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18th. A spectacle more gratifying, and at the same time more affecting, cannot be imagined than the anniversary festival of that truly excellent institution, the Royal Humane Society, which was this day celebrated at the London Tavern, attended by upwards of 300 persons of the first distinction for benevolence and opulence. The chair was taken by Dr. Lettsom, having on his right hand the bishop of St. David's, and on his left Mr. Erskine. The Messrs. Goldsmids were present, and contributed with their accustomed laudable liberality. At ten the company separated, delighted with the pleasing contrast, that whilst tyranny and murder shed their horrors on a neighbouring country, it was the proud and peculiar boast of Britons, not to massacre-but to save!

The celebration of high mass, and a solemn requiem for the late duke D'Enghien, took place this morning at the French chapel, in Kingstreet, near Portman-square. The bishop of Montpelier assisted on this most solemn and affecting occasion, as did the venerable archbishop of Narbonne, the bishops of Arras, Avranches, Nantz, Angoulême, Noyon, Rhodes, and Usez.

There were present many of the English nobility; and of the French, Monsieur, the dukes of Berry, Orleans, and Montpensier, compte de Beaugolois, and the marquis di Livarôt. The feelings of the prince of Condé, the unfortunate. grandfather of the murdered and innocent D'Enghien, would not admit of his

attendance.

It appears, by the accounts lately delivered to parliament, that the number of shipwrights and artificers in his majesty's dock-yards has been

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increased, between the 1st of March 1803, and the 1st of March 1804, from 5691 to 6967.-It likewise appears, from the same documents, that the number of vessels employed in the defence of this country, amounts to the enormous sum of 1652!

28th. Colonel Harwood applied to the court of chancery for an injunction to restrain the further negociation of a promissary note for 40001. given by him to Mr. Horne Tooke. It appeared, from the colonel's statement, that the note had been given as an accommodation note to Mr. Horne Tooke; but, by the account of the latter, that an agreement had been entered into between them to share, reciprocally, the bounty of Mr. Edward Tooke, deceased; and that the note was the voluntary gift of colonel Harwood, in discharge of his honour and good faith. The note was to be laid out in the purchase of annuities for the lives of Mrs. Tooke and her two daughters, but Mr. Tooke changed the disposition, by purchasing of sir Francis Burdett, bart. an annuity of 4001., for his own life, for 24001. and taking a bond for 16001. the residue of the note, which he conceived would be more eligible, and ultimately more beneficial to his family. The chancellor, after taking a comprehensive view of the case, said it would best answer the justice. and equity of the case, if colonel Harwood brought the money into court, and after some material points were discussed, the court would finally dispose of it. The money was then ordered to be brought into court within two months, and there abide the final issue. It was at the instance of the above-mentioned Mr. Edward Tooke, that Mr. John

Horne

Horne assumed the name of Tooke; a coldness, however, afterwards took place between them, subsequent to which, colonel Harwood and Horne Tooke entered into the agreement above-mentioned, to divide whatever should be left to either of them by Mr. Edward Tooke.

The lightning in the S. W. direction was apparently the most vivid; a tree on Barming heath was shivered to pieces by it, and several houses in the adjoining villages much damaged.

According to a recent enumeration, it appears that in the metropolis there are 346 places of public worship; namely, 112 parish churches, 58 licensed chapels and chapels of ease, 19 fór foreign Protestants, 12 for Roman Catholics, 133 meetinghouses and Methodist chapels of va

The following is recorded as a fact in a country newspaper :-At Cadoxtown, near Cardiff, a young mother died within a few days after child-bed. The child survived, but there was no person to suckle it.rious sects, dissenting from the estaIts grandmother, merely to still its cries, put it to her breast, and although the aged nurse was 70 years old, milk flowed upon the pressure of the infant.

She continues to suckle the child, and her breasts support a constant supply of milk.

Alexander Davidson, esq. the opulent banker and contractor; John White Parsons, and Thomas Hopping, gents. have been sentenced, by the court of king's bench, for gross bribery and corruption at the late Ilchester election, to twelve months confinement in the marshelsea prison.

29th. This evening, about ten, a young seaman, named Stoddart, was pursued by the press-gang down the Broad Chace, in Newcastle, when, to escape them, he jumped into the Tyne, and attempted to swim across the river to Gatehead. One of his pursuers threatening to fire at him if he did not return, the fright and exertion took away his strength, and he was drowned!

