6
commander. The Admiral, from some cause or other, took a liking to the young man, and exalted him step by step, till at last he was promoted to be prize-master of the fleet. In this situation he accumulated £60,000. This sum was transmitted to Edinburgh, and deposited in the royal Bank of Scotland. At the same time the flax-dresser wrote to his former employers in Dunfermline, to desire his father to purchase an estate to the amount of the above sum, and as near to his native place as possible. The old man was sent for, and too hastily acquainted with the affluent circumstances of his son. The effect was fatal. The sudden tide of joy rushed with such impetuosity upon him that he stood motionless : his eyes expanded, his nostrils dilated, his mouth wide open, like the picture of horror. At last he fell insensible upon the floor, never spoke more, and expired in the course of a few days.
———
TERROR OF a CITY.
In the year 1750, the city of London was greatly alarmed by two terrible shocks of an earthquake, which happened precisely within a month of each other. This unusual visitation filled the minds of the affrighted inhabitants with the greatest dismay and apprehension of another periodical shock, still more destructive than the first. This notion was propagated among all ranks of people, by a fanatic soldier, who
