him; having no means of immediately raising this sum, het had no alternative but a gaol or matrimony. A very ugly young milliner, who kept a shop in St. George's Fields, had long cast an amorous eye upon the divine. She possessed no more delicacy than himself. She paid his damages, and he rubbed off the score by presenting her with his comely person. He now became chaplain to a noble Earl, (Sandwich) and threw up his curacy. The congregation presented him with a piece of plate, valued at one hundred pounds, which he sold, on the evening it was sent to his lodgings, for fifty guineas and four dozen of claret, to old Price, the keeper of a brothel in Union Street.

At this period of his fortunes, he formed an intimacy with the unfortunate Mr. Hackman, parson, of Gosport, so well remembered for having shot Miss Reay, the mistress of Lord Sandwich, at the door of the Opera House, because she refused to leave her keeper, and live with him.

Latton attended his friend in Newgate, and he left him a considerable sum of money after his execution. No doubt existed in Lord Sandwich's mind that his chaplain was privy to the intrigue that ended so fatally, and he dismissed him from his service.

Latton was not to be so easily put off; he assisted Herbert Croft (another worthy, who quitted the church for the bar, and lived by promulgating slander) in writing a book called "Love and Madness," detailing, in a series of letters, the whole of the correspondence between Hackman and Miss Reay. The noble earl was stigmatized in it by the nick-name of "Auld Robin Gray," a title he carried to his grave. The book was a voluptuous and indecent compound of truth and lies, of which Lord Sandwich prevented a second edition, with additions, by giving Croft a situation in a foreign embassy, and Latton the Vicarage of Woodham, worth about eight hundred pounds per

annum.

Latton, with his wife and three daughters, retired to this benefice, where he lived far beyond his means, and was disliked by all his parishioners.

The vicarage-house had within its walls three several girls that bore children to their reverend master, which were brought up as if legally ushered into the family. Mrs. Latton was truly qualified, in point of indifference, to have been the mother of all mankind: she-good easy woman!-never murmured, and verily thought her husband could do no wrong. He was a perfect Pharisee, overgrown with pride, squabbling at all county meetings for a seat in the first place, never reflecting that a time would arise “when the first should be last, and the last first." He borrowed money from all that would lend, and which he scorned to pay; his mouth was ever open to speak the words of charity, but his hand was always shut; he was not one to" cast his bread upon the waters, in hopes to find it after many days;" with him, "a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush," and he would not go about the bush to delude his prey, but seize boldly upon it at once; he remembered not how his maker had borne with him, but shewed no mercy to those in his power, like Saul, before his eyes were opened " he went about breathing threatenings and slaughter, haling men to prison," and "muzzling the ox that treadeth out the corn" for his own benefit.

He was not one of those "dumb dogs" alluded to in the opening essay to this work, but had the voice of a Stentor

"Which always echoed long and loud,

"Like thunder pealing from a cloud."

The strength of his lungs made him heard in spite of the roaring of the northern ocean, when he preached to ten thousand men, encamped on the sea-sands near North Shields. The Duke of Gloucester appointed him to this office, probably knowing little of his private character, and admiring his eloquence. His drunkenness and debaucheries came to the Duke's ears, and Latton was dismissed from being the soldiers' comforter. He has more than once been dragged home by his poney with his foot in the saddle stirrup, and has dismounted to thrash a toll-gatherer about a penny. He was once caught by a cottager with his daughter, in the church-porch, on a Sunday evening; he beat the poor man most cruelly, and on the fol

lowing week seized and sold his little all for non-payment of tithes, and when the daughter came to beg her seducer's mercy, he told her to "go to the camp, as she was well qualified to become a soldier's troll!"

Latton had been chaplain to the troops four years, at a salary of two hundred pounds. The Duke of Gloucester, who knew and pitied his family, honoured them with a visit; he lamented the failings of Mr. Latton, which had caused him to be dismissed, and said it was always his intention to have added an additional one hundred pounds a-year to his salary. "He is," said the Duke, "totally unworthy of it, and I therefore present it to each of these young ladies," to whom he then handed bank-notes for one hundred pounds.

