Preliminaries signed by the Emperor and King of France. § XXVIII. Proceedings in Parliament. § XXIX. Bill for preventing the retail of spirituous liquors. Another for the relief of Quakers in the article of tithes. § XXX. Mortmain act. § XXXI. Remarkable riot at Edinburgh. XXXII. Rupture between the Czarina and the Ottoman Porte. § XXXIII. The session of Parliament opened by commission. § XXXIV. Motion in both Houses for a settlement on the Prince of Wales. § XXXV. Fierce debate on this subject. XXXVI. Scheme by Sir John Barnard for reducing the interest of the national debt. XXXVII. § Bill against the city of Edinburgh. XXXVIII. Play house bill.

§ I. THE most remarkable incident that distinguished this year in England was a very uncommon instance of suicide: an act of despair so frequent among the English, that in other countries it is objected to them as a national reproach. Though it may be generally termed the effect of lunacy proceeding from natural causes operating on the human body, in some few instances it seems to have been the result of cool deliberation. Richard Smith, a bookbinder, and prisoner for debt within the liberties of the king's bench, persuaded his wife to follow. his example in making away with herself, after they had murdered their little infant. This wretched pair were in the month of April found hanging in their bedchamber, at about a yard's distance from each other; and in a separate apartment the child lay dead in a cradle. They left two papers enclosed in a short letter to their landlord, whose kindness they implored in favour of their dog and cat. They even left money to pay the porter who should carry the enclosed papers to the person for whom they were addressed. In one of these the husband thanked that person for the marks of friendship he had received at his hands; and complained of the ill offices he had undergone from a different quarter. The other paper, subscribed by the husband and wife, contained the reasons which induced them to act such a tragedy on themselves and their offspring. This letter was altogether surprising for

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the calm resolution, the good humour, and the propriety with which it was written. They declared, that they withdrew themselves from poverty and rags; evils that, through a train of unlucky accidents, were become inevitable. They appealed to their neighbours for the industry with which they had endeavoured to earn a livelihood. They justified the murder of their child, by saying, it was less cruelty to take her with them, than to leave her friendless in the world, exposed to ignorance and misery. They professed their belief and confidence in an Almighty God, the fountain of goodness and beneficence, who could not possibly take delight in the misery of his creatures; they, therefore, resigned up their lives to him without any terrible apprehensions; submitting themselves to those ways which, in his goodness, he should appoint after death. These unfortunate suicides had been always industrious and frugal, invincibly honest, and remarkable for conjugal affection.

§ II. Trustees having been appointed by charter to superintend a new settlement in Georgia, situated to the southward of Carolina in America, Mr. Oglethorpe, as general, and governor of the province, embarked at Gravesend, with a number of poor families, to plant that colony. The king of Spain having equipped a very powerful armament, the fleet sailed on the fourth day of June from the road of Alicant, under the command of the count de Montemar, and arrived on the coast of Barbary in the neighbourhood of Oran, where a considerable body of troops was landed without much opposition. Next day, however, they were attacked by a numerous army of Moors, over whom they obtained a complete victory. The bey or governor of Oran immediately retired with his garrison, and the Spaniards. took possession of the place, from which they had been driven in the year one thousand seven hundred and eight. the strong fort of Mazalaquivir was likewise surrendered to the victors at the first summons; so that this expedition answered all the views with which it had been projected. Victor Amadæus, the abdicated king of Sardinia, having, at the instigation of his wife, engaged in some intrigues, in order to reascend the throne, his son the reigning king, ordered his person to be seized at Montcalier, and conveyed to Rivoli, under a strong escort. His wife, the

marchioness de Spignio, was conducted to Serva. The old king's confessor, his physician, and eight-and-forty persons of distinction were imprisoned. The citadel of Turin was secured with a strong garrison; and new instructions were given to the governor and senate of Chamberri. The dispute which had long subsisted between the king of Prussia and the young prince of Orange, touching the succession to the estates possessed by king William III. as head of the house of Orange, was at last accommodated by a formal treaty signed at Berlin and Dierin. The Dutch were greatly alarmed about this time with an apprehension of being overwhelmed by an inundation, occasioned by worms, which were said to have consumed the piles and timber work that supported their dykes. They prayed and fasted with uncommon zeal, in terror of this calamity, which they did not know how to avert in any other manner. At length they were delivered from their fears by a hard frost, which effectually destroyed those dangerous animals. About this time, Mr. Dieden, plenipotentiary from the elector of Hanover, received, in the name of his master, the investiture of Bremen and Verden from the hands of the emperor.

