1830.3 A Chapter on Old Coats. 321 



one lane, down another, coasting this moor, and crossing that, I at length 

 got into the right track, and arrived at my quarters with the sole incon- 

 venience of having my coat a second time dismembered, like Absyrtus, 

 by his kind aunt Medea. 



But this was a trifle compared with the more momentous secret 

 that engrossed my whole thoughts. For two days and nights I did 

 nothing but ponder in my mind the way in which I could best disbur- 

 then myself of it. At first I thought of telling every thing to my land- 

 lord ; but when I reflected on the character of my communication, there 

 appeared a something so strange so romantic so altogether outre about 

 it, that will the reader credit my weakness? I actually had not the 

 courage to incur the hazard either of being laughed at, or scouted as a 

 fabricator. 



But the mind, like the body, when overcharged, must find a mar- 

 ket for its surplus commodities. In other words, it must have a vent 

 for its uneasiness. I soon felt this to be the case ; and after bearing my 

 secret about with me a full fortnight, it became at length so wholly, 

 insupportable, that I resolved, come what might, to rid myself of the 

 burden ; and accordingly, by my landlord's advice to whom I imparted 

 every particular set out for Carmarthen, which was the nearest civi- 

 lized town, in order to put the whole affair into the hands of the proper 

 legal authorities. 



It so happened, that the day of my arrival there was the second of the 

 assizes, and as the magistrate before whom I was advised to lay my 

 case, was in court, I made the best of my way thither, and arrived just in 

 time to hear the trial of two murderous-looking felons, in whose intelli- 

 gent faces I at the very first glance recognised my old acquaintances of 

 the hut. The wretches then were at length detected ! Thank God ! I 

 involuntarily exclaimed, and waited with throbbing heart the particulars 

 of the solemn charge. In a few minutes, the trial commenced. The 

 counsel for the prosecution drew forth their briefs ; those for the defence 

 looked ominous and full of apprehension ; the Judge shook his wig ; 

 the Jury frowned in horror ; the Court was hushed in awful expecta- 

 tion, and Owen Rees and Davy Thomas were formally called on to 



plead Guilty or Not Guilty, to the charge of having, on the night of 

 the 20th of June the very night on which I had overheard their 

 conversation, " stolen a Goose, the property of Sarah Stubbs, ALIAS 

 Long Sal, spinster" ! ! 



Shade of Martinus Scriblerus ! was ever sample of the bathos equal 

 to this? 



NOTES OF THE MONTH ON AFFAIRS IN GENERAL. 



POLITICAL Economy is a science against which we, poor untaught, 

 un-Scotchified, and un-Jacobinical creatures, will never venture to lift 

 up our finger. First, because it is the " grand science" of the age. Se- 

 condly, because it is a science that every body, born to be a light of the 

 earth, or not born for that, or any other visible purpose, thoroughly 

 understands. Thirdly, because it is a science in which no one of its 

 illustrious lecturers, worshippers, and writers, ever contradicts the other, 

 or contradicts himself; calls his brother a blockhead, or proves himself 

 one ; insults common sense in mankind, or burlesques it in his proper 

 person. Fourthly, because it is, par excellence, a lecturable science, or 



M.M. Nen) Series.VoL. IX. No. 51. 2 T 



