SPECIMEN OF AN INTENDED HISTORY OF ( ENGLAND. BY THE AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE REPRESENTING THE LIFE OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS SON OF WALDRON. Now went forth the spirit of plunder. The gigantic forms of depredation, which at this time subjected the perfons and pockets of the metropolis to the hands and hangers of the marauder, naturally rivets our attention to the exploits of the fon of Henry Waldron, in whom, under the wily alias of George Barrington, I darkly contemplate the father of that fpecies of clandeftine rapine which disjoins the inconveniencies of robbery from its terrors, and confifts in the infinuation of the finger or the hook into our perfonal coffers, and recovering them triumphant with the fpoils of the infenfible benefactor. This furtive affeffment upon property does not, on a firft view, appear worthy of the tranfcendant abilities of the freebooter of Kildare: but whatever underwent the touch of Midas became gold; and the tranfmuting intellect of Barrington invefted with fyftem and with fcience an art which had hitherto been regarded, by the more learned and more adventurous in the fchools of Mercury, with contemptuous indifference, and was by them configned to the noviciates of their lawless fraternity. Darting a keener glance into the occupation which was at once to dignify and degrade his future day, this plunderer of the Weft was probably fired by thofe very difcouragements which would have depreffed a lefs towering altitude of genius; and difcerned, through the fhades of ignominy, a harvest of glory, in a proportion inverse to the fertility of the foil in which it was to be reared. Armed with fuch confidence and fuch ambition, now walked forth the Adventurer of Freland, fealing his ears to the fyren folicitations of more honourable employs; fpurned with unhallowed contempt the proffered patronage of the Pontiff of Leixlip, and the hope of hiftrionic eminence with which a fuccessful appearance in the part of Jaffier had faluted his dawn. The metropolis of Hibernia was the fcene of his predatory exploits no longer than till the maturity of habit had fucceeded to the crudities of unpractifed timidity. The ripenefs of his art co-operating with a few 'inflances of detection, fent him, fraught with prefages of victory, against the capital of Albion; and the year 1773 will be connected, through the lapfe of ages, with the first appearance of the Son of Waldron on the fhores of Britain. The giant capacities of genius are awake at those hours and in thofe fituations wherein minds of a plebeian mould should refign themfelves to the torpors of flumber; and the tedious interval which was paffed in the Dorfet yacht was made conducive to the promotion of his future hopes, by laying the faithless foundation of a felonious friendship with one of the copartners of his voyage. A tale of wealth and ancestry was fabricated by our child of fortune, for the purpose of lulling fufpicion into fecurity, and conciliating doubt into confidence. The latter of these pretenfions was of a nature sufficiently unfubftantial to elude the fear of detection; but as the former was to be corroborated by external evidences, and as a folitary fcore of guineas was the only basis on which it could at this early epoch of his life be erected, it became neceffary to make an instantaneous appeal to his mighty abilities. His first fucceffes held the world in awe; England trembled at the name of Barrington; and the march of the Hero of Hibernia was every where marked with perfonal depredations. predations. From the winter folftice to the equinox of fpring, he prosecuted a series of exploits unequalled in craft and ingenuity among the fons of Adam. The walls of Ranelagh were the fcene of his maiden claims upon the involuntary contributions of the public; and in the tranfient revolution of a fingle evening, a Knight of the Bath, nine Peers of the realm, and five others of the brightest luminaries in the globe of fashion, were reduced, by the fingers of the Son of Waldron, to the neceffity of inquiring the hour of the night from thofe of their friends in whofe fobs he had ftill left the fources of information: The magic of the fœneratorial rod was not wanting for the purposes of converting his watches into wealth; and his intimacy with his fellow-voyager of the Dorset yacht was fupported with the glittering robberies of Ranelagh. But the gratitude of the depredator of Hibernia walked forth with unequal pace by the fide of his emoluments. This friend of the Dorfet yacht, and the friends of