verpool ftage-coaches and mails were dug out of the fnow at Talkon-the-Hill. The Whitby and Scarborough coaches were fet faft on the Woulds. The fnow was about fix feet deep about a mile from Garstang. The Manchester and Liverpool ftages and mail-coaches, on their way to Carlifle, were fet, and left till the next day, the paffengers walking to the inn. Between Leek and Macclesfield, on the Chefhire hills, the Manchefter-stages that ought to have arrived on Friday night and Saturday morning were fluck faft, and did not reach London until Sunday.

9th. Laft week, the cabin of a boat at the canal-bafon at Chefterfield was discovered in flames, and two young men were taken thereout burnt to death, in a manner too fhocking to relate. It is fuppofed, from the feverity of the weather, they had made too large a fire in the cabin, which fet the boat on fire, and caufed them to be fuffocated.

Early this morning, a fire broke out in a factory, at the upper end of Salford, which spread with such rapidity, that it was entirely deftroyed, together with five fmall houfes adjoining, notwithstanding every poflible afliftance was rendered. The lofs is about 2,500l.

10th. Laft night, a factory, belonging to Mr. John Kay, at Mollineux, in the parish of Preftwich, was entirely deftroyed by fire; no part of the property was infured.

11th. The recent feverity of the weather has been particularly felt by the inhabitants of Norwich, in confequence of the general fcarcity of coals. Nor is the evil confined to that city, but extends to the country around; and at Yarmouth their ftores, both public and pri

vate, are fo exhaufted, that two guineas were given for half a chaldron, which were, with great difficulty, procured even at that price.

Hull,

12th. A few days ago, two women in De-la-port-court, were fuddenly taken ill after drinking tea in the afternoon. As their illness feemed to be the effect of poifon, the kettle was examined, and in the water were found spiders and other infects, which, it is fuppofed, had remained there fo long as to make it putrid, and to occafion the death of both mother and daughter. The former died fhortly after, and the latter on Tuesday laft.

16th. The following orders were yesterday iffned on the parade, in St. James's park:

Monday, April 15. In consequence of communications from the adjutant-general, field-marthal his royal highness the duke of Gloucefter orders the following letter to be inferted in the brigade-orders:

Horfe-Guards, April 8, 1799.

Sir,

I have received the commanderin-chief's directions to transmit to you the king's pleafure, in regard to the 5th, or royal Irish regiment of dragoons, which it is his royal highnefs, the commander-in-chief's defire that you fhall, without delay, carry into execution.

His majefty has taken into his moft ferious confideration the reprefentation which has been made by his excellency the lord-lieutepant of Ireland of the conduct of this regiment, and is of opinion, that the infubordination and departure from the difcipline and principles which have ever diftinguished the British army, therein exhibited,

required,

required, especially in these times of warfare and exertion, that they fhould be marked by a punishment which may be feverely felt and be long remembered by thofe mifguided perfons who have been guilty of the atrocious acts of difobedience, which have brought this indelible ftigma on the corps, and may ferve as an example to all others, as well of the confequences of fuch feditious and outrageous proceedings, as of his majefty's firm determination to maintain fubordination and difcipline in his army, and to fupport the authority of his ofcers in the execution of their duty. It is on these grounds his majesty's royal determination, that the 5th, or royal Irish regiment of dragoons, hall be forthwith difbanded; which you will pleafe to communicate to the corps, and carry it into immediate effect. At the fame time that the king judges it requifite, for the good of the fervice, to make thefe fevere examples, his majefty has graciously condefcended to direct that general lord Rofmore fhall be affured, that his majesty is perfuaded of the concern which, as a foldier, his lordship would feel at fuch a circumftance occurring in any part of the army; and is fenfible of the particular mortification he muft experience in the prefent inftance; from the event of which, however, his lordship cannot, in the fmallest degree, fuffer in his majefty's eftimation. His majefty has been pleafed farther to direct, that you do exprefs his perfuafion, that there are many valuable officers in his regiment who have used their beft endeavours to restore the order and preferve the credit of the corps; and though in this meafure of indifpenfible feverity it was impoffi

ble to make any exceptions, the majority being clearly implicated in the mifconduct in which the whole are fuffering, yet his majesty will hereafter make the moft pointed difcrimination, and those of any rank who are deferving of the royal favour may rely on his majefty's difpofition to reward their merit, and to avail himself of their future fervices.

