Having thus selected such preliminary observations as were necessary by way of introduction in the nature of prolegomena, I now approach with equal awe and interest to the main point, which is, as I said before, to ascertain what the Cat was by which Whittington made himself to be so well remembered, and which is inseparable from him in history and imagination. Who thinks of Whittington without thinking of a Cat? Who with any love of sacred antiquity can see a Cat without thinking of Whittington? An English author records a speech made by a very erudite orientalist and profound scholar, at a meeting of the Society of Antiquarians, which was preserved in the minutes of that society, through the generous care of Mr. S. Foote, and which I am enabled to lay before my readers, by the favour of Sir Richard Phillips, who, for the trifling sum of fifteen shillings, obliged me with the works of that eminent Grecian, for so I presume he was, from his having acquired the surname of Aristophanes. "Permit me," says the orator, "to clear up some doubts relative to a material and interesting point of the English History. Let others toil to illumine the dark annals of Greece and Rome; my searches are sacred only to the service of Britain. "That Whittington lived, no doubt can be made; that he was Lord Mayor of London, is equally true; but--as to HIS CAT--that, gentlemen, is the Gordian knot to untie--and here, gentlemen, be it permitted to me to define what a Cat is--a Cat is a domestic, whiskered, four-footed animal, whose employment is catching of mice; but let a Cat have been ever so subtle, ever so successful, to what could her captures amount?--no tanner could curry the skin of a mouse--no family could make a meal of the meat--consequently, no Cat could give Whittington his wealth--from whence does the error proceed? Be that my care to point out. "The commerce this wealthy merchant carried on, was chiefly confined to our coasts--for this purpose, he constructed a vessel, which, from its aptness and lightness, he christened A CAT; nay, gentlemen, to this day--all our coals are imported from Newcastle in nothing but CATS--from thence it appears that it was not the whiskered, four-footed--mouse-killing Cat--but the coasting, sailing, carrying CAT--that, gentlemen, was Whittington's Cat." Vide _opera omnia_ Sam. Foot. Tit. Nabob.---- I cannot, however, consent in this instance to judge "ex pede Herculem." However ingenious this learned gentleman's view of the case may be, we are upon one particular decidedly at issue; and I think I shall be able to shew, that Whittington not only did not derive his wealth from the renowned Cat, but that the Cat was the ultimate cause of his ruin.