time of night above-mentioned; he alfo declared he paid the parish dues demanded, and alfo the bearers for their trouble; that he likewife brought a proper certiff cate and oath. On referring to the parish register of the above dates, there was found one Evans, aged 18, was buried Dec. 7, 1765, and one Hughes, (a pauper of the parish) Sept. 30, 1766; but nei ther the certificates nor affidavits were produced at that time; the perfon in whose custody those papers were kept, declared he took very little care of them after the corpfes were buried. On examining one of the bearers who brought the corpfe on Sept. 29, he declared, that he and the rest went up into a garret or cockloft, in the lock-up-houfe in the Butcher-row, where the tiling and ciel ing were open, there they found a man lying on the boards naked, only an old blanket flung over him; that he himself laid hold of him, to lift him into the fhell, and that the flesh of his buttocks ftuck to the boards, fo that part thereof was left behind; and that they brought him from the above houfe about half an hour after 10, which corroborates the declara tion of the gentleman who ac. quainted the churchwardens with thefe proceedings. The grave. digger, and three of the bearers, have been turned out of their em. ployments.

A woman bought an old chair at a broker's, and upon ripping the top off, to have it new covered, found concealed in one corner, 21 guineas, all Q. Anne's coin, and a bank note, value 200l. both tied up in a canvass bag; the

gave for the chair 188. She has a large family to maintain.

The right hon. Lord Baltimore was unanimously elected a fellow of the royal fociety.

L

An officer of the customs made a feizure of near four hundred pounds worth of fine Flanders lace, artfully concealed in the hollow of a hip's buoy on board a French trader lying off Irongate.

By a letter from the chief mate of the Plaffy Eaft India country trading fhip, to his brother, there is a confirmation of the treacherous character of the Chinefe very ftrikingly fet forth; for the Plaffy having fold a quantity of opium to a Chinese junk of great burthen in the Malaccas, the letter-writer was decoyed on board, in order to receive the money for it: and being entertained in the most courteous manner, till he was off his guard, he was all at once furprised by a gan from the Plaffy, and rofe in hafte to fee what was the matter, but was inftantly feized by fix men, from whom he luckily difengaged himself, by cutting down the moft refolute of them, gaining the quarter-deck, tho' not with out being defperately wounded, and then jumping into his own boat, at which the junk fired, with no other effect, however, but that of frighting his people, fome of whom jumped overboard, When he reached the Plaffy, he found that he, too, had been in the poffeffion of the Chinese, and had freed herfelf by a moft defpe. rate and bloody effort, in which the captain loft his life, and most of the Europeans on board were

wounded.

wounded. In this lamentable fituation, the Plaffy was obliged to fet fail, without the money for the goods fold.

It appears from the report lately delivered to the court of commoncouncil of London, by the committee appointed in 1756, to enquire into the right of the mayor, commonalty, and citizens, to the hofpitals of St. Bartholomew, Chrift, St. Thoms, Bridewell, and Bethlem; and whether the right has, in any inftance, been given up, or taken away:

That, by three authentic in ftruments, the mayor, common. alty, and citizens, are the gran tees of the hofpitals and their re venues, and have the fole power of governing them.

That the right has never been given up or taken away, except during the troubles, and while the judgment upon the information in quo-warranto remained in force.

That the prefent governors act only by an authority referrable to, and derived from the right of the city. But,

That though the common coun cil, as reprefenting the city, might have exercised the right of government at first; yet the lord mayor and aldermen very foon took upon them the fole management of the charities.

That the word commonalty feems in fome records to fignify not the court of common council, but the citizens at large.

That in the fourth year of Philip and Mary fome orders, which had been before made, were revived by the court of aldermen; which or ders feem to be the true conftitution of the hofpitals. There were to be fixty-fix governors at least,

2

fourteen aldermen, and fifty two grave commoners, citizens, and freemen, four of whom were to be fcriveners. They were to be elected, at a general court, on St. Matthew's day, and to continue in office two years; and the election was to be ratified, or reformed by the next court of aldermen. These orders were attended to till 1615; but after the troubles, though the aldermen afferted their right of government, and declared that no unfreemen fhould be chofen a governor yet nothing farther was done, except that they kept up the form of the beadles giving up their ftaves on St. Matthew's day, and preferved a refpectable footing as individuals, by confining the prefidency to aldermen, and conftituting all the aldermen governors without election."

