board of admiralty, in not going out to the West Indies in the Aftrea 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 fome diabolical villains, who entered the back part of the house leading to the river, and, meeting with refiftance to their schemes of plunder, perpetrated the hellith deed. The murderers efcaped without creating the leaft alarm. It is a circumstance particularly remarkable, that, although the hufband of the murdered woman was in the house the whole time, he declares he neither heard nor faw any thing of the tranfaction. 'This morning a little benth. fore 12, three malefactors were 'executed at Kenningtoncommon: a bruth-maker, for a riot in St. George's fields, young man for theep-ftealing, and a man for house-breaking. a Letters from Smyrna unfortunately advise us of the conflagration of 4000 warehouses, entirely belonging to Ottoman merchants, the value of which is eftimated at four millions of piaftres. Advice was received at the 21ft. admiralty, brought by lieut. Crifpe, of the Telemachus cutter, of the capture of the enterprifing fir Sidney Smith, commander of his majesty's ship Diamond, on the coast of France. Having, on the 18th inftant, boarded and taken a lugger privateer, belonging to the enemy, in Havre-de-Grace harbour, by the boats of his squadron, then on a reconnoitring expedition, and the tide making strong into the harbour, she was driven above the French forts. whe, the next morning, the 19th, discovering, at break of day, the luggerin tow by a ftring of English boats, immedi ately made the fignal of alarm, which collected together several gun boats, and other armed veifels, that attacked the lugger and Bri tith boats; when, after an obstinate refiftance of two hours, fir Sidney had the mortification of being obliged to furrender himfelf prifoner of war, with about fixteen of his people, and three officers with him in the lugger. The Diamond frigate is safe, but could afford her commander no afsistance, there not being a breath of wind during the whole of this unfortunate tranfaction: we are happy to add, that only four British teamen were killed, and one officer and fix feamen flightly wounded. The feamen were immediately thrown into prifon on their landing; and fir Sidney underwent a long examination before the French commandant, after which he was ordered to be conveyed, under a strong escort, to Paris. The following were amongst the officers captured with fir Sidney Smith: Metirs. W. Moory, R. Kenyon, and R. Barrow: one of these was wounded. When the officers on board the Diamond heard of the difaster which had befallen their gallant commander, they sent a flag of truce into Havre, to enquire whether he was wounded, and entreating that he might be treated with kindness. The governor returned was well, and that he should be treated with the utmost humanity and attention. The French, it appears, warped out another lugger of fuperior force against that captured by fir Sidney Smith in Havre-deGrace harbour, with which they engaged him, for a confiderable time, with so much heavier metal, that rendered all his refistance ineffectual, and therefore compelled him to ftrike. Two of the officers belong14th. ing to Bow-ftreet arrived in town from Liverpool with Henry Weston, who is charged with committing divers forgeries on the bank of England to the amount of 17000l. He had got to Liverpool, and fent 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 failed the next morning. The officers found him in bed at Bates's hotel, with a brace of loaded piftols by his side. On their road to town, Weston found means to conceal a cafe-knife in his pantaloons, and on changing chaises at the King's-Head, Hounflow, he requested to go to the privy, where he cut his own throat, but miffing one of the arteries, did not effect his purpose. This night the counting 25th. house of Mr. Mingay, of Smithfield (who in the interim was speaking to a friend in the back room on the fame 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. 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 fupport 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 50. and not less than 201. a year. It states, that this allowance is now become infufficient for the maintenance of a curate. The bill therefore enacts, that the bishop or ordinary shall have power to allow the curate a fum not exceeding feventy-five pounds a year, with the use of the rectory or vicarage house, where the rector does not refide four months in the year, or 151. in lieu thereof. DIED-19th. In Doctors Commons, George Harris, D. C. L. fon of Dr. John Harris, bishop of Landaff, chancellor of the dioceses of Durham, Hereford, and Landaff, and commissary of Effex, Herts, and Surrey. He has left a large 21ft. At his house in Stafford- MAY. This day a ftorm of thunder was remarkably tremendous in the western part of Suffex. At Pulborough a barn was fet on fire by the lightning, and entirely confumed. Luckily it contained only seven quarters of oats. In the neighbourhood of the above place, the peas in the fields were confiderably injured by a heavy fall of hail, which accompanied the thunder. Northampton. The following dreadful accident happened few days fince to Mr. J. Robinton, horfe-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 feat with fuch violence, as to feparate the ribs from the back-bone. The unfortunate man is attended by an eminent furgeon, and there are hopes of his recovery. 