right and wrong; that it is begotten of intolerance and persecution;
that it is senseless, besotted, inveterate and unmerciful; all History
teaches us. But perhaps we do not know it in our hearts too well,
to profit by even so humble an example as the 'No Popery' riots of
Seventeen Hundred and Eighty.

However imperfectly those disturbances are set forth in the following
pages, they are impartially painted by one who has no sympathy with the
Romish Church, though he acknowledges, as most men do, some esteemed
friends among the followers of its creed.

In the description of the principal outrages, reference has been had to
the best authorities of that time, such as they are; the account given
in this Tale, of all the main features of the Riots, is substantially
correct.

Mr Dennis's allusions to the flourishing condition of his trade in those
days, have their foundation in Truth, and not in the Author's fancy. Any
file of old Newspapers, or odd volume of the Annual Register, will prove
this with terrible ease.

Even the case of Mary Jones, dwelt upon with so much pleasure by the
same character, is no effort of invention. The facts were stated,
exactly as they are stated here, in the House of Commons. Whether they
afforded as much entertainment to the merry gentlemen assembled there,
as some other most affecting circumstances of a similar nature mentioned
by Sir Samuel Romilly, is not recorded.

That the case of Mary Jones may speak the more emphatically for
itself, I subjoin it, as related by SIR WILLIAM MEREDITH in a speech in