Yesterday morning were mar ried at White-chapel.church, one William Griffin, a journey man fhoemaker, and Ann Mofs, a fervant girl. About feven months ago the parties were out-afked (as it is called) at the above church; but the girl falling into an ill fate of health, retarded the nuptials, and lofing her place, was very foon obliged to pawn the molt part of her cloathes, even to the buckles out of her shoes. This, though the at length recovered her health, and was willing to join hands, prevented it; the abfolutely refusing to go to be married in fo ragged a condition yet inceffantly preffed by her sweetheart, who, by her obftinacy, foon grew into a kind of defpair, neglected his work, depofited his apparel chiefly as above, and about a fortnight ago, growing

weary

weary of his life, took the following methods to get rid of it. He first wrote a letter to Sir John Fielding, by the penny-poft, purporting to come from a perfon at Bethnal-green, who had the night before been robbed by a footpad, and was obliged to go out of town, and would return by the next feffion, defcribing himself [Griffin] to be the robber, and where to be found, &c. But this scheme not answering his expectations, as upon an inquiry being naturally made after the fuppofed author of the letter, none fuch could be found; he then purchafed a piftol, and furrendered himself with it to Jofeph Girdler, Efq; a juftice of peace in the king's road, defiring him to take his confeffion of a robbery, which he pretended he had committed, and fend him to Newgate, faying he was forry for what he had done, but times were so hard, trade dead, &c. and he would rather die than live. Whereupon he was actually "committed to Clerkenwell Bridewell from the Saturday until the Wednesday following, when he was examined at the public office in Bow-ftreet, before the faid Mr. Girdler, Sir John Fielding, and other magiftrates; when it appearing that the young lad had a good character, that it was love that was the real occafion of his late extraordinary conduct, and that the girl alfo on hearing of his being committed to prifon, had fallen into fits, and was very ill, he was difcharged, and another day appointed for him to come with his intended bride vcluntarily be fore the juftices, who promifed their afftance in getting them married the enfuing Sunday; ac

cordingly they both appeared, and a young nobleman being prefent, on hearing the cafe, generously gave five guineas to Sir John Fielding's clerk, in order to redeem their little clothes, and pay the marriage dues, who went with the two young people to four different pawnbrokers on Saturday and redeemed their little goods, and yesterday attended the church, and performed the office of father.

A caufe was tried at the court of King's bench at Guildhall, be. tween one Stroud, a fellowship. porter, of Billingsgate, London, plaintiff, and a corn-factor, defendant; the action was brought against the latter for violently af faulting the plaintiff when about his lawful labour, in unloading corn out of a veffel on float upon the river Thames, within the ju rifdiction of the lord mayor of the city of London, which was de nied by the defendant; and after many learned arguments, by the counfel on both fides, and examining feveral witneffes, the plaintiff's cafe being clearly proved, the jury, without the leaft hesitation, brought in a verdict for the plaintiff, with full costs.

Was held at the Old Bailey, 27th. the feffion of Admiralty, when three prifoners were tried, two of whom were capitally convicted.

John Wynne, otherwife Power, late a mariner on board the mexchant fhip Polly, Capt. Cox, bound from Bristol to the coaft of Guinea, on the flave trade, of which fhip, in the abfence of the captain, who was on fhore at cape Appolonia, he by force took upon him the command, fhooting the chief mate through the head, acd

wounding

Had it not been for the dexterity of the flaves of the Bagnio, who funk one of the fhips while the was on fire, and driving near to eighteen large men of war, which lay moored together before the Arfenal, the whole of them muft inevitably have been confumed.

The Grand Seignior, the Grand Vizir, and all the great officers of the Porte, were upon the water giving their orders. The human mind cannot picture to itself a more ftriking and horrid fcene, than to fee, at the fame time, nine large floating fires, in the middle of the night, with two great fires on each fide of the water, which threatened destruction to the whole city.

The Grand Signior, who is bleffed with an heart of charity and benevolence, has given orders to make up the loffes of the unhappy fufferers by water.

The fame day a Sultana was delivered of a prince, which was made known on Saturday by the firing of the cannon from the Seraglio and the Arfenal, which continued morning, noon, and evening; and there are great rejoicings in the Seraglio.

The English ambaffador fent the ufual compliments to the Reis Effendi upon this occafion. 13th.

They write from Florence, that "the number of young maidens which the chamberlains of the court have refolved to portion, on-account of the happy delivery of the Grand Duchefs, is one hundred. They are to receive the nuptial benediction from the archbishop in the metropolitan church, in prefence of their generous benefactors, and feveral other lords and ladies of the firft

rank; and after finging te deum, they will go in proceffion with their husbands to the Royal Palace, where they are to be entertained with a dinner, and to have the honour of being ferved by the chamberlains, who will afterwards give them a ball.”

Letters from Turin advise, that on the 7th ult. at four in the morning, a fhock of an earthquake was felt in that city.

They write from Leghorn, that a late fhock of the earth had been felt in the Isle of Scio, which threw down a Greek church, and deftroyed upwards of forty dwelling-houfes.

They write from Genoa, that on the 29th of January, M. Francis Maria Rovere having, on that day, completed his time of two years as doge of this republic, the great council met the next day, and nominated fifteen perfons for one out of that number to be elected to fill up the vacant dignity. On the 31ft the fmall council affembled, and reduced the nomination of fifteen to fix : and on the 3d inftant the great council met again, and elected M. Marcello Durazzo to fill up the vacant dignity of Doge for two years; upon which occafion the new Doge immediately received the compliments of the nobility of both fexes, and will receive the compliments of the foreign minis ters and confuls on Monday.

The laft letters from New York bring advice, that more new manufactories are going on there; among which is one for brafs wire, and another for enamelling all kinds of trinkets, after the Birmingham and Sheffield manner.

The