s last error was far worse than the
first. But you was not quite above conviction. So, in spite of her poor
astonished parents, of her brothers, of all your vows and promises, you
shortly after jilted the younger and married the elder sister.' Wesley's
_Journal_, ii. 39. Mrs. Hall suffered greatly for marrying a wretch who
had so cruelly treated her own sister, Southey's _Wesley_, i. 369.

[300] See _ante_, iii. 269.

[301] The original 'Robinhood' was a debating society which met near
Temple-Bar. Some twenty years before this time Goldsmith belonged to it,
and, it was said, Burke. Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 287, and Prior's
_Burke_, p. 79. The president was a baker by trade. 'Goldsmith, after
hearing him give utterance to a train of strong and ingenious reasoning,
exclaimed to Derrick, "That man was meant by nature for a Lord
Chancellor." Derrick replied, "No, no, not so high; he is only intended
for Master of the _Rolls_."' Prior's _Goldsmith_, i. 420. Fielding, in
1752, in _The Covent-Garden Journal_, Nos. 8 and 9, takes off this
Society and the baker. A fragment of a report of their discussions which
he pretends to have discovered, begins thus:--'This evenin the questin
at the Robinhood was, whether relidgin was of any youse to a sosyaty;
baken bifor mee To'mmas Whytebred, baker.' Horace Walpole (_Letters_,
iv. 288), in 1764, wrote of the visit of a French gentleman to England,
'He has _seen_ ... Jews, Quakers, Mr. Pitt, the Royal Society, the
Robinhood, Lord Chief-Justice Pratt, the Arts-and-Sciences, &c.' Romilly
(_Life_, i. 168), in a letter dated May 22, 1781, says that during the
past winter several of these Sunday religious debating societies had
been established. 'The auditors,' he was assured, 'were mostly weak,
well-meaning people, who were inclined to Methodism;' but among the
speakers were 'some designing villains, and a few coxcombs, with more
wit than understanding.' 'Nothing,' he continues, 'could raise up
panegyrists of these societies but what has lately happened, an attempt
to suppress them. The Solicitor-General has brought a bill into
Parliament for this purpose. The bill is drawn artfully enough; for, as
these societies are held on Sundays, and people pay for admittance, he
has joined them with a famous tea-drinking house [Carlisle House],
involving them both in the same fate, and entitling his bill, _A Bill to
regulate certain Abuses and Profanations of the Lord's Day_.' The Bill
was carried; on