LON 
fend pounds. A contribution was immediately fet on 
foot for the relief of fuch of the fufferers as were objects of 
charity; whofeciaims amountedtoeight thoufand pounds; 
the fum collected on this occafion was 5,774!. 19s. 4d. the 
whole of which was divided among the claimants; and, 
for the more expeditious re-building of the houfes de- 
ftroyed by this accident, the common-council permitted 
as many non-freemen as might be found neceffary, to be 
employed in the work. 
The following regulations, being entirely municipal, feem 
to require a full detail in an account of the city of Lon¬ 
don. At a court of common-council, held the 7th of April, 
a bill palled for repealing all former aCis of that court, 
touching the nomination and election of (herifFs of the 
city of London and county of Middlefex, and for regu¬ 
lating fuch nominations and elections for the future ; in 
which it was ordained, That the right of electing perfons 
to the office of Iberiffalty ill a 11 be veiled in the liverymen ; 
and that the general election-day lhall be the 24th of June, 
except it be Sunday, and then on the following day. That 
the perfon or perfons elected to the faid office, lhall take 
the fame upon him or them on the vigil of St. Michael 
the archangel, next following the faid election, and hold 
the fame for and during the fpace of one whole year, from 
thence next enfuing, and no longer, when forne other per¬ 
fons lhall be duly elected, and i'worn into the fame office 
in their head. That, at the general elections for Iheriffs, 
all the aldermen, wtro have not ferved, lhall be pnt in no¬ 
mination, according to their feniority, before any com¬ 
moner. That the lord-mayor may, between the 14th day 
of April and the 14th day of June, in every year, nomi¬ 
nate, in the court of lord-mayor and aldermen, nine per¬ 
fons, free of this city, who lhall be put in nomination for 
the laid office, before any other commoner, and in the 
fame order as nominated by the lord-mayor. That, if any 
lb nominated lhall, within fix days after notice, pay four 
hundred pounds to the chamberlain, and twenty marks 
towards the maintenance of the minifters of the feveral 
rifons, together with the ufual fees, every fuch perfon lhall 
e difcharged from ferving the laid office, except he lhall 
afterwards take upon him the office of an alderman. That 
any two liverymen, having a right to vote at the election 
of Iheriffs, may nominate any perfon, free of the city, for 
the faid office. That no freman lhall be difcharged from 
fuch election or nomination, for infufficiency of wealth, 
unlefs he voluntarily l'wears himfelf not worth fifteen 
thoufand pounds, in lands, goods, and feparate debts; and 
the fame be attelted, upon oath, by fix other freemen of 
credit and reputation. That every perfon elected (hall, 
at the next court of lord-mayor and aldermen, give one 
thoufand pounds bond to the chamberlain, that he will 
take upon him the faid office on the 28th of September 
next following. That the perfon defied, who does not 
give bond to ferve, lhall, if an alderman or commoner of 
the lord-mayor’s nomination, forfeit and pay fix hundred 
pounds; but, if nominated by liverymen, he lhall forfeit 
and pay only tour hundred pounds, to be recovered by 
aflion ot debt, in the name of the chamberlain of Lon¬ 
don, and to be applied to the ufe of the lord-mayor, com¬ 
monalty, and citizens, of London, fubject to the orders 
and refolutions ot the court of cotnmon-councii ; except 
one hundred pounds to each of the new' Iheriffs, if two 
fines happen to be paid, or fifty pounds to each of rhe faid 
Iheriffs, Ihould there be only one fine paid. That no per¬ 
fon who has fined lhall be ever after eligible, except he 
takes upon him the office of an alderman ; neither lhall 
any perfon be compeiied to ferve the laid office more than 
once. 
