490 
monly well—I speak of the first volume. 
But of the historical part, which properly 
belongs to the’ author, the candid and 
discerning reader will be able to form 
a judgment, and the reliance to be’ 
placed on the fidelity of his description 
of ancient events, from the specimen 
of his manner of describing events more 
recent—to wit, in the year 1794; the 
circumstances of which are still within 
the recollection of many of the present 
generation. ; 
What is history ? In reality’ no- 
thing more than the record of facts. 
The reflections and inferences apper- 
‘tain to the historian, and not to the 
history itself’ The facts, however, 
should be so faithfully related, as to 
enable us to form reflections and in- 
ferences for ourselves. We learn but 
little from modern histories; for each 
historian accommodates: the facts to 
his ideas, almost in the same manner 
as a cook sauces up his dishes to his 
palate: we must dine according to the 
taste of the cook :—we must swallow 
history according to the humours of 
the historian. Our mental stomach, 
however, requiring healthful food, we 
shall not consent to take our historic 
meal in the humour of Mr. Bayley; 
but shall take the liberty of shewing 
our decided disapprobation of his sal- 
magundi. ; 
This meagre description, if it can be 
called a description, of the memorable 
event [allude to, will not satisfy, but 
may mislead the honest and inquisitive 
reader who is anxious to be informed 
of real facts. The mean and malicious 
sneer against the prisoners who were 
then confined in that fortress on a 
charge of high treason, manifests a 
temper and spirit very remote from 
what should belong to a man who lays 
claim to the title of an impartial his- 
torian. The nine or ten lines. which 
follow is all that he has condescended 
to say on the subject; except two epi- 
‘taphs, written, I presume, by amore 
honest man, to amuse himself in his 
lonely hours in his solitary cell. From 
what motive he was induced to pub- 
lish the lines I cannot say, but I really 
thank him for it, 
“< Written on the wall of the Beauchamp 
Tower, lately existed the following lines, 
which, although neither rendered valuable 
by their antiquity, nor by any thing worthy 
of remembrance in their author, may not 
be improperly introduced by way of con- 
eluding the description of this interesting 
building.” 
T. H. on Baijley’s History of the Tower. 
EPITAPH 
ON A GOLDFINCH. 
WHERE Raleigh pin’d, within a prison’s gloom, 
I cheerful sung, nor murmured at my doom ; 
Where heroes bold, and patriots firm could dwell, 
A goldfinch, in content, his note might swell; 
But death, more gentle than the law’s decree, 
Hath paid my ransom from captivity. 
. Buried 23d June, V794, by a fellow-prisoner in the 
Tower of London. 
EPITAPH 
ON A CAT, NAMED CITIZEN. 
IF, led by fancy o’er this seat of woe , 
In search of secrets hid within these walls, 
Thine eye, kind reader, thou should’st chance to 
throw 
On the small spot where my poor dwelling falls; 
Think not, within this cell there is compress’d 
Aught which the world could » nor could fear; 
Nor stars, nor ribbons deck’d my honest breast— 
An humble Citizen lies buried here. 
A friend, that could my lowly talents prize, 
(At his fond kindness, reader, do not laugh) 
Sooth’d my last moments, clos’d my dying eyes, 
Dug here my grave, and wrote my epitaph. 
But lest these lines thy fancy should deceive, 
And thou should’st think some patriot claims a tear, 
Thy rising anguish let me now relieve: 
'Tis only Puss, the Citizen, lies here. 
Buried in the Tower Wall, 22d August 1794. J.A.B. 
“‘ The above verses were written, per- 
haps, by John Augustus Bonney, whose 
initials are subscribed to the last of them. 
He was a person committed to the Tower 
in 1794, together with John Horne Tooke, 
John Thelwall, and some others of low 
character, on charges of high treason.” 
It is true that the lines were written 
by John Augustus Bonney. The writer 
of this had, the pleasure of perusing 
them long before they. fell into the 
hands of the historian of the Tower, 
Such is the deplorable situation in 
which that maker-up of books. with 
scraps from the History of England, 
from coronation processions, from 
commitments of royal and noble per- 
sonages, and catalogues of murders 
committed in that blood-polluted for- 
tress, has left the prisoners of the year 
1794 under the awful charge of high 
treason. And he also leaves the readers 
of Ais history to collect their informa- 
tion, if they please, from more authen- 
tic sources—whether these prisoners, he 
so wittily describes as people of low 
character, perished in their dungeons 
or on a scaffold, or escaped from their 
thraldom by a verdict of honourable 
acquittal, pronounced by honest: and 
independent juries. Let us now in- 
quire whether these men were such Jow 
characters as deserved to have the his- 
tory of thew fate left thus ambiguous. 
I shall give the names and qualities of 
the prisoners, 
: Of 