this friend, and every collateral relative, were laid under contribution to the unafking neceffities of the pupil of Mercury. At their nocturnal meetings he filently contemplated his gains amid the unfufpicious joys of Bacchus; and promoted a full flow of hilarity, not as an aid to wit, or as an antidote to care, but as a foporific to fufpicion, that his hand might find a facile entrance into, thofe favourite haunts of his divinity, the pocket and the fob. But thefe fubaltern modes of chicane, however they might relieve his neceffities or fupply his prodigality, could by no means faturate his ambition. He was an eagle, that aspired rather to the perilous glory of a victory over the vulture, than to the fafe luxury of a meal upon the dove; and the Court of the British Potentate was to be the scene of his proudest achievements in this field of adventure. The ecclefiaftical habit, not now affumed for the first time as a screen to the plots of the plunderer, furnifhed him with a paffport to the prefence of Majefty; and a Lord of the Council unconsciously refigned to the felonious hand of the Hibernian the glittering enfign. of his Order. Nor was a lefs fum than 800l. which was delivered in exchange for the trophy of St. James's, the reward of that audacity and adroitnefs, of which the detection would have tragically terminated in the prifon and the halter. But the wide and still widening limits of the British Peerage were not commenfurate to the reach of his predatory ambition; and Prince Orlow, of whom the Emprefs had teftified her eftimation by the gift of a fnuff-box of inestimable price, could not long retain this fplendid pledge of Imperial predilection within the domain of this triumphant arch-plunderer; and the Queen of the Ruffias had nearly paid a tribute to the Prince of pickpockets, through the reluctant medium of the Hyperborean Peer. But Fortune, who does not always crown with fuccefs the enterprises of the warrior, or the benevolences of the faint, may well be imagined to countermine the fnares of the felon; and the favourite of Catherine, by a seasonable detection of the transfer, recovered the power of dazzling English eyes with the munificence of his Queen. On his day of trial, the fubtlety of his defence, and the lenity of Orlow, procured his escape from the penal confequences of his boldness. But the notoriety both of the attempt and its difcovery, fo closely rivetted on him the fcrutiny of the public, that for one year and nine days he fequeftered himself from the unhallowed haunts of plunder; and, fubfifting on the fruits of former fpoils, beguiled the interregnum of difhonefty by refuming that attention to literary amufements which he had fuccefsfully cultivated, ere the luft of larceny had fwallowed up the the calmer pleasures of the pen and the page. But the influence of the belles lettres was fhed in vain on his licentious nature, and the opportunity of appropriating the contents of his landlord's till was found. too powerful for the fenfe either of fafety or compunction. The dikes of a ftream once removed, its courfe is not easily recalled within its priftine bounds; and he now returned, with appetite proportioned to the length of his faft, to the practices of manual conveyance. But he had wearied the liberality of Fortune; and the clandeftine capture of a filver time-piece fent the Son of Waldron to one of thofe fcenes of compulfory labour, where, in the difpofal of his time, neither the choice nor the genius of the labourer is confulted. Now walked forth to the hulks of Woolwich the adventurer of Ireland; and the fpade and the mattock were the rugged implements that now filled that hand. which had hitherto revelled in the foft and eafy labour of foliciting the watch, and diving into the rich receffes of the pocket. The humanity of the fuperintendant of the convicts, in concurrence with the fedulous activity of the degraded minister of fecret rapine, abridged the term of his confinement, which, from three years, was reduced to one third of the original number; at the expiration whereof he was once again let loose upon fociety, notorious in his perfon, enfeebled in his frame, and difcarded from his creditable connexions: yet was he not the more reduced in fpirits, or lefs determined to profecute anew his career of depredation. But frequent detection will engender caution, though it conquer not our refolution; and, although he abated not the frequency, he redoubled the fecrecy, and refined upon the fubtlety of his thefts. Of the latter quality, an inftance may be adduced, for which we fhall in N 5 vain |