qualified as commander in chief, for the former in fuch critical circumftances, and many confidering Mr. Sullivan as indifpenfably neceffary, as chairman, in the latter, whilft his lordship refufed to act under any direction in which that gentleman had the lead. At laft the difmal profpect of the company's affairs in India decided the difpute in favour of lord Clive, fo that Mr. Sullivan had fcarce votes enough to bring him into the direction.

But another difficulty ftill remained. Mir Jaffier, on his advancement to the nabobfhip by our victorious arms under lord Clive, then colonel Clive, had made over to the company a tract of country, whofe annual rents amounted to 600,000l. referving to himfelf the quit-rents, amounting to 30,000l. a-year; and fome time after he granted thefe quit-rents to the colonel, as an acknowledgment of his obligations to him. Thefe quit-rents, commonly known by the name of Clive's jagheer, the company, through whofe hands alone his lordship could receive them, thought proper to top, under various pretences, particularly their being liable to make them good to the mogul, in cafe the arms of this monarch fhould ever gain the afcendency in Bengal. Thefe reafons lord Clive anfwered in a very fatisfactory manner, and particularly that we have fpecified, which he refuted on principles affumed by the company in a difpute between them and the Dutch Eaft India company. Arguments alone, however, proving infufficient to end the difpute, and his lordfhip thinking it, as indeed he had a juft right, very improper for him to

engage in the company's fervice while there fubfifted any difference between him and the company, he was requested to propofe his terms, which he accordingly did. Thefe were, that he should enjoy his jagheer for ten years, provided the company fhould remain fo long in poffeffion of thofe lands of which the jagheer is the quit-rent, and provided he fhould live fo long; at the end of ten years, or at his death, if it fhould happen firft, his right and title to the jagheer to ceafe; and, on his arrival in India, he to use his utmost endeavours with the nabob to fecure the reversion of it to the company. Should his death happen early in this fervice, he fubmitted to the confideration of the directors and proprietors (but did not infift upon it) whether it could not be continued to his heirs for five years. The company readily affented to every thing, except the continuance of the jagheer to his lordfhip's executors. foon after, to prevent any fuch difputes for the future, it was refolved that none of their fervants fhould accept of any fuch gratuity from any Indian prince or governor. Here we cannot help wifhing, that the company had fhewed itself as attentive to the honour of the nation, as to their own intereft, by making fome laws to prevent at least the fhameful rapacioufnefs of their fervants. in the Eaft-Indies.

But

But to return. As foon as harmony was thus reftored, lord Clive prepared for his voyage; and having obtained from his majefty the honour of the Bath, and the title of major general in India, he fet out from London for that country on the 27th

of

of May, notwithstanding the news of many and great advantages obtained there under major Adams, which were received in the interim. [For an account of thefe advantages, and other interefting tranfactions in the Eaft Indies, the reader is referred to the Hiftory, with which this volume opens.]

Some account of a remarkable robbery committed at lord Harrington's house, in the Stable-gard, St. James's, in December, 1763.

IN

N the year 1762, lord Harrington was fo unfortunate as to receive into his fervice, in the capacity of a porter, one John Wefket, who had before been affociated with John Bradley, and James Cooper, in robbing the chambers of Henry Mountague, efq; in Lincoln's Inn, and the house of Mr. William Burton in Hatton Garden.

Both Bradley and Cooper had been livery fervants; Bradley, in December, 1763, when Wefket had lived about a year and half at lord Harrington's, was out of place; and Cooper, having before failed as a cheesemonger in Ratcliff Highway, kept a chandler's fhop and coal cellar in New Turnftile, Holborn; Bradley at that time being his lodger.

Welket, having formed a defign to rob lord Harrington, took opportunities of going frequently, under various pretences, into the room in which his lordfhip ufually fat, and in which there was a bureau where he kept his cash and

his bufinefs, he had feen the bu reau open, while his lordfhip was counting money, and had remarked what part of the bureau it was kept in.

