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the poor. 7th.

The trial of admiral Cornwallis, for disobedience of orders, in not proceeding to the West Indies, pursuant to the instructions of the admiralty board, commenced on board the Orion at Portsmouth, at eight o'clock in the morning. The charges were three in number. The substance of them is as follows: 1st, that admiral Cornwallis, after having sailed from England for the West Indies, and proceeded a considerable way on his voyage, did return, contrary to the orders he had received. 2dly, That

not having a sufficient regard to the importance of the situation of a commander in chief, he omitted to shift his flag on board of some other ship, after the Royal Sovereign had been disabled, in order to proceed, as he ought to have done, to the place of his destination; but that, instead of doing so, he gave his instructions and the command of the convoy to another officer. And, 3dly, That after his return he disobeyed another order of the board of admiralty, by not hoisting his flag on board the Astrea frigate, and proceeding to the West Indies, as he had been ordered by their lordships.

The evidence having been gone through, the trial closed at one o'clock, when the court pronounced' the following sentence.

"The court having heard the evidence in support of the charges exhibited against the honourable William Cornwallis, vice-admiral of the red; and having heard his defence, and the evidence in his behalf, and having maturely weighed and considered the same, were of opinion,

That, with respect to the two first charges, of his returning with out leave, after having been ordered to proceed to Barbadoes, and of his disobeying the orders he had received, misconduct was imputable to him, for not having shifted his flag on board the Mars or Minotaur, and proceeded in either of them to the West Indies; but, in consideration of other circumstances, the court acquitted him of any disobedience in his conduct

on that occasion.

"With respect to the third charge, of his having, after his re turn, disobeyed the orders of the

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board

board of admiralty, in not going out to the West Indies in the Astrea frigate, the court were of opinion that the charge was not proved, and therefore acquitted admiral Cornwallis upon that charge. Early this morning, the 10th. wife of Mr. Sawyer, a boatbuilder, near the Bishop's walk, Lambeth, was discovered in her bed-room, with her brains dashed out, and stabbed in a most shocking manner. This horrid deed is supposed to have been accomplished by some diabolical villains, who entered the back part of the house leading to the river, and, meeting with resistance to their shemes of plunder, perpetrated the hellish deed. The murderers escaped without creating the least alarm, It is a circumstance particularly remarkable, that, although the hus band of the murdered woman was in the house the whole time, he declares he neither heard nor saw any thing of the transaction. This morning a little be11th. fore 12, three malefactors were executed at Kenningtoncommon: a brush-maker, for a riot in St. George's fields, a young man for sheep-stealing, and a man for house-breaking.

Letters from Smyrna unfortunately advise us of the conflagration of 4000 warehouses, entirely belonging to Ottoman merchants, the value of which is estimated at four millions of piastres.

21st.

lugger privateer, belonging to the enemy, in Havre-de-Grace harbour, by the boats of his squadron, then on a reconnoitring expedi tion, and the tide making strong into the harbour, she was driven above the French forts, who, the next morning, the 19th, discovering, at break of day, the lugger in tow by a string of English boats, immedi❤ ately made the signal of alarm, which collected together several gun-boats, and other armed vessels, that attacked the lugger and Bri tish boats; when, after an obstinate resistance of two hours, sir Sidney had the mortification of being obliged to surrender himself prisoner of war, with about sixteen of his people, and three officers with him in the lugger. The Diamond frigate is safe, but could afford her commander no assistance, there not being a breath of wind during the whole of this unfortunate transaction; we are happy to add, that only four British seamen were killed, and one officer and six seamen slightly wounded. The seamen were immediately thrown into prison on their landing; and sir Sidney underwent a long examination before the French commandant, after which he was ordered to be conveyed, under 3 strong escort, to Paris. The following were amongst the officers captured with sir Sidney Smith: Messrs. W. Moory, R.. Kenyon, and R. Barrow: one of these was wounded. When the officers on board the Diamond heard of the disaster which had befallen their gallant commander, they sent a Aag of truce into Havre, to enquire whether he was wounded, and entreating that he might be treated with kindness. The governor re

