766 Intelligence from the Eaft and Weft Indies, and America. [Auguft, they merited. Our readers need not be told that the above is not the language of authentic intelligence. What may be depended upon is, that Earl Cornwallis had paffed the Ghauts; that General Abercrombie has taken post on t'e Malabar Coaft, fo as to preferve a communication with the hipping; that Colonel Hartley is fo fituated as to cover Madras; that the Pafhuna has joined the Nizam; and that, with a detachment of British, they now lie before Darwar, in hope of making that important fortrefs furrender to their joint attacks; and this by way of encouragement for the Mahrattas to engage heartily in the caufe. WEST INDIES. Extract of a Letter from Sir Jofeph Banks, Bart. Prefident of the Royal Society, &c. to an Hon. Member of the Affembly of Kingfton, in Jamaica. "By the generous vote of the Houfe of Affembly in favour of Captain Bligh, you have made a good man happy, and a poor man comparatively rich. He is highly grateful for, and fenfible of, the honour whith has been done him by fo truly refpectable a body as the Affembly of Jamaica. No news has yet come to his hands from the agent, or he would have exprefied his gratitude by this opportunity. "I take fome credit to myfelf for having fuccefsfully urged Government to forward the equipment of another bread-fruit fhip during the prefent turbulent times. Good fortune was my friend, as the application which fettled the vote was made not many days before the Cabinet refolved to fit out a fquadron of thips: and had it come later, the business of bread-fruit would inevitably have been poftponed, and perhaps have been totally neglected. Captain Bligh is to have the command. His principal fhip is four hundred tons, and we hope they will give him a tender befides. I do not, therefore, entertain a doubt that Jamaica will poffefs fome hundreds of breadfruit-trees within a year and a half of the prefent time. "It is my intention to request permiffion of Government that he may take the Ifle de France in his return, where the French have now got all the fpices, and try both interest and money to procure them; and he will have orders to procure all the fruits and ufeful plants of the Eaft, wherever he may touch; fo that the cargo will be far more valuable than a cargo of bread-fruit-trees alone. "It is difficult, in my opinion, to point out an undertaking really replete with more benevolence, more likely to add comforts to exiting people, and even to augment the number of thofe for whom the bounties of creation were intended, than that of tranfporting uicful vegetables from one part of the earth to another where they do not exift. AMERICA. The ship Mercury, Captain Gillespie, in which the Cherokee Chiefs took their paffage to America, arrived at Naffau on the evening of the 23d of May last; after a stay of a few days, to relax themselves from the fatigues of their voyage, they proceeded on their paffage to the Continent. A letter, dated the 17th of June, lately received by a gentleman in town from Freydeck, in North Carolina (about 120 miles N. E. from Cherokee), ftates, that Colonel Bowles, with his Indian companions, had arrived at Cherokee, and that an affemblage of the Chiefs was, in confequence, convened; and that the warmest gratitude was expreffed by the whole nation for the hofpitable reception their Ambaffadors had received in this country. It was further mentioned, that a fecond embaffy was in agitation, for the purpofe of prefenting to his Britannie Majefty the rareft productions of their country. From Philadelphia there is advice, that a French veffel, laden with ferges, had not fold a fingle article. A thort time fince, fome French cloth, which appeared firm and beautiful, on trial was found to have been pieced, or fine-drawn; fome flips of Englifa cloth were fewn on pieces of French, with admirable dexterity. The French have exported a confiderable number of articles of tin-plate manufacture into America, which they call fer blanc, or white won. Their fine coat at first deceives the eye, but will not bear examining. They are difcovered to have been merely hammered; whereas thofe from England have been all draw under a rolling-null, and are therefore every where preferred.-The French artfully indent in fome articles the letters A. Y. for Andrew Yarranton, the celebrated tin-plate manufacturer; as, for a nuraber of years, was the cuftom, after the death of that diftinguifhed and afpiring mechanick. By letters from the Bay of Honduras, brought home by the Valiant, Capt. Gardner, and the Cumberland, Capt. Kirby, there is information, that fome circumftances have lately occurred there which may be proColonel Peter ductive of a difference between the Courts of London and Madrid. Hunter, of the Goth regiment, who was fent out out to the Bay, in April, 1790, by the Right Hon. Lord Grenville, to take charge of the King's affairs during Colonel Defcard's fufpenfion, has frequently, but in vain, folicited to be recalled: at laft, finding his fituation in every respect most uncomfortable, he, on the 15th of March laft, took his departure for Jamaica, in the Serpent floop of war, without leaving any perfon behind him invested with the authority to do the Government business