14. Treatise on the Duties of a Constable, containing Details interesting to the Public, as they relate to the Corruption of Morals and the Protec tion of the Peaceful Subject against Penal and Criminal Offences....... 1803 15. A new and appropriate System of Education for the Labouring People, elucidated and explained according to the Plan which has been established for the Religious and Moral Improvement of the Male and Female Children admitted into the Free School at Westminster, containing an Exposition of the Nature and Importance of the Design, as it respects the General Interest of the Community, &c...........1806

16. Treatise on Indigence,exhibiting a general View of the National Resources for Productive Labour, with Propositions for meliorating the Condition of the Poor, and for improving the Moral Habits, and increasing the Comforts of the Labouring People, particularly the Rising Generation, by Regulations of Political Economy, calculated to prevent Poverty from descending into Indigence :-to produce Sobriety and Industry :-to reduce the Parochial Rates of the Kingdom, and generally to promote the Happiness and Prosperity of the Community at large, by the Diminution of Moral and

T seems the peculiar property of

I weak understandings to wonder at

what they see, and to spend that time in being surprised, which men of sense would employ in discovering the meaning of that which caused such surprise. Pere Schiner, a Jesuit of peculiarly slow talents, although a good mathematician, was sent, well-pensioned, from Vienna to Rome, in order, probably, to write some account of that celebrated place, for the entertainment of his benefactor, the Emperor. He wondered at every thing he saw in his passage through Italy, exclaiming, as we are told by Naudé, "How I do wonder at these people! They pay one with fine speeches; they live upon sallads; and they pelt one another with pebbles!" The wonderer finished his tour just as one would expect, and carried home to his Imperial Master a large flint stone, which he had been taught to wonder at, and to purchase at a high rate, as genuine Oriental bezoar. Naudé tells this story as of his own knowledge, but does not name the Emperor who made so sagacious a choice.

Criminal Offences, and by the future Prevention of Crimes .1806

17. Treatise on the Population, Wealth, Power, and Resources of the British Empire in every Quarter of the World, including the East Indies. The Rise and Progress of the British Revenue and the Funding System, with Observations on the National Resources for the beneficial Employment of a redundant Population, and for rewarding the Naval and Military Offcers, Soldiers and Seamen, for their Services to their Country during the late War; with Statistical Tables constituted on a new Plan, exhibiting a collected View of the different Subjects discussed in the Work......

Second Edition

.1814 .71815

But since, in spite of all sarcasms, all admonitions, wonderers there will be, let us in charity endeavour to supply them with a few remarkably wellattested histories of events, so very surprising and so strangely unaccountable, that gaping and staring at them may be allowed, even to persons of common sense. The following tale, which exactly suits the purpose, would not deserve a place in any book, except the Adventures of Baron Munchausen (a book written to amuse such as can be amused with improbable, though ingenious, lies), had it not been told in a public company by no less respectable a man than Dr. Henry Seabury, an American Bishop. He mentioned, as an instance of the long retention of life in some animals, that he was present at West-Chester, in the province of New York, when the body of a turtle, intended for dinner (its head having been previously cut off), was unaccountably missing. In spite of a long search, it was not found till the next day, and then it was discovered in a field, near two miles from the house, to which it was believed to have found its own way, although

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two or three low fences must have been, some how or other, passed by it. add to the wonder, it was so full of life after it was brought home, that while the master was chiding his servant for his negligence, the headless trunk had actually found its way out of doors, and was returning to its old haunt.

Wonderers may, if they please, exert their amazement at the astonishing longevity of a tortoise, who was seen in good health at Bombay, on the Malabar Coast, by Captain Sutherland, who commanded an Indiaman in or about the year 1762. This venerable animal had heen left by the Portuguese as an heir. loom, when they delivered up the fort ress to the English, as part of the por tion of Princess Katherine, in 1662. The strength of this creature's shell enabled him to bear the weight of three soldiers at a time, and, old as he was, he would make a very considerable circuit, daily, to collect his common provender.