§ III. The history of England at this period cannot be very interesting, as it chiefly consists in an annual revolu tion of debates in parliament. Debates, in which the same arguments perpetually recur on the same subjects. When the session was opened on the sixteenth day of January, the king declared, that the situation of affairs both at home and abroad rendered it unnecessary for him to lay before the two houses any other reasons for calling them together, but the ordinary despatch of the public business, and his desire of receiving their advice in such affairs as should require the care and consideration of parliament. The motion made in the house of commons for an address of thanks implied, that they should express their satisfaction at the present situation of affairs both at home and abroad. The motion was carried, notwithstanding the opposition of those who observed, that the nation had very little reason to be pleased with the present posture of affairs; that the French were employed in fortifying and restoring the harbour of Dunkirk, contrary to the faith of the most VOL. II. A a a

solemn treaties; that the British merchants had received no redress for the depredations committed by the Spaniards; that the commerce of England daily increased: that no sort of trade throve but the traffic of 'Change Alley, where the most abominable frauds were practised; and that every session of parliament opened a new scene of villany and imposition.

IV. The pension bill was once more revived, and lost again in the house of peers. All the reasons formerly advanced against a standing army were now repeated; and a reduction of the number insisted upon with such warmth, that the ministerial party were obliged to have recourse to the old phantom of the pretender. Sir Archer Croft said a continuation of the same number of forces was the more necessary, because, to his knowledge, popery was increasing very fast in that country; for, in one parish which he knew, there were seven popish priests; and that the danger from the pretender was the more to be feared, because they did not know but he was then breeding his son a protestant. Sir Robert Walpole observed, that a reduction of the army was the chief thing wished for and desired by all the jacobites in the kingdom: that no reduction had ever been made but what gave fresh hopes to that party, and encouraged them to raise tumults against the government; and he did not doubt but that, if they should resolve to reduce any part of the army, there would be post horses employed that very night to carry the good news beyond sea to the pretender. His brother Horatio added, that the number of troops then proposed was absolutely necessary to support his majesty's government, and would be necessary as long as the nation enjoyed the happiness of having the present illustrious family on the throne. The futility, the self contradiction, and the ridiculous absurdity of these sugges tions were properly exposed: nevertheless, the army was voted without any reduction. Sir Wilfred Lawson having made a motion for an address to the king, to know what satisfaction had been made by Spain for the depredations committed on the British merchants, it was after a violent debate approved, and the address presented. The king in answer to this remonstrance gave them to understand, that the meeting of the commissaries of the two crowns had

been so long delayed by unforeseen accidents, that the conferences were not opened till the latter end of the preceding February; and that as the courts of London and Madrid had agreed that the term of three years stipulated for finishing the commission should be computed from their first meeting, a perfect account of their proceedings could not as yet be laid before the house of commons. A bill had been long depending for granting encouragement to the sugar colonies in the West Indies; but, as it was founded upon a prohibition that would have put a stop to all commerce between the French islands and the British settlements in North America, it met with a very warm opposi tion from those who had the prosperity of those northern colonies at heart. But the bill being patronised and supported by the court interest, surmounted all objections; and afterwards passed into a law. While the commons deliberated upon the supply, sir Robert Walpole moved, that five hundred thousand pounds should be issued out of the sinking fund for the service of the ensuing year. Sir William Wyndham, Mr. Pulteney, and sir John Barnard, expatiated upon the iniquity of pillaging a sacred deposit, solemnly appropriated to the discharge of the national debt. They might have demonstrated the egregious folly of a measure, by which the public, for a little temporary ease, lost the advantage of the accumulating interest which would have arisen from the sinking fund if properly managed and reserved. All objections vanished before the powers of ministerial influence, which nothing now could check but the immediate danger of popular commotion. Such hazardeus interposition actually defeated a scheme which had been adopted by the minister, and even before its appearance alarmed all the trading part of the nation.

§ V. The house having resolved itself into a committee, to deliberate upon the most proper methods for the better security and improvement of the duties and revenues charged upon tobacco and wines, all the papers relating to these duties were submitted to the perusal of the members: the commissioners of the customs and excise were ordered to attend the house, the avenues of which were crowded with multitudes of people; and the members in the opposition waited impatiently for a proposal, in which they