until the arrival of another Superintendant. it may be neceffary to mention, that, by the Convention Treaty with Spain of 1786, it is ftipulated, that, twice in the year, a Commillary on the part of Spain fhall be permitted to vifit the British limits in Honduras, accompanied by a Commiffary on the part of the King of Great Britain, to fee that the feveral ftipulations of that Convention, as well as of the 6th article of the Definitive Treaty of Peace of 1783, be ftrictly complied with: and fo very anxious was the Court of Madrid, that the article refpecting the appointment and duty of the Commiffaries of the Courts fhould be mutually understood, that, fubfequent to the Convention being made, an additional article and fpecial agreement was entered into between the two Plenipotentiaries on that occafion, the Duke of Leeds and the Marquis del Campo, relative to the objects of the vifit, and the manner in which it was at all times to be performed. Shortly after Colonel Hunter's departure, Captain Don Rafael Llovett, Engineer in Ordinary, arrived at Belize River, in qua lity of Spanish Commissary, to vifit the Britifh limits, agreeably to the before-mentioned article; but finding no perfon there, on the part of Great Britain, to receive him, and appoint a Commiflary to accompany him, as particularly pointed out by the Convention, and as had been invariably adhered to previous to that time, he was much furprised, and immediately difpatched a courier to Merida, the capital of the Spanish province of Yucatan, within which our fettlement of Honduras is fituated, to General Galvez, the Governor of that Province, to acquaint him with the event.--Merida being about four hundred miles diftant from Belize River, Captain Llovett, in order to pafs his time until he thould receive the Captain General's anfwer, went out in his peragua to vifit the fmall iflands on the coaft which lie without the British limits, but where our people ufed privately to fish for turtle; and there he feized every perfon he found, with their turtling craft, &c. In particular, Mr. Noel Todd, a fettler of fome property, being found fishing for turtle without the limits, was feized by Captain Llovett, and was threatened with being carried a prifoner to the neighbouring Spanish port of Bacalar. Turtle being (except fish) the principal food in the country, thefe feizures will be moft feverely felt. But this evil would be tolerable, were it not for the almost certainty there is, that the people will have their plantain-walks, which conftitute their chief fubfiftence, cut down by the Spaniards. By a conceffion of his Catholic Majefty, of May 29, 1789, the British inhabitants are allowed to make gardens, to a confiderable extent, for their fußtenance; but are denied the privilege to make plantain-walks. The Spanish officers have fince that time winked at these fmall encroachments, fecing they were abfolutely neceffary to the existence of the people, especially the poorer fort. But this laft grofs infulting violation of the Treaty of 1786, (as it is called by Captain Llovett), will undoubtedly be the caufe of that officer executing his office of Commiffary with more rigour, according to the letter of his inftructions, and confequently in a manner that will be attended with ferious confequences to the fettlement in general. When the accounts left Honduras, the Captain General's anfwer had not been received by Captain Llovett; and for what it may be, or what may be the political confequences of this extraordinary business, we muft wait till the next arrivals from that country. SCOTLAND. Edinburgh, July 1. At the Court of Seffion, Lord Elkgrove, as Ordinary in the Outer-houfe, this day decided a caufe of a curious nature. A young lady had betrothed herself to a merchant in Aberdeen; the marriage-day was fet, a houfe taken and furnished, fervants hired, and the lady furnifhed with her marriage-ring. In the course of a long epiftolary correfpondence, the manifefted the ftrongest attachment and most inviolable fidelity to him; but all of a fudden the changed her mind, and married another. Feeling the difappointment, her former lover brought an action of damages against her and her husband. Before it came into Court, the lady died. The action was, however, infifted on against the furviving hufband; but the Lord Ordinary, after a full hearing, in the courfe of which there was much humour and ability difplayed, difmiffed the action. His Lordfhip was clearly of opinion, that, till the moment of the marriage ceremony, it was in the power of the lady to recede. Though her letters contained the ftrongest effufions of love towards the purfuer, and even a direct promife of marriage, yet they at the fame time thewed that her friends were against the connexion, and that all their intimacy had been carried on in the moft fecret manner. His Lordship therefore confidered, that any man who endeavours to inveigle a young woman into a clandeftine marriage, and a marriage against the confent of her friends, was guilty of an immoral act; confequently, not entitled to maintain an action of damage, when his in tentions 768 Intelligence from Scotland, and Country News. tentions were frustrated by a returning fenfe of duty upon the part of the lady. The following