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quillity was restored within the City. Guards were stationed in the Bank; the East London Militia, the City Light Horse, and Artillery Company, were under arms; and the night was rendered tranquil by numerous patrols of horse parading the streets. Disturbances having manifested themselves at Lambeth about four o'clock, military marched over Westminster-bridge-Foot Guards, Dragoons, and Artillerymen-all with bayonets fixed, or swords drawn. At the Mansion-house, Newgate-street, the Old Bailey, and Blackfriars-road, soldiers were stationed all night, and infantry with piled arms, ready for action, were assembled in the Birdcage-walk.

Thus terminated the riots of the 2nd of December.

Having placed our readers in possession of the facts connected with these unhappy occurrences, we proceed to the statement of such matter as they are wholly unacquainted with.

His

At the conclusion of this unfortunate day, Young Watson made his way to a house in Greystoke-place, where he met Thistlewood, and a person of the name of Preston-his companions in the exploits and follies of the day. Here they consulted about a refuge for him (Young Watson), as there was no doubt he would be hunted for far and wide, and a price set upon his head. person, too, being well known, he would be easily identified. was proposed by Thistlewood (whom, we need hardly say, was the same who, a few years after, suffered the extreme penalty of the law for the foolish affair designated "the Cato-street Conspiracy,") to conduct him to some of his (Watson's) friends in Lincolnshire.

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While engaged in busy consultation, a knock was heard at the door! This caused them considerable alarm, naturally conceiving they had been watched, and traced to their present retreat. proved, however, as was afterwards discovered, to be a friend who had called to see Preston. After some further consultation, they repaired to the lodgings of Doctor Watson, in Dean-street, Fetter-lane, where, by good fortune, they found him (the Doctor). Thistlewood and Young Watson immediately resolved upon leaving London that night—since, all being engaged in the riot, they were equally in danger of arrest.

It is rather a curious fact, that the knock which caused them so much alarm, and which induced them to leave the house in Greystoke-place so soon, was the means of saving their lives! They had not left the house more than an hour, before it was sur

rounded by a posse of constables, with the Lord Mayor at their head, and searched from top to bottom.

About nine o'clock at night, on the second of December, Young Watson, accompanied by his father and Thistlewood-the long unknown third party started on his intended journey, in the hope of obtaining shelter and concealment among his friends in Lincolnshire. Their means were scanty, and the Doctor carried a small bundle of such change of clothes as he could hastily put together. They also took the precaution to arm themselves; and thus furnished, left the Doctor's lodgings, on their route to Lin

colnshire.

They made the best of their way towards Highgate, passing the patrols, and bidding them "good night." Arrived in safety at the top of the hill, they took shelter at a road-side public-house, and partook of some refreshment. Having finished their repast, they continued their journey, and proceeded through the town of Highgate.

At this moment Doctor Watson, who had received a slight injury in the tendons of his heel, during the day, and who was some short distance behind his son and Thistlewood, observed a man on horseback approaching slowly towards him. Apprehensive that the man was a highwayman, he hastened onwards, and soon overtook his companions, to whom he communicated his suspicions. They made some slight remark; and, engaged in earnest conversation, walked a short distance on.

The Doctor was again left a little in the rear of his friends, when, suddenly hearing the trampling of a horse close upon him, he called out "He is here! At this moment the supposed highwayman seized hold of him, and drawing a pistol, said, "Stand still, or I'll blow your brains out." Young Watson and Thistlewood, hearing the outcry, hurried back to the spot, where the Doctor stood in the power of the horseman, who exclaimed, (taking hold of the bundle he carried), "What have you got here?" To which the Doctor replied, "Some linen.' The man having placed the bundle upon his saddle, stretched out his arm, and seized hold of the handle of a pistol the Doctor carried in his breast pocket, again repeating his threat, and telling him to stand still. At this moment he observed two men coming towards them, at the sight of whom Young Watson and Thistlewood, who had advanced to the Doctor's rescue, ran onwards, and were soon lost sight of in the darkness. At the same time the Doctor was

seized upon by the companions, as he then supposed, of the highwayman, who instantly rode off in the direction his two friends had taken, with the view of overtaking them.

One of the watchmen-for such the men proved to be sprung his rattle, and shouted out" Stop thief." A minute had scarcely elapsed, when the Doctor heard the report of a pistol, fired at a short distance, followed by a fearful cry, as of a person shot, and which, in the agitation of the moment, he conceived to be the voice of his son.

In dreadful anxiety and alarm, the Doctor made strenuous efforts to disengage himself from the two men, saying “murder was being committed," and that unless they instantly unhanded him he would run them through the body; and drew a sword from a stick he carried with him. At sight of his sword the men grappled him the harder, and in the struggle one of the men reeled and fell, pulling the Doctor and the other man-it being frosty and slippery-to the ground. Fearful of injuring himself or the men in falling, the Doctor endeavoured to guard the point of the sword with his left hand, and in so doing wounded himself severely.

