zeal and abilities to establish it, were pleased to allow him 2,5001. for that purpose. The above fociety has difburfed very near 20,0001. in this manner fince its first establishment in the year 1755, and has above 30001. ftill remaining.

India ftock fell 14 per 6th. cent. and great debates arose among the ftockholders, on the arrival of the Lapwing packet from the Eaft Indies, with the account of the war's breaking out there with fuch unpromifing circumftances. The reader will find fome account of these debates in the Appendix to the Chronicle.

12th.

The tide in the river Severn, which always comes up with a great head, and an amazing rapidity and noise, came half an hour before its ufual time. This greatly aftonished the people who obferved it; but their furprize was heightened, when they perceived a fecond tide coming up, with equal force, within half an hour of the firft.-At Bristol the tide flowed an hour and three quarters before its time; ceased to flow, and flowed again.

The crew of his majefty's 14th. fhip Pembroke chaired in grand proceffion, mufic playing and colours flying, their late boatfwain through the streets of Portfmouth and Gofport, and then made him a prefent of a gold call and a filver cup, in gratitude for his kind behaviour to them during the late

war.

The honourable house of 15th. commons fat till between feven and eight o'clock in the morning, on the affair of Mr. Wilkes, as author of the North Briton. The fpeaker was twenty hours in the chair, which was the

longeft fitting, by three hours, that is remembered to have happened. Came on at the court of 21ft. king's bench, Westminster, before Lord chief Juftice Manf field, the trial of John Wilkes, efq; for reprinting and publishing the North Briton, No. 45, at his own house. The council for the crown were, Mr. Attorney-general, Mr. Morton, Mr. Clayton, and Mr. Wallis; and for the defendant, Mr. Serjeant Glynn, Mr. Recorder Eyre, Mr. Stowe, Mr. Dunning, and Mr. Gardener.

Sir Fletcher Norton, attorney general, obferving, that certain inflammatory papers had been sent to the gentlemen of the jury, in favour of the defendant, tending to bias and prejudice their minds, Lord Mansfield made fome remarks on the heinous nature of fuch a proceeding, if true; and declared, if the offending party could be difcovered, he fhould be punished in the most exemplary manner. A queftion being then put to the jury relative to the above papers, the foreman acknowledged the fact; but at the fame time another of the jurymen produced a paper on the other fide, which he obferved was equally inflammatory. The trial lafted eight hours; the jury retired for an hour and three quarters, and brought in their verdict, Guilty.

The court then proceeded to the trial of Mr. Wilkes for printing and publishing the Eflay on Woman (the fame gentlemen as before being council on each fide) of which alfo the jury, after withdrawing about half an hour, found him Guilty.

At a court of common council held at Guildhall, the thanks of

of the court were ordered to be prefented to the reprefentatives of the city, for their zealous and fpirited endeavours to affert the rights and liberties of the fubject, by their laudable attempt to obtain a seasonable and parliamentary declaration, That a general warrant for apprehending and seizing the authors, printers, and pub lishers of a seditious libel, together with their papers, is not warranted by law; and to exhort them in the warmest manner fteadily to perfevere in their duty to the crown, and to use their utmost endeavours to fecure the houfes, papers, and perfons of the fubject from arbitrary and illegal violations. At the fame time, refolved, that," as the independency and uprightness of judges is effen"tial to the impartial admini"ftration of juftice, and one of "the beft fecurities to the rights "and liberties of the fubject," this court, in manifeftation of the juft fenfe of the inflexible firmnes and integrity of the right honourable Sir Charles Pratt, lord chief juftice of his majefty's court of common pleas, doth direct, that the freedom of this city be prefented to his lordship, and that he be defired to fit for his picture, to be placed in Guildhall, in gratitude for his honeft and deliberate decifion upon the validity of a warrant which had been frequently produced to, but, fo far as appears to this court, never debated in the court of king's bench ; by which he hath eminently diftinguifhed his duty to the king, his juftice to the fubject, and his knowledge of the law.

This example of the city of Lon

28th.

The feffions ended at the Old Bailey, when five malefactors received fentence of death; two for ftreet-robberies; one for burglary; a woman for privately robbing a man; and a man for robbing a woman near Newington. This laft has fince been reprieved.