is an account of the lofs of the hip Neptune, of Leith, in Greenland, on the zid of May laft: On On the 21st of May the fhip was lying at a field of ice, in length forty or fifty miles, another nearly the fame fize drifting down by a gale of wind at the fame time. Saturday night, at ten o'clock, the 21ft, the two fields met, directly at the fpot where the hip was lying, which fqueezed her with fuch violence, that in half an hour they obferved the water above the first tier of caiks in the hold; at the fame time the ship's company were employed in fawing a dock for the fhip; but the preffure was fo hard, as to jam the ice faws, which rendered every effort of that kind ineffectual. The water fill continued to rush into the fhip in fuch a manner, that at twelve o'clock it was within a foot of the lower-deck beams. They immediately hoifted a fignal of diftrefs at the top maft-head, for afiiftance from about fifty fail of Dutch and English fhips near them; but all, being in fuch a dangerous fituation, could give little help. By the affiftance they received, and getting two more pumps from the other fhips, they kept the Thip from finking till Monday noon, when the ice facked. As the principal leak was not far under water, they ufed every means to stop it, cut up pieces of beef and oakum, and let them down along the fide with a fail, which they found of great fervice; fo that, in two hours after, the thip was confiderably lightened. They immediately fixed an anchor on the ice, and got the fhip hove down fo far as to get at the place where the was moft bruifed, over which the carpenters nailed canvas and boards, and was fo perfectly water-tight, that the crew had every hope of faving the fhip; when, at fix in the evening, the ice got in motion a fecond time, and fqueezed with fuch force, that it almoft cut the fhip in two, and in five minutes fhe was fo far under water, that the people on board were obliged to 'are themfelves on the rigging. The Royal Eounty, of Leith, at the fame time was within ten yards, and was lifted up by the ice three or four feet; but, being a tharp fhip, got no damage. COUNTRY NEWS. Newton-blott, Devon, July 5. A dreadful fire broke out at a public-houfe in this town, known by the name of the Miller's Wheel, which deftroyed the fame and fixteen other dwellings before it was got under. The principal fufferer is Mr. Braufcombe, whofe lofs is estimated at 2,000l. Ervell, July 5. A powder-mill belonging to Mr. Bridges, near this place, flew up; by which accident four men loft their lives. Three out of the four had large families The bodies were fo mutilated by the explo [Auguft, fion, that they could not be distinguished from each other. The head of one of them was thrown to a very confiderable distance. On the morning of the 13th of July, a melancholy accident happened at Walcot, near Bishop's Caftle, Shropshire. A number of workmen being employed to take down a brick wall, they undermined it, in order that it might fall; and fitting down on a bench near the fame, in order to view it, the foundation fuddenly gave way, and the wall fell upon one Samuel Cooke, a bricklayer, and crushed him in fo terrible a manner, that he expired in a fhort time after. His father and feveral others narrowly escaped being hurt, having quitted the bench but a few feconds before the unfortunate young man was killed. Lechlade, July 18. Yesterday evening this town experienced one of the most violent thunder-ftorms ever known in this country. After a very clear and hot day, about four in the afternoon the clouds began to collect in the Eaft, and foon formed a very lowering afpect. At Ave the torm commenced, and continued, with little intermillion, till nine at night. The thunder was most tremendous, and the flathes of lightning fo frequent and vivid, that the whole heavens appeared in a total conflagration. The rain, accompanied at firft with hail-ftones of a prodigious fize, defcended in fuch torrents, that the houses in St. John's-itreet were overflown with water, and the river Ifis, in confequence, fo much fwelled, that we apprehend much damage is done to the new lock. One of the windows of the church is fhivered to pieces, and the steeple has also received much damage. Divine service had been over about half an hour previous to the ftorm, whereby many lives were probably faved. The lightning, in its progrefs, is fuppofed to have been attracted by the bells, and the large chandeliers which are fufpended by iron gilt chains from the roof of the church. We have not yet heard of any other acci dents, excepting the lofs of two horfes in an adjoining meadow, which were struck dead. The ftorm was alfo, we hear, very heavy at Highworth, Swindon, Farringdon, and the vicinity, though unattended, we believe, with any ferious confequences. Monday morning. The rain is at prefent falling in torrents, with occafional claps of thunder. Much damage, it is apprehended, will accrue to the new water-works recently erected on the river. The meadows prefent one entire sheet of water. The corn, particularly the wheat, must inevitably sustain irreparable injury. PORT NEWs. Ramfgate, July 18. Yesterday, at high fpring-tide, the new dry dock, built in the bafon for repairing fhips, was tried, in the prefence of