1829. ] Affairs in General. 801 
ter’s yard, and accidentally stepping upon a piece of ice, was thrown on 
his back ; thus placed, and before he could recover himself, he saw a 
quantity of smoke issuing from several parts of the roof. The sight 
was truly alarming and unaccountable, and he lost no time in going for 
the man who keeps the keys. They returned together ; and when they 
entered, the sight was beyond description—a dense mass of smoke per- 
vaded the whole building, and the beautiful work of the choir was 
extensively on fire. An alarm was immediately given ; the workmen 
connected with the cathedral were all called up, fire-engines procured, 
and the whole city soon became acquainted with the distressing 
tidings.” 
PARODY, BY THE GREAT SOLDIER. 
“ Toby, or not Toby—that’s the question.” —SHAaKSPEARE. 
Dear friends, this smug priest, who now foams with sham zeal, 
In which I now trace the delusion of Peel, 
Was once Dr. Philpott’s, as worldly a Dean 
As e’er bullied Papist, or spattered a Queen: 
In veering about ’tis his praise to excel, 
And amongst ratting Parsons he bears off the Bell.* 
It chanced as last summer he sat at his ease, 
In his living of Stanhope, as gay as you please, 
From the Church and the State puffing Popery away, 
And to honest old Eldon was writing each day : 
His letters announced a bright change in the scene, 
And he saw himself hailed as the new Chester Dean. 
His Reverence, when placed on this eminent perch, 
And wishing still higher to rise in the Church, 
The Premier found out, in his chapter—poor Phil, 
And out of his brain he has formed this fine Bill, 
Made sacred to Popery, Connel, and Shiel— 
So, Here’s to Rat Toby, the tempter of Peel ! 
The fair sex are making their way to distinction. Several phenomena 
have been exhibited lately. A woman, somewhere among the villages, 
is astonishing every body, and setting an example to the churchwardens, 
by fasting. She has contrived to take no sustenance (publicly) for a 
month; and, though fish and game have been known to enter the 
chamber from the generous ponds and preserves of the unconscious 
gentry around, yet she has persisted in the determination to fast as long 
—as she can make anything by it. 
Mr. Mary Allen was another wonder, too peculiar for us to make any 
remark upon the subject, any further than that the seven cabinet coun- 
cils, held in one week lately, were supposed to be summoned for the pur- 
pose of investigating the statement, and ascertaining to what extent the 
clothes of manhood, in general society, might be presumed to negative 
the idea of the wearer’s being of the opposite sex. It was after much 
* This coincidence is curious—the father of the Very Reverend Dean Philpotts was the 
iately-named landlord of the Bell Inn, at Gloucester. It is probable, therefore, 
that the Very Rev. Dean, though subsequently educated for the church, was, in earlier life, 
intended for the ban: at all events, his assumption of the apron, like his present con- 
duct, is only a return to first principles. It was in the Bell Inn that John Wesley was 
born.—John Bull, 
