ir head; and the most extraordinary
discoveries were reported to be made. On the same day, moreover, which,
by a curious coincidence, was the birthday of the Chevalier de Saint
George, mobs were collected together in the streets, and the health of
that prince was publicly drunk under the title of James the Third;
while, in many country towns, the bells were rung, and rejoicings held,
as if for a reigning monarch:--the cry of the populace almost
universally being, "No King George, but a Stuart!"

The adherents of the Chevalier de Saint George, we have said, were
lavish in promises to their proselytes. Posts were offered to all who
chose to accept them. Blank commissions, signed by the prince, to be
filled up by the name of the person, who could raise a troop for his
service, were liberally bestowed. Amongst others, Mr. Kneebone, whose
interest was not inconsiderable with the leaders of his faction,
obtained an appointment as captain in a regiment of infantry, on the
conditions above specified. With a view to raise recruits for his corps,
the warlike woollen-draper started for Lancashire, under the colour of a
journey on business. He was pretty successful in Manchester,--a town
which may be said to have been the head-quarters of the disaffected. On
his return to London, he found that applications had been made from a
somewhat doubtful quarter by two individuals, for the posts of
subordinate officers in his troop. Mr. Kneebone, or, as he would have
preferred being styled, Captain Kneebone, was not perfectly satisfied
with the recommendations forwarded by the applicants. But this was not a
season in which to be needlessly scrupulous. He resolved to judge for
himself. Accordingly, he was introduced to the two military aspirants at
the Cross Shovels in the Mint, by our old acquaintance, Baptist
Kettleby. The Master of the Mint, with whom the Jacobite captain had
often had transactions before, vouched for their being men of honour and
loyalty; and Kneebone was so well satisfied with his representations,
that he at once closed the matter by administering to the applicants the
oath of allegiance and fidelity to King James the Third, and several
other oaths besides, all of which those gentlemen took with as little
hesitation as the sum of money, afterwards tendered, to make the compact
binding. The party, then, sat down to a bowl of punch; and, at its
conclusion, Captain Kneebone regretted that an engagement to spend the
evening