the Chairman, for the first time fince it was thought necellary to build it with a timber-floor, of a new and peculiar construction, on account of the fprings rifing, from the chalk, fo powerfully under it, that the ftone-floors, with which it had been twice tried formerly, were forced up. The experiment anfwered in the compleatest manner, the dock remaining perfectly dry till low-water, when the fluices of the bafon were opened for fcouring the harbour; fo that this very defirable object, that has been fo much despaired of, is now fully obtained, and must prove of great utility to the publick. Portsmouth, July 23. A duel was fought this day on South Sea Common, between two gentlemen of the navy, Mr. Campbell of the Bedford, and Mr. Taylor of the St. George. They took their distance at feven paces, and, on Mr. Taylor's returning Mr. Campbell's fire, the ball lodged in the righthand of the latter, when the feconds interfered, and the matter ended. The ball was extracted the fame day by a medical gentleman of Portsmouth, and there are hopes that the wound will not prove any wife fatal. Mr. Campbell, at the moment he received the wound, had his hand on his left breaft, and its being in that fituation alone preferved his life. Both gentlemen behaved with the utmost courage, and are now perfectly reconciled. HISTORICAL CHRONICLE. The little Republick of Ragufa difplays an aftonishing spectacle: liberty attached to defpotifm. Its government is more antient than that of Venice, and its treaty of alliance with the Turks dates as far back as Orchan, who figned it by applying his hand dipped in ink on the paper. The Chief of the Republick is changed every month, the ether officers every week, and the Governor of the Castle every day. In 1763, the Republick, notwithstanding its weakness, had the courage to refift the power of the Ruffians, who threatened to bombard it, on a refufal to permit the establishment of a Greek church there, which the Empress defired, to ferve a party, by means of which fhe hoped to withdraw Ragufa from its alliance with the Turks. "My orders," faid Count de Ragni, deputy to Count Orlow, " are, not to liften to fuch a propofal. Her Imperial Majesty may bombard Ragufa: but it shall be laid in ashes before a Greek church fhall be built in my country; nor will my Sovereign enter into any engagements contrary to its treaties with the Porte." When we confider, that this haughty answer is addreffed to fuch an empire as Ruila by a state with an army of 160 foldiers, we cannot But be moved by its heroic firmness. GANT. MAG. Auguß, 1791. DOMESTIC OCCURRENCES. July 2. Thomas Brown, who had been outlawed for not appearing to an indictment, charging him with being concerned with others in ftealing a number of dollars from on board a fhip in the River Thames, was brought from Newgate, and placed at the bar of the Court of King's Bench, in order to affign errors in the proceedings of the outlawry. The prifoner after the robbery abfconded, and went to France. Mr. Wood, his counfel, ftated, that the error in this cafe was precifely the fame as in the outlaw ry of Barrington. The Court ordered the prifoner to be brought up again on a future day. July 4. About two o'clock in the morning, as a man and a woman were walking up Drurylane, they were met by two men rather intoxicated, who made very unceremonious love to the lady, which occafioned a quarrel and a fight. The man who was with the woman received an unfortunate blow upon the head, which killed him on the fpot.The Coroner's Inqueft fat the next day upon the body, and brought in their verdict manlaughter. The wind was fo exceedingly high and boisterous, that no fhips could come into the Pool. Above Bridge, the river was fo unufually rough and full of fwell, that fmall boats could not crofs; the failing craft had their fails fplit; and two or three barges carried away their mafts, and were obliged to run in fhore, and come to anchor. July 5 In the King's Bench, Mr Garrow shewed cause against a rule, obtained by Mr. Erfkine, for a criminal information against a Mr. Lewis, for publishing a scandalous libel upon Mr. Taylor, a Magiftrate of Devonthire, and Chairman of the Quarter Seffion. Mr. Garrow stated, that Mr. Taylor, as Chairman of the Quarter Seffion, had repri manded Mr. Lewis (who had been employed to build a bridge), alledging, as he had heard, that he had neglected to pay the workmen. Mr. Lewis, in confequence of this reprehenfion, fent a letter to Mr. Taylor, in which he accused him of having behaved to him in a very fcandalous manner, and of wounding his character and reputation; at the fame time informing him, that he was determined to have his injuries redreffed. This letter, Mr. Garrow faid, might be construed into a challenge; but he conceived the true import of it was, that his client intended to appeal to the laws of his country. Mr. Garrow faid, the Defendant had already sustained a punishment adequate to his offence (if he had committed any); for, in confequence of reports circulated respecting 770 DOMESTIC OCCURRENCES. [August, his conduct, he had loft a marriage with a lady of independent fortune. The Court were of opinion, that Mr. Taylor had discharged his duty as a Magiftrate in the reproof he had bestowed upon the Defendant, against whom there was no ground to make the rule abfolute. By the confent of the Counfel for the profecution, the rule was discharged, upon the Defendant's undertaking to make an apology and to pay the costs. At fix in the afternoon Lord Kenyon fat at Nifi Prius at Guildhall, when an action was brought by Gregory, to receive of Ruffel the fum of 341. 