2'"J S. Ko CO., L'eb. 21. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



143 



lory for his indecent jiublications, but for a poli- 

 tical ofTence ; and we have little doubt, if a copy 

 of the paper which he " contrived to have dis- 

 persed all about Charing Cross, telling the people 

 he stood there for defending the memory of 

 Queen Ann," should ever be discovered, it will 

 be found to contain some such statement as the 

 following, which we copy from The Curliad : — 



" In the year 172G, during a close Confinement of five 

 Months, in the King's Bench ; (on account of the two 

 Booivs above menlioned) one of my fellow Prisoners 

 chanced to be John Ker of Kersland, Esq. ; a Gentle- 

 man revered by Queen Anne *, and rendered only un- 

 happj' by his over credulity of Courtiers; whose most 

 sacred Promises are, by them, never intended to be 

 performed, unless the Balance of the Accompt is on 

 their own side. In order to do himself Justice, he 

 resolved upon Publishing his Memoirs and Secret 

 Negociations at the Courts of Great Britain, Vienna, 

 Hanover, &c., and accordingly desired my Perusal of the 

 Papers with the strictest impartiality. I returned thein 

 to him, after I had gone carefully thro' them, with a very 

 short answer, but my real Opinion — That the Facts they 

 contained, tvere too true to be borne. However he pressed 

 me to engage in the Affair, which I told him I durst not 

 venture at unless he would give me leave to communicate 

 his Intentions to the Ministry. This he most readily ac- 

 quiesced in, adding withal, that he intended to put him- 

 self under the Patronage of Sir Robert VValpole. Upon 

 which the Contents of all his Manuscripts were accord- 

 ingly transmitted to the Secretary of State, neither from 

 whom, nor from his Patron, did Mr. Ker ever receive any 

 the least countermand to his intended purpose. He there- 

 fore proceeded and published the first Volume in 3Iay 

 1726. In a few days after he was complimented with a 

 Warrant wherein his book was called ' scandalous and a 

 seditious Libel ; ' he readilj' took the Publication of it upon 

 himself, but was unable to obey the Warrant, being con- 

 fined to his bed thro' Lameness. Upon a Message so un- 

 expected he wrote three Letters, one to the Secretary of 

 State, the other to his Patron, and a third to Mr. Pember, 

 of the Crown Office, to appear for him in Court ; but he 

 soon answered all complaints, dying iii the beginning of 

 July following. 



" He put the last hand to all his Papers, consigning 

 them to the care of his two Friends, mentioned in the 

 close of his First Volume, who, according to the Promise 

 they had made him, faithfully published the second and 

 third volumes upon Oath. Soon after which, a Warrant 

 was issued out against me for publishing the three Vo- 

 lumes, an information was filed against me, and a trufe 

 Copy of the said Information I both printed and trans- 

 lated that my Crime might not be forgotten. For this 

 Misdemeanor I was likewise fined Twenty Marks and the 

 corporal Punishment of (what the Gentlemen of the long 

 Robe are pleased jocosely to call) mounting the Rostrum 

 for one Hour f, which I performed with as much alacrity 

 as Mr. Pope ever pursued his Spleen against Mr. Theobald; 

 and tho' he is pleased to say that this Machine will 

 lengthen the. Face of any Man, tho' it were so comely (p. 34.), 

 3'et will it not make the crooked straight. However I 

 have always been of opinion, that it is the Crime, not the 



* Here Curll gives a copy of Anne's warrant : 

 "Whereas we are fully sensible," &c. 



" Signed, Anne R. 

 « 7 July, 1707, 6th Reign." 



t This scene of action was in the mouth of February, 

 and not March, as he falsely asserts. 



Punishment, or the Shape of a man, which stamps his ij,- 

 nominy." — The Curliad, pp. 17. et seq. 



But it may probably be objected by some that 

 Curll was such a sad dog you cannot believe a 

 word he says. To this it may be replied, that in 

 one or two transactions in which he was engaged 

 with Pope, as we may have occasion to show here- 

 after, Curll does not seem to have stated anything 

 but the truth. 



With respect to the present question we would 

 remark, that he has in the third volume of the 

 Memoirs of Ker of Kersland printed a copy of the 

 indictment against him for publishing the first vo- 

 lume : that we have the following evidence from 

 the Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer of Satur- 

 day, Feb. 18, 1727, that he got into trouble for the 

 publication of such third volume : 



" Last Saturdaj' night Mr. Edmund Curll and his son 

 were taken into the custody of a Messenger, for the third 

 Volume of The Memoirs of Ker of Kersland, ^c, but are 

 since admitted to bail." 



And further, the contemporary evidence of The 

 Daily Post of Feb. 13, 1728, that the punishment 

 of the pillory to which he was subjected was for 

 the political, and not for the immoral offence : 



" On Feb. 12, 1728, Mr. Edmund Curll roceivod judg- 

 ment at the King's Bench Bar, Westminster, for publish- 

 ing The Nun in her Smock, the treatise De Usu Flagrorum, 

 and the 3Iemoirs of John Ker of Kersland, Ksq. For 

 the two first offences he was sentenced to pay a fine of 

 twenty-five Marks each, to be committed till the same 

 be paid, and then to enter into a recognizance of 100/. for 

 his good behaviour for one year : and for the last to pay 

 a fine of twenty marks, to stand in the pillory for the 

 space of one hour, and his own recognizance to be taken 

 for his good behaviour for another j-ear." 



But if this is not sufficient, there is yet better 

 evidence, namely, that afforded by the Records of 

 the Court of King's Bench. The Court Roll, 

 which contains the indictment for the publication 

 o( Meibomius, does not record (probably on account 

 of the arrest of judgment which Curll moved) any 

 sentence for that offence. That which contains 

 the indictment for the publication o^ Ker of Kers- 

 land records the sentence of the Court, which is 

 as follows : 



" p Juf p'd prius impannellat et jurat qui p Juf 

 p'tt modo comparen' qui aJ v'itat. de infracont. 

 simulcti al' Jur p'd: prius impannellat et jurat 

 dicend elect, triat. et jurat, dicunt sup sacriTi suu 

 qd p'3'Edus Curll est culpabil. de p'miss in In- 

 formacon infraspificat. modo et forma put in et j^ 

 Informacon p'd in* tins v'sus eii supponit"''. Sup 

 quovis et p Cur hie plene intel'cis oib; et sing'lis 

 p'miss cons' est p Cuf hie qd p'd Edus Curll 

 [ . . .*2 solvat Duo Regi vigint. Marcas 



p fine suo sup ipum p Cur hie occ'one p'd impo'it. 

 Et qd: ipe idm Edus comittat. Mar Maresc. huj. 

 Cur ibm. salvo custodiend' in execucon p fine p'd 

 quousq; fin p'd solvent Et ult'ius cons' est p Cui: 



* " Sic, on erasure thro' five lines." 



