an hour, returned with a verdict for the plaintiff, for the repair of the houfes on Bethnal-green and in Worship freet, 6251. and fpecial, in the words of the Act, for furniture deftroyed by perfons affembled, 700l. alfo for damage done to the garden by the rioters,

301.

7th.

Thomas Dill was tried at the Old Bailey for the murder of Robert Curfon, a young furgeon, pupil to Dr. Ford. The deceafed was vifiting an old gentleman, who laboured under a violent paralytic complaint. The prifoner was charged with having affaulted the deceafed while he was in the apartment of the old gentleman, in whofe prefence he was charged with having beat the deceafed in a very cruel manner; and with having afterwards pushed him out of the window, three ftories high, into the street, by which the deceased had his fkull fractured to pieces, and was killed on the spot.

There was only one witnefs who could fpeak pofitively to the fact; and this was the old gentleman, whom the deceased was vifiting as a patient, when he was affaulted by the prisoner. He was 90 years of age, and fo deaf, that it was with difficulty he could hear, and at the fame time he was fo afflicted with the palfy, that he could barely answer by the monofyllables Yes and No. As therefore it was impoffible for him to give the court a narrative of the melancholy bufinefs, the counfel for the profecution were going to put what they called leading questions, by which they would have told the particulars themfelves, and would have required only the monofylla

ble Yes from the witnefs to confirm the fuggeftions contained in their questions: but the court would not fuffer this, as it was totally inconfiftent with the practice of the courts of justice: however, this was an occafion on which this. practice might perhaps have been difpenfed with, without the leaft violation of justice: particularly as there was fome ground, from what dropped from fever perfons examined on the trial, that this was the fecond murther with which the prifoner had been charged. The court, however, was determined; and as the old gentleman was difabled by infirmities from giving fuch teftimony as the court would receive, the prifoner efcaped from the hands of juftice, to the vifible mortification of every one in court.

The mother of the deceafed was in one of the galleries; and when he understood that the prisoner was difcharged, fhe broke out into the moft frantic rage, and prayed that the blood of her child might fall upon the heads of both court and jury for fuffering his murtherer to escape with impunity. When he had spent her rage in bitter imprecations, fhe fainted away; and the court feeling no fpark of refentment, for what they knew to be extremely natural in an afflicted parent, called out to the people near her, and requested that they would kindly take care of her, and fee that he did not hurt herself while out of her fenfes.

Hundred of Offulton, defendants. The action was brought for the recovery of 9031. for repairing his houfes and fhops, and 11591. for furniture, flock in trade and utenfils, deftroyed in the late riots. The court, after examining feveral refpectable witneffes, was fully fatisfied with the juftnefs of the claims, and the jury gave their verdict accordingly, making it fpecial for furniture and ftock in trade.

The fame day the feffion ended at the Old Bailey, when the following convicts received fentence of death, viz. Patrick Madan, J. Bailey and William Chetham, for ftealing in the fhop of Charles Storer, in Sidney's alley, Leicefter - fquare, four gold watch chains and thirty-eight gold rings; Elizabeth Hylett, for ftealing four guineas and a half privately from the perfon of James Winthip; and Tho. Brown, for ftealing a mare, the property of Barnard Donally; Michael Daniel, for robbing Mr. Lane on the highway near Shepherd's-bush of two guineas; William Thompfon, alias Bennett, for robbing Mr. William Johnson of fome money near Kilburn Wells; Jofeph Cook, for robbing Anne Marfano, in Palfgrave-place, of 75. or 8s. and ufing her very cruelly and indecently; Jofeph Caddie, for breaking open the dwelling houfe of Mary Newftead, with intent to fteal her goods, &c. Nine were fentenced to hard labour on the river Thames; 19 to hard labour in the House of Correction; fix to be privately whipped, and one publicly; and fix delivered on proclamation.

A motion was made be13th. fore the Lord Chancellor,

in Lincoln's-Inn-Hall, to fet afide a late order against Mr. Morris, for contempt of court, in not obeying an order to bring the body of Mifs Harford, with whom he had eloped in her infancy. Mr. Erskine, as counsel for Mr. Morris, contended, that feveral mal-practices had been used in the courfe of the late proceedings; that the affidavits were at least irregular, if not falfe; that the bills filed were antedated; and that though he could not undertake tò invalidate the accuracy of the Regifter Offices, yet the plaintiffs fhould be obliged on oath to prove the authenticity of the dates; his client having left England previous to any procefs being inftituted against him in Chancery, and confequently the late order fhould be fet afide. Thefe were the principal facts on which the motion was founded. The Lord Chancellor obferved, that he could not fet afide a motion of his predeceffor, or fuppofe it improvidently granted, upon bare affertions only; and that Mr. Morris fhould have come prepared to contradict the grounds on which the order was made, by well-attested affidavits; that he was ready then, or at any other time, to enter into fuch a hearing, and to receive fuch teftimony if it could be produced; but that till fuch evidence could be fairly brought before him, he could not, in his own opinion, fet afide the order. The Lord Chancellor therefore declined giving any judgmen:, and the motion for discharging the order is to be made again de novo, and the whole matter re-argued.

The caufe between Mr.

Langdale plaintiff, and the 15th. Sun-fire office defendant, came on

to

to be tried before Lord Mansfield, when a verdict was given against the plaintiff, there being an exception in the policy of affurance against fires occafioned by civil or military commotions, &c.