At this feffion, John Franklin was tried for affaulting and wounding the honourable Thomas Harley, efq; in the execution of his office, at the time when the North Briton, No. 45, was burnt at the Royal Exchange, and was convicted thereof; but, notwithstanding the heinoufnefs of the offence, he was, at Mr. Harley's interceffion, only fentenced to three months imprifonment, to pay a fine of 6s. 8d. and give fecurity for his good behaviour for one year.

Came on at Guildhall, 29th. before the right honourable the lord chief, juftice Pratt, an [E] 2

action.

action brought by Mr. Arthur Beardmore against the king's meffengers, for entering his houfe, and infpecting his and his clients books and papers; when, upon the opening the caufe, Mr. attorney general obferved, that another action was depending, which Mr. Beardmore had brought, for falfe imprifonment, against the said meffengers, jointly with the right honourable the Earl of Halifax, under the fame warrant. Upon this, it was propofed that both actions might be tried upon one record; on which Mr. Beardmore and his council immediately expreffed their defire to unite both actions, and the court recommended to have the faid earl joined as a party, that the whole merits against all parties charged or concerned might be tried in one acand Mr. attorney general promifing to recommend the fame, thereupon his lordship appointed to try the caufe on Friday, the 4th day of May next.

tion;

The court of directors of the Eaft India Company have made colonel Coote a prefent of a diamond hilted fword, which coft 7001. as a teftimony of their gratitude for the fervices he had done the company in the Eaft Indies, and a memorial of his courage and conduct in the conqueft and demolition of the famous French fettlement of Pondicherry.

At Afhton, in Gloucefterfhire, a large tract of land, of near 16 acres, flipped lately from that fide of Breedon-hill in the parish of Grafton, and has entirely covered feveral pafture grounds, and a confiderable space of the common field, at the bottom of the hill. Some ftiles, that were in the foot

way to Afhton, and are left ftanding, are now feventy paces diftant from the paths to which they belonged. The ground, that has thus quitted its natural pofition, has preferved its own furface almoft entire, except in a few places, where chafms feveral feet deep appear. The tops of trees twenty feet high, which grew at the lower part of the hill, are now fcarcely two feet above ground; from whence it is thought the moving earth was near twenty feet in depth. This very extraordinary accident is attributed to the inceffant rains, as the foil, now up- . permoft, is of a boggy nature.

A gentleman, who has been at confiderable pains and travel, and who is reckoned a judge of the quality of ftones and foffils, has prefented to the members of the royal fociety, and to the fociety for the encouragement of arts, &c. a collection of Scotch garnets and other ftones, found in the Highlands of Scotland, fome of which have been cut by a lapidary in the diamond way, and are as beautiful as a ruby, equal in colour and weight to any oriental ftone, bear the fire, retain their colour, and are reckoned great curiofities.

Their royal and moft ferene highneffes the hereditary prince and princefs of Brunswick, on their landing at Helvoetfluys on the 2d inftant, were complimented by the great cup-bearer, Bigot, on the part of the prince of Orange; by M. de Reden, charged by the king of Great Britain and the regency of Hanover to conduct them to Lunenburgh; and M. de Boilwitz, on the part of the duke of Brunswick. The next

day.

day, the hereditary prince took the route by land, and arrived towards evening at the Hague. Her royal highnefs embarked at the fame time on board the yachts of the prince of Orange, and of the admiralty, and having a fair wind, arrived the fame evening at Delftfhaven, and the next morning at Delft, where the hereditary prince and duke Lewis of Brunfwick, as well as the Englifh ambaffador, came to meet her. The equipage of the prince ftadtholder, with an escort of body guards, conducted her royal highnefs from Delft to the Hague, to the palace of the prinee ftadtholder, called the Old Court, where, on alighting from her coach, the was received by the prince ftadtholder, who handed her to her apartments, where her royal highnefs received, fome time after, the compliments of the foreign minifters, and a great number of perfons of diftinction.

The ftates general, the states of Holland, and the council of state, upon news of their highneffes arrival, nominated a deputation of their most diftinguished members, to compliment them upon their fafe arrival, and the happy conclufion of their marriage; but, as they were pleafed to decline receiving thefe deputations in form, all the colleges had the honour to make their compliments without ceremony.

