his intention, fai, "You come in." Dalton afked for what? To which he replied, "Never mind, but come in." That when he prefented the pistol to Mr. Finch, Dal ton called out to him two or three times, "What are you about?" and then went from the door and gave the alarm, which he certainly would not have done had he been concerned. The jury pronounced him guilty; but his counfel was allowed to make any legal objections to the indictment, which is to be decided by the twelye judges. William Bryce and Peter Pollard were both found guilty of aflifting his efcape this Turnbull alfo denied. 28th. This day were executed John Haines, for fhooting at Henry Edwards, a police officer, and James Blakeley, alias Fatrick Blake, for forging a feaman's will. Haines has been hung in chains on Hounflow-heath, between the two roads; the gibbet ftrongly plated with iron. It is laid, that near 300 journeyman curriers attended the fcaffold to rescue Haines (who was a currier), but that they were prevented making the attempt by the vigilance of the fheriff's officers. DIED At Paris, Thomas Muir, the celebrated Scottish advocate, transported to Botany-bay, for fedition, but who escaped thence. A wound he received on board the Spanish frigate in which he returned to Europe, it is faid, never was cured, and to that his death is af cribed. 2d. In his 82d year, Mr. Thomas Payne, for more than 40 years a a bookfeller of the first reputation at the Mews-gate. He was a native of Brackley, in Northamptonshire; and began his career in Roundcourt, in the Strand, oppofite Yorkbuildings, where, after being fome years an affiftant to his elder brother, Olive Payne (with whom the idea and practice of printing catalogues is faid to have originated), he commenced bookfeller on his own account, and iffued "A Catalogue of curious Books in Divinity, Hiftory, Claflies, Medicine, Voyages, Natural Hiftory, &c. Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish, in excellent Condition, and moftly gilt and lettered," dated Feb. 29, 1740, being almoft the first of the catalogifts, except Daniel Brown, at the Black Swan, without Temple-bar, and the fhort-lived Mears and Noorthouck. From this fituation he removed to the Mews-gate, in 1750, when he married Elizabeth Taylor, and fucceeded her brother in the fhop and houfe, which he built, whence he iffued an almost annual fucceffion of catalogues, beginning 1755, and, in the years 1760 and 1761, two catalogues during the year. This he continued to do till 1790, when he refigned the bufinefs to his eldest fon, who had for more than 20 years been his partner, and who opened a new literary channel, by a correfpondence with Paris, from whence he brought, in 1793, the library of the celebrated chancellor, Lamoignon. The little fhop, in the fhape of an L, was the first that obtained the name of a literary coffee-houfe, in London, from the knot of literati that reforted to it; and, fince the difplay of new books on the counter has been adopted from the Oxford and Cambridge bookfellers, other London shops have their followers. MARCH. MARCH. 5th. The court of directors of the Eaft-India company has confented to the wishes of government, and given up the point of recruiting for its own fervice. This puts a period to a very long controverly. Chatham-barracks is to be the depôt for Eaft-India recruits, who are, in future, to be engaged for a period of ten years, leaving it to their option to enlift, after the expiration thereof, for a farther term of five years. The company are to defray the expenfe of their paffage home, after their discharge in India. 13th. A meeting of the trustees of the British-museum having been held, to take into confideration a plan lately prefented to them by Mr. Defenfans, which had for its object to convert Montague-houfe into galleries of pictures and ftatues; they have refolved that no alteration fhall take place in Montague-house. A fire broke out, on the 13th of March, in the fuburbs of Pera, at Conftantinople, and, notwithftanding every exertion to fupprefs it, nearly two-thirds of that quarter were burnt down. Among the buildings deftroyed are the houfes of the English ambaffador, the Auftrian internuncio, and of feve. ral other perfons of diftinction; the hotels of Spain and of Poland, the Roman catholic church, and the ftone magazine, which contained all the riches of Pera, as it was thought a place of perfect fafety. The damage is eftimated at twenty millions of florins. 16th. By the finking of the pavement nearly oppofite the front gate of the Royal Exchange, a very large deep well, of great antiquity, has been difcovered. The water is of excellent quality, and the ward of Cornhill propofe erecting a pump near the fpot. Upon examining Stow's Hiftory of London, it appears to have been covered over more than fix hundred years; for he notices, as ftanding there, a conduit and a watch-house, together with a place of confinement for diforderly perfons, at the top of which was placed the pillory for their punishment; all which, he fays, were removed in the year 1380. What is remarkable, the top of the well was not fecured by either arch or brick-work, but only covered with planks. 