of this dangerous quality, when artfully employed to inflame the paffions of the unthinking multitude. But it is worthy observation, that while this incendiary fuftained among his followers the character of a pious patriot, of a man without the smallest spot or blemish, of being, in short, the most virtuous guardian of the established religion of the country, he regularly indulged his holy fervors, and fanctified appearances, every evening, in the company of common prostitutes or profeffed wantons.*

H 5

The

* The members who were perfonally infulted during the riot which this arch hypocrite, or half madman, had raised, were the Archbishop of York, Lord Bathurst, the Prefident of the Council, Lord Mansfield, Chief Juftice of the King's Bench, the Duke of Northumberland, the Bishop of Litchfield, Lord Townsend, Lord Hilfborough, Lord Stormont, Lord Ashburnham, and Lord Boston. The multitude left the avenues of the Houfes of Parliament foon after the arrival of the guards, but they still kept themselves assembled in detached parties; and though order and tranquillity were re-established in this part of the town, it was far otherwife elsewhere. On the evening of the 7th of June, 1780, London was, from one spot, beheld blazing in thirty-fix different parts. Some of these conflagrations were of fuch a magnitude as to be truly tremendous. Of these the great Jail of Newgate, the King's Bench Prison, the New Bridewell in St. George's Fields, the Fleet Prifon, and the houses and great diftilleries of Mr. Langdale in Holborn, prefented fpectacles of the most dreadful nature. But the outrages grew far more violent and general; and an attack was even made on the Bank. The whole activity of Government,

however,

The fire of fanaticifm is, indeed, fo fubtily powerful, that it is capable of inflaming the coldeft mind. The mildeft and the most rational difpofitions have been occasionally injured by its heat. The rapidity of its progress certainly depends, in a great degree, on the nature of the materials on which it acts; but, like every dangerous conflagration, its firft appearances should be watched, and every means taken to extinguish its flames. The extinction is, perhaps, moft happily and readily effected by thofe counteractions which the common occupations, and daily duties of life, produce on the mind when judiciously opposed to this flagrant evil. Of the advantages, at leaft, of this refource, a circumstance in the history of the late DR. FOTHERGILL affords a remarkable example. This celebrated phyfician poffeffed the greatest tranquillity of mind; and had obtained fo compleat a dominion over his paffions, that he declared to a friend, recently before his death, that he could not recollect a fingle inftance, during the whole course

however, was at length rouzed; the military were called out; and after many lives had been loft, the infurrection was at length fuppreffed. On the enfuing day LORD GEORGE GORDON was taken into cuftody, and committed a prisoner to the Tower. He was afterwards indicted for High Treafon, and acquitted. Many of the rioters were also apprehended, and tried under a special commiffion, and fome of them were convicted and executed.

courfe of his life, in which they had been improperly disturbed. This temper, which was perfectly suited to the character of the religion he profeffed, the tenets of which he ftrictly practifed, he maintained on all occafions; nor was there any thing in his general conduct or manner, that betrayed to his most familiar friends the leaft propenfity towards enthusiasm; and yet, diftant as the fufpicion muft be, under thefe circumftances, that he fhould ever be under the influence of fuperftition, it is well known, that, while he was a ftudent at Edinburgh, where he was diftinguished for the mildness of his manners, and the regularity of his conduct, he one day, in an excentric fally of fanaticism, ran, almoft entirely naked, through the ftreets of that city, warning all its inhabitants of the impending wrath of heaven; and exhorting them, in the moft folemn manner, to avert the approaching danger, by humbly imploring the mercy of an offended Deity. But this religious paroxyfm was of fhort duration. He was at this time in habits of intimacy with the great characters who then filled the profeffional chairs of the univerfity, and ardently engaged in the pursuits of study; and the exercises which his daily tasks required, together with the company and converfation of these rational, well-informed, and thinking men, preferved his reason, and foon reftored

4

reftored him to the full and free enjoyment of thofe faculties, from which both science and humanity afterwards derived fo many benefits.*

The conduct of ST. FRANCIS, commonly called The Holy Francis of Affifi, was in fome degree fimilar, excepting that the madness of this fanatic continued throughout his life, while the delirium of Fothergill lafted but a day. This faint was born at Affifi, in the province of Umbria, in the year 1182. His real name of baptifm was John; but, on account of the facility with which he acquired the French language, so neceffary at that time in Italy, especially for the business for which he was intended, that he was called Francis. He is faid to have been born with the figure of a cross on his right fhoulder, and to have dreamt that he was defigned by heaven to promote the interests of that holy fign. His difpofition was naturally mild, his comprehenfion quick, his feelings acute, his manners eafy, his imagination vivid, and his paffions

*DR. LETTSOм has favoured the world with "Memoirs of the Life, both private and profeffional," of this great and good man; but no fuch tranfaction as above recorded is there to be found. There are, however, other Accounts of the Life and Character of DR. FOTHERGILL, by Dr. John Elliott, by Dr. William Hurd, and by Dr. Gilbert Thompson, which the tranflator has not had the opportunity of confulting.

paffions inordinately warm. A careless and unreftrained indulgence of the propenfities of youth had led him into a variety of vicious habits and libertine extravagances, until the Solitude, to which a fit of fickness confined him, brought him to a recollection, and forced him to reflect upon the dangerous tendency of his paft mifconduct. His mind started with horror at the dreadful scene his retrospection presented to his view; and he refolved to quit the company of his former affociates, to reform the profligacy of his life, to reftore his character, and to fave, by penitence and prayer, his guilty foul. These serious reflections wrought fo powerfully on his dejected mind, that he fell into an extravagant kind of devotion, more resembling madness than religion. Fixing on a paffage in St. Matthew, in which our Saviour defires his apostles to provide neither gold, nor filver, nor brass in their purses; nor scrip for their journey; neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet ftaves, he was led to confider a voluntary and abfolute poverty as the effence of the gofpel, and to prescribe this poverty as a facred rule both to himself and to the few who followed him. He accordingly wandered through the streets of Afifi in garments that scarcely concealed his nakednefs, in order, as he faid, to inure himself to the taunts and ridicule of his former companions, whom he now called the children