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SEDITIOUS WORDS.

Cafe of great difficulty and importance lately came before the Magiftrates of a neighbouring county. A man was apprehended upon a charge of having spoken in his fleep feveral feditious and treasonable words of and concerning his Majefty and his allies, now engaged in war with the French.

It appeared, by the oath of a man who lodged in the fame garret with the prifoner, that the latter, while he was faft afleep, fuddenly exclaimed-" D-n the war and the Miniftry---I don't care a fig for all the Kings in Europe!"

This being a new cafe, gave birth to a very learned argument between the Gentlemen of the Quorum affembled upon this occafion.

Mr. Juftice Drowfey faid, that he had heard as how fceping was a conftitutional right, and confequently that a man had a right to dream; for his part, ever fince he had been one of the Quorum, he was a great dreamer, but that he was too wife to talk politics in his fleep; for he was just as fenfible and loyal when afleep as awake.

Another Juftice faid, that "Sedition was fedition, whether a man was afleep or awake!" He thought the prifoner ought to be fent with Fifche Palmer to Botany Bay for seven years, for he was fure that he was equally guilty.

An old Magiftrate, who had ceased to act for fome years, but whofe advice was folicited upon this occafion, recommended it to his learned brethren to proceed with great caution in fo intricate a cafe; for, he faid, if it fhould be decided that a man was refponsible for his fleeping acts, it would go to criminate many of the first perfonages in the kingdom.-" There was great reafon," continued he, to believe that the people of England were not awake when they confented to the prefent war with Franee. His Grace of Richmond was certainly napping when the Duke of York laid fiege to Dunkirk; and the Duke of Brunswick's march

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to Paris turned out to be nothing but a dream; fo likewife when men extol the wisdom, virtues, talents, &c. of the prefent Adminiftration, and mention the justice or policy of attempting to conquer France, they may juftly be faid to be talking in their fleep, and nothing but the Minifter's budget will be able to open their eyes."

The prifoner was then called upon for his defence, who faid, that he had no recollection of what he had uttered; but if he had offended their Worships in his fleep, he would oblige them now he was awake, by drinking d-n to Tom Paine and the Diffenters, with as good a heart as Reeve's Committee, or the Birmingham Magiftrates.

After the fubject had been fully argued, it was propofed and agreed to refer the cafe to the opinions of the Solicitor General and Mr. Serjeant Watfon, it being hinted that the fomniferous fpeeches of thofe gentlemen, in St. Stephen's Chapel, left no doubt of their being the best qualified to decide the question.-Chronicle.

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MEDICAL DEBATING SOCIETY.

Ta Medical Society at Edinburgh, a very violent debate took place on the following queftion

*To thofe who have not had the advantage of hearing the Solicitor General speak, it may be neceffary to remark, that his eloquence is not exactly the fnuffling of an old woman; nor does it quite refemble the drone of a bagpipe out of tune. It is a kind of tertium quod---fomething between both. All his fomniferous fpeeches in St. Stephen's Chapel were much exceeded by his harangues on the State trials, one of which lafted eleven hours! On Horne Tooke's trial, he was hardly lefs prolix; which is faid to have made that gentleman declare, that if it should be his misfortune to be again tried for high-treafon, he would plead guilty, confidering hanging as a much fmaller punishment than a long fpeech from Mr. Solicitor General. Much, however, of the latter's dulness and unintelligible oratory, is attributable to the falfe pofitions he finds it incumbent on him to maintain; for he is not altogether without the talents which diftinguish his brother, the learned author of the Hiftory of Greece; nor is his epiftolary correfpondence entirely deftitute of wit,

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"Utrum Morbus Gallicus an Morbus Regalis fit corpori perniciofior ?"-i. e.

"Whether the French Difeafe or King's Evil be moft pernicious to the Constitution?"

Doctor Cantwell, a Phyfician well acquainted with modern practice, but fuppofed to be attached to the ancient doctrines of Paracelfus, the Empiric, took the affirmative of the first part of this interefting question. The King's Evil, he faid, was a disease of an indolent nature, acting almost imperceptibly; and though it might at length attack the nobler parts, and destroy the conftitution, yet its effects might be compared with the gradual operation of time, was little felt, and left the patient a chance of attaining old age without any notable inconvenience; whereas the French Difeafe was attended with many inflammatory symptoms, acute pains, and difgufting circumftances." It fhews itfelf," faid he," in a thousand horrid fhapes; and, even after its virulence feems abated, it breaks out in some other place where least expected.

