Colonies, but whether we shall relin- re-echoed a fpeech that profeffed an quifh thofe valuable provinces to the intention of profecuting the American House of Bourbon. No lover of his war with vigour; but would propofe country can hesitate to deprecate fuch an amendment, that all that part of an acceffion of ftrength to our natural the addrefs which followed the conenemy; and no friend of America can gratulation on the delivery of the with we should refign her to the yoke A Queen, and the birth of a Prince, of an arbitrary fovereign. He next fhould be left out; and that, instead contended, that by confenting to the of the fubfequent paragraphs, the fol independency of America (hould a lowing fhould be inferted: "In this meature fo humiliating be propofed as arduous conjuncture we are determinthe bafis of that peace fo fervently to ed to unite our efforts for the defence be wifhed for), we muit endanger the B of this our country; and we beg leave lofs of all our tranfmarine poffeffions, to affure your Majefty, that we will and fink the native confequence of decline no difficulty or hazard in prethis kingdom to a mere nothing in the ferving the effential interefts of this fcale of Europe. To the profecution kingdom." of war, therefore, he ftrongly recom mended the attention of the Houfe; and, animated by the example of other nations, we might learn never to defpond, but expect the happy effects of fortitude even in the most adverse fituation. Upon thefe, and various other grounds, he recommended an addrefs.

Sir R. $-tt- feconded the motion, and prefaged the future fuccefs of our affairs in America; faid, he had been always fanguine in his expectations that the iffue of the war would be fortunate, and was now as confident as ever; he feemed to think there was no alternative, but either to profecute the war with vigour, or give up our Colonies.

Camendment; and arraigned the public Hon. Mr. F-p-ck feconded the measures which had been for fome time purfued, and were now pursuing, as ruinous to the country and the conftitution on which its dearest interests depended. It was now as confiftent Dwith order, as it was with truth, to torioufly corrupt, and prostituted to fay, that the lail parliament was nothe will of the minifter. This night would determine whether this was to proceed in the steps of the former parEliament; which they would do, if they should countenance the continuance of a war flowing not from the voice or the interefts of the nation, but founded merely in the will of the ministry.

F

Mr. G-ny-lle contended ftrongly for relinquishing the war with Ame- dered the late elections not as repreIn the courfe of his fpeech he confirica. He owned, that, at the com- fenting the free choice of the people, mencement of it, miniftry had fome but as the venal purchase of minifterial pretext for pursuing coercive meatures. tools, many of whom were chofen by At that time it was faid, that the voice electors who never faw their faces. of the nation was for war; the high GHe concluded his fpeech with advertfpirit of this country being unwilling ing to the enormous increase of the to give up our foreign and moft valua national debt, the decay of manufac ble dependences without a struggle. tures and trade, the oppreffion of the A ftruggle had been made, a vigorous people by taxes, &c. &c; and declartruggle, for many years; a ttruggle ing, that he concurred moft cordially which this nation would feel for many and many a day. And now, he pre-drefs, but thought the amendment juft congratulatory part of the adfumed, the voice of the nation was propofed the most wife and fit termifor peace; peace at leaft with Ame- nation of it, fince under the prefent rica, if we fhould have war with the circumflances the Houfe ought not to whole world. He could not for thefe pledge itfelf to any particular line of reafons fubfcribe to an addrefs which conducting the war.

in the

Mr.

29. Winter's Tale-Robinson Crufae,

COVENT GARDEN.

Dec. 27. King Lear-St. Patrick's Day.

28. Ducana-Deaf Lover.

29..

30.

Jan.

Sufpicious Hulband-Harlequin Freemason
Much Ado about Nothing-Ditto,
1. Hamlet-Ditto.:

2. Fair Penitent-Ditto.
3. The Chances - Ditto,
4. The Gameter-Ditto.
5. The Miflake-Ditto.
6. Belle's Stratagem-Ditto.
8. Jane Shore-Ditto.
9. Beggars' Opera-Ditto.
I 2. Buty Body-Ditto.
11. Ditto-Ditto.

Y

MR. URBAN, Derby, Jan. 15, 1781. OUR inferting fome obfervations of mine in your Magazine for last year, (fee p. 168) has encouraged me to profecute the fubject ftill farther. A ftronger proof of the noxious quality of the yew could not be given you, than that of killing a horse*. Another inftance of the fame kind happened this laft fummer: a gentleman having a horfe difordered with warms, was advised to give him five or fix handfuls of favine; an ignorant fellow was employed to get it, who brought yew in its flead, which proved fatal ta the creature. Yew never digefts; favine is of a quite contrary quality. Very little of the blighted fort was found in either of the horfes; fo that if the green fucculent kind had not been poisonous, neither of them, probably, would have died: from hence, it is evident, that the more copious the fap, the more poifonous the leaves; this is the opinion of poets in general, as well as Statius;

we find it confirmed by experience, an. B. allows that infances may be produced of cattle fometimes dying from eating the leaves, but thinks it is when they have been much confined and pressed for food; but this could not be the cafe with either of the horfes I have mentioned.

