unjustifiable private vengeance; in short, some persons thoroughly exasperated entered his apartments at a moment when he was alone writing, and beat him so severely as ultimately to cause his death. The extravagance to which party and obstinacy led Mr. Tutchin will appear in the extract now offered from his 97th number, vol. II. "But I tell thee, I am ready to answer in court to any indictment, where I expect to have fair play (and not to be condemned without being heard), which will be the practice of our courts of justice, as long as the present judges are in being; and if they are succeeded by the race of Jefferies and Jenner, I can but go into another country; I have been taught the way already.

"Countryman. I have heard folks say, when a man comes upon his trial, in some cases he has the liberty to except against some of his jurymen. Now if your case admits of this practise, I would have you except against one particular person that puts himself forward to be on your jury.

"Observator. Prithee, who's that?

Countryman. 'Tis a great paunch-bellyed fellow, that lives in the Strand, within two miles of Strand-bridge. He was upon-I don't know how many juries, in those reigns when they hang'd the Whigs at such a confounded rate; he suck'd their blood like a horse-leach. In king William's reign he repented, by getting

himself.

himself on the juries, by hanging the Papists and Tories; and now, in this reign, he has repented like a dog in a wheel, and is turned a Perkinite. About Trinity-term was a twelvemonth he was convicted of a kidnapping at Westminster, and was fined 100 marks; he was lately bail for one of the conspirators; and yet I am told he is a justice of P- for the county of H---. Pray have a care of this monster."

The next paragraph explains the allusion in these words, "the kidnapper in the Strand is Fuller every way." "The present judges," who condemned without hearing the defendant, were Lord Chief Justice Holt and his brethren. It is singular that other authors say, "The law and justice were never administered with more effect than when he presided in the King's-bench." Indeed it is related of him, that he set the House of Peers at defiance when he thought some of their decisions were unjust and contrary to law; nor was he more gentle with the Speaker of the House of Commons, and a deputation from that body who visited him in the Court of King'sbench, to demand his reasons for a judgement he had given. "I sit here to administer justice," said Holt, "if you had the whole House of Commons in your belly I should disregard you; and if you do not immediately retire, I will commit you, Mr. Speaker, and those with you."

Far

Far be it from the compiler to decide between Mr. Tutchin, Lord Chief Justice Holt, and Mr. Fuller; he is contented by stating both sides of the question, and shall conclude this article by some very tolerable lines from Heraclitus Ridens, which ought not to be totally forgotten in a popular government, though written by the friend of queen Anne's ministers of 1703.

"Once on a time the beasts together drew,
Summon'd to meet upon a grand review,
Each to declare if injur'd or oppress'd,
And have their injuries and wrongs redress'd.
The lion, fix'd and seated on the throne,
Heard all their grievances distinctly shewn,
Distributing rewards, and special grace
To such as did the duties of their place;
And punishments to such as broke their trust,
To merits and demerits strictly just.

"When from the rest a grumbling bear arose,
And thus impeach'd his sovereign's friends for foes:
Please you, my liege, for justice I entreat,
Grant me the gracious gift from mercy's seat;
Those officers of state that near you stand

Pinch the revenues, and distress the land;
They for themselves, not you, the laws dispense,
And are as void of honesty as sense;

The panther there and leopard should be try'd,
You'll ne'er do well till they are set aside;
Till this your ministry is purg'd anew,
And such as I our great endowments shew.

"Hold,

"Hold, said the royal brute, thy counsels spare, And from advising sovereigns forbear ; Know, beasts of prey, and of ungenerous mind, Bears will be bears, a discontented kind, In place uneasy, out of office bold,

And reaching for the reins they cannot hold; Hadst thou but prais'd these worthies thou hast

blam'd,

Doubtless I should their service have disclaim'd;
But vain's thy prayer, or sinister thy ends,
For foes to bears must needs be lions friends."

THE PROPHECIES OF NOSTRODAMUS.

Nothing can be more absurd than the attempts repeatedly made to apply the wild extravagancies of this Seer to passing events. With all the ingenuity of credulity, and the eagerness of selfconviction, we find time silently contradicting the dupes of Nostrodamus. Thus a wiseacre who lived in the reign of queen Anne gave us to understand, in the London Post, that he would not pretend to determine whether the gift of prophecy had then altogether ceased, but as the first cause is eternal, it was possible it had not. The number of pious and learned men who, since the days of the Apostles, were blessed with the spirit of penetrating the mysteries of the great signs of the times were too numerous for him to particularize; he therefore only mentions the name of bishop Usher, which he relied upon as equal

to any arguments or facts he could adduce on the subject.

The prophetic lines quoted by him, he adds, were written 800 years before 1704, originally in Latin, and afterwards translated, by a French priest, into his native language. Those he considered as highly important, strictly applicable to the then state of affairs in France, Spain, and the Empire, and actually within two years of their final and undoubted accomplishment by the downfall of Lewis XIV. in 1705. Fortunately for our believer he was only ten years short in his calculation, and as Lewis died in 1715, he had the consolation of knowing that a V occurred in the numerals of that year; unluckily for him, on the other hand, the Allies did by no means succeed in their wishes, as Philip, the grandson of Lewis, kept the crown of Spain; and the latter, though not as prosperous as he hoped to be, departed peaceably from the world, at an advanced period of life.

"PROPHECIE.

"Poor France, by hollow-hearted priests from Rome,

A thousand miseries to thee shal come:

Thy innocents, for doeing what they ought, Like shepe unto the slaughter shal be broughte. But from First Henries predecessours reigne, Thy seaventh King shal conquer'd be, or tane;