DOCTOR SAUNDERS ;

Or, the Methodist Preacher, Major Holland, (patronized by the Duke of Kent ;) who changed his Religion thrice, his conduct never, for he always remained-a villain.

'Now Barrabas was a Robber.'

Field preachers are as numerous almost as the beasts of the field, and many of them possessing no better understandings. There are a gang of methodistical vagabonds who secede from the mother church, either because they do not comprehend the purity of its doctrines, or that they have disgraced it by their conduct, and see a readier way to wealth than by the path of virtue, namely, the broad high road upon which they way-lay the ignorant, and howl in their ears" a song of Zion," which peradventure the listeners do not understand, but believe, as the old woman did, who said Mr. Roger understands scripture things better than all the priests preaching in churches. How do you know that, Goody,' said a friend, seeing you are deaf and cannot hear him? No matter for that,'-replied Goody, I can see by his lips, he speaks so fast that he must know what he is talking about;' hundreds who attend these fellows are not a whit better judges than Goody. Stepney fields is a favourite spot for these false prophets' to labour in, where the harvest is many of the idle, ignorant, and profligate. In summer, (for the spirit does not warm them in winter) I have seen six or seven of them planted on carts and dunghills, or broken gates, canting, storming, and singing to gaping fools, and in the evening have witnessed them in tap-rooms, swallowing-not the truths of the gospel, nor the "bread and wine which the Lord hath commanded to be received," but fried sausages, Welch rabits, and gin and beer, which their miserable disciples even pawn their garments to furnish them with. Their impudence is their guide; they first appear on the highways and hedges, they then get into fields and gardens, and eventually

slip over the threshold, exclaiming peace be unto this house,' into which they carry discord and every other vice; one good real churchman is worth a hundred of these brawlers, who, like the foxes of Sampson, 'gather not in the harvest, but set fire to the standing corn, and are as destroyers let loose upon mankind.' John Holland was one of the first amongst these hypocrites, originally a blacksmith, in the centre of the Staffordshire potteries; at the early age of seventeen he quitted shoeing horses, and making rail-ways, to rail his way towards heaven. A prophet meets no credit in his own country, and a sound horse whipping from the hand of a divine at Newcastle, drove John from the kiln on which he was holding forth, to Stepney fields, near London, as fast as his heels could carry him. The hue and cry of a bastard child, that appendage to all méthodist preachers, served not a little to quicken his pace. At the end of two years, John, who had made little progress in converting sinners, converted to his own use a silver pint, the property of a lady, under whose vine and fig tree' he had often been nourished; he was pursued and taken; for security he had placed the pint in his gallegaskins, which were searched, and thus the cup being found in Benjamin's sack,' he was detained. The lady refused to prosecute one of the fallen angels,' and he got permission to enlist for a soldier; he became noted for his courage; the fellow feared not God, consequently not death. He was promoted to be a sergeant-major in the African corps, and married, at Tilbury Fort, a very pretty girl, whose virtue had long been as valueless as John Holland's character. With her he went to Goree, and had the good fortune to be placed under the orders of governor Wall, who was hanged at Newgate for murder, nineteen years after it was committed. He became a sort of confidential secretary to the governor, and was at times preacher and kidnapper of poor Africans, whom he collected together under pretence of teaching them to live in peace with one another; and when those from the country came in sufficient numbers to suit his purpose, he had them seized upon, and conveyed on board of ship, to endure all the horrors of slavery.

By this infamous mode, and the prostitution of his wife, he procured a commission, and was recommended, by one destined to be hanged for his crimes, to the commander-in-chief; he was made a captain in the colonial service, and prepared to go abroad; for some reason he preferred remaining in London, and under, the patronage of Lord B-, came forth on the Drury Lane boards as Octavian, in the Mountaineers, he was hissed off the stage, and wisely changed the scene by joining his regiment in the Island of Cape Breton, situated in the gulph of St. Lawrence, North America. Not having much to occupy his time, and a chaplain being allowed to the garrison at Sydney, the capital town, he abjured methodism, and put on the gown, officiating as chaplain for some years; but it at length appeared that Captain Holland had regularly drawn on the waroffice for the chaplain's salary, which he devoutly appropriated to his own use; he was dismissed the service, but through his wife's intimacy with the rulers of the land,' got made townmajor. When he buried Rachael,' and instigated by the evil spirit shortly after her death, he committed a rape upon a wretched settler, quite a simpleton, she could not be made to comprehend the nature of an oath, and he was permitted to depart in safety' from the island; he prevailed upon an Indian to carry him to the main land in his canoe; the Indian had property in charge for people at Halifax, to the amount of sixhundred dollars, Major Holland landed alone at the town of Pictou. and reported the Indian was washed overboard, no enquiry was made, and he proceeded to upper Canada, where he left the Protestant church, and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest by the bishop; he was sent among the Indians, and so successfully fleeced them, that the bishop became jealous of his wealth, and threatened to degrade him; a cause very soon occurred. A woman on her death-bed, accused him of incest with herself and daughter, and he fled the country; at the village of Necker, near Montreal, where his degradation was unknown, he received a sum of money from the church, asserting he was going on a special mission to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Lower Canada; a horse which was lent him he

