Lately was held at the London Coffee-houfe, Ludgate-ftreet, the anniverfary of the lodge of antiquity of free and accepted mafons, acting by imme. morial conftitution. A very felect and genteel company attended to fhew their attachment to the oldeft private lodge in England; which has met regularly in London above a hundred years, under the patronage of the first characters in the kingdom, particularly Sir Chrif topher Wren, who prefided over it eighteen years; and has ever ftrenuously fupported the rights and privileges of the original mafons of England, agreebly to the ancient conftiturions. This lodge is in a very flourish ig ftate, and now acts in alliance with the grand lodge of all England at York, and all the lodges in France, Scotland, Ireland, &c. which are governed by the original conftitutions.

3. Died at his houfe in Privy Garden, the Rt. Hon. Charles Wolfrane Cornewall, many years Speaker of the Houfe of Commons, and Member in Parliament for Rye in Suffex. Mr. Cornewall uniformly conducted himself with that affability, dignity, and rectitude of conduct, becoming his elevated fituation.

At Paifley in Scotland, a taylor, died fome time fince, who, during his life, never earned more than fourpence per day and his meat. However. by rigid economy, he has left 250l. at intereft, and 20l. in his houfe, with a great number of crown and half-crown pieces, whofe fable countenances befpeak the length of their folitary fituation. The pally had difabled this man from working feveral years: but in his frequent preregrinations about the town, if any piece of old rag or paper came in his way, he was fure to mark its value. His deportment and mean appearance drew forth the compaffion of the ftranger, as they denoted a man befet with all that mifery to which the human lot is fubje&t.

A cafe not lefs important than curious, has been agitated by the lawyers at Berlin, on the queftion-Whether a Jew who embraces the Chriftian religion has thereby renounced the Jewish. It feems that one Mofes Ifaac, a rich Jew, of Berlin, left at his death a con

fiderable fum of money to be divided among his children, with the provifion, that if any of them renounced the Jewish religion they should be excluded, Two of his daughters, becoming profelytes to Chriftianity, brought an action before one of the courts at Berlin, and recovered their refpective dividends; it was argued, that Chriftianity, being only an improvement of Judaism, to embrace the former was not to renounce the latter. However, the caufe being carried before a fuperior court, the decree was reverfed, and the fentence confirmed by the king, who is there the laft refort in all cafes of importance.

In the county of Thibet, in the East Indies, polygamy of husbands are allowed to the women; and in Mr. Stuart's account of that part of the world, a woman is mentioned as having at one time seven hufbands. Thofe hufbands were all brothers, and after fome time the wife laid a complaint before the father and mother, that the two youngeft fons did not contribute their portion of duty and affection as they ought to do. The complaint was held not to be unreasonable.

6. A remarkable inftance of the power of confcience has occurred within these few days. The Secretary of the Sun Fire-office received a letter, written in a foreign hand, inclosing a bank" note of 100l. which the writer of the letter defired fhould be carried to the account of the office, and acknowledged in the Public Advertiser, fome day the first week in January, which was accordingly done. There is no other way of accounting for this, but from the remorfe of fome perfon who had defrauded that inftitution.

A moft extraordinary and almoft incredible undertaking has not long fince excited great curiofity in the learned world; and that is, the scheme of a native of America to travel thence to the eastward principally by land. This gentleman was encouraged by liberal fubfcriptions, and particularly by one from the worthy prefident of the Royal Society, Sir J. Banks. His intention was to go through Siberia, and to cross over from Kamfkatcha to Nontka Sound, and to penetrate from thence to Philadelphia. A letter was received

from

from him laft fpring from Tobolski, in Siberia; to which place he had proceeded fo far in this furprising and romantic undertaking.

7. Yesterday the funeral offices of the late king of Spain were performed in York-ftreet Chapel, Westminster, with very great folemnity. The whole chapel was hung with black, the fconces and armorial bearings of the crown of Spain placed round the chapel in the center, a magnificent canopy of ftate, with the royal crown and fceptre; the whole in a ftate of folemnity and elegance which did the undertaker, Mr. Eyre, of Oxford-street, much honour. The concourfe of the nobility and gentry was prodigious. A part of the chapel was referved for the Spanish ambaffador and other foreign minifters. The mufic was the compofition of Mr. Webbe.

