CHAPTER VIII--UNCONVENTIONAL JUSTICE
In December, 1814, a steamboat was set in motion on the Limehouse
Canal, the Lord Mayor and other distinguished persons being on board.
In the same month Joanna Southcott died. She had announced that on
the 19th October she was to be delivered of the Prince of Peace,
although she was then sixty years old. Thousands of persons believed
her, and a cradle was made. The Prince of Peace did not arrive, and
in a little more than two months poor Joanna had departed, the cause
of her departure having being certified as dropsy. Death did not
diminish the number of her disciples, for they took refuge in the
hope of her resurrection. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened,"
they truly affirmed; and even to this day there are people who are
waiting for the fulfilment of Joanna's prophecies and the appearance
of the "second Shiloh." Zachariah had been frequently twitted in
joke by his profane companions in the printing-office upon his
supposed belief in the delusion. It was their delight to assume that
all the "pious ones," as they called them, were alike; and on the
morning of the 30th of December, the day after Joanna expired, they
were more than usually tormenting.
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