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fion the day before to look for a mufic book in the butler's pantry, he met with twenty guineas upon his cupboard, which he took away; that the next morning he began to reflect, that fealing the twenty guineas would certainly he discovered, and then he thould be hanged for it; therefore, to extricate himfelf out of that difficulty, the wicked thought came into his head, that murdering the butler would not only prevent a difcovery, but be the means of his preferment, for tha he fhould be made butler himself; that with this refolution, he took a large poker, and a cafe knife, and entered the butler's room, where he found him afleep; that he ftruck him twice with the poker on the head, and then with a knife cut his throat. This done, he returned to his bed-fellow, whom he both left and found afleep, and lay till the ufual hour of rifing, and then they both went down ftairs together, with the porter, without fufpicion; and, that in the confufion, after the difcovery of the murder, he went into Murcott's room, and took out of his breeches pocket, three guineas and a half, and also took a fmall trunk belonging to the lady's woman, broke it open, and flung it into the coal-hole, to induce the fervants to think that the murderer was a thief, who had broke into the houfe, with intent to rob it. He was but twenty years old.

Being a very clear day, a gentleman at Wentworth procured a circular piece of ice of two feet nine inches diameter, and five inches thick, which he reduced to the form of a lens; and having about noon expofed it to the fun, the rays

tranfmittted thro' it, (converged to a focus at feven feet diftance) fired gunpowder, paper, linen, and other combuftibles.

Christopher Tancred, of Whixley in Yorkshire, Efq; 3d. lately deceased, having bequeathed fifty pounds annually apiece, to four young ftudents of Lincoln'sInn (of which he was formerly a bencher) till they should be called to the bar, and for three years after they become barristers. Edward Reeve, Efq; ftudent of that inn, made an elegant latin fpeech in Lincoln's-Inn hall, before that honourable fociety, in commemoration of fo deferving a benefactor.

Mr. Rooker, formerly an eminent grocer in Fleet-ftreet, by whofe means the fhocking murder of the two parish girls, related at large in our laft volume, came to light, was found near his house at Ealing with his throat cut, and his body terribly mangled, fuppofed by himself; he having loft his fenfes immediately on the execution of the mother and daughter concerned in that murder, through a violent affection for the latter, whom he at firft imagined his intelligence could no way affect.

The right hon, the lord 4th. mayor gave a ball and fupper to his royal highness the duke of York; at which were present the two princes of Mecklenburgh, many of the foreign minifters, upwards of a hundred of the nobility, a larger number of the gentlemen of the house of commons, feventeen of the aldermen, and many ladies of quality, and perfons of great diftinction. The fupper confifted of three tables, two of an hundred and feventy covers [E] 4 each,

Cach, and the third of ninety, be fides a grand defert.

11th.

The marquis of Granby, lately arrived from Germany, waited on his majesty, and was most graciously received..

Within thefe few days a poulterer near Charing Crofs, paid a fine of fifteen pounds, for having three hares found in his fhop, though, as he faid, only fent him to skin.

The executors of Mrs. Demay, late of Pall Mall, have transferred to the treasurer of the British lyingin hofpital in Brownlow ftreet eight hundred pounds, 3 per cent. bank annuities, for the use of that charity; and alfo paid to the faid treafurer forty-eight pounds fourteen fhillings and nine-pence on the fame account, according to the will of the deceased.

It appearing, on the examination, before the lord mayor, of the coachman of Mr. Cracroft, of Mark-lane, that his master's stables were fet on fire fome weeks ago by his carelessness, he was fined 1ocl. according to the act of parliament, and not being able to pay that fum, was committed to prifon for

a year. antx

This day and the 15th 13th. the Thames rofe fo high,

that many houfes on the Surry fhore were four or five feet under water; at Lambeth the long walk, by the bishop's palace, was overRowed, and boats were employed in the town to carry people from house to houfes The damage done by this high tide, has been computed at: 20,oool In Weftmine.. fter-hall the water was four feet deep.

There fell a prodigious quantity of flow, in Oxfordshire, Ware

wickshire, Worcestershire, Wiltfhire, and Gloucestershire. On Broadway-hill, and the hills in Gloucestershire, it is faid to have lain at least eight feet deep in the open road.

