The Tatler - 1817 Author:Alexander Chalmers Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: that he had never employed himself beyond the twisting of a whip, or the making of a pair of nutcrackers, in which he only worked for his diversion, in order to ... more »make a present now and then to his friends. The prisoner being asked, " what he could say for himself," cast several reflections upon the honourable Mr. Gules; as, " that he was not worth a groat; that nobody in the city would trust him for a half-penny ; that he owed him money which he had promised to pay him several times, but never kept his word; and, in short, that he was an idle beggarly fellow, and of no use to the public." This sort of language was very severely reprimanded by the Censor, who told the criminal, " that he spoke in contempt of the court, and that he should be proceeded against for contumacy, if he did not change his style." The prisoner, therefore, desired to be heard by his counsel, who urged in his defence, " that he put on his hat through ignorance, and took the wall by accident." They likewise produced several witnesses, that he made several motions with his hat in his hand, which are generally understood as an invitation to the person we talk with to be covered; and that, the gentleman not taking the hint, he was forced to put on his hat, as being troubled with a cold. There was likewise an Irishman, who deposed, " that he had heard him cough three- and-twenty times that morning." And as for the- wall, it was alleged, that he had taken it inadvertently, to save himself from a shower of rain which was then falling. The Censor, having consulted the men of honour who sat at his right-hand on the bench, found they were all of opinion, that the defence made by the prisoner's counsel did rather aggravate than extenuate his crime; that the motions and intimations of the hat were a token of superiority ...« less