Advice was received at the admiralty, brought by lieut. Crispe, of the Telemachus cutter, of the capture of the enterprising sir Sidney Smith, commander of bis majesty's ship Diamond, on the coast of France. Having, on the 18th instant boarded and taken a

turned

turned for answer, that sir Sidney was well, and that he should be treated with the utmost humanity and attention. The French, it appears, warped out another lugger of superior force against that captured by sir Sidney Smith in Havre-deGrace harbour, with which they engaged him, for a considerable time, with so much heavier metal, that rendered all his resistance ineffectual, and therefore compelled him to strike.

14th.

Two of the officers belonging to Bow-street arrived in town from Liverpool with Henry Weston, who is charged with committing divers forgeries on the bank of England to the amount of 170001. He had got to Liverpool, and sent his luggage on board the Hector, bound for St. Vincent's in the West Indies, which ship had got down to a place called the Gut, about seven miles below Liverpool, and was to have sailed the next morning. The officers found him in bed at Bates's hotel, with a brace of loaded pistols by his side. On their road to town, Weston found means to conceal a case knife in his pantaloons, and on changing chaises at the King's Head, Mounslow, he requested to go to the privy, where he cut his own throat, but missing one of the arteries, did not effect his purpose.

This night the counting25th. house of Mr Mingay, of Smithfield (who in the interim was speaking to a friend in the back room on the same floor) was broke open, and a bag of gold, containing 1200 guineas, which had been placed in readiness to send to his banker's in the morning, was taken

clear off.

In consequence of a pub30th. lication addressed by lord Malden to the inhabitants of the borough of Leominster, the duke of Norfolk, accompanied by capt. Wombwell, of the first West York regiment of militia, and lord Malden, accompanied by capt. Taylor, aid de camp to his royal highness the duke of York, met on Saturday evening in a field beyond Paddington. The parties having taken their ground, and the word being given by one of the seconds, they fired without effect. The seconds then thought proper to offer their interference, and, in consequence of a conversation which passed while the parties were on the ground, a reconciliation was effected.

In an act now before the house of commons, for the further support and maintenance of curates within the church of England, the preamble recites the act of the 12th of queen Ann, by which every rector or vicar is enjoined to pay to each curate a sum not exceeding 501. and not less than 20l. a year. It states, that this allowance is now become insufficient for the mainte nance of a curate. The bill there. fore enacts, that the bishop or or dinary shall have power to allow the curate a sum not exceeding seventy five pounds a year, with the use of the rectory or vicaragehouse, where the rector does not reside four months in the year, or 15). in lieu thereof.

DIED-19th. In Doctors Commons, George Harris, D. C. L. son of Dr. John Harris, bishop of Landaff, chancellor of the dioceses of Durham, Hereford, and Landaff, and commissary of Essex, Herts,

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and Surrey. He has left a large fortune, which he has chiefly bequeathed to public charities: 10,000l. to the Westminster Lying-in hospital, donations equally liberal to several others, and the residue (supposed to be 40,0001.) to St. George's hospital.

At his house in Stafford

21st. row, Pimlico, aged 89, Ri

chard Yates, esq. the celebrated comedian; his reputation in the parts of old and grotesque characters especially, was eminently great. He was remarkable for pure and chaste acting up to the words of his author with a scrupulous attention.; the more remarkable, as performers of this cast of acting frequently introduce their own humour, with what may be called the licentia histrionica of the drama. He excelled also in teaching or making an actor, in a higher degree, perhaps, than any one of his time. He was married, first, to woman who was rich; secondly, to Miss Anna Maria Graham, who had been introduced to his tuition by Mr. Garrick, and with him she first came on the stage at Birmingham. Mr. Yates died suddenly. He had been very well, as usual, for some time, and had break fasted heartily. Having ordered eels for dinner, when, unfortunately, they could not be had, his warm and hasty temper could ill bear the disappointment; and from anger he worked himself up to rage. His housekeeper, zealous to please him, went out a long way, and brought some; ere she returned, exhausted with fatigue of spirits, he had leaned his head upon the table, and she found him dead.