sold at Quebec, from whence he also obtained money of the fathers. He embarked in a schooner, and sailed for St. John's in Newfoundland, where he again assumed the garb and exterior of a Methodist, he was admired for his preaching; and pleading poverty, a considerable sum of money was collected for him, and he sailed for England; on his departure it was discovered that he had robbed the gentleman with whom he lodged of a gold watch, four silver candlesticks, and fifty guineas in gold. The ship in which he sailed put back in a storm, and the colonists rejoiced to think they would now punish his villainy; but his usual good fortune attended him, he had removed on board an American vessel at sea, and gone no one knew where; suddenly he appeared at Charlestown in Virginia, where he commenced preacher under the assumed name of Dr. Saunders, but for an attempt to commit a rape had again to fly. He commenced strolling player, and even appeared on the stage at New York; his restless spirit of evil would not let him find a place of abode any where in Kentucky he opened a spirit store, but was detected in an unnatural connection with a black boy, he ran from an enraged mob, and attempting to swim, over the river Delawar was drowned, his corpse was swept away into the ocean as unworthy of burial in the earth he had polluted by his enormities. Thus perished Dr. Saunders, alias Major Holland: there are many in London who remember this glorious pillar of methodism, if there be (as the methodists assert) an everlasting fire prepared for the wicked, we are satisfied where this infamous wretch now remains.

THE REV. PARSON SIR ROBERT PEAT, D. D.

Once a King's Chaplain, and now a Parson in the King's Bench.

This hero of the pulpit is one of those far travelled gentlemen, who think they have a licence to tell lies, and that we

tarry-at-home travellers are bound to believe them: where he was born, bred and educated, is of no more consequence than where Hartley, the lying felon was buried, and the lives of the two may bear a parallel, inasmuch as they both afford examples of talents misapplied, and lives which might have been respectable if properly directed, being rendered useless from a propensity to wandering abroad and lying at home. By some means or other, best known to himself, Mr. Peat prevailed upon Stanislaus, lacivious Kate of Russia's King of Poland, to confer upon him the honour of knighthood; (we even doubt this, as poor Stanislaus has a numerous set of count's and dignitries in this country, bearing his cross, whom he never saw; there is one of his counts (Botalski) also in the Bench, he may prove a fit companion for sir Robert, as he is one of the most audacious liars we ever knew; when sir Robert came to London, he applied to his majesty for a confirmation of his title, which he found was not much respected by the legitimate knights of British growth. The king, it is said, refused, until sir Robert made him understand that the consequences would be to him a loss of 30,0007. when his majesty, always more good than wise, declared none of his subjects should lose such a sum when a slap from his sword could prevent it, he accordingly dubbed him an English sir Robert, and he went forth on the country extolling himself to all that chose "to hear and believe"-probably sir Robert remembers what Mr. Plowden said of him; we shall not at present repeat it, though it was quite sufficient to prove that sir Robert did no honour to his title, or the church. He married a lady named Smith, of Durham, famous for having every finger barbed like a fish hook, to which her neighbours' goods, that she always coveted, became attached, as if by instinct or the powers of the magnet. A humbugging tale of " mock heroics" led this pilferer into the power of an adventurer, who was allured by the charms of her purse, and valued her person only as the string which drew it open for him to plunder. Sir Robert's disposition is a bad one; proud, tyrannical, and overbearing, he never agreed with any person longer than suited his convenience, and his arrogance often caused him to lose a friend