Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/270

 256 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1753.

vifible than thofe of her body. A clergyman, who found her one evening at work by a tabic with a candle upon it, put his hat between her eyes and the candle, in fuch a manner that it was impoflible fhe could receive any benefit from the light of it if fhe had not been blind. She continued ftill at her work, with great tranquillity, till putting up her hand iuddeniy to rub her forehead, flie flruck it againft the hat, and difcovcred what was doing; upon which fhe wasthrown into violent convulfions, and was not without great difhcuhy recovered. The family were, by thefe Axperiments, and by fcveral accidental circumftance, fully con- vinced that iTie was totally deaf and blind,particularly by fitting uncon- cerned at her work, during a dread- ful ftorm of thunder and lighten- ing, though flie was then facing the window, and always ufed to be much terrified in fuch circumllan- ces ; but Sir Hans Sloane, her phy- fician, being Uill doubtful of the truth of fail\s, which were fcarce lefs than miraculous, he was per- mitted to fatisfy himfelf by fuch ex- periments and obfervations as he thought proper ; the iffoe of which was, that he pronounced her to be abfolutcly deaf and blind.

She was at length fent to Bath, where fiie was in fomc meai'ure re- lieved, her convulfions being Icfs frequent, and her pains lefs acute; but fhe never recovered her fpcech, her fight, or her hearing, in the leaft degree.

Many of the letters, dated at Bath, in feme of which there are in- ftances of interlineations with a caret, the writer of this narrative hath feen, and they are now in the cullody of the widow of one of her brothers, who, with many

other pcrfons, can fupporl the faiSs here related, howevrr wonderful, with fuch evidence as it would not only be injuftice, but folly, to

difbelicve.

The follonu'ing charailers of Lord Somers, the Duke and Ducbe/s of Marlborough, LcrdGodotphin, Lord Sunderland, Lord Wharton, Lord Coivper, the Earl of Koltuigham, and Sir Robert Walpole, are ex- tracted from ihe bifiory of the four lafi years of the queen, by Dr. Sivift, luho profeffei to dc- fcrihe thrfe qualities in each of them, 'v:hich ftiv of their ad- mirers tuill deny, and luhich ap- peared chiefly to have influenced the?n in aSiifig their feferal parts upon the public flage : ' For I do

' their cbarailcrs tiitire, 'u.'hich
 * not intend (fays he) to draiu


 * <tvould be tedious, and little to the


 * purpofe ; but frail only fingle cut

' habits, nvhich the oiLners avere ' mofl likely to transfer into their ' poijiical fchemes, and nuhich ' ■■vjive mofl fuhfert'lent to the ' defigns they feemcd to have in
 * thofe pajjions, acquirements, and

Thefe chara£lers, and the hiflory
 * --vie-w.^

from ivhence they have been tx- traBed, are far from giving us a 'very jufl idea cf the times, or the perfons they profefs to dc- fcrihe ; they may be read -very ufefully notr^vithflanding this de- fed. For they may fernje as a flrihing example of the rnelancholy efecis of prejudice, and party zeal ; a %eal •which, labilfl it corrupts the heart, vitiates the underfland- iiig itfelf'y and could miflcad a <voriter of fo penetrating a geniut as Dr. S-Tfift, to imagine that poflcrily Hxjould accept fatire in the

place