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were indorfable over, nor could an action at law be maintained on them." P. 140.

In confirmation of thefe opinions, a complete hiftory of the origin and gradual extenfion of bills obligatory, and of the great difficulty with which the modern promifory note was at length eftablished, even within the prefent century, is given in the appendix. This excellent paper was communicated, as the author tells us, by a friend. Another curious remark on the cuftoms of the time is occafioned by the indorfement of the deed of gift to Ireland; both which we fhall here fubjoin.

"Sealed and delyveredd in the prefaunce of us Jo. Edwards-Jos. Byggett.-Deede of guyfte from Shak fpeare to Irelaunde-2 james." "Thofe who are converfant with deeds of that period know, that the fcrivener who drew them, and his fervant or apprentice, were almoft always witneffes to them. On neither this deed, however, nor any other that has been produced on the prefent occafion, does the name of a scrivener appear as a fubfcribing witness.-But this defect, on the back of this and all the other deeds, is not half fo fatal as that indorsement which the ignorance of the fabricator has placed on them: the year of the king's reign in English. If the maker of these inftruments had even been what, I think, Lord Camden called a fucking lawyer, he would have learned, before he had turned over a few leaves of Sir Edward Coke's First Institute, that fome ancient feofments had been difcovered to be forged by their having livery of feifin indorfed on them; and would not have fallen into a fimilar error.-In the time we are now treating of, it was by no means common to write either the year of our king's reign, or the year of our Lord, on the back of a deed. I have very feldom found more than a fhort note of the purport of it, (as "A Deed belonging to the houfe in Blackfryers," or "A Deed of bargain and fale from Walker to Shakspeare,'") and often not even fo much as that: but when the year of the king's reign was indorsed, it was always written in Latin (2 Jacobi, or 2 Jac. &c.); and this continued to be the uniform practice till the Statute 4 Geo. II. c. 26. was made, which directing that all the proceedings at law fhould he from thenceforth in English, naturally produced an alteration in this minute particular alfo. The indorsement, therefore, on this and all the other deeds before us, containing the year of the king's reign in English, inftead of Latin, is a decifive proof of forgery; and the two words " 2 James," are as fatal on the outfide as WILLIAMHENRY are within this inftrument. Thus we fee that the spirit of Horace's precept-talis ad imum, operated through every part of these fabrications, however little the letter of it may have been known to the fabricator." P. 235.

We cannot refift the temptation of adding fome of the remarks on the leafe to Michael Frafer and his wife.

"The following deed was one of the earlieft, if not the very first of all these inftruments, which was exhibited to thofe " ingenious, intelligent, and difinterefted perfons," on whofe fhoulders the weighty

load

load of all this motley mafs of trumpery has been laid. It is a leafe pretended to be made on the 14th of July, 1610, (8 Jac.) by which Shakspeare and his friend John Heminges (by the name of Jhn Hemynge) demife to one Michael Frafer and his wife" his two meffuages or tenements (to which of the two leffors the word his refers does not appear) abuting close to the Globe theatre by Black Fryers London"

and alfo all thofe two Gardens on the North fide of the fame which appertayne or belong thereto, and whiche conteyne fix Acrs and an half be they more or lefs," for a term of fixty four years from the 29th of September next enfuing, at a rent of forty four pounds a year, to be paid half yearly, and the first payment to be made on the faid 29th day of September.

"However our modern conveyancers may furpass their predeceffors in the number of covenants or provifos, it will, I believe, be found that our ancient deeds, though brief and fimple, were at least as clear, explicit, and correct, particularly in the defeription of the thing fold, demifed, or granted, as the more ample and voluminous indentures of the prefent day. Here, however, we have a defcription of fix acres and a half of land abutting clofe to the Globe theatre by Blackfryers; which is about as good a defcription, as if the ground on which the boule of the prefent Eari Bathurft is built, had been, conveyed to the late earl, as a certain piece of ground con aining in front ninety fee, and in depth one hundred and twenty feet, on which the Inn known by the name of the HECULES' PILLARS now ftands, abutting clife to Hyde Park Corner by WHITECHAPEL."

