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buting obfcene books and pictures. He then made an appointment with Ganer to meet him at the King's Arms, near Shoreditch church, on the Saturday following, which was the 11th of September, at 12 o'clock, telling him that he wanted fome of the pictures for "a humourfome old lady and gentleman;' and if they liked the fpecimens he brought, moft likely they would purchafe fome dozens. Accordingly, on the Saturday following, Ganer met him at the place and hour appointed, but told him he could not procure the pictures, as his regular cuftomers muft have all he had. To which he added, that one of their number had been lately profecuted, and that they did not deal with any but known cuftomers. They then parted, and the defendant went towards Tottenham the witnefs followed, and watched him. He first stopped at a genteel house at Newington. He next knocked at another houfe on Stamford Hill, and delivered a brown paper parcel. He gave it to a genteel looking woman, but the witnefs could not fay whether it was a fervant or not. He afterwards contrived to meet him, as though by accident, and alked him if he had had good luck in difpofing of his goods? The defendant anfwered, that he had difpofed of all his parcels except one, which he should also have difpofed of, but that the lady, for whom it was intended, was not at home. The witnefs enquired if he ferved many ladies in Tottenham ? He replied "He did." He further faid, he fupplied three Ladies' boarding-fchools with his books and pictures. He then fhewed the witnefs the two pictures which were produced, and which he bought for nine fhillings. The pictures were handed to the Jury;-without defcribing them, it is fufficient to fay, they were highly indecent and obfcene. On crossexamination, he faid, he had an allowance for his time by the Society who employed him, and that his expences were alfo paid, which might amount to 2001. per annum.

The Jury found him-Guilty. The Court fentenced him to fix months imprisonment.

Sept. 22. In the Gazette of Saturday evening, the day is finally announced on which Parliament is to meet for the difpatch of business. Its early meeting on the fixteenth of November is for the purpofe of arranging a variety of preliminary bufinefs, which is always usual on the opening of a new Parliament, fuch as fwearing in the Members, and ap

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Clementiffimi, Picntiffimi, Optimi,

Patris Patriæ
Et

Hujufce Diocefeos
Incole Auguftiffimi."

The Tower of Lincoln Cathedral having been reported to be in a dangerous ftate, is about to be decapitated of its two antient, and beautiful fpires, to the deep regret of the Antiquarian, and the admirers of the grand ftyle of decorative fcenery. Almoft a fimilar fentence has been paffed upon "Great Tom o'Lincoln," who is to be rung no more! The full fwing of four tons and a half. of bell-metal is found to injure the tower where he hangs; in confequence, he has been chained, and rivetted down.

About half paft fix on the evening of the fecond, part of the parapet on the top of one of the embrafures of St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet-ftreet, weighing nearly two hundred weight, by fome accident gave way, and fell on the pavement. Unluckily a poor foldier, paffing at the time, was very much hurt by the rebounding of the fragments of this mally ftone, which bruifed his right foot in fuch a manner as, without amputation, will endanger his life.

NEW CHURCH, IN THE STRAND. A Confectioner, who rents a house di

rectly

rectly oppofite to it, in the narrow paffage on the Northern fide of the Strand, fome time ago formed a plan of making an icehoufe directly in front, under the street. A veftry was accordingly called, for the purpofe of procuring the affent of the parifhioners to the undertaking; but the danger to the Church, and the adjacent houfes, from the neceffary depth of the intended excavation, appeared fo manifeft, leave was refuted. A fecond veftry, however, proved more favourable to the enterprife, and gave its fanction to the plan. About three weeks ago, preparations were made for its execution, and the neceflary fpace in the street was paled in, leaving a paffage on the flag-way for pedeftrians. The workmen then proceeded to excavate without any interruption, digging below the cellars of the neighbouring houfes, until the middle of laft week, when fome of the bank fell in; but no alarm was excited until Saturday night, when there was another fall of a larger quantity, to the amount of about twenty loads. This is fuppofed to have been occafioned by the weight of two loaded drays in their paffage into the One Bell Inn. The place was now fup. pofed to be in great danger, and further means of fecurity were adopted by the addition of new timbers, but they proved infufficient; for on Sunday evening, the western fide, probably in confequence of the rain, gave way, and Monday morning, about nine o'clock, the caffern followed, fo that the great pit that had been dug, is now filled up with earth and timber. Fortunately the workmen were at breakfast at the time, or they must have all perished. By this accident, the three houfes next to it were placed in the most imminent danger, the flag-way and the cellars having fallen into the excava tion, and even thofe that are more remote, to the number of two or three at each end, were not confidered perfectly fecure. Some of them have confequently been abandoned by the inhabitants, and new precautions have been adopted in all. To prevent any further mifchief, feveral of the houfes have been propped, and the ftreet is now completely blocked up on the Eaftern fide as far as Mr. Vigueres's, and on the western as far as the One Bell Inn, into which there remains only a narrow entrance for foot paffengers.