30th. This morning, between five and six o'clock, the neighbourhood of Maidstone was visited by a tremendous thunder storm, attended by lightning and much rain.

blished church, 6 Quaker's meeting-houses, and six Jew's synagogues.

DIED.-At Gateshead, near Newcastle, Mrs. Anne Parkin, aged 104.

MAY.

1st. The following letter was received at the admiralty from Capt. Shipley, of his majesty's sloop of war Hippomenes, dated 29th March. Sir,

I have the honour to acquaint you with the capture of L'Egypti enne French privateer, (formerly a republican frigate) mounting 36 guns, twelves and nines, commanded by M. Placiard, and having 240 men on board, on the evening of the 27th, after an arduous chace of 54 hours, and a running fight of three hours and twenty minutes, by his majesty sloop under my command, for she struck the moment we fairly got alongside of her. I feel much pleasure in saying the officers and men behaved with that coolness and intrepidity inherent in Englishmen.

The slight resistance she made, I can only attribute to the fear of be

ing as severely beat as she had been four days previous by the Osprey, who killed eight of her men, and wounded nineteen, and whose gallantry astonished them, &c.

(Signed) Conway Shipley. 4th. The storm this afternoon was attended with more awful circumstances in the neighbourhood of Bath, than ever accompanied any elemental convulsion of the same nature within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. Tropical deluges may equal, perhaps, the violence of the rain; but in continuance it excecded the customary duration of tempests in the neighbourhood of the Line. Unprecedented examples of devastation appeared, when the torrents ceased to fail; roads torn up, gardens destroyed, and considerable portions of land removed from their situation. Among these phænomena may be reckoned-a vast body of earth from the summit and declivity of Beecheen Cliff, which fell with hideous ruin and combustion," (for it is doubtful whether it was occasioned by the action of the electrical fluid or water), loaded with bushes and trees on the field below; the dislocation of almost half an acre in a field belonging to the Rev. R. Warner, at Hanging-land; and a slip of nearly the same magnitude in a field on the Prior-park estate. We hear of only one life lost (the fatal consequence of imprudence), the gardener of Mr. Langton, at Newton, who was drowned in attempting to cross at the bottom of Penny-quick-lane. Much damage was sustained in the parish of Combhay..

A most awful and tremendous storm of thunder and lightning was also experienced the same night, in

the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire; and the damage sustained is almost incredible. The thunder was succeeded by immense torrents of rain and hail. Not far from Warrington, on the Cheshire side, a bolt fell, which did great injury, and by which one person in particular suffered severely in his property. At Bolton, and its vicinity, the people experienced a most dreadful tornado; and it is supposed that a water-spout must have burst in that neighbourhood, the river Irwell having swelled to so great an height as to sweep away many buildings, and large quantities of household furniture, &c. The duration of the storm was upwards of two hours.— At Houlton-park, a ball of fire fell with such force as to split in shivers and tear up an ash tree, which had long been admired for its strength and beauty. Several bridges have been thrown down.

5th. A verdict went against Mr. Cromwell, brewer, of Hammersmith, in the court of king's bench, for causing a man to be put into the cold damp cage of that place, at Christmas time, and there kept two nights on an unfounded charge of felony.-Damages 1501. and costs.

The

7th. A melancholy accident happened to an infant child of Mr. Boyle, of Truro, at his grandfa ther's, in the parish of Kea. grandsire had become so fond of this little boy, that he had taken him from his father to reside with him, and he was the "darling of his heart." Late in the evening the deceased, with another child, about six years old, were playing in the yard, where was a butt placed on its ends against a wall; which of them meddled with the butt does not

appear;

appear; the butt was upset, and fell on the head of the deceased, which instantly killed him.

A court-martial was held on board the Illustrious man of war, on the armourer belonging to the Leda, for having thrust a red hot iron into the left side of a seaman belonging to the same ship, which occasioned his death in about five minutes. The armourer was condemned and executed.

9th, 10th, and 11. His majesty, on each of these days, to the infinite gratification of an affectionate people, appeared in public: accompanied by her majesty and some of the princesses, he drove through the principal streets of London and Westminster.

11th. This morning, about eight o'clock, the eldest daughter of Mr. Bell, confectioner, in Scarborough, was found dead on the sea shore, about a mile below the town, with several marks of violence upon her. The coroner's jury sat on the body on Saturday, and brought in a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.

