sorry spectacle, from the foremost rank of spectators. The general belief was that Sheppard was perfectly sane; but there was a general conviction that the boy’s assertion of the hopelessness of expecting mercy at the hands of a king whom he could not own, afforded a sublime opportunity (for showing that mercy) which the sovereign had thrown away. As nobody was the worse for the young Jacobite’s design, his pardon would have shown that King George knew how to triumph over his own passions; ‘but,’ says an audacious Jacobite contemporary, ‘the Great seldom forgive offences committed against themselves.’ Sheppard left a letter and a ‘speech,’ written, it was said, by Orme, which were printed privately, and circulated, in spite of the Government. The boy’s portrait was as secretly and extensively sold, equally in spite of the authorities; and the ministry, having nothing better to do, settled an annuity of 200_l._ a year on the Nonjuror, Leake, for discovering the treason, and clapped the other Nonjuror, Orme, into Newgate, for absolving the traitor. Orme’s chief offence lay in his being the author of the ‘last dying speech,’ in which the crime was justified. ‘Mr. Orme’s friends,’ said the sarcastic Whig papers, ‘are very apprehensive that he will shortly have to prepare a speech for himself!’ [Sidenote: _A JACOBITE TOAST._] Neither severity nor sarcasm could subdue the Jacobite spirit. In the Jacobite taverns a new health was drunk with loud cheers:――‘To Miss Clarke!’ This was the name of a pretty girl, in Sunderland, who had boldly drunk King James’s health, in a mixed company. She was called to account for it, of course; but she was only lightly fined, and several of the justices kissed her, as she passed in front of the bench, on her way out of court. Thence came the health, given in London coffee-houses, ‘to Miss Clarke and her friend,’ as Jacobite revellers lifted their punch to their lips, and winked one eye as they went through this performance. Both eyes subsequently glittered with delight when Orme was liberated unconditionally, as no case could be made out against him. One of the consequences of Sheppard’s crime was to suggest murder to another hot-headed fanatic, of the opposite faction. His name was Bowes. To revenge the design of Sheppard to murder King George, Bowes offered to one of the ministers to go to Italy and murder the so-called King James. He was properly shut up as a madman. [Sidenote: _SATIRICAL PAMPHLET._] Pamphleteers, on their side, were as active as men of darker designs.