In confideration of the expense to which the officers of the 5th, or royal Irish regiment, have been unavoidably expofed, his majefty has been graciously pleafed to direct that their full pay thall be continued to them to the 24th of December next, at which period they will be placed on half-pay.

I have the honour to be,
(Signed)

Henry Calvert. Adjutant-general. 20th. Thelluffon v. Woodford, and Woodford v. Thelluffon. Thefe caufes were inftituted in the court of chancery for the purpose of taking its opinion upon the will of the late Mr. Thelluflon. The one bill being filed to pray that the will might be declared void, as containing deviles contrary to law; the other, to pray that the purposes of the will might be carried into effect.

The cafe having been opened long ago before the lord chancellor, his lordfhip defired the affiftance of the judges; accordingly, the master of the rolls, Mr. juftice Buller, and Mr. juftice Lawrence, attended with the lord chancellor, before whom the cafe was argued, and this day the court delivered judgement.

Mr. juftice Lawrence commenced with opening the two bills; he then read the claufe in the will upon which the queftion turned. He then took a view of the whole

cafe,

eafe, as did alfo Mr. juftice Buller and the master of the rolls. The objections taken by the counfel against the will came under three diftinct heads, of which the following is the fubftance, and must be difpofed of by refolving the following questions:

First, Whether, according to the true construction of this will, the teftator has clearly exceeded the utmost bounds within which executory devises, even in their utmost latitude, have been confined by the rules of law, or has tranfgreffed thofe rules which are established? Secondly, Whether the teftator's meaning be fo doubtful as to render it impoffible to find it out?

Thirdly, Whether fuch accumulation as may poffibly take place under this will may not be fuch as to become dangerous to the ftate, and, therefore, ought not to be fuffered? [It may, in one poffible event, amount to eighteen millions, in the hands of one individual.]

Upon the two first of these heads, the learned judges, Buller and Lawrence, and the mafter of the rolls, were most clearly of opinion, that the teftator had not exceeded the bounds of executory devife, and that the meaning was not doubtful; and that therefore the will ought to be established.

Upon the laft head there are fome cafes; but if that be matter of complaint, neither a court of law or equity has any authority over it, and the remedy, if any be neceflary, must be provided by the legiflature, it being a queftion of mere ftate policy.

The lord-chancellor.-I am extremely obliged to his honour, and the learned judges, not only for the very able affiftance they

have given to me in forming my own opinion on this cafe, which entirely concurs with theirs in the res fult, and almoft in the whole of the argument, but also because they have been fo good as to relieve me from the duty of entering into the particulars of the feveral points of the cafe, in the statement of the argument; and in the ftatement of the ground on which the, plaintiff's counfel have failed to produce their intended effect upon my mind. I could not go over the cafe without a neceflity of repeating an argu ment, a great part of which has been much better stated already, becaufe, although we may vary a little in the expreffions, yet, the fame arguments must occur to thofe perfons who have ftudied the fame points, and taken the fame courfe of inquiry on the cafe.

I am not furprized that this cause has been brought forward, and has called forth fuch great exertion of learning and ingenuity. The great amount of property, and the testator's not having fufficient reason for fuch a difpofition, is a full motive for the plaintiffs to feek to rejećt the teftator's will, and for endeavouring to establish that natural right to this property, which would have been in force, if no difpofition had prevented it; and I have no difficulty in faving, that the difpofition of the teftator is fo harth, fo unkind, and illiberal, that I reckon it no breach of duty in the family to endeavour to set it aside.

The great amount of the proper tv is an object which can, in no poffible cafe, enter into the principle of the court in giving judgement:the fame rule of law that governs property to the amount of one hundred pounds governs one million.

The piety or the prudence of this teftator can afford no fair or just ground for the controul of the court, though they leave with me a very fair bias on the mind, and there are before us many confiderations that affect the feelings, and that might blind the understanding-but the court must not be affected by confiderations of that fort-it is the duty of all courts, in the conftruction of wills, to give effect to wills as far as the intention of the testator can be found out. It is not permitted to me to be ignorant of the intention of the teftator, if the will has no meaning, much lefs to controul the intention of the teftator upon my own ideas of it, on the liberality or political tendency of the difpolition.

The argument on the accumulation, ufed as a ground against the bequeft, I apprehend to be (unfels in the cafe of lady Dennifon's will) entirely new. I take it, the court has never confidered it as ellential to the validity of a devife, that the rents and profits fhould attend the eftate until the time the abfolute property vefis.

