6*0 



POPISH PLOT POPPY. 



& priest, not as essential, but becoming ; and, soon 

 afu-r, quietly expired, May 30, 1744, at the age of 

 fifty-six. He was interred at Twickenham, where 

 a monument was erected to him by bishop Warbur- 

 ton, his legatee. 



Both the moral and poetical character of Pope 

 has, within these last few years, been assailed and 

 defended with peculiar animation. Vain and irasci- 

 ble, he seems to nave been equally open to flattery 

 and prone to resentment ; but one of his greatest 

 weaknesses was a disposition to artifice, in order to 

 acquire reputation and applause, which is justly 

 deemed indicative of littleness of mind. He was 

 not, however, incapable of generous and elevated 

 sentiments, and was as firm in his attachments as 

 implacable in his dislikes. He had always a dig- 

 nified regard to his independence, which, in one to 

 whom money, high connexions, and the superfluities 

 of life, more especially the luxuries of the table, 

 were by no means indifferent, is the more remark- 

 able. He has been accused of meanness towards 

 his literary coadjutors ; but certain stories, of a 

 nature to impeach his integrity, are now no longer 

 believed, especially as something like an indisposi- 

 tion to do him justice, either as a poet or a man, has 

 been manifest in those who related them. As a 

 poet, while his claim to invention is bounded, the 

 endeavour to set him aside altogether, in compli- 

 ment to certain metaphysical distinctions in regard 

 to the primary sources of poetic feeling, is factitious 

 and futile. No English writer has carried further 

 correctness of versification, splendour of diction, and 

 the truly poetical art of vivifying and adorning 

 every subject that he touched. His Rape of the 

 Lock, and Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard, are alone 

 sufficient to impeach the exclusive theory which 

 would deny him the rank and powers of a poet, 

 leaving his wit, his brilliancy and his satire to be 

 ranked as they may be. Of the various editions of 

 Pope's works, it is only necessary to mention that of 

 Warburton (excluding the Homer, 9 vols., 8vo), 

 and those of Johnson, Warton and Bowles (the last 

 in ten vols., 8vo, 1806). 



POPISH PLOT ; a contrivance got up by Oates 

 (q. v.) in 1678, for the purpose of bringing himself 

 into notice, and adopted by some political leaders to 

 promote their own party schemes. Oates pretended 

 to have discovered a conspiracy, formed by the 

 Jesuits and Roman Catholics, for murdering the 

 king (Charles II.), and subverting the Protestant 

 religion ; and, after some preliminary steps, he 

 went to Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, a justice of peace, 

 and gave evidence before him of all the articles of 

 the pretended conspiracy. Among the persons 

 accused was Coleman, secretary to the duchess of 

 York, among whose papers was found a correspon- 

 dence with some Catholics abroad, which contained 

 expressions of great violence and indiscretion, but 

 nothing to countenance the notion of such a plot. 

 In the midst of the alarm created by this pretended 

 revelation, Godfrey was found dead in a ditch 

 (October 17), having, probably, committed suicide ; 

 but the cry was immediately raised that he had 

 been murdered by the papists on account of his 

 taking Oates's evidence. Parliament met soon after 

 this event, and the two houses immediately began 

 to occupy themselves with examinations in regard 

 to the plot. The excitement was encouraged in 

 parliament by artful party leaders, and the two 

 houses voted, " that there had been and still was 

 a damnable and hellish plot, contrived and carried 

 on by the papist recusants, for assassinating the 

 king, subverting the government, and rooting oul 

 the Protestant religion." The encouragement helc 

 out to Oates, who received a pension of 1200 



M-ought forward Bedloe, a noted thief and impostor, 

 who confirmed Oates's statements, with some addi- 

 ,ions of his own. He accused several noblemen by 

 name of a design to raise forces in different parts of 

 the kingdom, with which they were to join an army 

 of 20,000 or 30,000 crusaders to be landed from 

 Spain. Although no arms, after the most rigorous 

 search, no ammunition, no money, no commissions, 

 no papers, no letters, were discovered to confirm 

 the evidence of these men, yet the story obtained 

 general belief, and excited a general panic. To 

 increase the excitement, Bedloe published a pam- 

 phlet, entitled, A Discovery of the horrid Popish 

 Plot, for burning London and Westminster, &c., in 

 which all the fires that had happened for several 

 years were ascribed to the Jesuits. Meanwhile the 

 pretended conspirators were brought to trial . Cole- 

 man, father Ireland, a Jesuit, and Grove and Pick- 

 ering, who, it was pretended, were engaged to shoot 

 the king, were condemned to death, on the testimony 

 of Oates and Bedloe, and executed. The pretended 

 murderers of Godfrey next suffered the same fate, 

 on the sole testimony of Bedloe, and one Prance, 

 whom he had accused of being an accomplice in 

 the murder, and who, after many promises and 

 threats, finally confessed his guilt. Further prose- 

 cutions took place in the following year, when 

 several persons were executed, and a new plot, 

 called the meal tub plot, from the place where the 

 papers relating to it were found, was got up by one 

 Dangerfield, a convicted felon. In 1680, viscount 

 Stafford was impeached by the commons, con- 

 demned by the lords, and executed December 29, 

 as an accomplice in the plot, on the testimony of 

 Oates and two of his associates, Bedloe having died 

 not long before. This was the last instance of 

 bloodshed in this strange affair. Soon after the 

 accession of James II. (1685), Oates was tried and 

 convicted on two indictments for perjury, and was 

 sentenced to be whipped, on two different days, 

 from Aldgate to Newgate, and from thence to 

 Tyburn, to be imprisoned for life, and pilloried five 

 times every year. See Hume's and Lingard's 

 History of England. 



POPLAR (popuhis) ; a genus of plants belong- 

 ing to the amentaceae and to the dicecia octandria of 

 Linnaeus. The species are trees often of large 

 dimensions, having their buds usually covered with 

 an aromatic and viscous substance ; their flowers 

 disposed in aments, and always appearing before 

 the development of the leaves ; and these last alter- 

 nate, rounded or triangular, serrate or dentate, and 

 supported on long petioles, which are more or less 

 compressed, particularly towards their summits. 

 This conformation occasions a peculiar vibratory 

 motion in the leaves when they are acted upon by 

 the wind, especially remarkable in certain species 

 called aspens, which appear to be perpetually agita- 

 ted. About twenty species are known, all confined 

 to the northern and temperate regions of the globe. 

 They are soft-wooded trees, of rapid growth. See 

 Tulipi Tree. 



POPOCATAPETL; a volcano in Mexico, in 

 the province of Puebla ; Ion. 98 33' W. ; lat. 18 

 36' N. This volcano is constantly in action, throw- 

 ing out smoke, ashes and fire, but no great eruption 

 has hitherto taken place. Its figure is that of a 

 truncated cone, with a large crater. It is 17,716 

 feet high, and is one of the highest mountains be 

 tween the bay of Panama and Beering's straits. 



POPPY (papaver). The species of poppy are 

 herbaceous plants, all bearing large, brilliant, but 

 fugacious flowers. One of them yields the opium 

 of commerce, and the juice of all is lactescent. Most 

 of the species are natives of Europe, often occurring 