Two Jew ladies of emi17th. nence were baptized at the King's chapel, St. James's, by the Rev. Dr. Bailey.

Mr. Morris's adjourned 18th. motion in the Court of Chancery, to be releafed from the order of the late Chancellor for his commitment for a contempt, came to a final decifion, after many ingenious arguments and eloquent fpeeches, as well by Mr. Morris's counfel, Meff. Macdonald, Selwyn, and Erskine, as by the counfel against him, who were the Solicitor-general, Mr. Kenyon, and Mr. Jack fon. The bufinefs lafted four hours, and at the end of it, the Chancellor was pleafed to determine that he would neither fet afide the order nor enforce it: fo Mr. Morris went out of court, and the whole affair is juft as it was before it began.

A Society of Antiquaries was inftituted this day at Edinburgh. An affociation of this nature has long been a favourite object of the Earl of Buchan. His lordship communicated the plan he had formed to fome of the most accomplished and refpectable gentlemen in this country, and was happy to find that it not only received their approbation, but excited the strongeft withes to fee an inftitution, which promifed fo much utility to the nation, established on a firm and permanent bafis. Emboldened by this encouragement, his lordship ventured at last to invite a number of perfons, whom he

thought qualified to be members of fuch an affociation, to meet at his houfe on the 14th of November laft. To thefe gentlemen he read a difcourfe, containing a view of the principal objects in the Hiftory and Antiquities of Scotland, which required elucidation, and of the regulations to be observed in the propofed fociety; both of which received the unanimous approbation of the members prefent. At a fubfequent meeting, his lordfhip was prevailed on to permit the difcourfe to be printed, that the public might have proper ideas concerning an inftitution fo interefting to the nation. It was then agreed, that a meeting fhould be held on Monday the 14th curt. for the purpose of electing office bearers. The members accordingly met, and the business of election being finished, a paper was read, giving an account of various Roman weapons difcovered in dragging the Marle from the bottom of Doddington Loch; and we learn that the worthy proprietor, Sir Alexander Dick, is to give fpecimens of them, to be preserved in the fociety's museum.

The following is a lift of the OfficeBearers.

"Prefident, the Right Hon. the Earl of Bute; ft vice prefident, the Right Hon. the Earl of Buchan; 2d vice prefident, the Hon. Sir John Dalrymple Hamilton Macgill, Bart. 3d vice prefident, John Swinton, of Swinton, Efq; 4th vice prefident, Alexander Wright, Efq; advocate; 5th vice. president, William Tyler, of Woodhouflee, Efq; treasurer; Sir Wm. Forbes, of Pitiligo, Bart. fecretary; James Cummyng, Efq; keeper of the Lyon Records."

DIED, At Carrickfergus, in Ireland, Mr. James O'Brien, aged 114, He ferved as a pay mafter ferjeant in the wars in Ireland, in the reign of James II.

Near Buxton, Derbyshire, Sam, Fidler, aged 105. He walked from his own houfe to Buxton, within three days of his death, which is upwards of five miles. He has been for three years paft a conftant attendant at St. Anne's Well in Buxton, and was fupported chiefly by the company who reforted there to drink the waters.

Mr. Francis Vivares, the celebrated landscape engraver.

At his houfe in the Clofe, Salif bury, in the 72d year of his age, James Harris, Efq; F. R. S. Truttee of the British Mufeum, and member for Christchurch, Hants, which he reprefented in feveral fucceffive parliament. In the year 1763 he was appointed one of the Lords Commiffiouers of the Admiralty, and was foon after removed to the Board of Treafury. In 1774 made Secretary and Comptroller to the Queen, which poft he enjoyed till his death. He was the fon of James Harris, Efq; and the Lady Elizabeth Ashley his wife, third daughter of Anthony, 2d Earl of Shaftefbury, and filter to Anthony, 3d earl, the celebrated author of the Characteristics, whofe elegance and refinement of tafte and manners Mr. Harris inherited. In the theory and practice of mufic he had few equals. He was a native of the Clofe, and educated there under the Rev. Mr. Hele, in the grammar-fchool now kept by the Rev. Mr. Skinner, from whence, in the year 1726, he went to Wadham College, in Oxford. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John

Clarke, Efq; of Sandford, in Somerfetfhire, by whom he had feveral children, three of whom are fill living, viz. Sir James Harris, K. B. his Majefty's Minifter Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of St. Petersburg, Katherine Gertrude, and Louisa Margaret Harris. The world is indebted to him for feveral very ingenious and learned publica tions, particularly three treatifes, published in 1745, on Art, Mufc, Painting and Poetry, and Happinef.-In 1751, he published a fecond volume, called Hermes, or a Philofophical Enquiry concerning Univerfal Grammar. In 1775, his Philofophical Arrangements made their appearance. It is with great pleafure that we learn this gentleman had finished, just before his death, another ingenious work, entitled Philological Inquiries. His good qualities as a man are well known to a large circle of his friends and acquaintance in this country; and his great abilities as an author acknowledged and efteemed by the literati throughout Europe.

In Harpur-Arect, Dr. John Fothergill, one of the people called Quakers, aged 69. He was born near Richmond, in the county of York, ftudied at Edinburgh, and came to London about the year 1740, without any other patron than his own merit, which brought him rapidly into a most extenfive practice. He was a fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians at Edinburgh, of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies in London, and a member of other learned as well as medical inflitutions, in this and foreign nations, in which his great reputation as a phyfician is univer

fally