"It is attended with a variety of other diforders, and leaves the conftitution expofed to the attacks of fome d-d after-clap or other, to the end of its exiftence. In fhort, he concluded, that the French difeafe was of the two much more pernicious to the conftitution, more bafe in its origin, and more loathfome in its appear

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Dr. Theorem then rofe, and maintained the contrary argument with great force, although he began with the graceful figure of conceffion.-It was true, he faid, that the conftitutions attacked by the King's evil, appeared prima facie to be healthy, and that the very nature of the difeafe induced a florid and full habit; "but at the fame time," added he, "foul ulcers, and a mass of corruption, are extending their baneful influence within, and never fail at laft to stifle every vital principle. It is befides hereditary in almost all cafes; entails increafing mischief upon future generations; and though it may be momentarily palliated by a connection with a

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more wholefome family, yet it never fails to recur at the end of fome time, with its former deftructive energy. The French difeafe, on the contrary, admits of a perfect cure, by various means. Perhaps the most effectual are what the French themselves call les grands remedes. In this practice, it is ufual to begin with blood-letting, then to give purgatives, and afterwards to adminifter ftrong alteratives, according to the inveteracy of the diforder, and to the circumftances of the cafe.

"This, however," continued Doctor Theorem, "I think a dangerous method of operating, and do not doubt but a cure may be effected by mild alteratives alone, aided by cooling phyfic, and by the knife, whereever any proud flesh may obftinately oppofe the healing of the fore parts. As to the foul blotches, which Doctor Cantwell thinks fuch an aggravation of the malady, they generally proceed from the falutary efforts made by the body to drive the virus from the vital parts to the furface. Nay," concluded he, "many inftances have been known, in which this complaint, confidered by the learned Doctor as more pernicious to the conftitution than that dreadful diforder the King's evil, has cured itself by the vis medicatrix Naturæ alone."

Here Doctor Cantwell rofe; and though little better than a Mountebank himself, called his brother M.D. a Quack, and declared his opinions high-treafon against the regular doctrines of the schools. Doctor Theorem retorted the charge; the Society formed themselves into two parties, and were left pulling wigs and nofes when our accounts came away.-Gazetteer.

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ANECDOTE FOR THE DOG-DAYS.

T has been faid that man is the only animal that laughs; but though dogs may not abfolutely laugh, they are fometimes, like Falftaff, the cause of laughter in others. The following circumftance, which happened to Garrick in the early part of his life, is one example:

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One very fultry evening, in the dog-days, he performed the part of Lear; in the four firft acts, he received the customary tribute of applaufe. At the conclufion of the fifth, when he wept over the body of Cordelia, every eye caught the foft infection. At this interesting moment, to the aftonishment of all prefent, his face affumed a new character, and his whole frame appeared agitated by a new paffion; it was not tragic; for-he was evidently endeavouring to fupprefs a laugh! In a few feconds, the attendant Nobles appeared to be affected in the fame manner; and the beauteous Cordelia, who was reclined upon a crimfon couch, opening her eyes to fee what occafioned the interruption, leaped from her fofa; and, with the Majefty of England, the gallant Albany, and tougb old Kent, ran laughing off the tage. The audience could not account for this ftrange termination of a tragedy in any other way than by fuppofing the dramatis perfonæ were feized with a fudden frenzy; but their rifibility had a different fource.—

A fat Whitechapel butcher, feated on the centre of the front bench in the pit, was accompanied by his maftiff, who being accustomed to fit on the fame feat with his master at home, naturally fuppofed he might enjoy the like privilege here. The butcher fat very back; and the quadruped finding a fair opening, got upon the bench, and fixing his fore-paws on the rail of the orcheftra, peered at the performers with as upright a head, and as grave an air, as the moft fagacious critic of his day. Our corpulent Slaughter-man was made of melting stuff; and not being accustomed to a play-houfe heat, found himself much oppreffed by the weight of a large and well-powdered Sunday periwig, which for the gratification of cooling and wiping his head, he pulled off, and placed on the head of his mastiff. The dog being in fo confpicuous, fo obtrufive a fituation, caught the eye of Mr. Garrick, and the other performers. A mastiff in a church-warden's wig-for the butcher was a parish-officer-was too much. It would have provoked laughter in Lear himself at the moment he was moft diftreffed; no wonder then that it had fuch an effect on his reprefentative.➡Chronicle.