The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-24 00:00:00

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dividuals, and furnish
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ex-
ample, whether in the instance of Weir grandeur
or decay. ' In noticing Mr. Allen's volumes, we
shall merely refer to a few rambling miscellaneous
paragraphs, which will serve to give as good an
idea of the history itself, as if the reader were
(more adventurously than wisely) to attempt to
toil through it. Alluding to the Sessions held
in' London, in 1585, Mr. Allen relates the fol-
lowing anecdote, which may furnish some of our
modern professors, who labour under a furor
digitalis, or a propensity to pick pockets, with
no unserviceable hints. There
~ were giants on
the earth, it.seerns, in those days:—

At a sessions in July 1585, this may be worthy to be
related, as it was written by Fleetword, the recorder to
the lord treasurer :—That he, and some others that were
then uPon the bench, spent a day about searching out
sundry that were receivers of felons, and a great many
were found in London, Westminster, Southwark, and
places about the same. And they got the names of forty-
five masterless men and cut-purses, whose practice was to
rob gentlemen's chambers and artificers' shops in and about
Loudon ; and seven houses of entertainment for such in
London, six more in Westminster, three more in the
suburbs, and two in Southwark. Among the rest they
found
na gentleman born, and some time a
merchant but fallen by time into decay.
This man kept an alehouse at Smart's-key, near Billings-
gate, and after, for some misdemeanour, put down; he
reared up a new trade of life, and, in, the same house, he
o e
of
good
Wotton,ood
credit,
procured all the cut-purses about the city to repair to hie
hduse. There was a school-house set up to learn young
boys to cut purses. Two devices were hung up—one was
a pocket and another was a purse ; the pocket bad in it
certain counters, and was bung about with hawk's bells,
and over the top did hang a little sacring bell. The pure
had silver in it ; and he that could take out a counter
without any noise, was allowed to be a public foyster ; and
he that could take out a piece of silver without noise of any
of the bells, was adjudged a judicial nypper, according to
their terms of art. A foyster was a pick-pocket, a nypper
was a pick-purse, or cut-puree.

In speaking of the great plague of London,
Mr. Allen, we perceive, quotes in justification
of his statements, Defoe's tl►rilling record of
that event ; now this we can tell him is very apo-
chryphal authority, and if he supposes it con-
temporary, he is altogether mistaken. Defoe,
who lived some time after the plague, wrote the
book from imperfect statements furnished to him
by a survivor of that calamity, and when matter
was wanting, his own powerful invention (an in-
vention, despite Pope's ungenerous sneer, of the
very first order) supplied the deficiency. While
discussing the famous South Sea Scheme- of
1720, Mr. Allen gives a curious catalogue ofsome
of the joint stook bubbles, projected at that ex-
cited period. A few of them are highly amus-
ing, and 'would have done credit to 1825, for
instance—

A project for insuring and improving children's fortuneo.
for an Arcadian Colony.
for furnishing funerals.
for feeding hogs.
for supplying London with all sorts (f provisions.
for an insurance against divorces.
for making a ...ort of butter from beech trees.
a scheme to learn wise men to cast nativities.

There are hundreds of other schemes besides
hose here enumerated, which go fai.to prove the
truth of Mr. Gifford's caustic remark, that " there
is no sounding the depths of human folly." Our
next-extract is something of the same nature—

The year 1749 was remarkable for one of the most ex-
traordinary imposition* that credulity ever countenanced.

About the middle of January, an advertisement appeared in
the newspapers, informing the public that, on the 16th
instant, a person would appear in the new theatre in the
Haymarket, who, after playing the music of every ins►tru-
ment in use, upon a cane belonging to any of the specta-
tors, would walk into a common quart bottle, placed upon
a table in the middle of the stage, in eight of the audience,
and would sing in it; and, during his stay in the bottle,
;itly person might examine it, and be satisfied that it was
a common wine bottle. some other feats were to be ex-
hibited equally entertaining, and although it might be sup-
posed impossible that mankind, even in a state of gross ig-
norance, could be so egregiously imposed upon, yet it is

unquestionably true that the scheme did take effect in the
British capital, and in the naid,lle of the eighteenth cen-
tury. On the evening of the exhibition the house was
crowded with the nobility and gentry of both sexes, who
sat very patiently for a "considerable time without the
amusement of a single fiddle. At length the audience
grew tired and clamorous; and a fellow came from behind
the curtain, and bowing, said, if the performer did not ap-
pear, the money should be returned : at the same time,
some person in the pit called out, that if the ladies and
gentlemen would give double price, the conjuror would get
into a pint bottle. This was the signal for a riot; the
greater part of the audience hurried out of the theatre, with
the loss of cloaks, hats, wigs, and swords ; part remained
behind, who being joined by the mob from without, tore
lip the benches, broke the scenes, pulled down the boxes,
and entirely demolished the inside of the theatre : all of
which they carried into the street, preceded by the curtain,
fastened to a pole, as a flag of triumph ; where they con-
verted them into a large bonfire. A strong party of the
guards was sent for, but did not arrive in time to save any
part of the property. No material injury was sustained
by any of the spectators, from the confusion in the house.
To those who look in history for nothing be-
yond a mere statement of amusing facts, thrown
together at random, and in the first language
that presents itself, these volumes will be truly
acceptable ; but to those, who more fastidious,
wish to sec a philosophical andsearching, spirit
mixed up with historical record, they will he,
we fear, little better than dross. One merit,
however, the book possesses, of winch no fasti-
dio'lsimpartiality.
eriticisncaliitjyt.lePri" we mean an hun€:,t,
uniform

KB::
p;tnitTli,edle tCoomuarrtryotfheAussofoizrteunaatte
, days with the folio •
occupied for t 7,1 .
ir,,,,,a,
an,
.. wing charge of rob-
ber,' and min errobbed and and ARAI'S were ac-
of bfaiving cused thrown into the river Dender
a voting pr., named
_MARY PESTERS. PETER ARRYS had
asSnedlsthebealembeoetalyi
0,4,s to take place as ,00_n_
as she received 43 French
crowns from a relation, in whose hands she had placed
them. As soon as she got this money she bought several
articles of dress for her lover, and hastened with them to
his house. .i rri
ie next day the neighbours heard an es-
traorditary noise in the house inhabited by the prisoners,
and, shortly after, saw MARY PEETERS quit it, weeping,
and in a state of great agitation. She asked the way to
Bross.; - ls, and took the road pointed out to her. A short
time after, the prisoners left the house, and went in the
atile direction. A few days afterwards the waters of the
Dender threw on the bank. the body
of the unfortunate
girl. As it was known that PETER ARRYS could have
had no intention of marrying the deceased, as he had but
just been married to another girl in a neighbouring village,
he and his brother were arrested. The brother, in the
irst moment of alarm, accused his brother of the crime,
and implicated himself by the incoherency of his declara-
tions. PETER, on hearing his brother's declaration, cried
out that they were both lost, that it was useless to think of
defending themselves, and that they had only to turn to a
good account the few moments of life that remained to
them. These facts were supported by the testimony of
numerous witnesses : and yet the Court, after several
hours' deliberation, found them guilty only of robbery, and
negatived the charge of murder.