15s. being the remainder of a reward advertised by the Defendant to be given to the perfon who should give information fo that one Richardfon (who had ftolen fome of the Defendant's property) fhould be taken; to be paid on the conviction of the offender. It was proved, that the Plaintiff had been the means of apprehending the felon, and that he had been convicted of the offence. Lord Kenyon was of opinion, that public faith ought to be kept up in these cafes, and that the Plaintiff ought to receive the money. July 6. Lord Loughborough, as the Senior Juftice of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery, impofed a fine of five hundred pounds upon the county of Effex (which we have recorded in its place), for the negligence of the gaoler in fome matters relating to the county-gaol, which fine was after wards regularly eftreated into the Court of › Exchequer. The county, with a view to try the legality of impofing this fine, obtained a writ of certiorari to remove the record of the fine, as made at Chelmsford by the Clerk "of the Arraigns during the aflizes at which it was impofed. The Attorney General, however, conceived that the parties were not entitled to this writ; and, instead of returning the record, he moved the Court of Exchequer that the writ might be quashed, as having been improvidently iffued and the point was this day debated by Mr. Bearcroft and Mr. Wood, on behalf of the county of Effex. But the Court took time to confider of the question. He Lord Chief Baron Eyre now delivered the opinions of the Barons, that the writ muft be quashed, quia improvidè mandavit. faid, there was no doubt but that the Court of Exchequer had authority to grant a cer11orari to remove the record of a fine; but that it was not a writ to which a Defendant was entitled ex debito juftitiæ, especially in the prefent cafe, because he might plead, and go to iffue upon the eftreat as well as upon the record. His Lordfhip illuftrated this law in that high and dignified ftyle of eloquence by which he is to eminently diffinguished, and thewed, in a great variety of inflances, the 4cfon on which the Court had formed their judgements; particularly the cafe of Sir John Read, in the reign of Charles II. who, as Sheriff of the county of Hertford, was fined five hundred pounds by Mr. Juftice Wyndham, for not doing his duty at the affizes; in which cafe, though the record of the fine was removed by certiorari, yet it appeared to be at the inftance of the King, and before the fine was eftreated; and the cafe of the inhabitants of Cornwall, who, in the reign of James II. were fined for not keeping the county gaol in repair. The writ of certiorari was accordingly quashed, and the county left to plead to the eftreat as they should be advised. Between the hours of four and five in the afternoon, as a poor woman was gathering chickweed in a field adjoining the long lane, known by the name of Cut-throat-lane, which leads from Kennington Common to Camberwell, the fuddenly perceived the body of a man upon the ground near the ditch, with his throat cut, and the blood streaming near him. On his right-hand lay the razor with which he had deftroyed himself, and also his cravat, fo deliberately had he done it. The poor woman's fhrieks, at the fight of a fpectacle fo horrid, foon brought all the labourers in the neighbouring brickfields, and the paffengers within hearing. On examination, he appeared to be about thirty years old, well-dreffed, in a genteel drab-coloured coat, toilenette waistcoat, fuftian breeches, the late new-fashioned blue thread ftockings with white clocks, filver fhoe and knee buckles, and in his pocket two half-guineas, four fhillings and fix pence in filver, and fome half-pence. Having no papers about him which could lead to a difcovery of who he was, he was taken to Lambeth bone-house to be owned. July 11. A cafe of great confequence came on to be tried in the Court of King's Bench. The Plaintiff, Petit, had been committed to prifon by Juftice Addington, for indecent behaviour, and interrupting him while engaged in his duty. The Jury, upon the trial, found a verdict for the Plaintiff, with 51. damages, fubject to the opinion of the Court upon the queftion of law, "Whether the Defendant, as a Magiftrate fitting at the Office in Bowftreet, had a right to commit the Plaintiff, without binding her over for her good behaviour ?" The Plaintiff, by warrant, was committed for an indefinite term, the warrant concluding with these words: "Until the be difcharged by due courfe of law."She continued in prifon upwards of two months. Mr. Erfkine contended, that the Defendant, while fitting at his Office, acted in a Minifterial, and not in a Judicial capacity; and therefore, for the infult offered to himfelf, had no right to commit the Plaintiff generally, but ought to have committed her only until the found fureties for her good behaviour, 1 |