to marry him unknown to her father; and by another common trick of his countrymen, that of fervilely creeping and cringing to his fuperiors, he got into the good graces of the late young 'fquire

he was appointed mafter of the puppet-shew, which is by far the most lucrative employment in our corporation. A Scotchman in a place of fuch profit, and that too upon which our poffeffions and privileges immediately depend, could not fail, you may well imagine, of giving great umbrage to the citizens: Besides, he in particular was known to bear a most inveterate hatred againft our borough, and confequently opened the widest room for fufpicion that he would leave nothing unattempted to bring on its ruin. Great of course were the murmurings against the favourite upon this occafion; which the latter, in a fhort time, moft imprudently heightened, by calling about him a huge fhoal of his countrymen, with whom he not only filled up the under offices in his theatre as they happened to become vacant, but likewife injuriously turned out many of the old fervants, in order to make room for them; and this odious nationality has he fince carried fo far, that a great part of the places of trust and profit throughout the corporation is now filled with Scotchmen; its farms, which are very numerous and rich, are almost all under the direction of Scotchmen; and Scotch phyficians, Scotch furgeons, Scotch lawyers, nay, Scotch parfons, are become the most fashionable in their respective profeffions in every quarter of the town; nay, to that degree are we over-run by this foolish favourite's voracious countrymen, that what with those already provided for, and what with the yet greater train of gaping expectants, one can fcarce walk twenty yards along the ftreet without meeting fome hard-favoured fellow, of a stiff carriage, with a new fuit of cloaths, and a long fword swagging at his tail, the never-failing marks by which we diftinguilh them. You may be fure, fir, that it must be very grating to us to have the bread thus taken out of our mouths: But this is far from being the only caufe of complaint which we have against our favourite. Though he talked loudly of œconomy at his first coming into office, and took away many of their ufual perquifites from the lower fervants of his theatre, and gave strict orders about faving the candle ends, nay the very fnuffings of the candles, yet has he most notoriously ever fince fquandered away the town's money, by multiplying our principal performers, before much too numerous, and by bringing every year upon the ftage a fet of new puppets, which

E

wooden

wooden to be sure though they all have been, yet being dreffed out like lords and dukes, muft neceffarily have occafioned a very great expence to the public. But why fhould I trouble you with a detail of all our numerous grievances? I will now come directly to the cafe of the unhappy gentleman before us. When our present manager took poffeffion of the theatre, our corporation was embroiled in a very expensive and vexatious law-fuit with two of the neighbouring parishes about its bounds; which, after feveral trials, as they had for the most part gone extremely well in our favour, we had great reason to hope would be determined, after a little more time, to our fatisfaction; and the Scotchman at firft appeared as zealous for its prosecution as the honestest citizen amongst us; but all of a sudden, through his intrigues with a few of our leading aldermen, a moft fhameful compromife was made of the matter; for which, fome fay, he received from the adverfe parties a very confiderable fum of gold: But whether this was the cafe, or whether he was moved to it by mere hatred of our happiness, or from a view of fingering, in greater quantities, the public money, and of fixing himself fecurely in that tyranny he had already began to erect over the corporation, it doth not yet fatisfactorily appear; for though he was at first highly threatened with a profecution, he hath never been called to any manner of account for it; and but for his unparalelled impudence in the point I now come to, the whole affair by this time had been certainly dead. Would you think it, fir? after the shameful compromise I have been mentioning was fettled, he declared, that the matters lately in debate had been adjusted to the greatest poffible honour and advantage of the corporation. A moft grofs infult on our underftandings. This was too much, far too much, for a man of the leaft fpirit patiently to endure. Accordingly Mr. Periwinckle, the honeft gentleman in the stocks there, remonstrated against it next day in a letter to his fellow citizens, infisting,

that

and that

the fhew-man had been guilty of a most impudent device to countenance the iniquitous fhuffling up of their late law-fuit, in which he was well known to have had the principal hand. Here, fir, I ought to inform you,