7th. a A few days ago, as a groom was combing a race-horfe in the neighbourhood of Beverley, in Yorkthire, the animal became fo irritated as to catch hold of the man's fide with his teeth, and tear away the flesh in so shocking a manner, as to render his bowels and entrails vifible. The poor fellow's recovery is much despaired of. gth. On Saturday the theriffs of London and Middlesex appeared in the Exchequer chamber, to render into court their eftreats, levies, captions, &c. and to answer an officer called the oppofer, for the crown. Several of the sheriffs' officers, no doubt, being engaged about their country houtes and their carriages, had forgotten to make any returns, in confequence of which the sheriffs were ordered to 1 to attend in person next term, for and that, of course, that will re the purpose of being examined upon interrogatories by the officer before the barons. This is a circumstance to which nothing fimilar has happened for a great many years. An important caufe came on to be tried in the common pleas, in confequence 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 cafe 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 demife of his immediate heir, the present earl of Orford, to the earl of Cholmondeley, whose grandfather had married the daughter of his ancestor, fir Robert Walpole, the first earl of Orford. In 1756, the earl of Orford made a second will, in which he changed the order of fucceffion, and gave a preference over the earl of Cholmondeley to lord Walpole, who is descended in a direct line from the fecond brother of the first earl of Orford. This, of course, annihilated the first will; and, had nothing farther occurred, no question could have arifen on the subject. But, in 1776, twenty years after the second will was made, the earl of Orford figned a codicil, the purport of which was to make various provifions which had been omitted in his wills, and declared this codicil to be a codicil to his last will, figned 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 up of the will to which it referred; tained the fame force and effect, as if the fecond will had never been made. On the part of the defendant, it was maintained, in the first place, that the codicil was deftitute of those forms, exprefsly 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, fecondly, that it was the intention of the teftator 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 laft, on which the counsel for the defendant had laid fo much stress, was an expreffion which had no determinate meaning until the death of the teftator, 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 teftator was dead; that an alteration of the date of the codicil would be making a new difpofition for the dead, which no court upon 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 deceased, which, in this case, was perfectly clear; that wills ought only to be confidered as ambulatory inftruments, 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 1752 was abfolutely revived, and Le Maitre, Higgins and Smith, made his laft act by the codicil of were remanded, and Crossfield was 1756. The jury, agreeing with the put on his trial. The attorney court, found a verdict for the plaintif; in consequence of which, the earl of Cholmondeley will fucceed, at the death of the present earl of Orford, to an eftate of the annual value of 10,000l. exclusive of the magnificent feat at Houghton, which is fuppofed to have cost upwards of 200,0col. and fome other property. Kyd Wake, who was convicted at the fittings after last Hilary term of having, on the first day of the present feflions of parliament, infulted his majesty in his paffage to and from parliament, by hiffing, and ufing several indecent expreffions, fuch as, No George-no war," received the judgment of the court; viz. "That he be imprifoned, and kept to hard labour in Gloucefter gaol, during the term of five years: that, during the first three months of his imprisonment, he do stand for one hour, between the hours of eleven and two, in the pillory, in one of the public streets of Gloucester, on a market-day; and that, at the expiration of his imprisonment, he do find security for tocol. for his good behaviour for 10 years." general addressed the jury, and having concisely stated the law. fubmitted to them the following account of facts in the cafe :-Some time fince a man of the name of Upton, before the highest magiftrates of the country, his majetty's privy-council, accused himself and feveral others, directly, with the defigu of affaffinating his majefty. Among the perfons so accused was the prisoner at the bar, who thought proper not to abide the juftice of his country, but to fly from it. The prisoner at the bar, in company with Upton and another, went to a brass founder's, where they endeavoured to procure a brass cylinder, extremely smooth in the internal furface, of the length of three feet, and with a bore of fiveeighths of an inch. From thence they went to another brafs-founder's, on Snow-hill, where they endeavoured to procure the fame article; and upon the man's wishing to know for what purpose it was intended, he was answered, that it was a fecret. A third brafsfounder was also visited upon the fame errand by the prisoner and Upton; and from thence they went 11th. Crossfield, Le Maitre, to one Hill's, who was a turner, Higgins, and Smith, were and lived in Bartholomew-close, for placed at the bar of the Old Bailey, the purpose of his turning them charged with a conspiracy to af- models of the instrument they finate the King. Crossfield pleaded wished to make. In anfwer to his generally Not Guilty. - Le Maitre enquiry for what purpose it was faid, he had good objections to destined, he was told, for an elecmake to the indictment, but, rely- trical machine. From another witing on his innocence, would not ness, of the name of Cuthbert, the make them; he therefore pleaded jury would hear, that they examined Not Guilty; as did George Higgins an air-gun. There were also draughts and John Smith. Some confulta- of the inftruments, which would tion was then held at the bar, when be fubmitted to their inspection, VOL. XXXVIII. and |