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"In detecting the fabrications of Chatterton it was curious to trace the mistakes he fell into, up to the authors from whofe blunders they were derived. The prefent ridiculous blunder appears to have been derived from a mere error of the prefs in a book which our fabricator was very likely to examine, the BIOGRAPHIA DRAMATICA, pub. lifhed in 1780, where, under the article ROBERT ARMIN," he found the following words: "This au hor was an actor at the Globe, Black-Fryers, and was living in 1611," &c. The conjunction and having been inadvertently omitted by the compofitor at the prefs, the theatre in Southwark was conceived to be adjoining to Blackfriars, or this latter was fuppofed to be a larger and more general defcription of the quarter where the Globe theatre flood; as we now say-Duke Street, St. James's Square." P. 265.

As Mr. Malone has here detected the origin of one of the forger's blunders, fo has he allo, with contiderable acutenefs, traced feveral of his fictions to their fource. Thus the letter of Queen Elizabeth to Shakspeare, was evidently fuggeiled by the reputed letter of King James to that bard, p. 27: Lord Southampton's gift and letter are found d though abfurdly managed) on a tradition reported by Rowe, p. 167; and Shakipeare's confeffion of faith arifes out of a confeflion of one John Shakspeare, published by Mr. Malone in 1790; but who, according to the prefent opinion of that author,

may

may be proved not to have belonged to the poet's fa mily. P. 178.

On the fubject of the fix acres and a half of ground specified in Frafer's leafe, the remarks are alib important.

"As it is not very eafy to know on which fide of the Thames these fix acres and a half are fuppofed to have lain, it is neceffary to take a view both of the district of the Blackfriars and the Bank fide. In 1596 there was certainly in Southwark fome ground unoccupied by buildings; but it was chiefly in that part of it which lay more to the Weft than the Globe theatre, and which afterwards became the proFerty of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, whofe gardener, Cuper, renting the ground, it took the name of Cuper's Gardens. Even at an earlier period of the reign of Elizabeth the ground near where the Globe food, feems to have been almost all occupied, though I do not doubt there may have been then fome fmall gardens in that quarter. With refpect to the Blackfriars, there were in that diftrict fome void fpaces certainly, as is proved by the Conveyance to Shakspeare, already mentioned: but in general (as appears from ancient maps) the ground on the eaft fide of Fleet Ditch (where the theatre flocd) was almoft wholly occupied by houfes. To the weft there appears to have been a confiderable space of void ground about forty years before the date of this pretended leafe; but this was in Whitefriars, with which we have no concern.-In fix acres and a half there are thirty one thoufand four hundred and fixty fquare yards, a space on which above three hundred houfes might have been built; as appears from a caufe of much celebrity which was tried in the last century, and which I fhall prefently have occafion to mention more particularly. Moft affuredly neither near the Globe, nor in the Blackfriars, was there in the year 1610 void fpace fufficient to contain the fourth part of the number of edifices above mentioned. If however I were to allow that there might have been fuch an immenfe void space as would contain three hundred houfes, either adjoining to the eaftern end of Maiden-lane in Southwark, where the Globe ftocd, or in the precinct of Blackfriars on the other fide of the river, it would contribute nothing to the eftablishment of this fabricated inftrument; for till fuch an ancient building as the Globe theatre by Blackfriars fhall be proved to have exifted in the reign of James the First, together with fix acres and a half adjoining to it, this deed muft fhare the fame fate with the reft." P. 269.

We cannot allot more fpace to this book, ingenious as it is; but we recommend it to the attention of our readers, as well worthy to be added to the collections of those who have any curiofity concerning the times of Shak fpeare; and as containing much matter well worthy of confideration, exclufive of the question by which the enquiry was occafioned.

From the Featherfonchaugh family.

Rev.

ART.

ART. X. A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis; explaining the various Crimes and Mijdemeanors which at prefent are felt as a preffure upon the Community; and fuggefting Remedies for their Prevention. By a Magiftrate. 8vo. 369 pp. 5s. Dilly. 1796.