The prince ftadtholder gave, the fame day, a grand dinner and fupper, at the faid palace, to their royal and ferene highneffes, who went in the evening to the French comedy, an were entertained on the folowing days by the duke Lewis of

Brunswick, his ferene highness's uncle, general Yorke, &c.

On the 11th their highneffes arrived at Loo, on the 12th at Twickel, and the fame day paffed the frontiers of the feven provinces.

Paris, Feb. 14th. Some days ago an officer, of the regiment of Champagne, being at mafs at Douay, in French Flanders, a burgher happened to tread upon his dog, which fo exafperated the officer, that he beat the man severely; and, on his making resistance, killed him on the spot. This outrage fo incenfed the inhabitants, that they gathered about the houfe where the officer lodged, demolished the windows, feized his baggage and threw it into the street; broke his poft chaife and ham ftrung his horfes, and afterwards fell upon the officer himself, and dragged him through the kennel, till he died. The officers on duty, taking the alarm, beat to arms, fecured all the gates, fired upon the townfmen, and killed nine, wounded many more, and foon difperfed the reft. This affair being properly reprefented, is now under confideration at court, and it is thought the regiment will be broke.

At a general court of our Eaft India company held this day, M. Bertin informed them in the king's name, that his majesty would give them no further affiftance, because he could not do it but at the expence of his other fubjects; that the ftockholders might make provifion for continuing the trade and paying the debts, or elfe declare that they could not continue it; in which cafe his majesty would fee to it; that the stockholders in the mean time should continue to [E] 3

receive

receive a dividend of 40 livres for each fhare till paid off, and fhould choofe fyndics from among themfelves to manage their affairs. The directors had previously refigned. The governor of Cayenne and Guyenne, an affociate of the academy of Caen, has propofed the three following premiums, to be difpofed of next year. "The firft "of 500 livres, for falting, at the "leaft expence, beef, which, when carried to the Weft Indies, fhall "be as good as the Irish. The "fecond of 400 livres, for making "flour of the grain of the pro"vince, that will bear exportation "to the colonies as well as the "English. The third of 300 "livres, for preparing and falting "butter equal to the Irish."

Yesterday fourteen fellows were burnt alive at Brie, near this city, for poisoning the cattle of that province.

At a place called Buch, near Verfailles, lives a woman, the iris of whofe eyes is divided into 12 fections, forming an exact diał, the figures resembling thofe on the fmall watches that are included in rings to wear on the finger. She was born with this peculiarity, and yet has the perfect use of her fight.

This

Wurtemburg, Feb. 16. being our duke's birth-day, there was a grand hunting in the forefts, when his highnefs, and the lords of the court, killed 304 deer, 3000 hares, 290 foxes, 394 partridges, 111 pheasants, and 27 woodcocks; in the evening, the whole court appeared at the opera in their hunting dreffes, and at night fupped in high good humour. Saxony, Feb. lft. The dif

temper among the horned cattle, which has lately raged in this electorate to fuch a degree as to kill between two and three thou, fand head of cattle in a fhort time

in five villages only, is greatly abated, by hanging four or five onions about the beafts neck, directly after they are taken ill, and will not eat. Thofe onions draw out the infection, and look the next day as if they had been boiled. This remedy is to be repeated feveral times, and the onions which have been ufed, are to be buried in a deep hole. In a few days after, the cattle are taken with a running at the nose, which carries off the diftemper. It is alfo proper at the time to hang up fome onions in the distempered cattle's ftables.

Gran, in Hungary, Jan. 25th. In removing the foundation of the caftle in this city, to make room for a new palace, the workmen found an earthen vafe, containing 1258 Roman medals, fourteen of which were filver, and the reft copper. Thofe of filver are of the emperors Gordian, Maximilian, Dioclefian, and Conftantine, and thofe of copper were ftruck in the reigns of Claudius, Tacitus, Probus, Carus, Carinus, &c. There are alfo in this collection two me. dals of the emprefs Magna Urbica Augufta, who is fuppofed to have

been the wife of Carinus.

Copenhagen, Jan. 25. Notice has been given at the head of all the regiments in the king's fervice, that no officer for the future will be permitted to marry till he has depofited in the widow's cheft a fum of money, which for a colonel is fixed at 1000 rixdollars; for a lieutenant