And that we may contribute our own particular share towards the amusement of the wonderers, with whom we have made so free, we beg leave to tell them of a yew-tree, at Perrone, in Picardy,

which in our earlier years affected us with more astonishment than any object we ever saw. It grew in the centre of the cloister, near the Great Church: and before it was lopped, it had darkened the whole building, and completely covered the cloister. Its truok was prodigiously large, more so than that of any tree we had ever seen before, or have seen since. But the more than traditional history of the tree is a genuine subject for wonder. The mouk who, with great politeness, did the honours of the place, affirmed, that in the Tresor there was still existing the grant of those lands, being then a wood of yew trees, on which the church is built, dated in the year 660. That in the said grant, the present yew-tree is particularly directed to remain (the rest of the wood being rooted out) as a centre to the building, and is pointed out by the name of The Old Yew Tree. No tree, perhaps, had ever its antiquity carried up quite so high before, and upon such very plausible authority.

when he speaks of a species of scorpions Naudé gives great food for wonderers, in Italy, which are not only innocent, but so domestic as to be put between of the weather in summer. sheets to cool the beds during the heat

1673. The memorandum-book is now

The following artless narrative may also assuredly be wondered at, without justly drawing any charge of folly on the wonderers. It is an extract from a memorandum-book, in the handwriting of Paul Bowes, Esq. son of Sir Thomas Bowes, of London, and of Bromley Hall, Essex, Knight, and dated in the possession of Mr. Brooke, of from the family, and who had in his pos Nacton, in Suffolk, who is a descendant session, in 1783, when the extract was made, two or three of the pieces of money referred to in the story.

"About the year 1658, after I had been some years settled in the Middle Temple, in a chamber in Elm-court, up three pair of stairs, one night as I came into my chamber in the dark, I went into my study in the dark, to lay down my gloves upon the table in my study, for I then, being my own man, placed my things in their certain places, that I could go to them in the dark, and as I layed my gloves down, I felt under my hand a piece of money, which I then supposed, by feeling, to be

a shilling; but when I had light, I found it a twenty-shilling piece of gold: I did a little reflect how it might come there, yet could not satisfye my own thoughts, for I had no clyent then, it being several years before I was called to the bar, and I had few visitors that might by accident drop it there, and no friends in town that might designedly lay it there as a bate to encourage me at my study; and, although I was the master of some gold, yet I had so few pieces, I well knew it was none of my number; but, however, this being the first time I found gold, I supposed it left there by some means which I could not guess at. About three weeks after, coming again into my chamber in the dark, and laying down my gloves at the same place in my study, I felt under my hand a piece of money, which also proved a twenty-shilling piece of gold; this moved me to further consideration; but after all my thoughtfulness, I could not imagine any probable way how the gold could come there, and thereupon I was tempted to feel oftentimes, the dark, in that place for more gold there, but I don't remember that I ever found any when I went for those expectations and desires. About a mouth after the second, time, coming into my chamber in the dark, and laying down my gloves in the same place, on the table in my study, as I used to do. I felt two pieces of money under my hand, which, after I had lighted my candle, I found to be two twenty-shilling pieces; and about the distance of six weeks after, in the same place and in the dark, I found another piece of gold, and this about the distance of a month, or five or six weeks. I several times after, at the same place, and always in the dark, found twenty shilling pieces of gold. At length being with my cousin Langton, grandmother to my cousin Susan Skipwith, lately married to Sir John Williams, I told her this story; and I don't remember that I ever found any gold there after, although I kept that chamber about two years longer before I sold it to Mr. Anthony Weldon, who now hath it (this being the 23d of September, 1673). Thus I have to the best of my remembrance truly stated this fact: but could never know, or have any probable conjecture, how that gold was laid there."

We flatter ourselves that we have completely made our peace with the Europ. Mag. Vol. LXXII. June 1818.

race of wonderers, when we present them with the strange story which follows: Captain Allen, the writer of it, was well known as a man of character and honour. After his death a number of diaries, which he regu larly kept, were sold by auction; and it is from one of them that this extract is taken: the affair was doubtlessly a gross imposture; but why so many persons should have joined in such a conspiracy, is a mystery; and yet it seems that the master of the house must have had all or most of his servants as par takers of the plot. Perhaps the story may, now it is made public, fail into the hands of some person, who, living near the spot, may be able to cut this Gordian knot.

"Extract from a Manuscript Diary of Captain Allen (since Gentleman-Usher to her Majesty), A.D. 1751.

