Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/96

26 operations of the Spencean (or Spencean Philanthropists) and Hampden Societies. The evidence disclosed that there was to be a sudden rising in the dead of night; the soldiers were to be surprised; the barracks, the Tower, and the Bank to be seized, and London to be fired. The cry was, "No Regent, no Castlereagh! Off with their heads! No taxes! No bishops: they are only useless lumber!" On the same date we have Mr. Grenfell calling attention to the enormous profits made by the Bank of England; in twenty years (since 1797) the profits had been not less than twenty-seven millions.

On the 4th of March the royal assent to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act is noted. On the 20th of March we have the Committee of Finance recommending that, after the death of the present possessors, the governorship of the Isle of Wight and the office of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports should be abolished; and those interested in theatrical matters will find in the same number a report of the meeting of the proprietors of Drury Lane Theatre, at which it was stated that the total receipts since its rebuilding had been, for the first year, 79.925l. 14s.; for the second year, 68,389l. 3s.; the third year, 61,585l. 8s. 5d.; and the fourth, 49,586l. 17s.

The same number contains a report of Southey's application on the 18th of March to the Court of Chancery for an injunction to restrain Messrs. Sherwood, Neely & Jones from the publication of 'Wat Tyler.' Sir Samuel Romilly resisted on the ground that it was not such a publication as entitled the author to the protection of the Court. He would venture to say that " a more dangerous, mischievous, and seditious publication had never issued from the press." The Lord Chancellor said he would take the book home to read, and the next day he refused the injunction. In the May number the leading passages from Southey's 'Apology' are given.

On the 5th of April it is reported from Cambridge that the Vice-Chancellor had commanded the Union to discontinue its discussions "as inconsistent with the discipline and objects of academical education."

The June number devotes a supplement to the trial of James Watson the elder, who, with the other State prisoners, Arthur Thistlewood, Thomas Preston, and John Hooper, had been confined in the Tower. The trial lasted eight days, when, Watson being