As the erecting of Statues has become fo much the fashion of late, we understand that the large Equeftrian Statue of William the Third is fhortly to be placed in the fituation originally intended for it,

namely, in the centre of the bafon in St. St. James's-fquare.

There is fome little hiftory attached to to this Statue which has now been made nearly a century, and was conftructed by a Dutchman much attached to King William, and from whom he had likewife received many favours; William died in 1702, and St. James's-fquare was built about 1718, which then, as well as now, was regulated in their parochial affairs by a Committee of Noblemen refiding in it. To this Committee the Dutchman left the Statute of his beloved mafter, requefting, if they refused the preference given of having it erected near the dwelling of his Prince, that it might be placed near the Royal Exchange. The bufinefs, however, died away from time to time, and had not the idea of erecting Statues to the memory of the late Duke of Bedford, Father O'Leary, Mr. Pitt, &c. again brought this one to recollection, it might have remained another century. The bufinefs was difcuffed the other day by the prefent Committee of St. James's-fquare, and carried by a majority that the Statue fhould be placed, according to the idea of the donor, in the centre of it.

The fub-aqueous tunnel, which was to give an eafy communication, at Gravefend, between Kent and Effex, is totally abandoned, the fteam engine, erected at fo much expence, being found incompetent even to relieve the opening works of water: thirty-five per cent on the general fubfcription, amounting to 60,000l. has been already expended in this experiment. The plan for forming an upper junction between the Medway and Thames, is alfo given up as imprac

ticable.

EXECUTIONS.-A white man has been hanged at Guadaloupe for affifting the infurgent Blacks. He was a French planter of good property and character; he acknowledged his offence, to which he declared he had been led by principles of humanity. He begged to be fhot; but his requeft was denied, and he fuffered on the gallows with feveral of the revolted Negroes.

A handfome building, of one story high, in the Chinese ftyle, has, by order of Government, been erected on the left angle of the Recruiting-house in the Bird-cage-walk, which, we understand, is in future to be the armoury for the whole Brigade of Guards. It confifts of four archways on the basement for the field-picces, the room over it being for the finall arms, a range of rooms in the

back

back for cleaning, and the two front angles have each a small houfe, one for a Serjeant-major, and the other for a guard-room.

DISCOVERY.-Among the Dorfet Papers which are preparing for publication, two original letters of Shakespeare have been recently difcovered. They are addreffed to his great friend and patron, Thomas Lord Buckhuft, Treafurer to King James I. The authenticity of the two letters is unqueftionable. They are dated in 1606 and 1607.

Cotton manufactories are extending in Cheshire, Staffordshire, and Westmoreland: we likewife learn, that fome Çapitalifts of this country are embarking in fimilar undertakings in several parts of

Ireland.

AN EXTRAORDINAY IMPOSTOR.

A man was lately apprehended at Whitehaven, in Cumberland, who had attempted to stop a postchaife, in Egremont, in which were three ladies, against whom he used the most menacing language. It feems this fellow had attacked two of these ladies, the fame morning, on their alighting from the chaife, at Calderbridge, and importuned them for relief, pretending that he laboured under a dreadful malady—“ a vulture in the flomach," which was then preying upon his vitals, &c. One of the ladies gave him fix-pence; the other refufed to give him any thing, and intimated a fufpicion of his being an impoftor. At the mention of the word impoftor, the pious fupplicant (begging alms in the name of Heaven, and calling for bleffings on the heads of all good tender-hearted Chriftians) was inftantly changed to the hectoring bully; who, hearing that they purpofed returning that night, had the audacity to threaten to await them. On his examination, he faid his name was Moore, and that he was a Mankfman : but in a hand-bill, purporting to be printed by J. Harrop, of Alfton, (copies of which he had been known to diftribute) he calls himself William Leak. This hand-bill fets forth,

"That the bearer William Leak, who failed in the Hope brig from London to the coaft of Guinea, under the command of Capt. J. Evans, had the misfortune while on the coaft to drink fome foul water in the river Gambia, it has taken fuch an effect within his body, that it has caufed him to be in the most dreadful fituation. Two of his fhipmates, who were in the fame fituation, were opened by Surgeon Potts, in St. Vil. III. Churchm. Mag, Sept. 1802.