The late king of Spain, Charles III. was the second fon of Philip V. grandfon of Louis XIV. of France, whofe progrefs to the throne of Spain was interrupted in the beginning of this century, and was the caufe of a long and bloody ftruggle, which was not finally terminated till the peace of Utrecht 1713.-Philip died in 1746, and was fucceeded by his fon Ferdinand VI. who dying without iffue in 1753, was fucceeded by his brother, the late Charles III.-What was remarkable of Philip, he pined fo much on account of the death of his wife, that he furvived her but a few months.

The Grand Signior's favourite Sultana died laft November, at Constantinople. This woman was a chriftian, and poffeffed the affection of the Sultan to fo great a degree, that he never refufed her any thing that he could reafonably grant. Having, in her illnefs, appeared defirous of fulfilling the duties of her religion, his highnefs procured an eunuch, a renegade prielt, who administered to her, and faid mafs daily in her apartinent; the Grand Signior chufing rather to ufe deceit, than give her the leaft uneafinefs. This Sultana was a French woman, and born in a little town in the north of Provence.

12. At the houfe of General Conway-died, Mifs Campbell, daughter of the late Lord William Campbell,

brother to the prefent Duke of Argyle -a young lady of great mufical abillties, and who excelled in an eminent degree on the pedal harp.

13. The following tragical picture prefented itself to the view of two humane gentlemen of Stockwell Place, who had made a collection for the poor of that neighbourhood. On entering the wretched habitation of a poor la bourer, they found his wife juft delivered of a fon, after having been eight days in labour, fix of which the was without any proper affiftance: befides the new-born babe, they found in the room four others, two of whom were foliciting their wretched parent for food, and the other two lying dead, evidently ftarved.

At the feffions lately held at Clerkenwell Green, for the county of Middlefex, an indictment against a young woman, for affaulting her husband, a man about fixty years of age, attracted the attention of the Court. It appeared by the evidence for the profecution, that the parties by mutual confent had for fome time paft lived feparate and apart from each other, notwithstanding which the defendant had frequently molefted her husband, to whom he was very troublefome. That about a month fince, the paid him an unwelcome vifit; and after beftowing upon him a confi derable fhare of fcurrilous invective, offered to box with him for a crown. The old man expreffing no inclination to accept of this challenge, the knocked him down, ftruck him feveral times with her fills on the head and face, and left him in poffeffion of two black eyes, in confequence of which, he was prevented from attending his business for two or three days. The defendant called no witneffes, but faid that the profecutor had treated her with cruelty, by reprefenting her as a woman deftitute of virtue, a charge of which the declared herself perfectly innocent. The jury pronounced their verdict, Guilty; after which the defendant was ordered to give ample fecurity to keep the peace.

At the feffions at Chelmsford, Effex, came on a very curious caufe for trial: A carrier on the road took up a woman into his cart, who was feemingly in great agony; the reward for his kind

Elliot* was not a Frenchman. Since he has immortalized his name at Gibraltar, I find this nation is extremely defirous of claiming him-but I took upon me to fay I believed Scotland might boaft of being his native land, and that of most of his forefathers-However, if indeed they would choose to date from a much earlier period, most of us old English would be found to be Danes, Normans, &c."

Letter XI. Marseilles, Aug. 5. "I fet out from Avignon in the middle of the day, and arrived at a town called Lille, where I took a French post-chaife, and went in it by the fide of the Sorgue's clear ftream, till the road was too narrow for the carriage to proceed; I then walked in a narrow path winding round the immenfe rocky mountains to the left, with the ftream rapidly flying by me to the right about a mile, till a cavern, pretty much in the fhape of those which lions come out of in an opera, prefented itself to my view, and from that flows the river. I am told it is an unfathomable abyfs. Why it is called a Fontaine, I am at a lofs to guess.

"Monstrous rocks rife over and on each fide of this craggy arch; thefe feem to bend forward to meet or crush the curious, Which ever way I turned my eyes, I faw gigantic and fantaftic fhapes, which nature feems to have placed there to astonish the gazer with a mixture of the melancholy, terrible, and chearful; for the clearnefs and rapidity of the river makes it a lively object, and where there is a flat place on the banks, though not above a few feet in circumference, the peafants have planted trees or fowed gardens-you lift up your eyes, and fee the most perfect contrafts to them -the birds, which hovered towards the upper part of the rocks, were scarcely perceptible. In looking into the cavern, it appears horrible and gloomy; I could almoft have fancied the river ran thus faft, rejoiced to quit the manfion from whence it fprung. No wonder Petrarch's fong was plaintive, if he Courted his mufe with this fcene per

Sir George must not be too highly Battered at this, for the French are fo fond of monopolizing all that is worth poi

petually before his eyes; Love and al? his laughing train muft fly the human imagination, where nature difplays her features in the majestic and terrible ftile, and I was very glad to find fo good an excufe as this fituation for Petrarch's eternal complaint.