We read in the antiquities of Greece and Rome, that the branches of the cypress and yew were the ufual fignals to denote a houfe in mourning. Now, Sir, as "Death was a deity among the antients (the daughter of Sleep and Night), and was by them reprefented in the fame manner, with the addition only of a long robe embroidered with stars," I think we may fairly conclude, that the cuftom of planting the yew in church-yards took its rife from Pagan fuperftition, and that it is as old as the conqueft of Britain by Julius Cæfar.

We have in Alleftry church-yard, near Derby, two yews, one of which measures feveral yards round the butt, is hollow from the ground many feet high, and dead from the top a yard downwards; fo that it may literally be faid to have outlived its own body. With care, which it feems to want, it might yet furvive most of the parishioners. But the finest yews I ever faw are at Gofworth in Cheshire; in the church-yard there, are three, the largest of which, against the fouth-door, has a feat of flone round it eight or nine inches broad, the circumference of which is fifteen yards. They are all tall trees, cut in a regular conic form, trimmed out of the reach of the highest horfe.

markable, I wonder that you should have
omitted that of MARY EAST, who died
at Poplar, June 8, 1780, aged 68, and of
whom you gave a particular account in your
36th volume; that the paffed for a man 35
years, kept a public houfe, ferved all the
offices of the parish, and attended Westmin-
fter-hall and the Old Bailey as a juryman,
&c. Having acquired a handfome fortune,
[30001.] the retired from bufinefs and lived
at Poplar till her death, as above. Her for-
tune he has left to a friend in the country
and a young woman who lived with her as a
fervant, except rol. year to the poor of
Poplar; 50l. to a working gardner; and a
gold watch to Mr. Curry, an eminent dif
tiller at Poplar. Yours, &c. J. M.

A Short History of the firft Seffion of the
General Convocation of the Province of
Canterbury, holden in the Twenty-firit
Year of the Reign of his prefent Majesty.

N Wednesday the of November
17, the caeneral Convocation embe
province of Canterbury met, with the usual
folemnities, in the chapter-houfe of St.
Paul's, London, when the King's writ
was read; alfo the archbishop's mandate;
a return was made of the certificates of the
bithops; the ahfent members were pro-
nounced contumacious; the inferior prelates
and clergy of the Lower Houfe were directed
to chufe their prolocutor or referendary, and/
a day fixed whereon to prefent him to the
archbishop. Thefe were fo many fynodical
acts, before the houfes were feparated, and
a prolocutor chofen; and this firft affembly
was a proper feffion of Convocation.

Both houfes were then adjourned to Wednefday the 15th of the fame month; when the prolocutor was prefented and confirmed in King Henry the Seventh's chapel at Weftminfter; and the fame day a loyal address to the king (fee Gent. Mag. 1780, p. 607.) was fent down from the Upper to the Lower Houfe for their concurrence, and agreed to nem. com. with the infertion only of the mo nofyllable tba.

On Friday the 17th of the fame month, both houfes met again by adjournment; the Upper Houfe in the Jerufalem chamber, and the Lower Houfe in K. Henry the Seventh's chapel, in order to go up with the address to the king; but the number was fo fmall as not to deferve the name of a provincial fynod. Out of one hundred and forty-three members, of which number the Lower Houfe confifts, three only, including the prolocutor, went down from the Jerufalemchamber to K. Henry the Seventh's chapel, who were afterwards joined by five more. S you feem defirous to record the deaths Prayers being ended, a member of the Lower Houfe intended to move an humble petition

MR. URBAN,

T. O.

Aprons whole lives have been re

Our Correfpondent mentioned an inftance of the poisonous quality of yew. Mr. Oakover, a gentleman in his neighbourhood, fome time ago loft a valuable hunter by browfing on the leaves. EDIT.

to

A

Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, the Poet.

to the king, That his Majefty would be gra
ciously pleafed to grant his royal licence to
the Convocation then affembled, to delibe
rate upon a plan to be propofed "for regu-
lating and reforming the practice in the fpi
ritual courts; by directing and circumfcrib-
ing the power of the faid courts, in the ad-
million and rejection of evidence, so that all
rejected evidence may accompany the ap-
peal." And alfo, " to reftrain irregular
and illegal marriages, especially fuch as are
declared to be within the prohibited degrees
of affinity, which become daily more fre-
quent, through the inattention of the furro-
gates of ecclefiaftical judges, and the rapa-
cioufnefs of their inferior officers."