At the moment they fell, the horseman-alarmed, as was supposed, by the report of the pistol, and not knowing from whence the sound proceeded-galloped back, and, alighting from his horse, seized the Doctor violently, and began to force him towards a public-house-"The Lion and Sun"-from which lights were brought out; and here the horseman, who, for the first time, the Doctor discovered to be a patrol, began searching his pockets, and shouted out that he "had caught a footpad," while one or other of the two watchmen-Rhodes and Golding--who were intoxicated, kept flourishing his sword, as though to run him through.

After taking his money, lancets, &c., from his pockets, and tearing his eyeglass from his buttonhole, they proceeded to secure him. But as the handcuffs they produced were too large, they tied a handkerchief tightly round his wrists, to prevent their slipping off. He was then chained to the saddle of the patrol's horse, and walked down to Somers Town watch-house.

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On his way thither, the Doctor had the satisfaction of hearing, from a watchman guarding him, that his son was safe. appeared that this man, hearing the 66 of cry Stop thief." attempted to seize Young Watson in his flight, who fired at him,

and that in terror he had uttered the cry heard by the Doctor, although unhurt by the discharge. Uttering a dreadful scream, as though he had received a mortal wound, the watchman fell back, and Young Watson, though almost within his grasp, again escaped.

This event happened in a narrow passage, at the far end of Highgate. Young Watson-freed from the grasp of the watchman with his companion Thistlewood ran forward, climbed over a paling into a garden, and, favoured by the darkness of the night, lay concealed. When the tumult and bustle had in some degree subsided, they clambered into a neighbouring field, and proceeded westward towards Hampstead. It was very dark; and, utterly at a loss which way to bend their steps, they wandered about until they found a footpath leading to a lane crossing Lord Mansfield's estate. Here they lay down under a hedge, for a short time, not knowing where they were; and, while thus ensconced, heard the voices of several persons, evidently in search of them, and who cautioned each other as to "their having firearms."

After some little time they came from their hiding-place, and again wandered about the fields, with the intent of returning to London, and so learn tidings of the Doctor, about whom they were most uneasy. At length, growing weary, they stretched themselves upon some hurdles, and slept soundly.

At daybreak they were awoke by a carter smacking his whip, as he passed along the road with his team. Proceeding onwards, Thistlewood said he knew a woman of the name of Hunt (who had formerly been servant to his wife's mother, and whose husband was a journeyman carpenter), residing in East-street, Manchester-square. To these poor people Thistlewood proposed to go, with Young Watson, to obtain refreshments, and to consult upon future measures. With this determination they walked down the lane through Caen Wood to Hampstead, and so on over Primrose-hill into the Edgeware-road.

They here met a working-man, who stopped, seemed to take notice of them, and smiled; but whether at their dirty condition, or through recollecting them in connection with the previous day, they did not know. They passed on, and reached Hunt's residence in safety, where for the present we will leave them.

H. HOLL.

THE PLACE OF THE FINE ARTS IN THE NATURAL SYSTEM OF SOCIETY.

"WE live in an artificial state of society," is a common assertion, though the boundaries between it and the natural state are not defined nor illustrated. In common language, Nature and Civilisation are opposed to each other-the latter being regarded as an exotic, a forced growth of political skill, a magnificent product of art, in no wise governed by the same natural laws as the original brute condition of mankind, nor formed by the same creative hand which placed the race originally on the earth. Like the locomotive or the ship, civilisation is said to be a contrivance of an individual or a succession of individuals-of some gifted, wise, and foreseeing legislators, who established rules for conduct leading to improvement, and constituted it the duty of a governing class to enforce them on the observance of the vulgar multitude. Reflection suggests a doubt of the accuracy of this theory. The instant our attention is directed to the subject, we perceive that the sexes always preserve their distinguishing characteristics. They are physically and morally different now as at the beginning, and their union is at all times the basis of the whole society. One leading fact, then-one great natural law-lies equally at the foundation of society in its earliest and its most advanced stages. Is the whole vast and complicated, beautiful and various, superstructure of modern society the spontaneous growth of the same great fact, or the artificial contrivance of a succession of lawgivers ?

That certain aspiring men have continually attempted to model society, must at once be admitted; that they succeeded in restraining and modifying its exuberant form, and have checked its growth, must also be granted; but that they are therefore the authors of civilisation is no more true, than that the man who fells, and lops, and squares the lofty oak makes the timber of the forest. That they have interposed between Nature and individuals a great barrier of legislation, expressly to ward off the natural consequences of action, and generate the belief that they are the guardians and protectors of mankind, is abundantly

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