A SECOND FIRE DESIGNED. 241 place where the fatal fire began, which he persisted in to the last moments of his execution. He was hanged upon no other evidence: though his broken account made some believe him melancholy mad.* But Oates several years afterwards informed the world the execrable deed was performed by a knot of eighty jesuits, friars, and priests, of several nations.+ After all examinations there was but one man tried for being the incendiary, who confessing the fact, was executed for it: this was Robert Hubert, a French Hugenot, of Rohan, in Normandy, a person falsely said to be a Papist, but really a sort of lunatic, who by mere accident was brought into England just before the breaking out of the fire, but not landed till two days after, as appeared by the evidence of Laurence Peterson, the master of the ship who had him on board.‡ It was soon after complained of, that Hubert was not suffi ciently examined who set him to work, and who joined with him. And Mr. Hawles, in his remarks upon Fitzharris's trial is bold to say, that the Commons resolving to examine Hubert upon that matter next day, Hubert was hanged before the house sat, so could tell no farther tales. Lord Russell and Sir Henry Capel observed to the House of Commons (1680) that those that were taken in carrying on that wicked act, were generally discharged without trial. In 1679, the House of Commons were suddenly alarmed with an information of a fresh design of the Papists to burn London a second time. The house of one Bird, in Fetter-lane, being set on fire, his servant Elizabeth Oxly, was suspected of firing it wilfully, and sent to prison. She confessed the fact, and declared she had been employed to do it by one Stubbs, a Papist, who had promised her five pounds. Stubbs being taken up, confessed he persuaded her to do it, and that Father Giffard, his confessor, put him upon it; telling him it was no sin to burn all the houses of heretics. He added he had frequent conferences on this affair with Giffard and two Irishmen. Stubbs and the maid declared, the Papists were to make an insurrection, and expected an army of sixty thousand men from France. It was generally inferred from this incident, that it was not Giffard's fault (nor that of his party), that the city of London was not burnt, as in the year 1666; and confirmed those in their opinion who thought * Burnet, Abr., 120. + Howell, Impartial History of James II., i. 9 Echard, i. 169. VOL V. B that general conflagration was the contrivance and work of the Papists. The hand of man was made use of in the beginning and carrying on of this fire. The beginning of the fire at such a time when there had been so much hot weather which had dried the houses, and made them the more fit for fuel; the beginning of it in such a place, where there were so many timber houses, and the shops filled with so much combustible matter; and the beginning of it just when the wind did blow so fiercely upon that corner toward the rest of the city, which then was like tinder to the sparks; this doth smell of a popish design, hatched in the same nest with the gunpowder plot. The world sufficiently knows how correspóndent this is to popish principles and practices; they might, without any scruple of their kinds of conscience, burn an heretical city, as they count it, into ashes: for beside the dispensations they can have from his holiness (rather his wickedness) it is not unlikely but they count such an action as this meritorious. Lord Chancellor (Earl of Nottingham) in his speech in giving judgment against Lord Viscount Stafford, said, "Who can doubt any longer that London was burnt by Papists ?" though there was not one word in the whole trial relating to it. The inscription on the plinth of the lower pedestal of the Monument has given an opportunity to the Reverend Mr. Crookshanks to say, it appears that the Papists were the authors of the fire, and that the Parliament being of the same persuasion, addressed the king. The inscription is in English : "This pillar was set up in perpetual remembrance of the most dreadful burning of this protestant city, begun and carried on by the treachery and malice of the popish faction, in the beginning of September, in the year of our Lord 1666. In order to the carrying on their horrid plot for extirpating the protestant religion and old English liberty, and introducing popery and slavery." This inscription was erased by King James upon his succession to the crown; but reinscribed presently after the revolution, in such deep characters as are not easily to be blotted out. The latter part of the incription on the north side (Sed furor papisticus, qui tam dira patravit, nondum restinguitur) containing an offensive truth, was erased at King James's accession, and re-inscribed soon after the revolution. * Old. Hist. of the Church of Scotland, i. 207. COMBINATION OF NATURAL CAUSES. 243 Mr. Pope differs much in his opinion concerning these inscriptions, when he says— Where London's column, pointing at the skies, Like a tall bully, rears its head, and lies. It seems wonderful.(says the author of the Craftsman) that the plague was not as peremptorily imputed to the Papists as the fire. There was a general suspicion of incendiaries laying combustible stuff in many places, having observed several houses to be on fire at the same time: but we are told, God with his great bellows did blow upon it, and made it spread quickly, and horrible flakes of fire mounted to the skies. There was a strange concurrence of several natural causes which occasioned the fire so vigorously to spread and in crease. : There was a great supineness and negligence in the people of the house where it began: it began between one and two o'clock after midnight, when all were in a dead sleep on a Saturday night, when many of the eminent citizens, merchants, and others, were retired into the country, and left servants to look to their city houses it happened in the long vacation, at a time of year when many wealthy citizens are wont to be in the