In the extent to which this executory devife goes for the lives, though not correctly fo either, no valid objection can be raifed; for, at the expiration of thefe lives, there is an eftate given to avoid perpetuity. And although this executory devife goes farther than others, yet it is on the fame principle as thole cafes upon which opinions have been given, and cafes decided, and that is fufficient. It is not for me to make new rules of law. I cannot fee where I am to draw the line, and fix precitely how many lives hall be included in a limitation, or what is to be the extent of an VOL. XLI.

executory devife, or on what cal-, culation of chances an executory devife fhall continue. I must hold myfelf bound by the rules and establithed matter of pofitive law, as already decided on confidered cafes of executory devifes.

Here his lordthip took a view of feveral decided cales upon this point; that of Long and Blackall,, and a cafe that he had fent to the court of King's Bench, not, he said, on account of any doubt in his own, mind, for he had antecedently formed the fame opinion as that court delivered upon that cafe, but becaufe there had been fome doubt, whether there was not a difference, between the courts of King's Bench, and the Common Pleas upon that point. His lordthip then quoted the cafe of Law and Reeves; and alfo feveral others-and-likewile the opnion of lord Somers in the houfe of lords. He obferved, that all the cafes from 1600 to our own time, proved that the judges had been clearly of opinion, fuch as had been delivered by the learned judges to day. The laft cafe his lordthip quoted, was the cafe of Doe on the demife of Brown and Clerk, confirming the doctrine that children in the womb were, for all beneficial purpofes, the fame as if born at a teftator's death.

With refpect to the only other legal point in this cafe, "whether the defcription of the perfon ultimately to Lake" is fufficiently certain, the point does not now arife; but if I was called upon to give a decided opinion, I thould fay it is fufficiently certain, and that for the reafon which was fo very ably flated by Mr. juftice Buller. I have no doubt who is the perfon meant by "heirs male of the teftator;" but if C

there

there were a doubt upon that point it is impoffible for me to fay that this will should not now take effect, because events may happen that will put it out of all poffible doubt to whom that defcription will apply at the time the devife fhall take effect.

I should do myself no credit, nor give the bar any information, were I to proceed farther-I therefore now return thanks to his honour and the learned judges for what they have done in giving me affift

ance..

The will was then eftablished, and a future day appointed for giving directions for carrying its purposes into effect.

25th Came on, in the court of King's Bench, at Weftminster, a trial at bar on an information filed by the attorney-general against Sack ville, earl of Thanet, Denis O'Bryen, Robert Ferguffon, Thomas Thompfon, and Thomas Gunter Brown, for a riot and affault at Maidstone, at the conclufion of the trials of O'Connor and others for high-treafon, which continued until a quarter after ten o'clock, when the jury retired, and returned at half paft eleven, and pronounced a verdict of guilty against lord Thanet and Mr. Fergullon. The others were acquitted.

26th This morning, between 6 and 7 o'clock, a genteelly dreffed young woman fprung from the walls of London bridge, and before any one could come near her, threw herself into the Thames. A boat immediately put off, and, as fhe was floating, brought her on thore; the was foon recovered, having been but a few minutes in the water.

DIED. At Arfley near Shefford, in the county of Bedford, aged 108,

Abne Day, a gypfy, who died un der a hedge near Henlow, an adjoining parith; only two of her own party attended her funeral with a great concourfe of other people. She has left a fon aged 82 and a daughter 39, and several great grand children. She ufed to be carried round the country on an als with 2 or 3 females of her own

complexion; she had grown almost double, had not flept in a bed for 70 years, and for the last 40 had not a tooth in her head, nor the fight of more than one eye; had loft 3 toes 12 years ago, and the use of one arm by the froft..

MAY.

3d Lord Thanet and Mr. Ferguffon were brought before the court of King's Bench, to receive the judgement of the court, for the part they took in the riot at Maidftone, to facilitate the efcape of Mr. O'Connor, when they were committed to the King's Bench prifon, and ordered to be brought up the first day of next term. The duke of Bedford and lord Derby attended to give bail, which the attorney-general refused to accept.

Same day, Mr. B. Flower, the printer of the Cambridge Intelligencer, was brought to the bar of the houfe of lords, for reflecting, in a paragraph in his paper, on the bishop of Llandaff's fpeech in the houfe of lords, on the fubject of an union with Ireland; and lord Grenville moved that he be fined 1007. and committed to Newgate for fix months. Lord Holland complained of the practice of this fummary proceeding refpecting only a breach of privilege; but lord Kenyon jufti

Red