21ft. The house of Mr. Bowering, fchool-mafter, near Taunton, was burnt to the ground. The premifes were infured, and happily no lives were loft. The fire was occafioned by a maid-servant throwing fome afhes in the yard, which communicated to fome out-houses, and destroyed the whole building. Providentially it was in the day-time, or the confequences must have been dreadful; the whole being deftroyed in a fhort time, and not a change of clothes left for the scholars. 22d. Plymouth. A melancholy accident happened yesterday evening at the gun-wharf in the dockyard at this place. Mr. Brace, with his fon, about 12 years old, G. Newman, R. Herden, and G. Searles, were employed in removing a quantity of bomb-fhells, landed from the different French prizes lately brought in here, and purcha fed by Mr. Brace at public fale, when, by fome accident, one of the fhells took fire, which communica ted ted itself to several others, filled alfo with combustible matter, and caufed fuch a dreadful explosion, before any of the above perfons could get out of the reach of its deftructive influence, that Mr. Brace and his fon were killed on the fpot, G. Newman had his right thigh blown off, and the other two were dangerously wounded. Many others had left the fpot only a few minutes, by which providential circumftance their lives were faved. The explofion was diftinctly heard at Catdown, three miles and a half diftant from the fpot. A young midshipman was alfo brought to the Royal Hofpital from the Caftor, dreadfully mangled in his face and hands, having been blown up by letting off fome loofe powder from a priming powder-horn. A vein of filver, tolerably rich, has been discovered in Hurlandmine, commonly called the Old Manor-mine, in Gwinear-parifh, in the county of Cornwall, on which the miners are at prefent at work. 27th. A fubfcription was this day fet on foot at Lloyd's for the purpofe of purchafing a piece of plate, value 5001. to be fent as a prefent to the gallant commodore Truxton, of the American frigate, Constellation, who has captured the French frigate, L'Infurgente, captain Buroe, of 44 guns, and 411 men, after an hour's well-fought action. The Conftellation had I man killed and 3 wounded; L'Infurgente, 29 killed and died of their wounds and 29 wounded. 28th. A poor woman was killed at Burnley, owing to the wind blowing her petticoats into the machinery of a cotton-mill, by which he was literally torn to pieces. She has left five infant children. 30th. Newcastle. His grace the duke of Northumberland has given twenty guineas (exclufive of his annual contribution) to be diftributed to the crew of the Northumberland life-boat, at North Shields, as a teftimony of his approbation of their conduct, in going off, at imminent peril, through a vast quantity of floating ice and a very high fea, and thereby fafely bringing to fhere a number of fhip wrecked feamen, as there were, at that time, four fhips upon the Herd-fand. DIED. Found dead in his bed, at the Carpenter's Arms, a publichoufe, in the parish of Wick, Gloucefterfhire, about fix miles from Bath, James White, efq. a gentleman well known in the literary world. He was educated at the univerfity of Dublin, and was efteemed an admirable fcholar, and poffeffed of brilliant parts. His conduct, for four or five years paft, has been marked by great wildness and eccentricity. He is faid to have conceived an ardent affection for a young lady, who, he fuppofed, was as warmly attached to him; but, (as he imagined).fome plot had been contrived to wean her regard, and to fruftrate all his future profpects in life. He attributed the failure of his application for patronage and employment from the great to the machinations of thofe plotters and contrivers, and even fuppofed their influence upon the London bookfellers prevented his literary talents being more amply rewarded. The winters of 1797 and 1798 he paffed in the neighbourhood of Bath, and many perfons noticed in the pump-room, the streets, or vicinity of the city, a thin, pale, emaciated man, (between 30 and 40) with a wild, yet penetrating look, dreffed in a light coat of Bath-coating. His means of fubfiftence were very fcanty, and he obliged the cravings of nature to keep within their limits he has been known to debar himfelf of animal food for months, and to have given life a bare fubfiftence by a bilcuit, a piece of bread, or a cold potatoe, and a glafs of water. Unable to pay his lodgings, and too proud to afk relief, he would many nights wander about the fields, or feek repole beneath a hay-stack; almoft exhaufted, he once took refuge in an inn at Bath, where his extraordinary conduct, and his refufing every fuftenance, alarmed the miftrels, and impelled her to apply to the magiftrates: they humanely ordered him to be put under the care of the parish-officers. Inftead of appreciating these precautionary means, as he ought to have done, he, in letters to fome perfons in Bath, complained of "the undue interference of magifterial authority and this unconfiitutional infringement of the liberty of the fubject!" When his mind was more compofed, and his health partly recovered, he behaved with more moderation, and, though