the claufes of Mr Pitt's India bill, which, under the unjuft illiberal plea of delinquency on our parts, constitutes the new Count of judicature;

The following heads are recommended to the perufal of the gentlemen at large; and, if approved of, their fignatures are requested.

L. That, as Britons, we are intitled to the protection and support of the ancient and established laws of England, in com mon with the other fubjects of the realm. II. That the inventory required from the fervants of the Hon. Eaft India Company, and the new court of judicature, conftituted by Mr Pitt's bill for the trial of delinquents, are contrary to the laws and cuftoms of England; infomuch that it compels, under very fevere penalties, men born free, to give evidence against themselves, and deprives the fubject of the inestimable bleffing, and his birth right, trial by his peers."

III. That it is the duty of every subject to fupport the laws, and, by every legal and honeft endeavour, to prevent innovations in the constitution.

IV. That we do most folemnly believe the new court of judicature, conftituted by Mr Pitt's bill, to be contrary to the conftitution.

ENGLAND.

London, Jan. 7. Mr Meriton, fecond mate of the Halfewell outward bound Indiaman, Richard Pierce commander, arrived at the India-house, with the melancholy news of the lofs of that unfor tenate thip on the rocks of St Purbeck, between St Alban's head and Peverell Point, near Portland.

The Halfewell failed through the Downs on Sunday, Jan. 1. wind N. fell calm off Dunnage, a breeze from the fouth fprung up, ran in fhore to land the pilot; but the winds baffling, obliged to anchor in eighteen fathoms water; furled topfails, but could not furl the courfes, the fnow falling thick, and freezing hard. At four on Tuesday morning a strong gale fprung up, obliged to cut and run off to fea; at noon put the pilot on board a brig bound for Dublin, bore down Channel immediately. At four P. M. the wind freshened. At ten P. M. blew a violent gale of wind at fouth, which obliged them to carry a prefs of fail to keep the ship off fhore, in doing which, the fhip hove a great quantity of water on the gun-deck; founding the well, found the fhip had sprung a leak, and had five feet water in

the hold; pumps to work ́immediately. Af two A. M. Wednesday morning, endeavoured to wear fhip, but without ef fect; cut away the mizen maft, and tried a fecond time to wear, but with as little fuccefs as before, the fhip having now feven feet water in the hold, and gaining on the pumps very faft; cut away the main malt. The thip at this time was juft foundering. At eight A. M. cleared the wreck, and got the thip before the wind; kept her in that pofition for about two hours, in which time the gained two feet with the pumps going. At ten A. M. very little wind, and the fhip labouring very much, rolled the foremast over on the larboard fide; the wreck going through the forefail, tore it to pieces, At eleven A. M. the wind came to the westward, and cleared up; faw the Berry Head, bearing N. E. by E. four or five leagues; got another fore-fail bent immediately, and erected a jury main maft, and fet a top-gallant fail for a main fail, and bore up for Portsmouth; employed the remainder of the day in erecting a jury main maft. At two A. M. on Thursday morning, the wind came at S. fresh, and was very thick at noon; faw Portland bearing N. by E. diftant four or five leagues. At eight P. M. it blew a ftrong gale at fouth; faw Portland lights bearing N. W. diftant four or five leagues; kept ftretching out to the eastward, in hopes of weathering Peverell Point; faw St Alban's Head a mile and a half to lee ward; took in fail immediately, and let go the fmall bower anchor; the fhip brought up at a whole cable; rode for about an hour, when the drove a fecond time. At two A. M. Friday morning the ftruck, and immediately came broadfide to the rocks; and at four A. M. not an atom of her was to be feen. One hundred and feventy men were fuppofed to have got afhore; but from the darkness of the morning, and furging of the sea, upwards of an hundred were dashed to pieces and drowned.

The following is a lift of those passen. gers who were loft: Mifs Elifa Pierce

Mary-Ann Pierce,
Anne Paul,
Mary Paul,
Mary Hoggard.

Elfabeth Blackburn.