We have been witnefies, in our time, of .feveral hoaxes 
played upon the credulity of the public ; but perhaps 
none ever was fo decidedly laughable and unaccountable, 
and fliowed fo ftrongly the gullibility of all large cities, 
fince the building ot the otioja Neapolls down to our en¬ 
lightened days, as that performed in the year 1749. About 
the middle of January, an advertifement appeared, in the 
DON. g9 
newfpapers, informing the public, that, on the iSth in- 
ftant, a perfon would appear at the new theatre in the 
Haymarket, who, after playing the mulic of every inltru- 
ment in ufe, upon a cane belonging to any of the fpefla- 
tors, would walk into a common quart-bottle, placed 
upon a table in the middle of the Itage, in fight of the au¬ 
dience, and would fing in it ; and, during his llay in the 
bottle, any perfon might examine it, and be fatisfied that 
it was a comrnou wine-bottle. Some other feats were to 
be exhibited, equally entertaining ; and, although it might 
be fuppoled impoffible that mankind, even in a ftate of 
grofs ignorance, could be fo egregioufly impoled upon, 
yet it is unqueltionably true, that the fcheme did take ef¬ 
fect in the Britilh capital, and in the middle of the eigh¬ 
teenth century. On the evening of the exhibition, the 
houfe was crowded with the nobility and gentry of both 
fexes, who fat very patiently for a conliderable time, with¬ 
out the amufernent even of a fingle fiddle ; at length the au¬ 
dience grew tired and clamorous, and a fellow came from 
behind the curtain, and bowing faid, if the performer did 
not appear, the money Ihould be returned ; at the fame 
time, fome perfon in the pit called out, that, if the ladies 
and gentlemen would give double price, the conjuror 
would get into a pint bottle. This was the fignal for a 
riot: the greater part of the audience hurried out of the 
theatre, with the lofs of cloaks, hats, wigs, and fwords ; 
part remained behind, who, being joined by the mob from 
without, tore up the benches, broke the fcenes, pulled 
dow n the boxes, and entirely demolifhed the infide of the 
theatre ; all of which they carried into the Itreet, preceded 
by the curtain, failened to a pole, as a Hag of triumph ; 
where they converted them intoa large bonfire. A llrong 
party of the guards was fent for, but did not arrive in 
time to lave any part of the property. No material in¬ 
jury was iultained by any of the Ipettators,.from the con- 
fulion in the houfe. 
Had we not feen how ealily the people are impofed upon 
even in the molt common tranfaflions of life; how we are 
decoyed in the ltreets by frnugglers, and in (hops by the 
exhibition of goods fworn to be what they are not ; we 
could hardly, at this time, give credit to a moll impro¬ 
bable fa<fl of,.fixty-fix, or more, years (landing: for it is 
indeed aflonilhing that th e prima-facie impoffibility of the 
thing, viz. that a man (had he been as f'mall as Bebe, 
the dwarf of Frederic II.) could jam himfelf into a quart 
bottle, did not ltrike the dullelt mind of the collected au¬ 
dience. But curiofity, that Tantalus-like paffion, which 
is never fatisfied, and lives and feeds upon the fcanty food 
of expectation, though lalhed, all the while, by the whip 
of difappointment ;—curiofity was the acting Ipring, the 
primum mobile ; and the example of two or three gulls, firlt 
caught, naturally brought, by multipiicating confidence, 
immenfe quantities ot the famefpecies. Thus a crowd is 
gathered, before any fufpicion arifes whether rhe thing is 
polfible or not. Strolling quacks, in country towns, of¬ 
ten promife, in order to keep the crowd together and 
fell their nollrums, to Ihowan animal not bigger than the 
thumb, weighing more rhan fifty pounds; and the gazing 
but dil'appointed affembly as often retires with the con- 
loling hope of the phenomenon’s appearance, without fail, 
the next day. 
Some bailors having been ill treated by women of the 
town, in a houfe near the New Church m the Strand, a 
conliderable body of them affembled, on the evening cf 
the lit of July, armed with cutlalies and bludgeons, and pro¬ 
ceeded to the houfe, where they deflroyed all the lurui- 
ture and wearing-apparel, and turned the women into the 
Itreet. On the following night, they attacked two more 
houfes in the fame manner; and, on the third day, they 
made a fimilar attempt upon one in the Old Bailey, 
from which the owners, apprehending their defign, had 
previoufly removed the goods. It was at lait found 
neceffary to call in the affiitance of the military, to fup- 
preis thefe dangerous proceedings ; and feveral of the ri¬ 
oters were apprehended and committed for trial. This 
waa 