This generous act deserves to be recorded; the example was lost upon the parson; he continued to abuse and vilify the Duke wherever he went, but Providence put an end to his career of infamy in a manner no less dreadful than just. The races took place on the sands, as usual, in the summer of 1797, and Parson Latton borrowed from a farmer's wife, with whom he cohabited, twenty pounds, and hastened to waste it in betting. He was remarkably short-sighted, and crossing the course on his poney, one of the racers, running at full speed, struck him with his head in the chest; he fell to the earth, and expired. Every one present considered it a judgment for his sins; and as he had lived despised, he died unlamented.

There is a time" when the wicked shall fall," and no one can

save. Death came upon this man "like a thief in the night;"

he had not time to "smite his bosom," and exclaim-" God be merciful to me, a sinner!"-but, laden with sins, rushed into the presence of an offended deity, inflexible in judgment, and rewarding every man according to his works.

We draw the veil of silence over an infamous memory. The church, in losing such a pillar of corruption, gains support; and it is for the glory of religion that such sinners prove in their deaths, that "the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

THE REVEREND JOHN GORDON,

Degraded from the Priesthood for being his brother's Bully, and assisting him in forcibly carrying off the person of Antonia Lee.

"Comest thou against me as a thief, with swords and with staves."

Mrs. Antoinetta, or Antonia Lee, was the natural daughter of Lord Le Despencer. She was married to a Mr. Lee, from whom she lived separate at the time when the Gordons planned and executed their scheme of abduction. She was a singular character, and if we may judge from her published writings, was very ill furnished with intellect, if not tinctured with insanity. She had a considerable fortune at her own disposal, to share in which the Gordons determined to get her into their power. Lockhart Gordon seized and put her into a post-chaise, whilst the Reverend John Gordon stood guard over the servants, with a naked sword and pistols. They hurried her off towards Scotland. John Gordon, at one of the inns, watched her chamber door whilst his brother forcibly cohabited with her. Eventually, Mrs. Lee made her escape from their hands, and the two brothers were tried at Oxford, one for committing a rape, and the other for aiding and assisting in its execution. They were both acquitted; and shortly after, on the death of Mrs. Lee, Lockhart Gordon married the wo man who had endeavoured to swear away his life!-his brother performing the ceremony! This conduct of the reverend gentleman showed him so deficient in morality, that he got his discharge from the bishop, which he ought to have had for the first offence. A minister of the gospel, riding armed through a country, and standing centinel at a tavern door, the scene of filthy prostitution, should not have been tolerated an hour in his office. It is no excuse to say that the woman was equally criminal; it was evident that she, at first, was no willing victim, or the parson would not have gone armed cap-a-pee to the field. A bullying parson is a most despicable character; Mr.

I

Gordon forgot his precepts" who was led like a sheep to the slaughter," and endeavoured to "thrive by the sword:" he has suffered for his, vehemence, and the church would be well rid of all those who presume to arm themselves with any mail but the garb of humility, and combat with any weapons but those of truth, "breathing peace on earth, and good will to mankind."

GRAVE ROBBERY IN SAINT ANN'S CHURCH-YARD.

True statement and just reflections, upon a grave robbery, committed in the Church-yard of Saint Ann's, Soho, when the child of Mr. Nott, No. 5, Richmond Street, was deprived of its covering, after being ten months buried.

That the corruptions of the church are caused by the crimes of the clergy we are ready to maintain, and if all ministers are not guilty of crime, many of them are guilty of neglect; there has an instance of this come to our knowledge, even in our own Parish, which, however it may have been huddled up and withheld from public animadversion for a time, is now destined to appear in all its deformity. About a year ago, a person named Nott, by trade a Shoemaker, living at No. 5, Richmond Street, buried a child in the church-yard of St. Ann's, Soho. About ten months after some children at play near the churchyard, observed several boards flung out to be carried away for firewood, and amongst them the lid of a coffin bearing the inscription of Mr. Nott's child, they carried it to him, and he instantly had all the parties, consisting of Vestry Clerks, Sextons, &c. up to Marlborough Street, it was acknowledged that in order to cause bodies to corrupt sooner and make room in the burying ground, it was customary to remove the coffin lids. Mr. Nott was satisfied on inspection that his infant's body had not been removed, and thus he was induced to comply with the anxious desire of the persons concerned, to keep the atrocity a secret; we have seen and had the coffin lid in our hand, and pledge