Thomas Ellwood, a lad about 17 years of age, whose parents lived at Empingham, was discovered floating under an arch of the bridge over the Welland at Stamford. He had absconded a week before from a tailor, to whom he was apprenticed; on being slightly reproved, he expressed a resolution to destroy himself; since which period he is supposed to have been in the water.Coroner's verdict, lunacy.

occurrence took place at Durley, about two miles from Bishop's Waltham. Between one and two this morning, a rookery, belonging to Mr. Edward Houghton, was entered by some men armed with bludgeons, for the purpose of stealing rooks, when they were hailed by a person of the name of Millet, stationed there to protect the rookery, who endeavoured to persuade them to desist and go away, which they obstinately refused. Millet then left them, and returned with Mr. Houghton and his brother-in-law Mr. Peter Barfoot; a scuffle ensuing, one of the men, named James West, received a wound from Mr. Barfoot with a knife, which occasioned his instant death; another of them, Dowse, was wounded. The coroner's inquest has since set on the body of West, and, after an investigation of two days, returned a verdict of-wilful murder. Mr. Barfoot is in consequence committed for trial.

16th. A fire broke out in the premises of Mr. Jordan, grocer, in Spon-street, Coventry, which, with nearly the whole contents, were in a very short time reduced to ashes. Providentially not a single life was lost: Mr. Jordan, his wife, and six small children, with the rest of the family, having fortunately escaped through the windows from their beds, a few minutes before the floors fell in, whilst devastation and ruin spread with a most awful effect in every direction.

As some children were playing, 12th. This day his majesty was one of them fell into the New River, pleased to appoint the right hon. near Hertford; the cries of the rest William Pitt to the offices of chan- alarmed the neighbours, when two cellor and under-treasurer of the ex- women ran to its assistance: the chequer. first plunged in, but, being out of 13th. The following melancholy her depth, she unfortunately sunk; VOL. XLVI.

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a man

a man recollecting there was a long pole with a hook, at a neighbour's, went for it, and, after some time, brought up both woman and child, to all appearance dead. The means directed by the gratuitous delivery of the Royal Humane Society's plan was here providentially employed with success. An only child, in about half an hour, was restored to its fond parents; and the young woman, who had been deprived of life in her humane efforts to preserve an unknown child, was most happily resuscitated, to the great joy of the spectators and her numerous family. This morning a young woman, who lived servant at a butcher's in St. James's-street, put an end to her existence, by throwing herself into the bason in the Green-park. It appeared that she was seduced from her place by a gentleman's servant, who took lodgings for her, and afterwards deserted her. She was turned out of doors by her friends the night previous to her fate.

17th. In a garden at Swire, in Holderness, in the occupation of a Mr. Hesseltine, a few ancient silver and copper coins were lately found, turned up by the gardener with his spade, one of which is precisely of the same kind as the one figured in the cuts of Roman coins in Camden's Britannia, (page 95. No. 18.) and to which he alludes in his notes ́upon them, (p. 104.) in the following words: XVIII FLAVIVS CONSTANTINVS MAXIMVS AVGVSTVS. The great ornament in Britain stamped this coin in Constantinople, as we are taught by these characters underneath, COINS with this GLORIA EXERCITVS, that is, the glory of the army, to curry favour with the soldiers, in whose choice in those days,

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and not at the disposal of the emperor, was the sovereign rule and government." It should be observed, that the figures representing the head of Flavius on one side, and two men in armour, with bows and spears in their hands, standing on each side, with two banners on the other side, are remarkably legible, considering the very great antiquity of the coin, which is upwards of 1350 years old. There was formerly an abbey at Swire, a circumstance which may, probably, account for the discovery there of ancient coins.

As some workmen were lately digging over the foundation of the Roman wall, at Tarraby, about two miles N. E. of Carlisle, they found an altar one foot six inches high, and seven inches broad, with the following inscription upon it.

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Which is thus interpreted: "The second sacred Augustan legion, under the charge of Alianus, commander in chief of the second legion, Oppius Felix being his deputy lieutenant, dedicates this altar to Mars the great local deity, and took care to have it set up."

Every admirer of antique architectural grandeur will lament the necessity there exists of immediately taking down the truly venerable tower, transept and chancel of the ancient church at Kirton on the Hill, in Lincolnshire; its condition no longer admitting of its existing with

safety.

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