Lambeth, to the Alms Houses at Newington, in such manner as to them shall appear to be most convenient; and also to lay out and make a new road from a place called Symond's Corner, on the new road aforesaid, cross St. George's Fields, to the Stones End, in Blackman Street, in the parish of St. George, in the Borough of Southwark, in the county of Surrey; and also another new road from the said Alms Houses, at Newington, cross certain grounds, into the Kentish Road, near the Lock Hospital, at the end of Kent Street, in the county of Surrey, and to extend the same road cross certain grounds to the road called the Grange Road, in the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey; and to lay out and make a new road from the end of the new road already made by the commissioners for building the bridge to Kennington Common."

On the 8th of January, 1751, a court of common council augmented the recorder's salary, to the amount of 4007. per annum.

The journeymen taylors still continuing refractory, refusing to work for the wages settled at the last quarter session, and having committed many outrages, an order of privy council was issued against them, as well as for putting in force the act of 7 George I. for regulating journeymen taylors within the bills of mortality; and also the laws against the unlawful combinations of workmen, riots and tumults; promising a reward of fifty pounds each, for the discovery of persons sending threatening letters to master taylors *.

On the 22d of May, passed the act for regulating the commencement of the year, and correcting the calendar, agreeably to the Gregorian computation, which had been long adopted by most other kingdoms. It was by this statute, enacted, "That the year should, for the future, begin on the first of January, and that the eleven intermediate or nominal days, between the 2d and 14th of September, 1752, should, for that year, be omitted; so that the day which • Sending threatening letters, and demanding money or value, is fe lony without benefit of clergy.

VOL. I. No. 18.

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would

would otherwise have been called the 3d of September, was dated the 14th." By this correction, the equinoxes and soltices happen nearly on the same nominal days on which they fell at the council of Nice, in the year 325. This act, modelled by the Earl of Macclesfied, was productive of great utility for, besides the computation being more correct, the correspondence between English merchants, and those of foreign countries, was much facilitated, mistakes in business removed, and errors in chronology obviated. The annual admission and swearing of the lord mayor of London, at Guildhall, by this act, was, of course altered to the 8th of November; and the solemnity of swearing him in at the court of Exchequer, in Wesminster, to the day following.

His majesty, on the 26th of October, granted his charter of incorporation to the Society of Antiquaries, of London. The first society in the city of London that went by this appellation, was established about the year 1580, by several of the most learned and ingenious men in the kingdom; but their meetings, by various accidents, having been greatly obstructed, the society dwindled, and at length entirely dropped. In the year 1717, it was again revived; after which time it did not meet with any interruption, and increased in respectability to its present incorporation.

A cause of some importance occupied the attention of the lord mayor and court of aldermen, at an adjourned session in Guildhall, held October 21st, this year, upon a proposal to open the port of London for the importation of foreign oats, pursuant to a statute made in the first year of king James II. whereby "the lord mayor and aldermen are impowered, in the months of April and October, to determine the common market prices of middling English corn, by the oaths of two substantial persons of the counties of Middlesex and Surrey, being neither merchants, corn-factors, meal men, nor factors for importing corn, nor interested in the corn imported; and each having a freehold estate of twenty pounds, or a leasehold of fifty pounds, per annum, and by such other ways as to them shall seem fit; and if the same shall appear to be above sixteen shillings per quarter,

they

they are to certify the same with two such oaths in writing annexed, to the commissioners of the customs, to be hung up in the custom house." The persons who made this application, were eminent masters of livery stables, and innkeepers; and the opponents, the corn-factors. After a hearing which lasted from nine o'clock in the morning till six in the evening, it was decided in favour of the corn-factors: there being five aldermen for laying it open, and six against

it.

The year 1752 was productive of a trial which terminated rather ludicrously. The Poulterer's Company considering themselves within the meaning of the act of the fifth of Elizabeth, for regulating trades and mysteries, brought an action against a Poulterer at Kensington, upon the said act, for exercising the trade of a poulterer, not having served seven years apprenticeship; but after a trial of nearly three hours, neither the court nor jury understanding it at all necessary to be obliged to serve seven years to learn the mistery or skill of plucking a goose, or skinning a rabbit: the jury gave a verdict for the defendant.

