tion; but if the present writers were thus examined, and the offences against this rule cut out, few plays would be long enough for the whole evening's entertainment.

But I do not know how they did in those old times. This same Ben Jonson has made every one's passion in this play be towards money; and yet not one of them expresses that desire, or endeavours to obtain it, any way but what is peculiar to him only; one sacrifices his wife, another his profession, another his posterity, from the same motive; but their characters are kept so skilfully apart, that it seems prodigious their discourses should rise from the invention of the same author.

But the poets are a nest of hornets, and I will drive these thoughts no farther; but must mention some hard treatment I am, like to meet with from my brother-writers. I am credibly informed, that the author of a play, called "Love in a Hollow Tree," has made some remarks upon my late discourse on "The Naked Truth." I cannot blame a gentleman for writing against any error; it is for the good of the learned world; but I would have the thing fairly left between us two, and not under the protection of patrons: but my intelligence is, that he hath dedicated his treatise to the Honourable Mr. Edd H―rd.

From my own Apartment, May 27.

TO ISAAC BICKERSTAFF, ESQUIRE.

"Sir,

York, May 16, 1709.

"Being convinced, as the whole world is, how infallible your predictions are, and having the honour to be your near relation of the Staffian family, I was under great concern at one of your predictions relating to yourself, wherein you foretold your own death would happen on the sevent

instant, unless it were prevented by the assistance of well-disposed people. I have therefore prevailed on my own modesty to send you a piece of news, which may serve, instead of Goddard's drops to keep you alive for two days, until nature be able to recover itself, or until you meet with some better help from other hands. Therefore without further ceremony, I will relate a singular adventure just happened in the place where I am writing, whereof it may be highly useful for the public to be in

formed.

"Three young ladies of our town were on Saturday last indicted for witchcraft. The witnesses against the first deposed, upon oath, before Justice Bindover, that she kept spirits locked up in vessels, which sometimes appeared in flames of blue fire; that she used magical herbs, with some of which she drew in hundreds of men daily to her, who went out from her presence all inflamed, their mouths parched, and a hot steam issuing from them, attended with a grievous stench; that many of the said men were, by the force of that herb, metamorphosed into swine, and lay wallowing in the kennels for twenty-four hours before they could re-assume their shape or their senses.

"It was proved against the second, that she cut off by night the limbs from dead bodies that were hanged, and was seen to dig holes in the ground, to mutter some conjuring words, and bury pieces of the flesh after the usual manner of witches.

"The third was accused for a notorious piece of sorcery, long practised by hags, of moulding up pieces of dough into the shapes of men, women, and children; then heating them at a gentle fire, which had a sympathetic power to torment the bowels of those in the neighbourhood.

than Goddard was the physician and confidant member of the Royal Society, and medical am College.

"This was the sum of what was objected against the three ladies; who, indeed, had nothing to say in their own defence, but downright deny the facts, which is like to avail very little when they come upon their trials.

"But the parson of our parish, a strange refractory man, will believe nothing of all this; so that the whole town cries out, Shame! that one of his coat should be such an atheist:' and design to complain of him to the Bishop: he goes about very oddly to solve the matter. He supposes that the first of these ladies, keeping a brandy and tobacco shop, the fellows went out smoking, and got drunk towards evening, and made themselves beasts. He says, the second is a butcher's daughter, and sometimes brings a quarter of mutton from the slaughter-house overnight against a market-day, and once buried a bit of beef in the ground, as a known receipt to cure warts on her hands. The parson affirms, that the third sells gingerbread; which, to please the children, she is forced to stamp with images before it is baked; and if it burns their guts, it is because they eat too much, or do not drink after it.

"These are the answers he gives to solve those wonderful phenomena: upon which I shall not animadvert, but leave it among philosophers: and so, wishing you all success in your undertakings for the amendment of the world, I remain, dear cousin, "Your most affectionate kinsman, "and humble servant,

"EPHRAIM BEDSTAFF."

"P. S. Those who were condemned to death among the Athenians were obliged to take a dose of poison, which made them die upwards; seizing first upon their feet, making them cold and insensible, and so ascending gradually, until it reached the vital parts. I believe your death, which

told would happen on the seventeenth instant, will fall out the same way, and that your distemper hath already seized on you, and makes progress daily. The lower part of you, that is, the Advertisements, is dead; and these have risen for these ten days last past, so that they now take up almost a whole paragraph. Pray, Sir, do you endeavour to drive this distemper as much as possible to the extreme parts, and keep it there, as wise folks do the gout: for, if it once gets out into your stomach, it will soon fly up into your head, and you are a dead man."

St. James's Coffee-house, May 27.

We hear from Leghorn, that Sir Edward Whitaker, with five men of war, four transports, and two fire-ships, were arrived at that port; and Admiral Byng was suddenly expected. Their squadrons being joined, they designed to sail directly for Final, to transport the reinforcements lodged in those parts to Barcelona.

They write from Milan, that Count Thaun arrived there on the sixteenth instant, N. S. and proceeded on his journey to Turin on the twenty-first, in order to concert such measures with his Royal Highness, as shall appear necessary for the operations of the ensuing campaign.

Advices from Dauphiné say, that the troops of the Duke of Savoy begin already to appear in those valleys, whereof he made himself master the last year; and that the Duke of Berwick applied himself with all imaginable diligence to secure the passes of the mountains, by ordering intrenchments to be made towards Briançon, Tourneau, and the valley of Queiras. That General has also been at Marseilles and Toulon, to hasten the transportation of the corn and provisions designed for his army.

T

etters from Vienna, bearing date May the

-third, N. S. import, that the Cardinal of

Saxe Zeits and the Prince of Lichtenstein were preparing to set out for Presburg, to assist at the diet of the States of Hungary, which is to be assembled at that place on the twenty-fifth of this month. General Heister will shortly appear at the head of his army at Trentschein, which place is appointed for the general rendezvous of the Imperial forces in Hungary; from whence he will advance to lay seige to Newhausel. In the mean time reinforcements, with a great train of artillery, are marching the same way. The King of Denmark arrived on the tenth instant at Inspruck, and on the twenty-fifth at Dresden, under a triple discharge of the artillery of that place; but his Majesty refused the ceremonies of a public entry.

Our letters from the Upper Rhine say, that the Imperial army began to form itself at Etlingen; where the respective deputies of the Elector Palatine, the Prince of Baden Durlach, the Bishopric of Spires, &c. were assembled, and had taken the necessary measures for the provision of forage, the security of the country against the incursions of the enemy, and laying a bridge over the Rhine. Several vessels laden with corn are daily passing before Frankfort from the Lower Rhine.

Letters from Poland inform us, that a detachment of Muscovite cavalry, under the command of General Instand, had joined the confederate army; and the infantry commanded by General Goltz, was expected to come up within a few days. These succours will amount to twenty thousand men.

Our last advices from the Hague, dated June the fourth, N. S. say, that they expected a courier from the French Court, with a ratification of the preliminaries, that night or the day following. His Grace the Duke of Marlborough will set out for Brussels on Wednesday or Thursday next, if the dispatches which are expected from Paris do not alter his