has been open to the flights of poets, and has afforded them food; projectors have been allowed to build caftles in it; and free ingrefs, egrefs, and regrefs, have been afforded to the whole legion of devils, goblins, ghofts, fpectres, apparitions, genii, fairies, witches, gnomes, fylphs, &c. &c. But, my Lord, thefe were harmlefs beings; we could ftill fleep quietly in our beds; our wives and daughters were in fafety. What is likely to be the cafe now? There is no law which will not be evaded, and no crime which will not be perpetrated with impunity. If a fortune-hunter has entrapped the affections of a ward of Chancery, he will only wait for a fouth wind, whip her off in a balloon to Gretna Green, and fet at defiance the Subpoenas of the great feal. The danger is ftill greater with regard to a young heirefs living under her father's roof; the moment the is feated in the car with her paramour, fleet horfes, courageous fervants, and loaded blunderbuffes, will be of no avail: dozens of couples will be dropped down in parachutes into the Blackfmith's yard every morning. My Lord, I tremble for the morals of the rifing generation. My domeftic peace is gone; I am not lefs apprehenfive for my wife than my daughters; there is no longer occafion to bribe chambermaids, or to employ ladders of ropes. The man who is refolved to difhonour me, has only to alight upon my houfe when I am funk in repofe, make a fignal through the skylight, throw out a few bags of ballaft as foon as Peggy has entered, and in half an hour fend her down by an umbrella. After dangers of fuch a nature, I fhould difdain to mention the infecurity of property in goods and chattels; but with fome it must be matter of very ferious confideration, that there will foon be no difference between walls three feet high, and fuch as thofe with which Semiramis furrounded Babylon. What What need is there of words? Who can now prevent duels, or take any notice of the confequences? May not Burke and Belcher defy the whole magiftracy of Middlefex, Surry, and Berkshire, by having a stage erected at the height of ten thoufand feet from the earth? I fuppofe there will be hackney balloons in abundance to carry up the fpectators. Will not our principal fource of revenue be at once cut off? Cuftomhoufe yachts find much difficulty in guarding the Channel; how then could the whole atmosphere be guarded by Cuftom-house balloons, however ably navigated? A thoufand ankers of brandy might be tranfported from Boulogne to York in a few hours. The confufion that will be produced at a general election muft long ago have occurred to your Lordship's penetration, as well as the facility that will be afforded to the Minister of flying off with the country members. In fhort, my Lord, fo many mifchiefs public and private are likely to arise, that I am almoft led to. believe that thefe difcoveries in aëroftation were fuggeted by that great enemy of our race who is called The Prince of the Powers of the Air." But I trust our Chief Juftice in Eyre will counteract all his fchemes, and bring his devices to nought. My Lord, you have a powerful enemy, but, if you exert yourself as becomes you, the laws of England will triumph. What are the proper measures to be purfued it is for your Lordthip in your wifdom to determine, But, if I may be allowed, I would. humbly recommend that a general amnefty be proclaimed for the paft, and that you give folemn warning to all living under the allegiance of the Crown of England, that whoever fhall from henceforth be found failing in the air, in any vehicle whatfoever, fhall be fufpended by the neck from a balloon double charged with inflammable gas, VOL. VI. R and and thus launched into the boundlefs regions of space, a terrible example of offended juftice! If this meets with no attention from your Lordship, I fhall find it incumbent upon me to petition the House of Commons the moment that Parliament meets. Civil fociety is in danger. I remain your Lordship's most humble Sept AN ALARMIST. THE BULLS!!! [From the fame.] I BIR, Coeperunt) mugire boves, atque omne querelis VIRGIL. En. 8. v. 215. The bulls, opprefs'd, indignant roar around; To the Ex War-Secretary. PITT. MAKE no apology for my freedom in publicly addreffing you (a man I know nothing of but by name) after the liberties you have thought fit to take with our unfortunate race. The new Parliament being about to meet, that fyftem of torture patronized by you and fome others will again become the fubject of complaint. As my perfonal foe, I am happy to tell you there is every profpect of your difappointment, fhould you again oppofe us; and therefore, for your own fake, either change fides (a thing you have done before now), or maintain a strict neutrality. There is not one of our family (bull, cow, calf, or ox), who does not feel the neceffity of uniting in good earnest. And for fuccefs, let me inform you, we rely partly on our own merits, but chiefly on what is often more efficacious, and what many of your afficiates owe all their greatnefs to-I mean, extenfive family connexions and great relationships. I might enlarge upon the vast culinary benefits we confer on man; benefits that have procured for our loins the honours of knighthood and of barony, and which our enemies (while they affect to abuse them) know very well to be the great cause of that English wisdom and valour which are the nation's bul-wark. I might appeal to our medical services. And here I would refer you to the learned and elaborate treatise of the famous Dr. Cheyne, thewing the immenfe fuperiority of the lactarium over the laboratory, and the virtues of milk diet as a cure for almoft every diforder" that flesh is heir to." I might appeal to the parliamentary grant of ten thousand pounds to Dr. Fenner for his difcovery of vaccination, which is nothing more than the expulfion of a vicious part of the human system, by an infufion of our hereditary corruption; a difcovery fpreading itfelf every where. (I have just heard of the cowification of two beautiful young Archduchesses at Vienna). Have we not been told by grave Doctors of the healthfulnefs of butchers' Shops; nay, that confumptive damfels may be recovered to their friends and lovers, by living a few months in flaughter-boufes? This circumftance feems illuftrated by a paffage in Holy Writ, where the ftrong bulls of Bafhan are fo emphatically fpoken of. Might not the renowned Og, King of Bafhan, owe fomething of his furprifing growth and hardinefs (this King flept conftantly on a bed of iron) to his dwelling a good deal among the fately quadrupeds who trod his plains? As for you, I fuppofe you look upon all this with horror! It has been faid, with fome fhew of reafon, that men have humours enough of their own, without borrowing from the brute creation. Really, 't were well for you, if you thought to too; for, depend upon Dr. Beddoes, and others. R 2 it, all the wifdom lies in the felection. Now, you have preferred a canine infection. You were born under the influence of Sirius, and have imbibed fo ftrongly your favourite animal taint, that, without any great reflection upon one's eyefight, you might fometimes be mistaken for a bull-dog! I with this were a favourable omen for your own fpecies, if not for mine; for, in truth it is faid, you and your party have bullied and cowed the good people of England fufficiently for fome years back. As to family connexions, has not the late Imperial Legislative Union joined us with our brethren the Irish bulls, a moft numerous, high-mettled, and unconquerable race? But only confider our ftrength at home.The city is all our own. At the Stock Exchange the bulls defy oppofition; at the Bank the bull-ion mult predominate; and the wives of the citizens will never forget the conjugal felicity of horns. We fhall have all Doctors' Commons to a man. Tanners and curriers, and all dealers in hides, no mean body, are particularly concerned that we should live and die in a found skin.— And then, when our caufe comes before certain great affemblies, you know what handfome fupport we may expect from that numerous body of young relatives of ours of rank and fortune (among whom are fo many of your political admirers), the fatied calves, who have promifed us to carry it by a rearing majority. Thefe gentry are just as numerous and refpe&table at court; so that we may reckon from the Lords of the Bedchamber down to the humble g atitude of the beef-eaters. Bishops, deans, and prebendaries, in fhort, every one who values his fall, must be with us. And what think you of all the Turnbulls and Knatchbulls, and, to make short of the matter, of the great John Bull himself? In the female line we are ftronger abroad, efpecially in the eastern and north-eastern parts of Europe. In Ruffia we might be very ferviceable to this ftate, from |