On the 27th of June, a dreadful fire broke out at No. 10. Lincoln's Inn, New Square, which consumed that and the adjoining building. The loss occasioned by this accident to many noble and respectable families, on account of the destruction of title deeds, was beyond estimation.

The robberies and other irregularities which infested the city about this time, were grown to an enormous height; and the government and magistracy conceiving that the indiscriminate resort to places of public entertainment, might occasion a looseness of conduct, productive of the evils complained of, an act of parliament was passed for regulating places of public entertainment in the cities of London and Westminster, or within twenty miles of the same. In which it was enacted, "That from the first of December, 1752, any house, room, garden, &c. kept for public dancing, music, or other public entertainment, in London or Westminster, or within twenty miles of the same, without a licence from the last preceding Michaelmas quarter sessions,

under the hands and seals of four or more of the justices, who are hereby impowered to grant licences, shall be deemed a disorderly house or place; and every such licence, to be signed and sealed in open court, and not at any adjourned sessions, and publicly read by the clerks, together with the justices names subscribing the same, without any fee or reward for such licence. And any constable, or other person thereto authorized, by warrant from one or more of the justices of peace, may enter such house or place, and seize every person found there, to be dealt with according to law and every person who keeps such house, &c. without licence, shall forfeit 100l. to such as will sue for it, and be otherwise punishable as in cases of disorderly houses. And over the door, or entrance of such house, &c. so licenced, shall be the following inscription in capital letters: "Licenced pursuant to act of parliament of the twentyfifth of king George the Second." And no such house, &c. shall be opened before five o'clock in the afternoon. The inscription, and restriction as to the time, shall be made conditions of every such licence; and in case of breach of either, such licence shall be forfeited and revoked at the next general quarter sessions, and shall not be renewed to the same person; always excepting the theatres of Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and the Hay Market, or any other licenced by the crown or lord chamberlain."

The consideration of the fate which attended the famous Alexandrian Library, the destruction of which was the introduction of an æra of barbarism and ignorance, impells a sensation of a very different nature, when we contemplate the period at which the king and the British senate, by purchasing and consolidating into one magnificent treasure, the various funds of curiosity and literature in the kingdom; promoted science; established an exhaustless source of literary information; and laid the foundation of future accomplishments in elegant and classic knowledge: therefore, with pleasure, we record, that among the public acts of the state passed this year, was that for purchasing the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, bart. This eminent physician and natu

ralist was connected with the city of London, by marrying in 1695, the daughter of Alderman Langley, and being desirous that the metropolis in which he had obtained an ample and well-earned fortune, should be benefited by the vast accumulation of useful knowledge which he had collected, he bequeathed by his last will, that his whole Museum should be offered to the parliament for the use of the public, on condition of their paying to his executors the sum of 20,000l. though it appeared from his own account, that the sum proposed for such a valuable repository, was scarcely the intrinsic value of the gold and silver medals, the ores, and precious stones which it contained; and that the first cost of the whole collection to him had amounted to 500,000l. The parliament readily embraced the offer, and an act was passed, "For the purchase of the Museum or collection of Sir Hans Sloane, and of the Harleian collection of manuscripts; and for providing one general repository for the better reception and more convenient use of the said collections, and of the famous Cotton library, and of the additions made, and to be made thereto."

Government immediately raised 100,000 7. by lottery, for the purchase and establishment of this noble museum; governors and trustees, consisting of the most eminent persons in the kingdom, were appointed to conduct it; and among them were the archbishop of Canterbury, the lord Chancellor, and the secretaries of state, who were declared trustees for the public. Lord Cadogan and Hans Stanley, esquire, who had married Sir Hans Sloane's daughters were added; after their decease, two others were to be chosen in their stead, either by themselves, or the family of Sir Hans Sloane, from time to time, to be their perpetual represen tatives in the trust.

In order to increase this valuable collection still more, the king, with the parliament, directed that the royal library of curious manuscripts, which had long lain exposed in the Old Dormitory, at Westminster, should be added to the Cotton library, and that it should become a part of the proposed museum; and that Samuel Burrows, and Thomas Hart,

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esquires,