13 § LON 
mod: firm reliance on the fpirit and virtue of the people 
of this country. We believe that there exifts a firmer, 
as well as nobler, courage than any which rapine can in- 
fpire; and we cannot entertain fuch gloomy and unworthy 
npprehenfions of the moral order of the world, as to think 
that fo admirable a quality can be the exclufive attribute 
of freebooters or (laves. We fight for our laws and li¬ 
berties—to defend the deareft hopes of our children—to 
maintain the unfpotted glory which we have inherited 
from our ancedors—to guard from outrage and fhame 
thofe whom nature has entruded to our protection—to 
preferve the honour and existence of the country that gave 
us birth.—We fight for that conditution and f'yftem of 
fociety, which is at once the nobled monument and the 
firmed bulwark of civilization ! — We fight to preferve 
the whole earth from the barbarous yoke of military def- 
potifm!—We fight for the independence *of ail nations, 
even of thofe who are the mod indifferent to our fate, or 
the mod blindly jealous of our profperity. In fo glorious 
a caufe—in defence of thefe deared and mod facred ob¬ 
jects—we trud that the God of our fathers will infpire 11s 
with a valour which will be more than equal to the daring 
ferocity of thofe who are lured, by the hope of plunder, 
to fight the battles of ambition.—His majedy is about to 
call upon his people to arm in their own defence. We 
trud, and we believe, that he will not call on them in 
vain—that the freemen of this-land, going forth in the 
righteous caufe of their country, under the bleifing of 
Almighty God, will infliCf tire mod fignal chadife.ment on 
thofe who have dared to threaten our dedruCfion—a chaf- 
tifement, of which the memory will long guard the fliores 
of this idand ; and which may not only vindicate the ho¬ 
nour, and edablifh the fafety, of the empire, but may alfo, 
to the lated poderity, ferve as an example to llrike terror 
into tyrants, and to give courage and hope to infulted and 
oppreffed nations. For the attainment of thefe great ends, 
it is neceffary that we fhould not only all be unanimous, 
but a zealous, an ardent, and unconquerable, people— 
that we fhould confuler the public fafety as the chief in- 
tered of every individual—that every man diould deem 
the facrifice of his fortune and his life to his country as 
nothing more than his duty—that no man fhould murmur 
at any exertions or privations which this awful crifis may 
impofe upon him—that we diould regard faintnefs or lan¬ 
guor in the common caufe as the bafed treachery—that 
we diould go into the field with an unfhaken refolution 
to conquer or to die—and-that we fhould look upon no¬ 
thing as a calamity compared with the fubjugation of our 
country. We have the mod facred duties to perform — 
we have mod invaluable bleflings to preferve—we have to 
gain glory and fafety, or to incur indelible difgrace, and 
to fall into irretrievable ruin. Upon our efforts will de¬ 
pend the triumph of liberty over defpotifm —of national 
independence over projeits of univerfal empire—and, 
finally, of civilization itfelf over barbarifm. At fuch a 
moment we deem it our duty folemnly to bind ourfelves 
to each other, and to our countrymen, in the mod facred 
manner, that we will employ all our exertions to roufe 
the fpirit, and to adid the refources, of the kingdom—that 
we will be ready with our Cervices of every fort, and on 
every occadon, in its defence—and that we will rather 
perifh together, than live to fee the honour of the Britifb 
name tarnifhed, or that noble inheritance of greatnefs, 
glory, and liberty, dedroyed, which has defeended. to 
us from our forefathers, and which we are determined to 
tranfmit to our poderity.” We have recorded the above 
declaration, as an intereding difplay of Britifh feeling 
and patriotifm, which the world and poderity mud con¬ 
template with admiration. Such an expredion of zeal and 
loyalty as was exhibited in the whole conduct of the 
meeting was. perhaps, never paralleled at the mod glori¬ 
ous atra of the hidories of Greece or Rome, or of any 
other nation. 