A

PUBLICATION fo important as this cannot often come before us. It is no matter of fanciful fpeculation, or metaphyfical difcuffion, which forms the fubject of enquiry, but a queftion which affects moft nearly the inhabitants of this metropolis, and, in its remoter confequences, the realm at large. To reconcile order with liberty, and prevent crimes without abridging the privileges of innocence; to fecure the property of the wealthy, and amend the morals of the indigent, without oppreffing either by the precautions taken; thefe are the objects of the treatife; not generally affumed, but applied to the actual state of fociety in this vaft city and its appendages. The book is anonymous; but it is generally understood to be the production of Mr. Colquhoun, one of the prefent justices of the police; and it is of fuch a kind that fome credit must arife even from the imputation.

Taking for granted that the inconvenience of an imperfect police, the infecurity of property, and, in fome cafes, of life ifelf, in this metropolis, are fufficiently felt to be obvious to all, the author very justly expects attention, when he lays before the public the astonishing detail of particulars, which he has been able to investigate.

"He has," he fays, "fubmitted to the confideration of the reader a variety of evils of great magnitude, with other specific details, which are not to be found in books, and which, of course, have never been laid before the public through the medium of the prefs.

"It may therefore naturally be expected, that fuch an accumulation of delinquency, fyftematically detailed, and placed in fo prominent a point of view, muft excite in minds, to which fuch subjects are not familiar, both wonder and aftonishment!

It is earneftly to be wished that it may also excite in the public mind an ardent defire to prefs for the adoption of fuch remedies as fhall apply to all the objects of danger and infecurity, which at prefent exist, and which onqueftionably must be greatly augmented at the conclufion of the war, when much additional ftrength will be given to the phalanx of criminal delinquents now upon the town, by the Jeturn of the multitude of their affociates in iniquity.

"The intention of this treatile (among other things) is to point out the means of preventing thefe accumulated wrongs, by fhielding the inhabitants of the metropolis against the alarming confequences to

be

be dreaded from the existence of fuch an atrocious and criminal con

federacy.

"That this may be the more easily effected, the author, in all inftances where evils are reprefented to exift, has uniformly fuggefted and propofed remedies.

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They are fuch as have preffed themfelves upon the mind, more from practical obfervation, than by indulging in fpeculative theories. "It is hooed alfo, that thefe remedies will be found, on examina tion, perfectly to accord with the fpirit of the laws; and that their adoption will be practicable without disturbing, in any refpect, the fyftem of criminal jurifprudence which at prefent exifts." P. iii.

The author apologizes for the imperfections of his book in point of compofition, and alledges reaf ns which would excufe much greater imperfections than are here obfervable. A writer ftudious of correctnefs would not indeed, in the paffage above-cited, have united two words fo nearly fynonymous as wonder and aftonishment; but where fome of the highest interests of fociety are concerned, it would be abfurd pedantry to be cavilling at the minutia of the terms in which the most important information is conveyed.

The work is divided into twelve chapters, befides an introduction and appendix. The introduction contains a general view of the evils arifing from the imperfections of our criminal code. Ch. 1. Explams fome of the prominent caufes of the increase of crimes. 2. The caufes and progrefs of fmail thefts. 3. The pillage of merchandize, &c. upon the Thames. 4. Reflections on the caufes of the abufes, pillage, &c. in the public arfenals, fhips of war and tranfports. 5. On them re atrocious offences of burglary and highway robbery. 6. On the coinage and circulation of base money. 7. On forgeries, frauds, windling, gambling, &c. 8. On receivers of itolen goods in general. 9. On the means of de ecting offenders. 10. On the profecution of offenders. 11. On punithments. 12. On the prefent ftate of the police of the metropolis. The appendix gives a fummary view of the matter of thefe.chapters, and fubjoins fome general reflections, and a conclution.

It will aftonifh the reader, to whom fuch enquiries are new, to be informed that the amount of the depredations annually committed in the metropolis and its vicinity, is estimated at two millions sterling. His concern at such an amazing fact will not be occafioned fimply by the importance of to much property to the public and to individuals, but by the very just reflection, what multitudes of unhappy individuals must be employed in the difgraceful fervice of dithonefty, in order to produce fuch an amount. That the country at large is deeply concerned in the correction of this-enormous evil cannot be denied, fince, while an immenfe army of depredators is regu

larly

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