Three fishermen belonging to Stroud in Kent, having fome time ago fhut themfelves up in their little cabin, in which was an iron pot with fea-coal burning, lay down to fleep, but were all found dead the next day, being, as is fuppofed, fuffocated by the fmoke, The reader will find in our Projects for this year fome account of a method fuccefsfully tried for recovering perfons, when not too far gone, in fimilar circumftances.

A boy, who lately fell off a wharf in New England into a river, was taken out to all appearance dead, but being rubbed with falt, and put into warm blankets, he fhewed figns of life, upon which a glifter being injected it brought away the water, and in a few hours after he was able to walk. For other inftances of the efficacy of this method, and a full account of the method itfelf, fee our former volumes,

The duke and duchess of

Norfolk, attended by the 15th. neighbouring gentry, laid the firft ftone of a moft magnificent palace to be erected on the very spot where ftood Workfop manor, lately burnt down with all its va luable curiofities. For fome account of the burning of this manor, fee our fourth volume.

A highwayman was shot dead by a perfon in the Portsmouth ma chine, whilft he was attempting to rob the passengers.

A trial came on at the 17th. court of King's Bench, on an indictment against the keeper of mad

a mad-houfe in Chelsea, and five others, for imprisoning a gentle woman from the 5th of September to the 4th of October laft, on pretence of infanity, when four of them were found guilty. On the enquiry in the houfe of commons into the abuse of private madhoufes, many acts of oppreffion have been difcovered, as may be feen by the abstract of that enquiry, in the Appendix to this part of our work.

Another trial came on in the court of Common-pleas at Weft minfter, before the lord chief juftice Pratt, and a fpecial jury of Middlesex, wherein a rupture furgeon was plaintiff, and, the right hon, fir Francis Dashwood and Thomas Wyndham, Efq; as executors of the late lord Melcombe, were defendants. The action was brought for four thousand pounds, for eleven years attendance on his lordfhip, for which the plaintiff alledged he had received no fatisfaction whatfoever; but it appearing upon the clearest evidence, that the plaintiff had been fully paid, till within eleven months, inftead of eleven years, before his lordfhip's death, for which eleven months attendance, the defendants had, moft generously, paid into court the fum of one hundred and fifty pounds, the jury found a ver dict for that precife fum, in favour of the plaintiff, which intitles the defendants to their cofts of fuit. zzd. The princes of Mecklen burgh, brothers to her majefty, fet out from their houfe in Pall-mall, for Germany.w

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received, His lordship, before he left that place, banifhed the bishop to Florida, for pretending, on the ftrength of one of the articles of the capitulation, to name to benefices without his approbation.

A trial came on at Guildhall, in which the mistress of the Rummer tavern in Chancery-lane was plaintiff, and fundry perfons of the reformation of manners defendants, for entering the faid tavern, and, under pretence of its being an houfe of ill fame, dragging the mistress out and imprisoning her. The damages were laid for 500l. and the jury gave 300 h with cofts of fuit. And on a motion fince made in the court of Common-pleas for a new trial in the affair, on account of excefs of damages, the court was of opinion, that the whole 500l. the damages originally laid, would not have been exceffive, and therefore affirmed the former verdict with cofts of fuit. 10

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An order of council is iffued, prohibiting the importation of the hides, raw or falted, of horned cattle from Denmark and other parts of Germany, during his majefty's pleasure, on account of the contagious diftemper which rages at this time in thofe parts, where, it is faid, upwards of eighty thoufand head of cattle died during the late fevere froft 10 11

A few days fince, fome men digging up the earth in White-friars, in order to repair then broken pipes, difcovered a large piece of petrified wood, weighing at leaft a hundred weight an account of which, as a very great curiofity, we have inferted in our article of Natural History of this year.

A riot happened at Co- 90 vent Garden theatre, occa24th.

fioned by a demand being made for full prices, throughout the whole performance of the opera of Artaxerxes. The mifchief done was the greatest ever known on any occafion of the like kind; all the benches of the boxes and pit being tore up, the glaffes and chandeliers broken and the linings of the boxes cut to pieces The rafhnefs of the rioters was fo great, that they cut away the wooden pillars between the boxes, fo that, if the infide of them had not been iron, they would have brought down the galleries upon their own heads. Four perfons concerned in the riot were committed to the Gatehouse, but foon after released, and all profecutions against the reft ftopt, the audience refufing to accept the managers fubmiffion to the capital point in dispute, upon any other

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about three quarters of a mile, and in breadth about 25 yards. There happened to be in its way a houfe, in which lived a poor family, part of which was tore away; but the poor people running out naked, in great terror, happily faved their lives.