In , onlequence of the negligence of fome of thofe whole 
duty it was to fee the lights put out, Ailley’s Amphi- 
D O N. 
theatre, near Wedminder Bridge, was dedroyed by fire 
early-in the morning of the-zd of September. The i ai¬ 
mer, fe quantity of inflammable materials it contained 
caufed the dames to rage with fuch fury, that nearly forty 
houfes were confirmed before the fire could be got under. 
An accident of the fame kind, and in the fame place, had 
occurred on the night of the duke of York’s birth-day, 
Augud 16, 1797. 
The 26th and 28th of Oflober difplayed a mod gratify¬ 
ing fpsctacle to the patriotic heart of every citizen of 
London and Wedminder; and indeed to the fatisfaftion 
of every Briton, and the admiration of the whole world. 
We mean the fplendid reviews of the volunteers in Hyde- 
park, occafioned by the threats of the ruler of France to 
try his power and that of his allies in order to effeft the in¬ 
vasion of this country. Although his rodomontading mena¬ 
ces did not caufe much alarm fo our government, yet they 
were fufficient to lead the mi order to cautious meafures. 
We have before noticed (p. 128) a review of volunteers 
amounting to nearly nine thoufand ; upon the prefent oc- 
cafion they amounted to 27,077. 
The laft day of the year 1803 was remarkable for two 
extraordinary tides in the river Thames, That in the af¬ 
ternoon, which was the highed, although a neap-tide, dood 
eight inches above the level of the ufual fpring-tides; it 
was not, however, fo high as the great tide in February 
1791. (See p. 122.) Much damage was done on the 
banks of the river, by {he water filling warehoules, cellars, 
&c and Wedminder hall would have been again inun¬ 
dated, but, fince 1791, a new floor had been laid on arches, 
which railed it out of the reach of thefe floods. 
On the 28th of January, 1804., a beautiful teffelated 
pavement was difeovered oppofite to the Ead India-houfe, 
in Leadenhall-dreet, by fome workmen employed to re¬ 
pair the water-pipes. When entire, it formed a fquare 
of nine feet, in the centre of which, within an elegantly- 
adorned circle of about three feet in diameter, is a figure 
of Bacchus in a green mantle, holding in his left hand a 
thyrfis decorated with ivy, and in his right a goblet, fit¬ 
ting on a tiger at full fpeed, with his head, which is alfo 
adorned with ivy, inclined to the neck of the "bead, who 
is looking backwards at his rider. The circle is fur- 
rounded by three borders of different patterns; and in 
each angle is a cup with two handles. It was found about 
ten feet below the furface of the ftreet; and fome frag¬ 
ments of an urn which had contained bones were found 
near it. It is preferved in the Eail-India-houfe. 
A cafe was heard at Guildhall on the nth of January, 
1805, relative to the right of freemen of the city of Lon¬ 
don, carrying the goods of non-freemen for hire, without 
paying the city toll ; when it was determined, that, under 
fuch circumftances, a freeman was not entitled to the full 
exemption ; and the defendant was therefore adjudged to 
pay half-toll. 
The London Docks were opened on the 30th of Ja¬ 
nuary. On the iff of March, the directors of the Well- 
India-Dock Company agreed on a petition to parliament 
to enable them to raife a further fum of fixty thoufand 
pounds, for finifhing the canal at the Ifle of Dogs ; which 
was prefented the fame day, and an ait of parliament was 
afterwards paffed in conformity to the prayer of it. This 
contrivance, which tended to fhorten the way for fr.ips 
round the life of Dogs, -where the river, by its curious 
winding, makes that place a fort of peninfula in front of 
Greenwich Hofpital, and which, we have no doubt, will, 
in the fpace of a few years, be covered with villas and 
houfes erected for thofe whofe daily employ calls to that 
fpot; this very proper and wonderfully-ufefu! contrivance 
has been fince fully completed. See Isle of Dogs, vol. xi. 
p. 4.08.—The foundation-ftone of the Eaft-India Docks, 
at Black wall, was laid c.n the 4th of March. 
On the 21 tf of April, a dreadful 're deftroyed the whole 
of the water-mills at the northern extremity of the cut 
from the Thames to the river Lea. A great quantity of 
corn and flour was confumed by the flames; and, had it 
3 • not 