apparently fenfible of the good intended him, he ftrongly fufpected that his imaginary hoft of enemies had again been plotting. It was about this time that he publifhed his "Letters to Lord Camden on the State of Ireland;" the elegance and firength of his language, the fhrewdnefs of his remarks and the perfpicuity of his arguments were generally admired. A fmall fubfcription was privately raifed for his relief; and, though given to him with the utmoft delicacy, he could fcarcely be prevailed pon to take it but as a loan. He then left Bath, nor had the writer of this account heard of him till he learned that the coroner's inqueft had been called to determine on his premature death. This unhappy gentleman had refpectable relatives refiding in Bath; but who poffeffed no influence over his paffions, nor means of controuling his conduct. The following is as accurate a list of his works, as we have been able to obtain: 1ft, "The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero against Caius Cornelius Verres, tranflated, with annotations," 4to. 1787. 2d, Conway-Caftle; Verles to the Memory of the late Earl of Chatham; and The Moon, a fimile," 4to. 1789. Sd, "Earl Strongbow; or, The Hiftory of Richard de Clare and the beautiful Geralda,” 2 vol. 12mo. 1789. 4th, "The Adventures of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancafter," $ vol. 12mo. 1790. 5th, "The Adventures of King Richard Coeur de Lion;" to which is added, "The Death of Lord Falkland," a poem, 3 vol. 12mo. 1791. 6th, "The Hiftory of the Revolution of France; tranf lated from the French of M. Rabaut de Saint Etienne," Svo. 1792. 7th, "Speeches of M. De Mirabeau, the Elder, pronounced in the National Affembly of France; to which is prefixed, A Sketch of his Life and Character, tranflated from the French," 2 vol. 8vo. 1792. 8th, "The Letters to Lord Canden," already mentioned. In her 1024 year, Marguerite Corbie. She retained her fenses till within a few days of her death, but had been bed-ridden nearly two years. She was a native of Lifle, and was refident in that city when taken by the duke of Marlborough, in 1709, being then in her her 12th year. Her fingular attachment and unfhaken fidelity to a very diftreffed English woman, who died on the continent fixteen years fince, recommended her to the protection of an English family quitting the continent; by whom her remains were interred in Abergavenny cemetery, in the evening of the 14th inftant. APRIL. 1ft. The king's houfe at Weymouth has been materially damaged by the late tempeftuous weather; in one of the ftorms, a few days fince, it was ftruck by lightning, which fplit one of the main beans, and damaged the principal walls of the building; the railing about the houfe was entirely demolithed, and other parts of the prenifes materially injured. A floop lying in the bay had its main-mait fivered by the lightning. 4th. This night, about eleven, a fire broke out at a carpenter's thop, between Field-lane and Unioncourt, which burnt furioufly for upwards of an hour and a half. Several engines were diftibuted in Field-lane and Holborn-hill, but the diftance was fo great that they could afford but little afliftance; and the aukward fituation of the place where the fire was would not admit of their coming nearer, in confequence, about fix houfes were fet fire to, and most of them confumed. Some hundreds of birds of paffage, Royfton-crows, pwings, grey plovers, woodcocks, &c. were caft on Thore on the Holderness coaft. They feemed to have been starved in croffing the fea, as the bills of many of them were placed under their wings. 6th. Such was the feverity of the ftorm this day, that a number of crows dropped, in their flight, dead upon the earth, and others were taken up alive in the neighbourhood of Skipton-Craves. In confequence of a heavy fall of fnow, on Thursday, many of the mail-coaches did not reach town this morning till feveral hours after the accustomed time; and the Manchefter-coach had not arrived at a Jate hour on Saturday evening. So deep was the fnow in the neighbourhood of Congleton, that the Liverpool-coach was entirely buried in it, and the mail forwarded on horfe-back. Near Stone, like impediments prefented themfelves, and the communication between Holyhead and Chefter has been wholly fufpended. Add to thefe, fo thick was the fog and fleet last night, for twenty or thirty miles round the metropolis, that the coachmen and guards were obliged to alight and lead their horfes. 8th. The paflengers who arrived at the general poft-office by the Edinburgh-mail this morning fay, the fnow began falling about feven on Friday morning at Newcastle, and continued till fix at night. No carriage could proceed farther than Northallerton; they attempted with a chaife and fix, but in vain, and then, with the guard, took faddlehorfes at Eafingould, and chaife to York. They fay they never faw fnow fall fo faft, and that it was fix feet deep. The mail had not arrived at Newcastle from the North when they fet out, though many hours beyond its tinre. The fnow was fo deep between Nottingham and Leeds that no coach could travel on Friday night: the mail was fent by horfe. The Li verpool |