and

and he immediately determined to employ his artifice to Mr. Periwinckle's ruin. And fuppofing they would connive at any outrage committed in vindication of their f's dignity, he thought this a proper season for wreaking on the culprit his own private malice, having a long time entertained for him a moft bitter grudge. For Mr. Periwinckle had not only, like a worthy citizen, opposed, to the utmost of his little power, the prevalence of the Scotch faction; but being a man well acquainted with the world, and very free of fpeech, had whifpered about in fuch a manner that they foon became public, feveral great fecrets, very much in the fhew-man's opinion to the difcredit of his countrymen, as that they were not over cleanly, fed pretty much upon oatmeal, had a little fprinkling of the itch, and the like. Accordingly foon after the letter was made public, he gave orders to his two principal bullies; who, without any juftice's warrant, broke immediately into Mr. Periwinckle's house, seized his papers, though they confifted of nothing but a few idle verfes, and a great heap of unpaid tra lefmen's bills, and hurried the poor gentleman away to the round-house, where they kept him feveral days in confinement, without fuffering any of his friends to come near him. From this place, however, at the next quarter feffions, he was released with honour, through the intrepidity and honefty of one of our juftices of the peace, who has fince been bribed to the Scotch faction by the ridiculous. honour of a nick-name. But to return to Mr. Periwinckle. Though he was thus happily delivered from confinement, he by no means found his troubles at an end. His adverfaries were mighty, and determined to have their revenge on him, whatever it might coft them. One attempt was made by them to get his tongue bored through with a red-hot iron; and another to clap a kind of a pad-lock upon his codpiece, which to one in his condition (for the poor gentleman from his youth up hath been notorioufly troubled with an incontinency of urine) would have been a most insupportable grievance. After this a fellow, well-known among our common people by the name of mouse-coloured fawney, a halfcrazy Scotch cobler, undertook to run a great awl into his backfide, or fome other more dangerous part of his body, and was actually got into his houfe to perform it. And lastly, a mongrel kind of a bruiser was spirited up to challenge him to a boxing match. This affair had like, to have coft Mr. Periwinckle his life; for being a man of undaunted courage, he scorned to refuse a challenge from any man; and therefore, though he knew his adverfary had for fome time been in training for the combat, and that fo affiducufly as to have prac tifed

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tifed even on Sundays, fairly gave him the meeting; but after a cuff or two on each fide, received fuch an unlucky dowse in the guts, that down he dropped, and was carried back to his own house for one dead. Now his enemies triumphed, for they all concluded he was effectually done for. However, after keeping his bed for fome time, by the help of a good conftitution, and an able furgeon, he found himself well enough again to venture abroad; which he immediately did, not among his enemies indeed, for he was told that they had yet very dangerous machinations against him, but into a diftant part of his majefty's dominions; a part indeed fo very diftant, that his majesty hath in reality no dominion there at all; where, for feveral years paft, he hath remained in voluntary exile, hoping that time would mitigate the refentment of his enemies, or death, or the juft indignation of his fellow citizens remove them out of his way. But vain, alas! were these hopes; for, returning the other day to revifit the dear place of his nativity, he found his enemies as mighty and implacable as ever. His very exile was alledged against him as a fresh crime, and being with all convenient fpeed apprehended, he was carried by them before a juftice of the peace, and by him, after a long and full hearing, committed to the fhameful durance in which you behold him, there to remain till fuch time as he shall be difpofed to give his cause a rehearing; after which, there is all the reafon in the world to apprehend, that a heavy punishment will be inflicted on him.. This, fir, ftrange undoubtedly as it muft appear to you, is the real hiftory of the gentleman in the ftocks. As for the crowd of people which you fee gathered about him, they almoft to a man are his friends, and would willingly, in fpite of the conftables, take him out of confinement; but this he endeavours, by all the means in his power to prevent; for being now, he fays, legally, however injuriously, committed, he is determined, like a good citizen, to await with patience the determination of the law. Here the gentleman appearing to have ended his narration, I could not help obferving, that I had all along understood the mob to have been Mr. Periwinckle's enemies, on account of the indignity

They were fo at firft, replied he, but compaffion for his many and long sufferings have at laft foftened their hearts; befides, many things have fince happened

Why, really fir, faid I, according to your account of this matter, which from your grave manner of relating it, however ftrange and ridiculous it is in itself, I cannot doubt of being true, Your neighbour, Mr. Periwinckle, hath been

very