"I was informed by the inhabitants of Vauclufe, that people, who are tired of life, fling themfelves into the cavern, where, as I told you before, the water is unfathomable; upon this information, I asked if bodies were often found there; I was anfwered in the affirmative, that they were chiefly the bodies of priests."

Letter XIX. Genoa, Sept. 16.

"Yesterday two Algerine flaves came to my apartment to fell flippers; the oldeft of the two was one of the handfomeft brown men, with the best countenance I ever faw-he has been a slave five-and-twenty-years, and is fuffered to go about without the usual attendant, which is a man with a stout stick in his hand, who follows the flaves who walk about the town chained together, always in pairs.

"When I thought upon the fate of this old man; guilty of no crime; a prifoner of war-his looks fo noble and fo honeft-I wept-and wished I might have had intereft enough with the Doge and Senate of Genoa to have fent him home to Algiers.

"Thefe fort of pictures in real life, are of a dark hue-1 must therefore again turn to thofe I have seen in the palaces-I confefs I fhould not diflike to pass three winter months here to examine them at leifure, and copy a few.There is a bust of Vitellius in one of the palaces, for which I am affured the Duke of Marlborough offered to give its weight in gold-The fum must neceffarily have been very large, for the buft is fo maffy, that it probably weighs above half any other marble ftatue."

Letter XXII. Pifa Baths, Sept. 20.

"Since I wrote laft, I have been to fee Lucca a virgin republic, for it has never loft its liberty-The motto of

feffing, that Prince Eugene and our Capability Brown, with many others, are claimed by them.

the

INSTANCE

OF SENSIBILITY AND AFFECTION IN AN INDIAN WOMAN OF ONE

began to fing, and make a number of humiliating geftures, to imprefs the crew with a favourable opinion

WEST COAST OF AMERICA.

[From Captain Dixon's Voyage round the World.]

PREVIOUS to the arrival

of

Captains Dixon and Portlock off King George's Sound, on the 14th August 1787, they had coafted off feveral fall islands, which they named Queen Charlotte's Iflands. In fome of them, the Indians were very jealous of their women, and would feldom permit them to go on board the English veffels. Others, on the contrary, though in adjacent places, not only permitted, but urged their females to go on the decks, and this with the fole view to plunder the veffels; a commiffion which, it feems, they executed with as much dexterity as if they had been educated on board the Juftitia hulk: and yet, amidit this prevalent tafte for thievery, an inftance of fenfibility occurred which would not have difgraced the female fex of civilized countries.

A chief and his wife, belonging to one of thefe iflands, being very defirous to fee Captain Dixon's fhip, permiffion was granted: they had a little child with them, of which they feemed particularly fond; and not willing to truft it with their attendants in the canoe, the chief went on board by himself, leaving the tender charge with his wife. When the poor man first got on deck, he appeared to be greatly frightened, and

increafed, he fatisfied his curiofity, and returned to his wife; who, after giving her infant a maternal kifs, got up the fide of the veffel without

heftation: when advanced to the

quarter-deck, fhe fignified, with a modeft diffidence in her looks, that fhe only wanted to fee the flip: This woman was neatly dreffed after the fashion of her country; her under garment, made of fine tanned leather, fat close to her body, and reached from her neck to the calf of her leg; her cloak, or upper garment, was rather coarfer, it fat loofe like a petticoat, and was tied with leather ftrings. Captain Dixon made her a prefent of a string of beads for an ornament to each ear, and a number of buttons; with which fhe was fo highly pleafed, that he made her best acknowledgments, and departed. Scarcely was fhe got into the canoe, before a number of women flocked about her; and, feeing the beads in her ears, began to talk very clamorously; most probably taxing her with incontinence, for the immediately clafped the infant to her breaft with unfpeakable fondnefs, and burst into a flood of tears at length, however, the tender foothings of her hufband, and fome apo logies from her offending friends, or attendants, restored the fond mother to her wonted cheerfulness and tranquillity. When harmony was obtained in the canoe, the chief held up his child to the people on deck, and en

X

deavoured