Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Prognostication, Superstition, Meteorology, Politics, Astronomy, Instruments, Government, Observation

    Discusses rumours spreading around the various clubs that William Parsons (3rd Earl of Rosse) has predicted that the approaching parliamentary session 'would be about one of the hottest ever known' (a reference to Rosse's prediction of a hot season). In contradiction to these rumours, the writer presents a communication allegedly from Rosse, who denies the truth of the statement imputed to him and claims, 'by the testimony of his Telescope, which enables him to look into the middle of several weeks to come, that the session of 1858 will be about one of the mildest known for years'.