66

Friday, Oct. 4th, at eleven, set out from Yarum for Skinner's grove, the house of one Mr. Appleby, of which Mr. Jackson has given a very odd account he had from the Rev. Mr. Midgeley, of an apparition which haunted the house in a very remarkable man

ner

As I am very incredulous in these notions of spirits, I was determined to take a journey thither to know the truth, and, if possible, to have all conviction, either by ocular or auricular proof. Accordingly I arrived there about eight at night, and asking for Mr. Appleby (whom I found a sensible man, with a great gentility of behaviour for a tanner), I told him I had taken the liberty, after hearing such and such reports, to come and ask a few questions relating to a spirit that was said to trouble the house, and that if it would not be inconvenient, I should be obliged to him if he would accommodate me with a room all night. He told me I was extremely welcome, and that he was obliged to any gentleman that would give themselves the trouble to come; and did not doubt but that he should satisfy them, by the account he would give them, which he declared, as he should answer at the great tribunal, should be true, sincere, and undisguised, and should contain no incident but what had happened and been transacted in his house (at brst to the grief and amazement of himself, his wife, and his four servants), by this invisible and unaccountable agent. He said, that it was five weeks since it had left them, 3 T

and that once before they were quiet of it for three weeks, and then it returned with double the noise and confusion they had before.

In the first place he assured me they had never seen any thing, but that the noise and havock which they had in the house was amazing; that they all were so frightened, that one night, about one o'clock, they thought to quit the house, and retire to a neighbour's; that they could get no sleep, by reason of their beds being stripped of the clothes, and thrown upon the ground; that the women were thrown into fits by being oppressed with a weight upon their stomachs, equal to an hundred weight; upon this they moved all their beds into one room, determined to share an equal fate: so that two men laid in one bed, two women in another, and the man and his wife in the third: no sooner were they in bed, but the spirit visited them, the door being locked and barred. It first walked along the room, something like a man, but with an uncommon step; immediately the maids cried out they were next to death, by a monstrous weight upon them; on which Mr. Appleby immediately came to their relief; that upon his approaching the beds, something leapt off, walked round him, which he, being a man of courage, followed, and endeavoured to take hold of, but in vain. Upon this he retired to his bed, and immediately the maids cried out, that they were losing the clothes off the bed: he told them to pull hard, which they did, but they were immediately taken with a violent force, and thrown upon the men after this it rattled a chain, with a great noise, round the room, and instantaneously they were alarmed with a noise over their heads of a man threshing, as it were threshing corn with a flail, and in a minute was answered by another, and this continued for fifteen minutes in a very regulay way, stroke for stroke, as if two men were thresh ing; then it descended into the room where they were in bed, and acted the same. Another night it came grunting Jike a hog, and often imitating the noise of swine eating its food: sometimes it would, in the middle of the room, make a noise like the pendulum of a clock, only much faster; and they assured me, that it continued in their room one morning in June till past five o'clock,

Probably the clothes, not the maids.

and Mrs. Appleby, and all of them, saw the clothes taken off them, and flung with violence upon the maidservants; but nothing could they discover, neither conceive how they were thus strangely conveyed. Upon these surprising things being done, it was rumoured abroad, that the house was strongly haunted; and Mr. Moore, the landlord, and Justice Beckwith, went to Appleby; and after talking with him, and examining the servants, and telling them this was a concerted scheme among them for some purpose, they agreed to sit up all night. As they were putting the glass about, something entered the room, accompanied with a noise like squirting water out of a squirt; upon which they, with a change of countenance, asked him what that was? Appleby answered, 'It was only a taste of what he every night had a sufficiency of. Mr. Moore advised him to keep a gun laden, and when he heard it in the room to discharge the piece. The night following, the family being in bed as usual, it came, and, making a sudden stand, threw something upon the ground, which seemed to them as if some sort of seed had fallen out of a paper. In the morning, Mrs. Appleby, looking about the room, wondered what it could be that had been cast upon the ground, gathered up a considerable quantity of gunpowder in corns, which greatly surprised her. The next night it came in the same manner, but what it let fall made a greater noise, like shot, and in the morning, they, to their real astonishment, found a great many shots. This afforded room for strange conjectures; and accordingly she told me she then did not know what to think, whether it was really an apparition or not; for that the scattering of this powder and shot the very two succeeding nights after Mr. Moore advised me to shoot, greatly disconcerted them; though again, upon reflexion, they had had so many proofs of something more than it was possible for any human creature to perform, that she was again led to believe it must be something not of this world, and that in the throwing down the powder and shot, it might be done in contempt, and was as much as to say, What, you would shoot me?' Once, when it was in the midst of its career, one of the men, after composing himself for the purpose, addressed it in these words: In the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy