On the 5th of April, David Brown Dignam was tried before Sir John Fieldng, at the feffion at Guildhall, Weftmintter, for defrauding Mr Clarke of upwards of 700l. under pretence of appointing him clerk of the minutes in the customhouse, at Dublin, by means of a forged warrant, pretended to be figned by Lord Weymouth, and Mr Daw. The jury, without going out of court, found him guilty; and the magiftrates, after confulting together, fentenced him to work five years upon the river Thames. He is a very gentleman-like man, and ill brooks the feverity of his fentence.

Some little time before his conviction, Dignam called at the house of Lord Suffolk, requesting an interview on bufinefs of an important nature. Lord Suffolk admitted him to a private audience; when Dignam disclosed his purpose to the folJowing effe &: He faid, that he had unhappily engaged in a confpiracy with fome gentlemen of rank and fortune to Shoot the King. He named two noblermen, and two aldermen, as confpirators engaged in the fame atrocious defign, and alfo feveral members of the Houfe of Commons, and fome private gentle. anen of affluent condition; and mentioned the time and place of the meeting of the confpirators. He pretended, that the ftings of confcience had occafioned a remorse in his mind, and that he had made fo ample a confeffion, as the only atonement in his power for having enga. ged in fo villanous a confpiracy. Lord Suffolk prefied him to make oath of the particulars. Dignam declined the propofal, by saying, “ That the scheme was not yet ripe for execution; no inconvenience could therefore enfue from the delay the confpirators were to meet that evening, and the next morning he would wait on his Lordship, to give him information of every particular which paffed at the meeting." At the day and hour appointed, Dignam waited on Ld Suffolk. The matter was preffed home: Dignam defired only a procrattination of that day, affuring his Lordship, that on the next he would fwear to every particular he had related. The fpies whom Lord Suffolk had employed, continued to watch the motions of Dignam as before. He was traced, as ufual, to the Stews of debauchery. The fuppofed confpirators alfo were attended by a group of obfervers. From the conduct

cufed, Lord Suffolk was now thoroughly convinced of the rafcality of the one, and of the entire innocence of the other, When, therefore, Dignam waited for the last time on his Lordship, the fecretary was prefent. The villain was charged in the plaineft terms with his basenefs. His face turned pale; his voice faultered. In fhort, he was convicted and confounded.

Madame Thomas, a foreigner, was tried at the Old Bailey, April 12. for uttering a forged note. She was very elegantly dressed, in a black filk fack and petticoat, and her hair curled up in the highest taste. After the witnesses were examined, the judge fummed up the evidence; obferving, that if the jury did not think her guilty of the forgery, they might confider the publishing, and not to take the ultimate defign of the prifoner into their confideration, which might be to repay the money, if fhe had published it knowing it to be forged; for he said, "Whoever obtains from me a good fecurity for a bad one, does actually defraud, though he might mean to make me reftitution." The jury returned a verdict, "Guilty of publishing." They expreffed great humanity on this occafion; all were very much concerned, and feveral of them wept, at being obliged to find her guilty; but recommended her to mercy. In this request they were feconded by Mr Blades, the profecutor. Baron Eyre commended their recommendation; faid, he thought her a fit object of mercy, and, from all circumstances, would forward their humanity. On the 14th of May, a respite, during his Majesty's pleasure, was fent to Newgate, for Mary Thomas.

'On the 8th of April was tried, at Che fter, Samuel Thorley, a butcher's follower, aged about fifty, for the wilful murder of Anne Smith, a ballad-finger, aged twenty-two. This monfter decoyed the girl into a hollow place, and there fevered her head from her body; cut her arms, legs, thighs, and breasts off; took her bowels and tongue out; and, after having cut off the calves of her legs, and other fleshy parts, he threw what remained of the carcafe into a brook. Thinking himself now secure from detection, he put into his apron the fleshy parts, and carried them to the house of an old woman, telling her they were pieces of a pig; and next morning having boiled what he called his pork, he eat a

part

part of it for breakfast; but finding it to difagree with him, he defired the woman to throw the remainder away. Soon after, a petticoat having been feen in the brook, fearch was made, the parts of the body were found; and he was taken up, tried, found guilty, and fentenced to be hanged, and his body to be hung in chains: and he was executed according ly. Being queftioned, what tempted him to commit lo horrid a crime, he answered, that having heard, that human flesh refembled young pig in tafte, curiofity tempted him to try if it was true.

SCOTLAND.

The General affembly of the church of Scotland, met, at Edinburgh, on Thurfday, May 22. [xxxviii. 278.].- After a fermon, from Tit. ii. 11.-15. by Dr John Kerr, of Forfar, the former moderator, the affembly convened, and unanimously chofe Mr James Brown, one of the minifters of Edinburgh, moderator.-George Earl of Dalhousie was High Commiffioner.

Friday, May 23. On report of a committee, the following minifters were ap. pointed to lecture and preach in the forenoon, and to preach in the afternoon, before the Commiffioner, viz. Mr John Logan at Leith in the forenoon, and Mr Charles Wilfon at Auchtermuchty in the afternoon, of Sunday May 25.; and Mr James Campbell at Auchterarder in the forenoon, and Mr William Dalrymple at Air, in the afternoon, of Sunday, June 1.

Saturday, May 24. A motion having been made for an addrefs to the King from the affembly, on occasion of the 'continuance of the unnatural and unjust revolt of his Majefty's fubjects in North America, the affembly unanimoufly a greed to the motion, and appointed the following members as a committee to prepare a draught of the addrefs, viz. the Moderator, Dr Kerr, Princ. Robertfon, Princ. Campbell, Lord Chief Baron, and the Procurator.

Monday, May 26. A draught of the addrefs having been produced by the committee, was first read all over, then paragraph by paragraph; and was unanimoufly approved of by the affembly, and fubfcribed by the Moderator in their prefence. At the affembly's request, the Commiffioner undertook to tranfmit it to the King. It was presented to the King by the Earl of Suffolk, one of the

Secretaries of State, was received very graciously, and appeared in the gazette of May 31. viz.

May it please your Majesty,

We your Majefty's moft loyal subjects, the Minifters and Elders of the Church of Scotland, met together in a National Affembly, confider it as our duty, at this interesting jun&ture, to approach your throne, in order to affure your Majefty, that our attachment to your perfon and government, and the zeal of the people under our care for the conftitution and rights of Great Britain, continue firm and unshaken.

Senfible of our own felicity, under the reign of a prince, who has been the faithful guardian of thofe laws and liberties which the Illuftrious House of Hanover was called to fecure and maintain, we observed with deep concern the first appearances of a turbulent and ungovernable spirit among the people of North America [xxxviii. 272.]. We have contemplated its alarming progrefs with aftonishment, and beheld fellow.subjects, who enjoyed, in common with us, the bleffings of your Majesty's mild adminiftration, take arms in oppofition to your juft authority, difclaim the fupremacy of the British legiflature, reject with difdain the means of conciliation generous-ly held out to them by your Majefty, and labour to erect their unlawful confederacies into Independent States.

With reverence and gratitude to Dia vine Providence, we offer our congratu lations to your Majefty on the fuccefs which has attended the fleets and armies which you have been constrained to employ, in order to oppofe the violence of rebellious fubiects, and reclaim them to a fenfe of their duty. While we truft that your Majefty's councils will be con ducted with wisdom, and your troops continue to act with valour, we regard it as our immediate duty in the prefent fituation of public affairs, to encreafe our diligence in difcharging the functions of our facred office, that we may not only confirm the people under our care in fen timents of loyalty to their fovereign, and attachment to the British conftitution, but may imprefs all ranks of men with a deep fenfe of their manifold tranfgreis fions, and incite them to fuch reformation in their hearts and lives, as will avert from our country thofe judgements which our iniquitics justly deserve.

That the Lord of hofts, in whofe hand

is power and might, may go forth with the fleets and armies of our country; that He, who ftilleth the tumults of the people, and ruleth the spirit of man, may in his good time turn the hearts of the children unto their fathers; that the deftroying fword may return into his scabbard, and be at reft; that the union between Great Britain and her Colonies may be fpeedily re-established on terms fo juft and equitable, that both may long rejoice under the government of your Majefty, as their common father and be nefactor, are the daily and fervent prayers of,

May it pleafe your Majefty,
Your Majefty's moft faithful, moft o-
bedient, and most loyal fubjects,
The Minifters and Elders met in this
National Affembly of the church of
Scotland.

Signed in our name, in our prefence,
and at our appointment, by

JAMES BROWN, Moderator. Edinburgh, May 26. 1777." After approving of the addrefs, the affembly took under confideration a petition for Meff. John Biffet at Buchan, and Charles Nifbet at Montrofe, minifters, and a petition for Mr James Gillies, preacher of the gofpel. Mr Gillies had been apprentice for two years to an advocate or writer in Aberdeen; but in 1774 he applied aimfelf to the ftudy of philofophy at the college of Aberdeen; and in the year following he entered to the divinity-hall, and carried on the ftudies of philofophy and divinity together. In 1776 the hopes of obtaining a prefentation to a church which there was reafon to believe would foon become va

cant, determined him to apply for a licence in England; which he obtained from a clafs of diffenting minifters at Newcastle on the 21ft of May 1776. This licence having been laid before the prefbytery of Brechin on the 3d of July, was unanimously fuftained; and he fubfcribed the Confeflion and the Formula. At the fubfequent meeting of prefbytery, July 18. a minifter who had not been prefent at the former, diffented from the fentence. On the 2d of October he gave in his reafons of diffent; the chief of which were, 1. That the acts of affembly require, that every candidate for the miniftry apply himself to the ftudy of divinity for fix years after finifning the u. fual course of philofophy at the college; 2. That fuftaining fuch licences as that

in queftion has been for fome time paft confidered as a grievance, and there is at present an overture in dependence for applying a remedy to it. To this diffent another minifter adhered. On a complaint, though it was pleaded, that neither the prefbytery nor Mr Gillies were regularly cited, the fynod agreed, without a vote, to condemn the conduct of. the prefbytery, as highly irregular, and a precedent likely to be attended with pernicious confequences; ordained them to craze the fentence from their minutes; and discharged them, and every other minifter in the bounds, to confider him as a preacher, to employ him to preach in their churches, or to appoint him to fupply any vacancy within the bounds of the fynod. From this fentence Mr Biffet appealed to the affembly; Mr Nifbet adhered; as did afterwards feveral members of the prefbytery. In the affembly appearance was made for the prefbytery, for Mr Gillies, and for the fynod. Parties were fully heard, and after long reafoning, a motion was made, That in refpect the fynod of Angus and Mearns had acted irregularly, by taking in this caufe when not properly before them, and giving judgement therein without calling Mr Gillies to be heard for his intereft, therefore the affembly fhould reverfe their judgement, and affirm the fentence of the prefbytery of Brechin, fuftaining Mr Gillies's licence: which motion was agreed to without a vote.

The window-tax committee [xxxviii. 278.] was continued, with the fame powers as appointed by former assem

blies.

Tuesday, May 27. A petition for Meff. Alexander Webfter, Robert Walker,' John Erfkine, David Johnstone, and o thers, members of the prefbytery of Edinburgh, appealing against a fentence of the fynod of Lothian and Tweeddale, relating to Lady Glenorchy's chapel, was taken under confideration.