He had alfo been told by Mr. Bevel, his lordfhip's fteward, that money had been received to pay bills; and when Bevel was asked in court how he came to give him this intelligence, he answered, that it was to apprize him of tradefmen receiving their money, that he might get from them, what noblemen's porters have, by the tyranny of cuftom, long exacted from their tradefmen, when paid, under the name of perquisite; and that he likewife told Wefket, that he would take care the tradefmen fhould come to the house to be paid, to enfure the levying of this

tax.

Wefket having got this intelligence, and having acquainted himself with the bureau, and the particular part of it where the money was kept, he communicated his purpofe of robbing his lord to his old affociate Bradley, and appointed him to come to affift in the fact on Saturday evening, the 5th of December, 1763, when he knew his lord and lady were to be at the opera, directing him at the fame time to bring a brace of piftols and a tinder-box.

With what view the piftols were ordered does not appear, the robbery being to be perpetrated in fecrecy and filence, where no body could be prefent but the thieves, unless it was to fecure their retreat, if they fhould be detected in the fact. The tinder-box was to be left behind, that the robber might be fuppofed not to be a domeftic, nor fufficiently acquainted with

[L] 3

the

the house to know where to light a candle.

Bradley accordingly came, about eight o'clock in the evening, with his pistols and tinder-box. Wefket let him in at the door of the porter's lodge, and ordering him to walk foftly, took him into a little room where he flept." No"body, fays he, has a right to come hither; I will get you fomething to drink, and here you fhall remain till the mid"dle of the night, and then we will have my lord's money."

66

66

Wefket immediately left him, locking him in, but returned foon afterwards with a bottle of rum ; and Bradley then fhewed him his pistols and tinder-box, which Wefket took from him, and then left him again. Wefket was afterwards to and again feveral times, but always locked the door, and took the key with him, when he went away.

About twelve o'clock, lord and lady Harrington came home; and between one and two Wefket came to him, and told him the family were fecure:"Take a draught "of rum, fays he, have courage, "and follow me.'

They then went into the kitchen, and Wefket fhewed him a very high window, which opened with a pully and ftring, telling him, that must be his way out when the bufinefs was done. To this Bradley objected, for a very good reafon, because he did not know where he should come when he got out of the window. He faid, however, that the purpose intended might be anfwered without trouble or rifque; and immediately pulling off his fhoes, which were dirty, he made the

mark of his foot upon the dreffer, which it was neceffary to mount to get at the window, and then he daubed the window and the wall, to make it appear that fomebody with dirty feet had got out of it.

When this was done, they both went very foftly to the bureau in my lord's ftudy, when Wefket, giving Bradley the candle, took a gimblet and chiffel out of his pocket, and broke open the bureau. He took out two bank notes, one for a hundred pounds, and the other for thirty, three gold fnuff-boxes, four hundred pounds in money, and other things, to the value of two thousand pounds; he gave this booty to Bradley, and, leaving the tinder-box behind, conducted him again down stairs, and then giving him the piftols, he, with great caution, opened the street door and let him out, defiring he might not fee him for a fortnight or three weeks. The street door he left a-jar, fearing to fhut it left he should be heard, and went to bed.

Bradley made the beft of his way with his booty to Cooper's house, having defired him to fit up for him; Cooper, however, when he came thither, was not at home, whereupon Bradley went about in fearch of him, but without fuccefs. Bradley then returned to his houfe and deposited the treasure, which he had carried about the street all night, in a kind of fhed in the yard under no lock. It was then near four o'clock, and Cooper was not yet come home ; he therefore went out again to feek him, and by accident mèt him near Temple-bar. It might reasonably be thought, that they

would

would then have gone immediately back to fecure the money; but instead of that they went both to a night-houfe, where they fat drinking together till it was light.

Cooper being acquainted with the bufinefs Bradley had done, and fhewed the booty, put all but the negotiable notes and bills of private perfons, which they deftroyed, in a box, and buried it in his cellar.

It was very ftrange that Wefket and Bradley fhould be fo careless to fecure what they had with fo much danger obtained. Wefket gave Bradley the whole booty without knowing its value, and Bradley fuffered Cooper to keep it where he might at any time have accefs to it without his confent, or even knowledge; neither did he examine what he had got till it had been thus depofited near a .month.

