Part V.] (continued 2)

Will. In this Mere-maid's Attire, he went attended with the two Fishmongers for his Guard, and the Chandler and Printer were to be Witnesses they saw the Apparition.—At length when he came to his Posts, as the Contrivers had laid it, 'tis to be supposed, near the House where the Lord Russel liv'd, he fell a groaning like an Oxe at the first sticking; nay, he groan'd even like the Groaning-board itself; and after a short preamble of Lamentations lewdly uttered, He cried out, Oh—I have no rest because of the Speech that I never made, but Dr. Burnet.

Ralph. There's no fear on't, but he'l be taught to groan better when he comes to groan for himself. One would have thought he should have practised the Art of Groaning more accurately before he went to groan upon such an Occasion as this—He should have groaned as if he had been groaning for his Life, that had taken such a part upon him—but it seems he rather fell a braying then a groaning, and so discover'd himself—for upon the noise, as some Report, or at least, as the Goblin deserv'd, one of the Watch coming up to him, and perceiving by his shoes, that he had no Cloven-Feet, Can't ye be quiet., quo he, in your Grave? I'le make ye quiet; and with that, gave him such a Palt o'th Pate and the Thigh, as quickly chang'd the colour of his Ghostly Habit.

Ralph. I' good faith, the Watchmen did more then all the Committee could do—for they only strove to make him a faigned Goblin, but the Watchman made him a real Raw-Head and Bloody-Bones.—A Catastrophe that such an enterprize justly deserv'd.—But what became of poor Raw-Head and Bloody-Bones?

Will. The now real Goblin was forc'd to confess his name, and the names of his Associates, and to chear up the Watch with Drink and Money for the fright he had put 'em in, and so they let him go, to groan forth his own Lamentations to the Gulls that set him at Work.

Ralph. Well, I will say nothing of the Speech one way nor other, but sure it was an act neither generous nor christian-like, to raise up an Impostor to disturb the silence of a Gentleman's Grave that had paid his last debt to Justice.

Will. Barbarous and papistical, which is as much as needs be said of it.

Finis.

London: Printed by J. Grantham, MDCLXXXIII.

294.

The true Englishman speaking plain English. By Edward Fitzharris. 1681.

There does not appear to be a copy of this book preserved in the British Museum Library: but it is printed in extenso in the fourth volume of Cobbett's Parliamentary History. For writing the same, a prosecution was instituted against Fitzharris. The indictment charges first, that the defendant, described as late of the parish of St. Martin in the Fields, Middlesex, gentleman, did, on the twenty-second day of February, in the thirty-third year of the reign of King Charles the Second, compass treason with one Edmund Everard against the king; and further, that the defendant as a false traitor did treasonably, maliciously and advisedly write and publish a certain most wicked and traitorous libel intituled The true Englishman speaking plain English, in which libel are expressed and declared the treasons and treasonable compassing, imaginations, and purposes of the defendant to excite and persuade the subjects of the King to rise up and rebel against the King and to deprive and depose the King from the style, honour, and royal name of the Imperial Crown of this kingdom, as follows: If James (meaning James, Duke of York) be conscious and guilty, Charles (meaning the King) is so too, believe me, both these are brethren in iniquity, they are in confederacy with Pope and French to introduce Popery and Arbitrary Government as their actions demonstrate. The Parliament, Magna Charta, and liberty of the subject, are as heavy yokes they'd willingly cast off, for to make themselves as absolute as their Brother of France; and if this can be proved to be their aim and main endeavour, why should not every true Briton be a Quaker thus far? And let the English spirit be up and move all as one man to self defence, nay send if need be to open action and fling off those intolerable Riders. (meaning the King and the Duke of York.) And in another part of the aforesaid most wicked and traitorous libel are contained among other things these false, seditious, and traitorous sentences following:—J. and C. (meaning James, Duke of York and the King) both brethren in iniquity, corrupt both in root and branch as you have seen, they study but to enslave you to a Romish and French-like yoke. Is it not plain? Have you not eyes, sense, or feeling? Where is that old English noble spirit? Are you become French asses to suffer any load to be laid upon you? And if you can get no remedy from this next parliament, as certainly you will not, and that the K. repents not, complies not with their advice, then up, all as one man. O brave Englishmen, look to your

(HERE ENDS THE ORIGINAL WORK)