Our readers will remember, that in 1772 this lady feued from the Orphanhofpital, at Edinburgh, a piece of ground on which to build a chapel [xxxiv. 580.}. The pious lady's intention by this erec tion was, to accommodate with feats many perfons who could not be provided in the churches of the city, (the inhabitants who are of the cftablishment being fo numerous that the churches can not contain them), and more especially to accommodate the poor, for whom no

Space

space is left in the churches, except remote areas, hardly within the reach of an ordinary voice; and, befides, the lady, by a miffive, dated, Feb. 8. 1773, became bound in thefe terms:1 "That when the chapel is not otherwife employed by my direction, the managers of the Orphan-hofpital fhall have liberty from me (upon afking it in proper time) to have occafional preaching there, by any minifters of the gospel they chufe to invite, the collections upon fuch occa fions to be for the ufe of the hofpital. And the minister to be settled there shall have directions from me, to take infpection of the children and fervants in the hofpital, if agreeable to the managers."

In profecution of her defign, the lady wrote several letters to the presbytery of Edinburgh, afking their affiftance, by allowing fuch of their number, or probationers within their bounds, as might chufe it, to preach in the chapel occafionally, till a fettled minifter fhould be appointed by her. The prefbytery, A. pril 27. 1774, unanimously approved of the general defign; and the chapel was opened on Sunday, May 8. 1774, two of the minifters of Edinburgh officia ting on the occafion, Dr John Erfkine in the forenoon, and Mr Robert Walker in the afternoon. In the chapel free feats are provided for near 500 poor people, and alfo for 100 deftitute children, who are educated at a charityfchool adjoining to the chapel, built and endowed at the lady's fole expence.

Several minifters and probationers preached from time to time in the chapel. In December 1775, the lady communicated, by letter, to the prefbytery, her intention of fettling, as minifter of the chapel, Mr Thomas Grove, paftor of a Proteftant Diffenting congregation in England, who had fome time officiated in the chapel. To which the prefbytery returned an anfwer, intimating, that though they continued to approve of her Ladyship's pious intention, in eftablishing the new congregation within their bounds, they could not give countenance to any perion's being minifter thereof, until they had fatisfying evidence, of his having been regularly licensed and ordained, of his loyalty to government, and of his conformity to their ftandards. This letter produced apother from the lady, dated, May 15. 1776, in which the informed the prefbytery, that, had cir cumftances permitted Mr Grove to reVOL. XXXIX.

main in Scotland, fhe was perfuaded he would have given fuch fatisfaction, with refpect to the particulars mentioned in the prefbytery's letter, as would have removed all difficulty in the way of their granting that countenance to his minitrations which he meant to have afked of them; but that Mr Grove's return to England rendered it now unneceffary. Her Ladyship then proceeds to inform the prefbytery, that the intended that Mr Balfour, minifter of Lecropt, one of their own licentiates, with whofe ministerial abilities and good character they were well acquainted, should be paftor of the forefaid congregation; but that fuch was Mr Balfour's regard for them, and his refolution to hold communion with the ministers of the establishment, that he declined taking any step toward the loofing of his pastoral relation from his prefent parish, until he was affured that they would countenance his admiffion to the chapel, by appointing one of their number to preach on the occafion,

This letter having been taken under confideration by the prefbytery, they unanimoully approved of the lady's choice of Mr Balfour, as being poffeffed of all the qualifications they had required; but his defiring to be introduced to the chapel by one appointed by the prefbytery to preach on that occafion, gave rife to a debate; fome members being of opinion, that, in order to authorife fuch appointment, it was neceffary that there fhould be a call from the congregation, and legal fecurity for the ftipend to the minifter; and that the collections fhould be put under the adminiftration of the managers of the charity workhoufe. The feveral members of the presbytery not being at one with regard to thefe particulars, it was agreed to appoint a committee of their number to converse with the lady upon them. A letter at the fame time was fent to the lady, approving of the nomination of Mr Balfour, and acquainting her, that they would, upon proper application being made to them, appoint fuch a day for his admif fion to be minifter of her chapel, as thould be convenient for her Ladyship; and that they had recommended to their committee to converfe with her upon their ideas of a proper application.

In answer to this, the lady fays, in a letter, dated, May 24.1776, The chapel is private property, and was never intended to be put upon the footing of

M m

the

the establishment, nor connected with it as a chapel of eafe to the city of Edinburgh, in fuch manner as the chapels of eafe lately erected in St Cuthbert's, and other parts of Scotland, are connected with their refpe&tive parishes. Having built the chapel wholly upon my own expence, I think myfelf intitled to name the minifter thereof; efpecially as no perfon is under any obligation to join with him in his miniftrations, but fuch as fhall voluntarily chufe fo to do. The prefbytery, however, may reft affured, that I will at no time nominate any perfon but one of established character, found in the faith, loyal to government, and firmly refolved not to follow divifive courfes; and that in fuch nomination due regard will be fhewn to the fentiments of thofe who statedly attend divine worship in the chapel. With Mr Balfour's defire, to be introduced by a minifter of the prefbytery, I concurred, in order to fatisfy the prefbytery, that nothing was farther from my thoughts, than to promote any intereft in oppofition to the church of Scotland, and to convince them of my fincere with, that the minifter of the chapel, though not on the establishment, should hold communion with the minifters thereof. My agreement with Mr Balfour is a matter which properly belongs to us. His acceptance of the chapel is a proof that he is fully fatisfied; and I flatter myself, the prefbytery are too well acquainted with my fentiments, to doubt of my taking care, that he who ferves at the altar fhall live by the altar. -With refpect to the collections, all who attend at the chapel know, that trustees are appointed for the diftribution of them; fo that, if they do not approve of that mode of administration, they may difpofe of their alms in any other way they chufe. The fmall fums collected are applied for the fupport of indigent perfons, whereby the parochial funds are probably relieved of a burthen that would otherwife fall upon them. Befides, I have fent once and again part of thefe collections to the treasurer of the charity-workhouse."

-

The majority of the prefbytery being fatisfied with this letter, and with the

report of their committee, it was moved, That in cafe Mr Balfour's relation to the parish of Lecropt fhould be loofed, the prefbytery, upon intimation thereof be ing made to them, fhould appoint Dr Weber, who had previously declared

his willingness to obey the appointment, to introduce him to the chapel, by preaching on that occafion. But the motion being oppofed, the queftion was put, Appoint, or, Not? and carried in the affirmative. Two or three minifters diffented; and an appeal to the fynod was taken.

At a meeting of prefbytery, Oct. 30. 1776, Dr Webster acquainted them, that he had received a letter from Lady Glenorchy, defiring him to intimate to them, that fome things having occurred, which made Mr Balfour judge it his duty to continue as paftor of his prefent parifh of Lecropt, the therefore had laid afide her intention of his being minister of her chapel, and was to give the prefbytery no further trouble on that account.

After this it was thought by the prefbytery, that the appeal to the fynod would have been dropt, as the ground of it had been removed, by Mr Balfour's withdrawing his acceptance of the chapel. The complainers, however, infifted; and the fynod, at a meeting in which there was not fo many members as there was in the prefbytery, pronounced the following judgement, Nov. 12. "The Synod, after reafoning at confiderable length upon this affair, came to the fol-. lowing refolution without a vote: That they did, and hereby do, disapprove of the prefbytery of Edinburgh, for appointing one of their number to preach, at the introduction of a minifter into a chapel declared by the proprietor to be private property, and never intended to be upon the footing of the establishment, nor connected with it as a chapel of ease to the city of Edinburgh; and do reverse the faid fentence: And further, fo long as faid chapel remains unconnected with this church, the fynod did, and hereby do, difcharge all the minifters and proba tioners within their bounds to officiate in faid chapel; and discharge the minifters of this church to employ any minifter of the faid chapel to officiate for them.". A chief ground of the fynod's fentence was, That the prefbytery had granted minifterial communion to the minifters of a chapel unconnected with

So this fentence is copied in the printed. cafe for the prefbytery; but in the cafe for the fynod, the word forefaid ftands in place of the words of this church; which laft words have probably flipt in per incuriam; the prefbytery however infifted, that they merited the cenfure of the affembly.

the