Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery; Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Religion, Religious Authority, Faith, Zoology, Zoological Gardens, Animal Husbandry, Disease, Cultural Geography, Politics

    Describes some of the ways in which the statesman George H Whalley is trying to dissipate suspicions that his commitment to Protestantism is questionable and that he is the 'Head Centre of the English Jesuits'. His 'increased zeal against Popery' allegedly includes a letter to Philip L Sclater, whom he has asked 'whether the handsome old French sailor who makes tableaux with the Sea-Bear is a Catholic or a Protestant', and that the answer to this question will determine whether he addresses 'a remonstrance to the Bishops who are Fellows of the Zoological Gardens'. He is also 'about to move for a return of the number of Irish cattle that have perished of Rinderpest, distinguishing between Protestant and Catholic cows, as he has reason to believe the Jesuits have the means of introducing the complaint into Ireland, in order to increase the disaffection of the country'.