The Rhode Island American, And General Advertiser

Foreign Articles.

DIVERTING NARRATIVE.

The following was originally published in the London Evening Star, of the 27th of August; and was designed, as will be perceived, to ridicule the late story of a French Peasant, who was introduced to the King, under the pretence that he was charged by an Apparition with advices to his Majesty of high importance to the Royal Family and Kingdom of France:-

AN APPARITION!

Narrative of the appearance of an Apparition to James Sympson, Broadcloth Weaver, near Huddersfield, Yorkshire,

The encouragement given by the King of France to preternatural monitions, has produced its expected effect; a Ghost has appeared in Yorkshire, to an elderly broad cloth weaver, and every European country will, it is to be hoped, enjoy a similar visitation, for since their rulers will not be moved by what the living and the suffering urge upon them, they may, perhaps, be influenced by the service of the dead.

James Sympson lives at the distance of four miles and three quarters from Huddersfield- he is a man of a rather melancholy temperament, fond of smoking, about five feet eight inches high, with a cast in his left eye-was twice married. but has no children by his last wife, halts a little with the right leg, and lost one of his eyebrows when a boy, by the explosion of a sixpenny brass cannon. On the 2d of August, 1816, as he was stepping out of bed at about half past five in the morning, he felt something pulling him back by the shirt; he thought it was his wife, who sometimes does so, but upon turning about he found she was fast asleep; this, he has since acknowledged, somewhat surprised him.

When he attempted to put on his breeches they were suddenly snatched from his hand, and carried with a cracking noise up the chimney, and in this state he was, as he states, irresistibly compelled to go into his kitchen, where he discovered a tall thin man, as he then supposed him, dressed in an olive-coloured great coat, and nankeen trousers, sitting in a bee-hive chair by the fire, who uttered, to the best of his recollection, the following words: "James Sympson, I am going to alarm you-if you have any gin in your house take a glass of it--I am a spirit-I am commissioned to inform you of several points which your own natural reason is utterly incompetent to discover-List, list, oh, list.-I see, James Sympson, that you mistake me-you conceive that I am exhorting you to go into the army, but our army is more than sufficiently numerous, and I am come not to increase but to reduce it."-[Here the Ghost took a pinch of snuff, and perceiving that Sympson, between cold and terror, was extremely uncomfortable, he desired him to step for his wife's flannel petticoat, and to put it on him during the rest of their conference.]

Upon his return in the petticoat, the apparition thus continued-"Observe what I say to you, James, and register it upon your memory, for you must repeat it in high places, there are seventeen fee-bites between your wrist and your elbow, and there are an equal number of spots on the face of the sun, and the bites and the spots have an equal effect on the state of the weather, but when the cold passes away we shall have warm weather, and when the rain ceases the weather will become dry.

I appeared to Mr. Cobbett on my way here, and told him jocularly that the corn would not ripen, but I see he has taken it seriously, and set down in his journal a long paragraph on the state of the harvest.

That I say to you, James, is in earnest, you must go on the outside of the coach, repeat it to those in high authority; and as, perhaps. James, (for ghosts have a privilege of speaking unintelligibly) in the course of this conversation, I may make use of words not perfectly level to your understanding, I conjure you to write them or have them written down on a piece of paper, and apply for an explanation of them to the Reverend Dr. Dunderdosy, the rector of the parish--he is now at Cheltenham getting rid of the bile, and will thence go to Bath to fix the gout in his feet, and will proceed to Tunbridge, to establish an appetite, and will finally return here to get in his tithes-call upon him with a list of the hard words : I will in the interim warn him in a dream to purchase a second-hand copy of Johnson's Dictionary, and thus will he be enabled to expound to you the obscure terms in my discourse. James Sympson, the taxation is enormous-it is gradually obliterating the middling class, so that if it continues we shall have a society composed of sinecure place-holders and paupers, of men in carriages, and men in rags, of idlers and of beggars, of parishes and slaves—those who can will avoid them by emigrating. —the only remedy for this is retrenchment and if this be attempted to be prohibited by an impost, the persons interested will come back capital, and quitting their country forever, and of selling their properties, taking away their to be sure, but then it will be for the purpose this, James Sympson, will not mend the matter.--Sinecure places and unmerited pensions are an abomination--a canker that is gradually sapping the vital principles of honour and independence-a premium to corruption, the guilty fee in many eminent instances of their country's rights-a bait for rats, a cordial for borough-mongers. Get upon the outside of the coach, Jimmy Sympson--I will warn the driver in a dream to secure an outside place for you, and never stop except upon necessary and urgent occasions till you get to London.-

There is a large house in Pall-Mall, on the right or the left hand as you happen to go up or down the street--knock at the door one knock, a middling knock, neither too strong nor too weak-I will warn the porter in a dream to admit you, for without such a precaution you would never pass the gate, Jemmy Sympson. Proceed into the dwelling, you will behold strange sights, but be not dismayed.

You will see green, red and blue dragons, but they will not bite you-you will also see mandarins shaking their heads at you, but do not take their nodding to yourself, you are neither a foreign Ambassador nor a page of the back stairs-turn to the right and then to the left, and then again to the right, and you will come to a door, which you will open, and in the closet you will find a man putting on a wig, and say to that man what I have now said to you, and write on a sheet of paper the word RETRENCHMENT in large characters, and get four wafers, and paste it on the wall of the closet, and when you have performed all this, retire, and return by the coach to your wife, and work if you can get any thing to do, and if not, apply to the overseers, and if they cannot provide for you, you will do your utmost to starve with as much propriety as the most respectable among your neighbours."
After having uttered these mysterious words, the apparition walked out of the room, mounted its horse, and became totally invisible at the end of a quarter of a mile, there being at that distance a turn in the road. Mr. Sympson, after recovering a little from his astonishment, ran to his wife, who had just then wakened, and was nearly as much surprised at his adoption of her flannel petticoat, as he had been at his interview with the spirit; he related to her all that had happened, but she told him that he was an old fool, and desired him to mind his business, and not disturb himself or her with such trumpery!