for three
parliaments, and was the most popular candidate that ever appeared on
the Garrat hustings. His occupation was that of buying #OLD WIGS#,
once an article of trade like that in old clothes, but become obsolete
since the full-bottomed and full-dressed wigs of both sexes went out
of fashion. Sir Jeffrey usually carried his wig-bag over his shoulder,
and, to avoid the charge of vagrancy, vociferated, as he passed along
the streets, "old wigs;" but, having a person like Esop, and a
countenance and manner marked by irresistible humour, he never
appeared without a train of boys, and curious persons, whom he
entertained by his sallies of wit, shrewd sayings, and smart
repartees; and from whom, without begging, he collected sufficient to
maintain his dignity of mayor and knight. He was no respecter of
persons, and was so severe in his jokes on the corruptions and
compromises of power, that, under the iron regime of Pitt and Dundas,
when freedom was treason, and truth was blasphemy, this political
punch, or street-jester, was prosecuted for using what were then
called seditious expressions; and, as a caricature on the times, which
ought never to be forgotten, he was in 1793 tried, convicted, and
imprisoned! In consequence of this affair, and some charges of
dishonesty, he lost his popularity, and, at the general election for
1796, was ousted by Sir Harry Dimsdale, muffin-seller, a man as much
deformed as himself. Sir Jeffrey could not long survive his fall; but,
in death as in life, he proved a satire on the vices of the proud, for
in 1797 he died, like Alexander the Great, and many other heroes
renowned in the historic page--of suffocation from excessive drinking!

Sir Harry Dimsdale dying also before the next general election, and no
candidate starting of sufficient originality of character, and, what
was still more fatal, the victuallers having failed to raise a #PUBLIC
PURSE#, which was as stimulating a bait to the _independent_
candidates for Garrat, as it is to the _independent_ candidates for a
certain assembly; the borough of Garrat has since remained vacant, and
the populace have been without a _professed_ political buffoon.

None but those who have seen a London mob on any great holiday can
form a just idea of these elections. On several occasions, a hundred
thousand persons, half of them in carts, in hackney-coaches, and on
horse and ass-back, covered the various roads from London, and choaked
up all the app