_Mr. Horne’s imprisonment_ resulted from the zeal of that radical parson in the cause of America. The Rev. John Horne (1736-1812), afterwards Horne Tooke, wrote and circulated an advertisement for the Constitutional Society, June 1775, stating that 100_l._ was to be raised for “the relief of the widows, orphans, and aged parents of our beloved American fellow-subjects, who, faithful to the character of Englishmen, preferring death to slavery, were, for that reason only, inhumanly murdered by the king’s troops” at Lexington and Concord on the 19th of April. In July 1777 Horne was brought to trial before Lord Mansfield, found guilty, and in November sentenced to a year’s imprisonment and a fine of 200_l._ (_The Annual Register_ for 1777, “Appendix to the Chronicle,” pp. 234-245). The _fatal example of the Justitia_ is an allusion to the _Justitia_ hulk, a convict-ship stationed at Woolwich by an act of 1776 for the purpose of dredging the Thames. The _frequent exhibition of the Beggar’s Opera_ evidently alludes to remarks by Townshend that had excited mirth in a debate on a bill for licensing a play-house in Birmingham, 29 April 1777. Townshend opposed the bill because, he said, He had heard from good authority that the theatre licensed at Manchester, in consequence of a similar application, had done a great deal of mischief already: nor could it be wondered at, if we consider what pieces are sometimes represented, which, not being new, are not subject to the controul of the Lord Chamberlain: the Beggar’s Opera, for instance, which had brought more unhappy people to the gallows, than any one thing he could name. As to the country gentlemen, surely this was not such an age of domestic retirement, but what they might find sufficient amusement in visiting their neighbours in the summer, without wanting to frequent a theatre.... Considering, then, the circumstances of Birmingham as a great manufacturing and trading town, depending on the industry and frugality of the poorer class of people, he was of opinion it would be highly improper to license any theatre there (_Parliamentary History_, XIX, 202). _Is Omiah to pay us another visit?_ Omiah or Omai, a native of Otaheite (Tahiti), was brought to England in 1774 by Captain Tobias Furneaux of the _Adventure_. As the first South Sea Islander ever seen in England, Omiah made a stir in fashionable and literary society, sat for his portrait to the most eminent artists, and was the subject of countless newspaper paragraphs and several pamphlet poems. There are well-known lines by Cowper on Omiah in the first book of _The Task_, 1785: