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discredit with the public, and a diminution in the sale of their paper, brought the present action against the defendants as authors of such discredit, loss, &c. The ca-e being made out, the jury gave a verdict with 1001, damages. The forgpaper was printed in London. 10th. Ths day at noon, Miss Mackenzie, of Salisburystreet, in the Strand, accompanied bya Mr. Winders, of the exchequer, hired a boat, and proceeded from Blackfriars bridge to Greenwich; on their return to town the lady fell overboard, and was drowned. She was immediately dragged for, and every means made use of to recover the body, without effect. On Monday morning at the drop ping of the tide, the body was discovered lying on Duke's Shore, below Rotherhithe church. A Coroner's jury was immediately summonded; verdict accidental death. Weymouth. We had, on 17th. Friday afternoon, the severest storm of wind, hail, rain, thunder and lightning, that has been for many years. It lasted for a great length of time; and the bail-stones were of an immense size, only a few miles distance. Earl Digby was in his phaeton, in his park near Sherborne, at the time. The horses took fright and ran furiously away; overset the carriage, and his lordship had the misfortune to have one of his legs broke. 18th.

A cause of some importance to the interest of the establish

ed church was on Monday decided in the court of Arches, Doctors Commons. The rev. W. Percy, a clergyman of the established church, had been accustomed to read prayers, preach, administer the sacrament, and occasionally to church women,

and baptize children, according to the rites of the church of England, in the parish of Woolwich, in a building (improperly called a chapel) neither consecrated nor li censed for such purposes, but originally appropriated to dissenters. Mr. Percy made no defence; but, being condemned in costs, personally petitioned the court for a mitigation of the costs, on the plea of not having baptized children privately in houses, as set forth in the 6th article, which was accordingly withdrawn; but having, by his own confession, incurred the penalty of the other five articles, the court rejected his petition. He was consequently condemned in the whole costs, amounting to about 15 guineas, and admonished, by the judge who presided, to desist in future from such irregular and illegal practices as were a gross abuse of the toleration-act.

20th. Margate. An erection is

just compleated here, for the reception of 30 poor persons from the hospitals, whose cases render sea bathing necessary. The building is constructed in a very commodious manner; it is situated near the beach, between Margate and Dandelion, and the expence is defrayed by subscription. It will be fit to receive patients in a few days: they will have medical assistance, and a bathing machine has been build for their sole use.

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ence.

At Bodmin assizes 16 persons were tried, three of whom were capital ly convicted, viz. William Samp son and John Hoskin, for violently assaulting Samuel Phillips; and William Barnes, for stealing out of the house of David Jones, in Truro, certain pieces of gold and silver value 40s. and upwards; and they received sentence of death. 24th.

At Leicester assizes, John Dawes Ross, jun. and Tho. Bankart, tried on a charge of manslaughter, on the body of Mr. Robert Hall, during the late con tested election, were both found guilty; the former to suffer four and the latter ten months imprisonment. (The sentence of Ross has been since remitted.)

25th.

The defendants claimed those lands of the court, and a crowded andiunder this idot's will. In support of the plaintiff's case upwards of twenty witnesses clearly proved his idiotcy, from his not knowing the value of money, or any other article of life; and many instances of gross imposition on him; and among others, that he never re ceived one shilling of the rent of his lands; that he was exempted from all offices, and particularly from serving in the militia, on occount of his incapacity; and it was proved that he was taken from his sister, the plantiff's mother, and married to a woman whom he scarcely knew, and that a fortnight after his marriage he did not know he was married; that his wife often corrected him, when he would cry, and behave like a child. All the witnesses on the part of the plaintiff gave testimony of the testator's idiotcy. On the part of the defendants many witnesses were examined, who all proved, in the same words, that he was a man of sense, without giving a single instance of it, except that he could read, write his name, kept his church, remembered the texts, and other passages of scripture. The curate of the parish of Ashcombe, where the idiot lived and died, in support of the will, proved the idot to be a great divine, philosopher, and historian; that he was timid and shy to strangers at first; yet, when he became acquainted, and any person had gained his confidence, he was very conversible, and all persons acquainted with him must court his company. After a bearing of nearby ten hours, the jury, without a moment's hesitation, gave a verdict against the will, in favour of the plaintiff Bastin, to the satisfaction

Leeds. Last Thursday, as the workmen at the new church at Halifax were erecting one of the main bindings of the roof, the temporary prop gave way; the balk thereof was broken by the weight of the scaffolding, and the internal parts of the binding pressed upon it; in consequence of which the men fell down, and some of them were materially bruised, but no lives were lost.

At the Surrey assizes, Edwards, late of Pleasant-place, and Doctor Gale, were tried for fradulently signing and counterfeiting certain certificates, attestations, &c. of recruits. Edwards kept a recruiting house, which was burnt by the mob. The Doctor, being a good actor, occasionally played the characters of captain, surgeon and magstrate. When a recruit was brought in, he stripped and examined him as surgeon; approved of him in aBother place and dress as captain;

and

and finally signed his attestation as magistrate. Of all these ingenious acts of his, and Mr. Edward's employing him, and giving currency to his impositions, the jury found them both guilty.

At the same assizes, an indictment was tried, which reflects no small degree of discredit on the person indicted. Theophilus Bridges, a button-maker, of Temple-street, St. George's fields, was indicted for the murder of his apprentice, Elizabeth Monk, in January, 1795. The deceased was one of seven apprentices, all taken from the Asylum; and by the evidence of three of the surviving apprentices, it appeared that Bridges was a very pas sionate and severe man, and had frequently beat and kicked the deceased; and that she died after an illness of some continuance, caused, as they conceived, by such ill usage; together with spare diet and hard work. A surgeon was called; but who having seen the deceased only a few hours before her death, and being told she was ill of a consumption, and merely having felt her pulse, as he perceived she was very Dear death, could not speak to any circumstance to criminate Bridges. He was therefore quitted.

27th.

ac

Shrewsbury. Yesterday was tried at the assizes here, by a most respectable special jury, before the honourable Mr. justice Heath, a cause against the bp. of Bangor; the rev. Dr. Owen; the rev. Mr. Roberts archdeacon of Merioneth; the rev. Mr. Williams; and Mr Thomas Jones; for unlawfully disturbing Mr. Samuel Grindley, in the registrar's office at Bangor on the 8th of January last. It appeared that, in 1792, Mr.

Grindley, an attorney,had, by means of the bishop being appointed deputy registrar of the consistorial court of his diocese, his lordship's nephew being the principal registrar; that, on the 6th of January last, whilst the office was shut, the bishop sent for the key of it; which was refused by order of Mr. Grindley; that on the 7th of January, by his lordship's order, the lock of the office was taken off and a new one put on, the key of which was delivered to the bishop, who the same day informed Mr Grindley thereof. That, on the 8th of January, Mr. Grindley, with a blacksmith and four other persons, broke open the office. That the defendants being alarmed at this, went to the office unarmed (after Mr. Grindley had taken possession of it) and expostulated with him, and were excited to shew some marks of anger at this violent conduct; for he was armed with pistols, and had forced one person down the steps and threatened to shoot another. It also appeared that the bishop sent for a magistrate; and his lordship and the other defendants soon afterwards departed, leaving Mr. Grindley in the office. A pamphlet was produced in court to Mr. Grindley, containing some confidential letters from the bishop to him during the time he had been his lordship's agent; which letters Mr. Grindley owned he had delivered into the hands of a Mr. Williams of Treffos. The defendant's counsel said they had many witnesses; but that their case stood so clear, even on the plaintiff's evidence, they did not think it necssary to call a single witness on the part of the defendants; and the jury immediately, without leaving the

court,

court, acquitted all the defendants, fortune by the exertion of those taMr. Adam from London, as lead-lents of which he felt himself pos ing counsel for the plaintiff, had a fee of 300 guineas; and Mr Erskine the like for the defendants. DIED. 21.-At Dumfries, after a lingering illness, Robert Burns, who excited so much interest by the peculiarity of the circumstances under which he came forward to public notice, and the genius discovered in his poetical compositions. Burns was literally a ploughman, but neither in that state of servile dependence or degrading ignorance which the situation might bespeak in this country. He had the common education of a Scotch peasant, perhaps something more, and that spirit of 'independence, which in that country is sometimes to be found in a high degree in the humblest, classes in society. He had genius, starting beyond the ob stacles of poverty and which would have distinguished itself in any situation. His early days were occupied in procuring bread by the labour of his own hands, in the honourable task of cultivating the earth; but his nights were devoted to books and the muse, except when they were wasted in those haunts of village festivity, and the induigencies of the social bowl, to which the poet was but too immoderately attached in every period of his life. He wrote, not with a view to encounter the public eye, or in the hope to procure fame by his productions, but to give vent to the feelings of his own genius--to indulge the impulse of an ardent and poetical mind. Burns, from that restless activity, which is the peculiar characteristic of his countrymen, proposed to emigrate to Jamaica, in order to seek his

sessed. It was upon this occasion
that one of his friends suggested to
him the idea of publishing his
pocms, in order to raise a few
pounds to defray the expences of
his passage. The idea was eagerly
embraced. A coarse edition of his
pocms was first published at Ayr.
They were soon noticed by the gen
tlemen in the neighbourhood. Proofs
of such uncommon genius in a si-
tuation so humble made the ac-
quaintance of the author eagerly
sought after. His poems found
their way to Edinburgh; some ex-
tracts and an account of the author'
were inserted in a periodical paper,
The Lounger, which was at that
time in the course of publication.
The voyage of the author was de
layed in the hope that a suitable
provision would be made for him
by the generosity of the public.
A subscription was set on foot for
a new edition of his works, and
was forwarded by the exertions of
some of the first characters of Scot-
land. The subscription list contains a
greater number of respectable names
than almost have ever appeared to
any similar production; but, as
the book was at a low price, the
return to the author was inconsi-
derable. Burns was brought to
Edinburgh for a few months, every
where invited and caressed;
at last one of his patrons procured
him the situation of an Exciseman,
and an income of somewhat less
than 501. a year. We know not
whether any steps were taken to
better this humble income. Pro-
bably he was not qualified to fill
a superior situation to that which
was assigned him. We know that
his manners refused to partake the

and

polish of genteel society, that his talents were often obscured and finally impaired by excess, and that his private circumstances were embittered by pecuniary distress. Such, we believe, is the candid account of a man, who, in his compositions, has discovered the force of native humour, the warmth and tenderness of passion, the glow ing touches of a descriptive pencil -a man who was the pupil of nature, the poet of inspiration, and who possessed in an extraordinary degree the powers and failings of genius. Of the former, his works will remain a lasting monument; of the latter, we are afraid that his conduct and his fate afford but too melancholy proofs. Though he died at an early age, his mind was previously exhausted; and the apprehensions of a distempered imagination concurred with indigence and sickness to embitter the last moments of his life. He has left behind him a wife, with five infant children, and in the hourly expectation of a sixth, without any resource but what she may hope from public sympathy.

In the 64th year of his age, David Rittenhouse, the American philosopher. His history is curious, from the admiration in which his character was held. Rittenhouse was a native of America; and, in the earlier part of his life, he mingled the pursuits of science with the active employments of a farmer and a watchmaker. In 1769 he was invited by the American philo. sophical society to join a number of gentlemen who were then occupied in making some astronomical observations, when he particularly distinguished himself by the accuracy of his calculations and the

comprehension of his mind. He afterwards constructed an observatory, which he superintended in person, and which was the source of many important discoveries, as well as greatly tending to the general diffusion of science in the western world. During the American war, he was an active assertor of the cause of independence. Since the conclusion of the peace, he successively filled the offices of treasurer of the state of Pennsylvania, and director of the national mint, in both of which capacities he was alike distinguished for strength of judgment and integrity of heart. He succeeded the illustrious Franklin in the office of president of the philosophical society; a situation which the bent of his mind and the course of his studies had rendered him eminently calculated to fill; and towards the close of his days he retired from public life to the enjoyment of domestic happiness, when he formed a circle of private friends, who will continue to admire his virtues as a man, while the world will applaud his talents as a philosopher.

AUGUST.

The count de Montmorin ar3d. rived in town, being charged with dispatches from Louis XVIIIth to the count d'Artois, at Edinburgh. This nobleman brings advice, that on Wednesday the 19th of July, at ten o'clock at night, as the king of France was looking out of the window of an inn, at a town belonging to the elector of Treves, called Dillingen, near Ulm, on the Danube, he was wounded in the

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