LIBRARY

JANUARY.

Marlborough-street.

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M. M GLASHAN, a dancing-master, in Ridinghouse-lane, was charged by Mr. Davies, a corn-chandler, near Fitzroy-square, with robbing him under the following circumstances: The prisoner had been engaged to attend in his professional capacity. It happened that Mr. Davies was frequently from home; and the prisoner, availing himself of the opportunity, took the children into the counting-house, and, under pretence of showing them slight of hand tricks, contrived to send them into different parts of the house. In their absence, he opened the till and desk, and helped himself to its contents. Mr. Davies said, he had missed money to a considerable amount, and was at a loss to account for the theft at length, suspicion attached to the prisoner; and, on obtaining a search-warrant and proceeding to his lodgings, he found a bunch of keys, on which was a key particularly marked, which Mr. Davies identified as belonging to the desk in his counting-house. Upon the prisoner were found duplicates of a timepiece, pledged at Mr. Grover's, VOL. LXI.

in Greek-street; and a diamond, pledged at a pawnbroker's in the Strand. His servant also found the key of the till concealed under the carpet.

14. Guildhall.-A lamentable instance of the effects of infatuation and religious enthusiasm was exhibited at this office yesterday. Samuel Sibley and Maria Catherine Sibley his wife, Samuel Jones and his son, a boy of ten years old, Thomas Jones, John Angel, Thomas Smith, James Dodd, and Edward Slater, a boy of 12 years of age, were brought up from the Compter, by Beaton and Gibbon, officers of Cordwainers' Ward, who had with great difficulty, and at the hazard of their own lives, rescued the prisoners from the fury of an immense mob, in Budge-row, Cannon-street, about ten o'clock yesterday morning.

These deluded people were, it appeared, disciples of the lately famousJoanna Southcott, of whom our readers heard so much two or three years ago, and conceived themselves directed by God to proclaim the coming of the Shiloh on earth: for this purpose they assembled at the west end of the town, in order to enter the only gate of the great city (Temple-bar), through which they marched in procession about nine

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o'clock in the morning; they were each decorated with a white cockade, and wore a small star of yellow riband on their left breasts; Sibley led the procession, bearing a brazen trumpet, adorned with light blue ribands, and the boys carried each a small flag of blue silk. In this manner they proceeded through Fleet-street, up Ludgate-hill, and along St. Paul's Church-yard, to Budgerow, a great crowd following them, increasing continually as they proceeded. Having arrived, as they supposed, in the middle of the great city, they halted, and began to perform their ceremonies. Sibley sounded the trumpet, and proclaimed the second coming of the Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, on earth; and his wife cried out aloud, "Wo! wo! to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the coming of the Shiloh." This cry was repeated several times, and joined in with a loud voice by the others in company. The crowd was by this time immense, every avenue was stopped up, and the passage of carts and carriages rendered impossible. The mob began with laughing and shouting at these miserably deluded people, and at length proceeded to pelting them with mud and every sort of missile they could procure; they, on their part, being most of them stout young men, resisted; the fight became general and tremendous, the flags were torn down, and Sibley and his associates with great difficulty preserved, by the exertions of the officers, from falling victims to the infuriated rage of the mob, and conveyed to the Compter.

Their appearance, when put to the bar, bespoke the dangers they had gone through; the men had all been rolled in the mud, and Sibley bore evident marks of violence in his face.

On being called upon by the magistrate, Mr. Alderman Bridges, to give an account of their conduct, in thus disturbing the public peace, Sibley, with an air of authority, directed the others to be silent, and, addressing the Aiderman, said, he regretted there was not time for him to enter into the particulars of the mission of God to him. He had been commanded by a voice, through the boy Slater, to announce that the Prince of Peace was come upon earth. He was commanded to proclaim the second coming of Shiloh, in the same manner, and with the same authority, as John the Baptist had proclaimed his first coming. This proclamation he was to make three times in the midst of the great city, by the sound of the trumpet. He and his companions were obeying the commands of God, and in so doing had conducted themselves peaceably, and interfered with no one, when they were attacked by the mob.

He was proceeding to explain the nature of the visions with which the boy had been favoured, and his wife was raising her voice to bear testimony to the fact of the Shiloh being on earth, whom she said she had had in her arms four times, when the magistrate interrupted them, and observed that it was evident, if they were not insane, that they were acting under a strong delusion, and pointed out to them how much

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better they would have been employed in pursuing their regular avocations, than in being the cause of public riot, and endan gering their own persons, recommending them to desist from any repetitions of their gross absurdities and delusions.

The men in reply said, it was right they should obey God; but they would do whatever the magistrate directed, and desist from any further proclamation, assuring him at the same time that nevertheless the Shiloh was come. The Alderman said he would not rely on their promise, and should detain them all in custody till they could procure him some better assurance than their own words for their peaceable demeanour in future. They were accordingly conveyed back to the Compter in two coaches to protect them from the mob; one of the men on stepping into the coach unbuttoned his coat, displayed his yellow star; and placing his hand on it, proclaimed aloud that it was God's colour.

The male prisoners are journeymen mechanics, and appeared to be simple, deluded, but peaceable men. Sibley, the leader, is a watchman in Coleman-street ward..

On Monday last an inquisition was held at Snape, Suffolk, before John Wood, jun. gent.. Coroner for the Liberty of St. Etheldred, on view of the body of Elizabeth Emerson, aged about 18. It appeared in evidence, that she had enjoyed a sound mind and per fect understanding up to seven o'clock on Sunday morning, about which time her mistress, Mrs. Groom (wife of a large and

respectable farmer in that parish), reprimanded her slightly for some trifling misconduct : in about half an hour afterwards she was found hanging by a cotton handkerchief to the curtain-rod of her mistress's bed, quite lifeless. The jury, after an investigation of the cir cumstances for four hours, felt themselves under the painful necessity of returning a verdict of Felo de se; in consequence of which the body was, about seven o'clock the same evening, committed to the earth of a crossway in the parish, in the presence of numerous spectators, who behaved with great decorum during the awful ceremony.

15. Extract of a Letter from St. Ann's, Jamaica, Nov. 14, 1818. "We have had terrible weather; last night we had the severest hurricane I ever experienced: it must have done immense damage. Several buildings are blown down, amongst the rest my kitchen; this is the first time I have known a building blown down here. Several cocoanut trees, the toughest wood known, being composed entirely of elastic fibres, are snapped in two. Sleep during the violence of the tempest was out of the question. I was in a low house, well sheltered, notwithstanding which it tottered at intervals, as if occasioned by an earthquake. Many left their houses for security; others, frightened from their beds, just sheltered within their doors, starting out when the tremendous gusts threatened their destruction. We had heavy gales from the N.E. and E. for three days before, which had raised a tremendous sea, which came B 2

pouring