Bartholomew's Hofpital, who took a large quantity of spawn out of their bodies. They both died under the operation. The bearer hereof has been in almost all the capital hofpitals in London, and turned out incurable.

"Dr. Pitcairn, Dr. Young, and Mr. Potts, with many of the molt refpectable of the faculty, declare they never faw fo fingular and curious a cafe : which baffles every attempt to affed relief. It is the opinion of many medical gentlemen that he has fomething alive in his belly-It appears most curious when the perfon is either eating or drinking, in the truth of which any perfon defirous may be fatisfied; it in general caufes him to have the most craving appetite.

"We whofe nanes are under-mentioned, are of opinion that the bearer, William Leak, certainly labours under a real difeafe, which affumes a curious form; he is an object of charity to the humane of all denominations; while his diforder muft claim the attention of all medical men."

Here follows a lift of the names of feveral medical practitioners, many of whom, we doubt not, would be furprized to find themfelves authenticating fuch falichood and nonfenfe.-William Leak, alias Moore, is committed to the Houfe of Correction; and will have a further hearing at the next quarter ses. fions.

BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH's
SERMON.

A PRIVATE LETTER.

Brighton, Sept. 20.-Yefterday the return of the Prince from town enlivened the place again. The Bishop of St. Afaph preached at the Chapel. Among his hearers, confifting of the first families now at Brighton, were the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Ellenborough, Baron Graham, numbers of the Nobility, and many diftinguished among the Clergy. His Sermon, like every one that has come from his mouth, naturally engaged ftrong attention, more especially from the extraordinary nature of its topic. It was an expofition of the fecond Pfalm, the firft words of which being taken for the text, awakened an inftant curiofity among the more reflecting, and the idea of an application which was not disappointed in the end. The words

are

"Why do the heathen fo furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the Аа earth

earth and the rulers take counfel together against the Lord, and against his anointed."

The object of the difcourfe, which was purfued through much of that profound inveftigation of Sacred Learning for which his Lordship is diftinguished, was to fhew that the Pfalm was a prediction of a moft defperate Anti-Chriftian confederacy against Christianity, to break forth, in the later times of its eftablishment, but to be ultimately vain and fruitlefs; and that the fcenes which have paffed in France within our knowledge are immediately within the contemplation of the prophecy, but unhappily only a commencement, not a completion, of the confederacy predicted, which has by no means yet come to the worst; nor could any part of Chriftendom, its Princes, or its People, be flattered that they had not more to fuffer, as Profeffors of Chriftianity, than they had hitherto experienced on any other fcore, from the growing progrefs of the unprincipled Revolution which had been established in France, whofe hypocritical motives of Republican Government, and farcical eftablishment of a Gallican Church (thefe were his Lordship's expreffions), were intended only as masked batteries to be employed in due time for the overthrow of the Gofpel.

The fatisfaction anticipated by the congregation, when it was perceived that his Lordfhip was prepared to preach, was great, inafmuch as it relieved them, though but for a day, from the metho diftical trafh which is held forth here, and affords no álternative to any characters

refident here, however enlightened or exalted in Church or State, but to hear it, or abfent themselves from Divine Service. This is become a ferious complaint; and one that does not feem, as things ftand, likely to be removed with eafe, unless it were properly represented to his Royal Highnefs, to build himself (which might be done at a moderate expence) a Chapel Royal for his own use, and to accommodate others that might wish to attend it.

POSTSCRIPT.

Sept. 27--General Andreoffi, the French Ambaffador, not having yet arrived, is the caufe of much alarm and fpeculation in the funds. The Emperor, according to the German papers, ftill retains the city of Paffau, and has been collecting and fending fresh troops into Swabia and the Tyrolean countries. All the military abfent on leave from Vienna, have also been called in. In the interim, that the inferior German princes may not be intimidated from feizing the countries affigned them, the First Conful has fent his Adjutant, Laurifton, to affure the Margrave of Baden that he might command the fervice of any of the French troops on the Rhine. In Switzerland, the infurrection against the French order of things, fpreads wider daily. In addition to the Cantons of Űry, Zug, Appenzel, Glarus, Schwitz, &c. the Citizens of Zurich have fhut their gates against the troops in the French fervice, from whom they have fuftained a bombardment of feveral hours, without producing the effect defired.