Some days ago a man, who fells fifh about Chelfea, Fulham, &c. undertook to run from Hyde Park corner to the feven mile flone at Brentford, in one hour, with 561b. weight of fish on his head, which he performed in 45 minutes with eafe: this is reckoned the most extraordinary exploit of the kind that has been performed for many years.

A man, who was to run a coach wheel eight miles within an hour, for a confiderable fum of money, performed it lately in St. George's fields in fifty-nine minutes and a half, on a platform of wood erected, a quarter of a mile in length, and about two inches from the ground. There were many perfons of diftinétion prefent.

The weather is fo mild, that beans are in bloffom in Cornwall. Near Carlisle, young crows have been taken out of a neft

Yesterday one Bell, a corporal in the life-guards, was taken up for preaching in an unlicenced meeting houfe, and taking upon him to discover to people the ftate of their confciences, and even foretell the end of the world, to the great terror of his weak and illiterate audience.

Some time ago, the brigantine, Polly, in her paffage from the Havanna to Jamaica, took fire in the hold, occafioned by drawing fome rum, by which accident two officers and one ferjeant, two corporals,

3

feventy

feventy-one foldiers, four failors, four women, and one child, unfortunately perifhed,

The following are the contents of a pye lately made at Lowtherhall, in Westmoreland, and drawn up to London by two waggon horfes, as a prefent to a certain great perfonage. Two geefe, four tame ducks, two turkies, four fowis, one wild goofe, fix wild ducks, three teals, two ftarlings, twelve partridges, fifteen woodcocks, two guiney cocks, three fnipes, fix plovers, three water hens, fix widgeons, one curlew, forty-fix yellow hammers, fifteen fparrows, two chaffinches, two larks, three thrushes, one fieldfare, fix pigeons, four blackbirds, twenty rabbits, one leg of veal, half a ham, three bushels of flour, and two ftone of butter. The pye weighed twenty-two stone..

The lieutenants of the royal navy have propofed to the lords of the admiralty, that to provide for near twenty thousand feamen, who will now be discharged, all the king's frigates, armed fhips, &c. which can be properly converted to this fervice, be employed, to the number of two hundred and fifty fail, making one hundred and twenty-five thousand tons of fhipping, manned with feventeen thoufand five hundred feamen, and fifteen hundred non-commiffioned officers, paid by the government as at prefent, and under the fame regulations, and entitled to the fame privileges, as in the Whalefishery at Greenland and Davis's Straits. From an eftimate of the gains made by the Dutch in this ffhery, it appears, that after all the charges, including wear and tare of the fhips employed, there

would be a profit of a hundred thousand pounds yearly, befides eftablishing a nursery for feamen, Employing feamen in the govern ment's pay in this branch, would be less injurious to the merchants, than employing them in any other, because hips in the Greenland fishery are obliged to carry three times the number of hands requir ed in coating veffels of equal bur den; and never more than three thoufand have been employed in it in any one feafon.

The grand fignior having request. ed the duke de Praflin to fend him a collection of aftronomical books, a fcience he studies and cultivates, his grace has fent him a parcel feleted by the French king's libra rian, as fittest to fatisfy that mo. narch's curiofity; and his fublime highness, accordingly, teftified the greatest pleasure at receiving them.

An edict has been lately pub lifhed in Ruffia, permitting foreigners of all nations and reli gions, the Jews excepted, to fettle freely, wherever they think fit, in that empire. They are not only to receive money and materials for building, and carrying on their feveral trades, and be exempt from all burthens for a certain number of years, but have full liberty of confcience; and, if they chufe to affociate, and build towns for themfelves in the country, have steeples and bells to their churches, and even be governed by municipal laws of their own making.

Notwithstanding all the remonftrances made to the empress of Ruf fia, by the king and republic of Po land, in favour of prince Charles, his Polish majefty's third fon, fo lately chofen duke of Courland, her Ruffian majefty continues refolved to

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