The Court of France has sent a circular letter to all the governors of the provinces, to recommend to their consideration his Majesty’s late conduct in the affair of peace.  It is thought fit in that epistle, to condescend to a certain appeal to the people, whether it is consistent with the dignity of the crown, or the French name, to submit to the preliminaries demanded by the confederates?  The letter dwells upon the unreasonableness of the Allies, in requiring, that his Majesty should assist in dethroning his grandson, and treats this particular in language more suitable to it, as it is a topic of oratory, than a real circumstance, on which the interests of nations, and reasons of State, which affect all Europe, are concerned.

The close of this memorial seems to prepare the people to expect all events, attributing the confidence of the enemy to the goodness of their troops; but acknowledging, that his sole dependence is upon the intervention of Providence.

[Footnote 293:  See No. 26.]

[Footnote 294:  Venice, where mercenaries were employed for fighting purposes.]

[Footnote 295:  The City train-bands were often the subject of ridicule by the wits.  See “Harleian Misc.” i. 206, Cowper’s “John Gilpin,” and Nos. 38, 41.  Tothill Fields, Westminster, and the Artillery Ground, Finsbury, were the usual exercising-grounds for the train-bands.]

[Footnote 296:  The Compter was a prison for the city of London, where debtors and others were confined.]

[Footnote 297:  Steele wrote at length in the Spectator (No. 436) of a trial of skill in the noble art of self-defence at Hockley-in-the-Hole; and in No. 630 there is an allusion to the gladiators of Hockley-in-the-Hole.  In the “Beggar’s Opera,” Mrs. Peachum says:  “You should to Hockley-in-the-Hole and to Marybone, child, to learn valour; there are the schools that have bred so many brave men.”  As to the other sports at the Bear Garden, see No. 134, and Gay’s “Trivia,” ii. 407-12: 

    “When thro’ the town, with slow and solemn air,
    Led by the nostril, walks the muzzled bear;
    Behind him moves, majestically dull,
    The pride of Hockley-hole, the surly bull;
    Learn hence the periods of the week to name: 
    Mondays and Thursdays are the days of game.”

There were seats, at half a crown and upwards, for the quality; the neighbourhood of the Bear Garden was infested by thieves.  The following are specimens of the advertisements common about 1709:  “At the Bear-garden, in Hockley in the Hole.  A trial of skill, to be performed between two profound masters of the noble science of defence, on Wednesday next, the 13th of July, 1702, at two o’clock precisely.  I George Gray, born in the city of Norwich, who has fought in most parts of the West Indies, viz., Jamaica, Barbadoes, and several other parts of the world, in all twenty-five times upon the stage, and was never yet worsted; and am now lately come to London,