SUMMARY OF PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

THURSDAY, May 13. The order of the day being read for taking the Definitive Treaty of Peace with France into confideration:

Lord Grenville entered into a minute expofition of the various points left unprovided for by the Treaty; as Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, Cochin, Louifiana, Honduras, Senegal, the Brazils, the Navigation of the Eaftern Seas, and the French claims in the Peninfula of India; and having dwelt on thefe and a variety of other topics, he concluded a fpeech, which occupied about four hours, with moving, that an Addrefs fhould be prefented to his Majefty, ftating that their Lordfhips fully acknowledged his

Majefty's prerogative to make peace and war, and that they would enable him to fulfil the engagements he had entered into; but that they could not help expreffing their regret at the conceffions made by this country; that they, however, relied on his Majefty to refift any attempts to encroach upon our maritime, colonial, or commercial rights; and that they would place at his Majefty's disposal adequate means of guarding them.

The Duke of Norfolk was of opinion, that if the addrefs moved by the Noble Lord was carried, it would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

Lord Pelham faid, the arrangement relative to Malta, he conceived to be

the

the beft calculated to fecure our rights in that quarter; that our right to cut logwood in the Bay of Honduras, did not depend on the Treaty of 1763, but on the arrangement, by which, in exchange for that acquifition, we ceded a fettlement on the Mufquito fhore; and our right to the gum trade of Senegal, depended on the arrangement by which the limits wherein it was to be exercifed had been afcertained. He moved to leave out all the original motion,, except the word that," and to fubftitute an Addrefs, generally approving the Definitive Treaty, and expreffing a confidence on his Majefty's exercifing that vigilance which the state of affairs in Europe might require.

Lord Mulgrave feconded this amendment; which was fupported by Lords Auckland, Weftmoreland, and Ellenbo. rough.

Lords Carnarvon and Darnley spoke in favour of the original motion, on the ground of the effential difference between the Preliminary Articles, and the Definitive Treaty.

The Lord Chancellor entered into an enquiry as to the merits of the Treaty, which he in general approved.

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On the question being put on the Amendment, the numbers were-Contents, 122-Non-Contents, 16.

Lord Pelham's motion was then put, and carried without a divifion.

Lord Holland then moved, that the omiffion of feizing the different opportu nities of making peace, and of accepting the propofals of the Firft Conful to that effect, led to that ftate of things which induced the acceptance of the prefent terms of peace; which was negatived without a divifion; and at eight o'clock in the morning the House adjourned.

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the Houfe. He had borrowed the mo ney, being 1,500,000l. at an interest of only 31. 16s. 3d. per cent. He concluded with moving, that 1,500,000l. be granted to his Majefty, by way of Loan, for the fervice of Ireland. Agreed

to.

Sir Robert Buxton prefented a Petition from the Sierra Leona Company, ftating the loffes the company had fuftained, and praying relief. The petition was referred to a Select Committee,

Doctor Lawrence expreffed his aftonifhment that in the Treaty of Amiens no provifion was made for the fecurity of our poffeffions in India, against any attempts of the French, and faid he fhould move for a variety of Papers, from whence it would appear that the moft ferious confequences were to be apprehended from the omiffion in the Definitive Treaty to re-establish and confirm our rights in India. He moved that the Directors of the India Company be ordered to lay before the Houfe a ftatement of the feveral acquifitions made by France on the coafts of Coromandel and Orixa, from 1748 to 1763.

The motion was oppofed by Mr. Dundas, Lord Hawkesbury, and Mr. Jones; and fupported by Lord Temple and Mr. T. Grenville.

The above, and a number of other motions, by Dr. Lawrence, for papers relating to India, were negatived without any divifion.

May 13. The Order of the Day being read for the Houfe to take into confideration the Definitive Treaty of Peace

Mr. Windham went into an extenfive enquiry, as to the effect which the Treaty was calculated to produce upon the com mercial, naval, and territorial interefts of this country. As there was no stipulation with respect to how Malta was to be poffeffed, it was probable it might be occupied by fhips of other nations, while our's were excluded; the option of the Cape of Good Hope being a free port, was in reality left to France and not to Holland; ferious injury was to be apprehended from the vague ftipulations in regard to Guiana; and as to the Italian Republic, that circumftance alone would have juftified a renewal of the He believed that the peace was concluded upon the chimerical notion, A a 2

war.

that

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