1st.

MAY.

This day a storm of thunder was remarkably tremendous in the western part of Sussex. At Pulborough a barn was set on fire by the lightning, and entirely consumed. Luckily it contained only seven quarters of oats. In the neighbourhood of the above place, the peas in the fields were considerably injured by a heavy fall of hail, which accompanied the thunder.

Northampton. The following 7th. dreadful accident happened a few days since to Mr. J. Robinson, horse-breaker, in Peterborough: having a young colt in training, the animal began on a sudden to plunge, by which means the rider was thrown from his seat with such violence, as to separate the ribs from the back-bone. The unfortunate man is attended by an eminent surgeon, and there are hopes of his recovery.

A few days ago, as a groom was combing a race-horse in the neigh bourhood of Beverley, in Yorkshire, the animal became so irritated as to catch hold of the man's side with his teeth, and tear away the flesh in so shocking a manner, as to render his bowels and entrails visible. The poor fellow's recovery is much despaired of.

On Saturday the sheriffs of 9th. London and Middlesex appeared in the Exchequer chamber, to render into court their estreats, levies, captions, &c. and to answer an officer called the opposer, for the crown. Several of the sheriffs' officers, no doubt, being engaged about their country houses and their carriages, had forgotten to make any returns, in consequence, of which the sheriffs were ordered

to

to attend in person next term, for the purpose of being examined upon interrogatories by the officer before the barons. This is a circumstance to which nothing similar has happened for a great many years.

An important cause came on to be tried in the common pleas, in consequence of an issue directed from the court of chancery on the question of fact, whether the late earl of Orford devised by his last will any lands and effects to the earl of Cholmondeley. The case is briefly this. On the 25th of November, 1752, the earl of Orford made a will, in which he bequeathed his principal estates, after the de mise of his immediate heir, the present earl of Orford, to the earl of Cholmondeley, whose grandfather had married the daughter of his ancestor, sir Robert Walpole, the first earl of Orford. In 1756, the earl of Orford made a second will, in which he changed the order of succession, and gave a preference over the earl of Cholmondeley to lord Walpole, who is descended in a direct line from the second brother of the first earl of Orford. This, of course, annihilated the first will; and, had nothing farther occurred, no question could have arisen on the subject. But, in 1776, twenty years after the second will was made, the earl of Orford signed a codicil, the purport of which was to make various provisions which had been omitted in his wills, and declared this codicil to be a codicil to his last will, signed on the 25th day of November, 1752. On the part of the plaintiff, it was contended that this codicil, which was duly signed and attested, was a revival and setting ap of the will to which it referred;

and that, of course, that will retained the same force and effect, as if the second will had never been made. On the part of the defendant, it was maintained, in the first place, that the codicil was destitute of those forms, expressly required by the statute of wills, which could alone give it the effect of reviving a first will in preference to a second, where a real estate was devised; and, secondly, that it was the intention of the testator to annex the codicil to the second, and not to the first will. To establish these points, it was proposed to adduce parol evidence; but the court interfered; and were unanimous in their opinion, that the established law of the land forbade the admission of parol evidence to contradict a written and perfect instrument, such as the will and codicil together appeared to be; that the word last, on which the counsel for the defendant had laid so much stress, was an expression which had no determinate meaning until the death of the testator, when it operated to explain the intended last act of his life; that neither the will of 1751, nor the will of 1756, was, in fact, a will until the testator was dead; that an alteration of the date of the codicil would be making a new disposition for the dead, which no court upo earth was entitled to do; the only power vested in a court, on the subject of wills, being that of explaining the intention of the de ceased, which, in this case, was perfectly clear; that wills ought only to be considered as ambulatory instruments, subject to the pleasure of the owner, and to be used by him as his judgment or caprice might direct; and that the will of

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