But it being previously fuggefted, that the
houfe was not, could not be formed 'till the
members had severally taken the oaths of al-
legiance and fupremacy, they difperfed im-
mediately, without appointing their com-
mmittees, as had ufually been done, under an
apprchenfion of having incurred all the pains
and penalties to which recufants are liable;
and this venerable Body has not been heard
of fince.

MA. URBAN,

W

Jan. 20, 1781. ILLIAM COLLINS, the poet, I was intimately acquainted with, from the time that he came to refide at Oxford. He was the son of a tradesman in the city of Chichester, I think an hatter and, being fent very young to Winchelter-fchool, was foon diftinguifhed for his early proficiency, and his turn for elegant compofition. About the year 1740, he came off from that feminary first upon roilt, and was entered a commoner of Queen's-college. There, no vacancy offering for New-college, he remained a year or two, and then was chofen demy of Magdalen-college; where, I think, he took a degree. As he brought with him, for fo the whole turn of his converfation difcovered, too high an opinion of his fchool acquifitions, and a fovereign contempt for all academic ftudies and difcipline, he never looked with any complacency on his fituation in the Univerfity, but was always complaining of the dulnefs of a college life. In fhort, he threw up his demythip, and, going to London, commenced a man of the town, fpending his time in all the diffipation of Ranelagh, Vauxhall, and the playhoufes; and was romantic enough to fuppofe, that his fuperior abilities would draw the attention of the great world, by means of whom he was to make his fortune. In this plea furable way of life he foon wafted his little

property, and a confiderable legacy left him by a maternal uncle, a colonel in the army, to whom the nephew made a vifit in Flanders during the war. While on this tour he wrote feveral entertaining letters to his Oxford friends, fome of which I faw. In London I met him often, and remember he lodged in a little houfe with a Mifs Bundy, at the corner of King's-fquare-court, Soho, now a warehouse, for a long time together. When poverty overtook him, poor man, he had too much fenfibility of temper to bear with his misfortunes, and so fell into a most deplorable state of mind. How he got down to Oxford I do not know, but I myself faw him under Merton wall, in a very affecting · fituation, ftruggling, and conveyed by force, in the arms of two or three men, towards the parish of St. Clement, in which was a houfe that took in fuch unhappy objects; and I always understood, that not long after he died in confinement; but when, or where, or where he was buried, I never knew.

Thus was loft to the world this unfortu nate perfon, in the prime of life, without availing himself of fine abilities, which, properly improved, muft have raised him to the top of any profeffion, and have rendered him a bleffing to his friends, and an ornament to his country!

Without books, or steadiness and refolution to confult them if he had been poffeffed of any, he was always planning fchemes for elaborate publications, which were carried no farther than the drawing-up proposals for fubfcriptions, fome of which were pub lithed; and in particular, as far as I remem ber, one for "A Hiftory of the darker Ages."

He was paffionately fond of mufic; goodnatured and affable; warm in his friendships, and vifionary in his purfuits; and, as long as I knew him, very temperate in his eating and drinking. He was of moderate ftature, of a light and clear complection, with grey eyes, fo very weak at times as hardly to bear a candle in the room; and often raifing within him apprehenfions of blindness.

With an anecdote refpecting him, while he was at Magdalen-college, I thall clofe my letter. It happened one afternoon at a tea-vifit, that feveral intelligent friends were affembled at his rooms to enjoy each other's converfation, when in cotnes a member of a certain college, as remarkable at that time for his brutal difpofition as for his good fcholarship; who, though he met with a circle of the most peaceable people in the world, was determined to quarrel; and, though no

complaint of the British fubjects in India,

Similar hereto is one article of the
contained in their petition to the Hon. Houfe of Commons.

+ Mr. Jofeph Warton, now Dr. Warton, head-master of Winton-fchool, was at the fame time fecond upon roll; and Mr. Multo, now prebendary of the church of Winter, third upon roll.

The tranflator of Polybius.

Dec. 1, 1780. YOUR correfpondent J. R. in September's Mifcellany, called upon the learned for an investigation of the propriety of an e or i, to form the genitive cafe with out an apostrophe. It may be prefumption in me to attempt the elucidation of a fubject which requires an intimate acquaintance with the first writings and books in our jan

* A younger son of Nicholas Bacon, Efq. commoner of Trinity-college, Cambridge, Jeffreys, Efq. of the fame college, are in the it appears that he had much critical acumen. Fellow of St. John's-college, and public Aw in Suffolk.