d an injunction against the continuance of
that publication; he was dissuaded from proceeding to trial by the
interposition of friends, who persuaded the litigants, over a bottle,
to terminate their difference; Mr. Stevens withdrew his action, and
the publication was suppressed. I relate this circumstance from {VII}the
authority of Mr. Stevens himself. The public will, no doubt, be
surprised to find that this Lecture should ever have been pirated, by
one who is now complaining of a similar act against himself. I am no
advocate for any infringements of right or property; but I cannot avoid
thinking, that complaints of this nature come with a very ill grace
from those who have committed the same species of literary depredations
themselves. The last piratical publication of this Lecture was by a
stationer in Paternoster-Row, who has had the assurance to use my name
without having my authority, or even asking my permission. He likewise
very falsely and impudently asserts, that he has published it as I
spoke it at Covent-Garden theatre. It is so much the contrary, that
it contains not a syllable of the new matter with which it was then
augmented. With respect to the rest, it is taken from the spurious and
very imperfect abridgment first mentioned in this piratical list. It is,
therefore, evident, that the original Lecture was never before published
until this opportunity {VIII}which I have taken of thus submitting it to
the Public, for their approbation and patronage, whose

Most humble and devoted servant

I am,

CHARLES LEE LEWES.

July 22, 1785.

PROLOGUE,

Written By Mr. Pilon Spoken At The Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden, June
24, 1780.

All's safe here, I find, though the rabble rout
A few doors lower burnt the quorum out.
Sad times, when Bow-street is the scene of riot,
And justice cannot keep the parish quiet.
But peace returning, like the dove appears,
And this association stills my fears;
Humour and wit the frolic wing may spread,
And we give harmless Lectures on the Head.
Watchmen in sleep may be as snug as foxes,
And snore away the hours within their boxes;
Nor more affright the neighbourhood with warning,
Of past twelve o'clock, a troublesome morning.
Mynheer demanded, at the general shock,
"Is the Bank safe, or has it lower'd the stock?"
"Begar," a Frenchman cried, "the Bank we'll rob,
"For I have got the purse to b