When a maid fervant of lord Harrington's came down ftairs on Sunday morning, the day after the robbery, between feven and eight o'clock, fhe found the street door wide open; and, as the was laying the fire in the steward's room, Wefket came to the door, and afked her if fhe had let in an old man, that used to be frequently about the houfe; fhe faid, no, but that the door was wide open when fhe came down ftairs; upon which he turned away, and faid, D-n it, who could go and leave the door open?

Between ten and eleven my lord came out of his chamber into the room where the bureau ftood, and immediately perceived that it had been broke open. A fearch was immediately made to discover

where the thief had got in or out. The dirt on the dreffer in the kitchen, and against the window, was obferved, and the window alfo was found open; but as rogues are always cunning by halves, Wefket, when he contrived thefe appearances of perfons having come in or out of that window, had not taken care to have him traced out of the place into which he must have come from the window; this place was inclofed with a wall about five feet high, and the top of the wall was overgrown with mofs, fo that, if any body had got over it, a mark must have been feen; the appearance, therefore, of dirt about the window, and its being open, only confirmed the notion, that the robbery' must have been committed by a fervant. t 2.

The fteward went to the lodge and examined Wefket's fhoes, which he found clean. The marks of a gimblet and chiffel being found on the bureau, a little box of tools that was kept in a place where all the fervants had accefs to it was fearched, and a gimblet and chiffel were found that exactly answered the marks. This was further evidence that a domeftic was the thief. Lord Harrington, therefore, fent for Mr. Spinnage, a juftice of peace, to examine the fervants; and Welket was chiefly fufpected, as my lord's footman and valet de chambre were newly come, and the prifoner was the only perfon in the houfe, except the fteward and a maid or two, that knew the drawers where the bills and money were; his box was fearched, and a drinking horn was found with fixteen guineas in it; but nothing else appearing, [L] 4

and

and he alledging he had received it for wages, he was not taken into cuftody, nor did any thing appear that juftified a fufpicion of any other perfon in the family.

Wefket, however, was not long afterwards turned away. The firft time Bradley faw him, after the robbery, was in a fide box at the play. Bradley, who was in the gallery, met him as he came out, and they went together to a house in the Piazza, Covent Garden, where Wefket faid every thing was fafe, meaning that the enquiry had ended in nothing, and was fatisfied with Bradley's account of the things.

After this they met feveral times, when Wefket blamed Bradley for not putting off the bank notes; Bradley then proposed to go abroad with them, having been abroad before; but Wefket telling him my lord was well known at all the courts of Europe, he determined to carry them to Chester fair.

To Chefter, therefore, he went, at the Midfummer fair of 1764, and, pretending to be a young trader, he bought fome linen of the Irish factors, and changed both his bank notes, taking linen and cafh, and bills on perfons in London, in exchange.

The bills they got accepted and paid, and had now reafon to think themselves fafe beyond a poffibility of detection, if they did not betray each other. They were, however, difcovered by an accident fo remarkable, that it would probably have been blamed as exceeding probability, if it had been made an incident in a novel.

Some time after Wefket had been

difcharged from his place, a gentleman happened to pick up a woman of the town, in Conduitftreet; and, in the course of their conversation at a tavern, fhe told him, that she had been feduced, under pretence of marriage, by John Wefket, who lived porter with lord Harrington, when he was robbed; and fhe gave fuch an account of his manner of dref fing and living, that the gentleman brought her to fir John Fielding.

She faid, that the firft became acquainted with Wesket, after his quitting lord Harrington's, that fhe had lived with him, that they had been parted about a month, but that the ftill went by his name. She gave an account, also, of his acquaintance, and, among them, of Bradley, and put into the juftice's hand fome letters, which he had received from Wefket's acquaintance while fhe lived with him, among which was one written by Bradley. She faid alfo, that she had very lately feen fixty guineas in Wefket's poffeffion.

Sir John, upon this information, had Wefket taken into cuftody, and examined him; he alfo, upon fearching his box, found 60 guineas. Wefket could not account fatisfactorily for this money; but there being nothing else found, he was difcharged, notwithstanding the fulpicion againft him was ftrengthened by the money.

An attempt was made to take Bradley into cuftody, but he could not be found.

In the mean time, lord Harrington, happening to have an exact defcription of the thirty pound bank note, had advertised it; and

about