and disclosing them to their right owners, exacting his fee before he made his communication. He then generalized into trying to get fees from all of the name belonging to a dividend; and he gave mysterious hints of danger impending. For instance, he would write to a clergyman that a legal penalty was hanging over him; and when the alarmed divine forwarded the sum required for disclosure, he was favoured with an extract from some old statute or canon, never repealed, forbidding a clergyman to be a member of a corporation, and was reminded that he had insured his life in the Office, which had a royal charter. He was facetious, was Joseph: he described himself in his circulars as 'personally known to Sir Peter Laurie and all other aldermen'; which was nearly true, as he had been before most of them on charges of false pretence; but I believe he was nearly always within the law. Sir James Duke, when Lord Mayor, having particularly displeased him by a decision, his circulars of 1849 contain the following:—
'Should you have cause to complain of any party, Sir J. Duke has contrived a new law of evidence, viz., write to him, he will consider your letter sufficient proof, and make the parties complained of pay without judge or jury, and will frank you from every expense.'
I strongly suspect that Joseph Ady believed in himself.
He sometimes issued a second warning, of a Sibylline character:—
'Should you find cause to complain of anybody, my voluntary referee, the Rt. Hon. Sir Peter Laurie, Kt., perpetual Deputy Lord Mayor, will see justice done you without any charge whatever: he and his toady, . The accursed of Moses can hang any man: thus, by catching him alone and swearing Naboth spake evil against God and the King. 'Therefore (!) I admit no strangers to a personal conference without a prepayment of 20s. each. Had you attended to my former notice you would have received twice as much: neglect this and you will lose all.'
Zadkiel's Almanac for 1849, Nineteenth number.
Raphael's Prophetic Almanac for 1849. Twenty-ninth number.
Reasons for belief in judicial astrology, and remarks on the dangerous character of popish priestcraft. London, 1849, 12mo.
Astronomy in a nutshell: or the leading problems of the solar system solved by simple proportion only, on the theory of magnetic attraction. By Lieut. Morrison, R.N. London (s. a.) 12mo.
Lieut. Morrison is Zadkiel Tao Sze, and declares himself in real earnest an astrologer. There are a great many books on