country at fairs, or getting in debts, and making up accounts with their chapmen. : The houses where it began were mostly built of timber, and those very old the closeness and narrowness of the streets did much facilitate the progress of the fire, and prevented the bringing in engines. The wares and commodities stowed and vended in those parts were most combustible of any other, as oil, pitch, tar, cordage, hemp, flax, rosin, wax, butter, cheese, wine, brandy, sugar, and such like. The warmth of the preceding season had so dried the timber, that it was never more apt to take fire; and an easterly wind (which is the driest of all) had blown for several days together before, and at that time very strongly. The unexpected failing of the water from the New River; the engine at London-bridge called the Thames water-tower was out of order, and in a few hours was itself burnt down, so that the pipes which conveyed the water from thence through the streets, were soon empty. Beside, there was an unusual negligence at first, and a confidence of easily quenching it, and of its stopping at several places * Seymour, i. 454. afterward; which at last turned into confusion, consternation, and despair; people choosing rather by flight to save their goods, than by a vigorous opposition to save their own houses and the whole city. Thus a small spark, from an unknown cause, for want of timely care, increased to such a flame, that nothing could extinguish, which laid waste the greatest part of the city in three days' time. The king in his speech to the parliament, says, "God be thanked for our meeting together in this place: little time hath passed since we were almost in despair of having this place left to meet in. You see the dismal ruins the fire hath made: and nothing but a miracle of God's mercy could have preserved what is left from the same destruction." When the presumptions of the city's being burnt by design. came to be laid before a committee of the House of Commons, they were found of no weight: and the many stories, published at that time with great assurance, were declared void of credibility. After all, it may perhaps be queried, whether the foregoing rumours and examinations, though incongruous with each other, may not afford some colour to a whisper, that the government itself was not without some ground of suspicion of having been the secret cause of the conflagration; to afford an opportunity of restoring the capital of the nation, in a manner more secure from future contagion, more generally wholesome for the inhabitants, more safe from fires, and more beautiful on the whole, from the united effect of all these salutary purposes. Such, however, has been the result of that temporary disaster, whether accidental or not; and if intended, a more pardonable instance of doing evil that good may come of it, cannot perhaps be produced. THE Act of Parliament 19 and 20 Car. II., enacts, that—The better to preserve the memory of this dreadful visitation, a column or pillar of brass or stone be erected on, or as near unto the place where the fire unhappily began, as conveniently may be; in perpetual remembrance thereof: with such inscription thereon as the lord mayor and court of aldermen shall direct. In obedience to which act, the fine piece of architecture, called * Echard, iii. 168. † Burnet, Abr. 121. DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT. 245 The Monument, was erected, at the expense of fourteen thousand five hundred pounds; it is the design of the great Sir Christopher Wren, and undoubtedly the finest modern column in the world, and in some respects may vie with the most famous of antiquity, being twenty-four feet higher than Trajan's pillar at Rome. It is of the Doric order, fluted; its altitude, two hundred and two feet from the ground; greatest diameter of the body fifteen feet; the ground bounded by the plinth or lower part of the pedestal, twenty-eight feet square; and the pedestal is in altitude forty feet; all of Portland stone. Within, is a large staircase of black marble, containing three hundred and forty-five steps, ten inches and a half broad, and six inches risers; a balcony within thirtytwo feet from the top, whereon is a spacious and curious gilded flame, very suitable to the intent of the whole column. On the front or west side of the die of the pedestal of this magnificent column is finely carved a curious emblem of this tragical scene, by the masterly hand of Mr. Gabriel Cibber. The eleven principal figures are in alto, the rest in basso relievo. At the north end of the plain the city is represented in flames, and the inhabitants in consternation, their arms extended upward, crying for succour. A little nearer the horizon, the arms, cap of maintenance, and other ensigns of the city's grandeur, partly buried under the ruins. On the ruins, lies the figure of a woman crowned with a castle, her breasts pregnant, and in her hand a sword; representing the strong, plentiful, and wellgoverned city of London in distress. The king is represented on a place ascended to by three steps, providing by his power and prudence for the comfort of his citizens and ornament of his city. On the steps stand three women: 1. Liberty, having in her right hand a hat, wherein the word Liberty, denoting the freedom or liberty given those who engaged three years in the work. 2. Ichnographia, with rule and compasses in one hand, and a scroll in the other; near her, the emblem of Industry, a beehive. 3. Imagination, holding the emblem of Invention. All which intimate, that the speedy re-erection of the city was principally owing to liberty, imagination, contrivance, art, and industry. There is the figure of time raising the woman in distress, and Providence with a winged hand containing an eye, promising peace and plenty, by pointing to those two figures in the clouds. Behind the king, the work is going forward. Under the king's feet appears Envy enraged at the prospect of success, and blowing flames out of his mouth. The figure of a lion, with |