Ann Manfell.

daughters of Capt. Pierce. nieces of

Capt. Pierce

James Jackfon, cooper's mate. W. Fleet, caulker's mate. John Harrison, failmaster. James Turner, cooper. Thirty feamen and twenty-fix foldiers. The few men who have escaped are moft terribly bruifed, and fome have had their limbs broken from being dashed a fhore on the rocks.

The Eaft-India Company's lofs is valued at about 60,000l.

Capt. Pierce was the oldeft captain in the fervice of the Hon. Eaft-India company, and propofed to retire, had it pleafed Providence to permit his return from this intended voyage. [See p. 17.]

London, Jan. 13. This day came on at the Old Bailey the trial of John Hogan, a mulatto, for the murder of the fervantmaid of Mr Orrell, of Charlotte street, Portland place. The following circumftances appeared. That on Mr and Mrs Orrell coming home, they found their fervant reclining against the wall of the kitchen, befmeared with blood; her headdrefs torn off, and thrown on the ground, which was covered with blood, as were her handkerchief, gown, &c. Her skull was fractured; her left eye beaten almost out of its focket; her cheek-bones both broken; her chin cut; her neck and throat both cut; feveral wounds in her breaft, particularly a large circular one; her left arm broke; and her right arm and wrift both cut. The inftrument with which the wounds had been made was a razor; and notwithstanding it had been thrown into a fire, the spots of blood were not erafed.

She was alive, but fpeechlefs, and died that fame night at twelve o'clock. The prifoner having brought home fome chairs, a fhort time before, to Mr Orrell's, and

a perfon answering his defcription having been seen in the neighbourhood that day, fufpicion fell on him, and he was twice taken up, and twice discharged for want of evidence.

The prifoner had been tried for a lar ceny, and Mr Orrell reading his trial in the Seffions paper, it occurred to him to fearch at the pawnbroker's where he had pawned the property stolen for which he was fo tried, to fee if any of his property, which was folen at the time of the murder, had been lodged with that pawnbroker; there he found a cloak of his wife's, pawned the morning after the murder, by the woman with whom he cohabited.

On the prifoner's being taken to the body of the deceafed, he appeared not in the leaft agitated; but, putting his hand on her breaft, he faid, " My dear Nancy, I do remember you well; I never did you any harm in my life!" These. expreffions very forcibly added to the fufpicions of his guilt, because her face was fo exceedingly cut and mangled, that Mr Orrell declared he could not possibly have known her. Two other circumstances, which tended to criminate him, were a fpot of blood on a waistcoat which he wore, and fome flight marks of blood on one of the fleeves of his coat; which coat had been washed, though the blood on the fleeve remained; and an effort feemed to have been made, but in vain, to rub out the fpot of blood from the waistcoat.

The principal evidence against him was the woman with whom he cohabited; who depofed, that he brought her home a cloak, which he said he had bought, on condition of paying for it at the rate of fo much a-week. The cloak was produced in court, and Mrs Orrell fwore to it as her property. The deponent further faid, that after Hogan had been twice taken before a magiftrate, he at intervals appeared to be very uneafy; that particularly he could not fleep in bed; that the faid to him one night, "For God's fake, what is the matter with you? furely you are not guilty of what you have been taken up for:" that his anfwer was, "Yes, I am:-I am guilty :-I did it."-She then was much. troubled in mind, and apprehended fatal. confequences to herself, particularly, as he faid to her, you must fay nothing; you must be quiet; for if I be hanged,. you will be hanged with me; and on her. asking him, why he had murdered the

young

young woman, he answered, because be wanted to be great with her, and the refifted him.

The prifoner being called on for his defence, faid, " I am innocent; and if' any body takes away my life, I will never forgive them."

The recorder fummed up the trial with great impartiality, and the jury inftantly found him guilty; he was then fentenced to be executed on Monday morning, and his body to be diffected and anatomized. He was accordingly taken from Newgate in a cart on Monday, and executed on a gibbet oppofite Mr Orrell's house. A great concourfe of people attended the execution, but never died a malefactor with lefs pity. Just before being turned off, he bowed four times to the populace, and, in an audible voice, confeffed himfelf guilty of the murder, for which he had been justly condemned to die.

SCOTLAND.

The diftillers in Scotland, about the end of last year, inferted very long advertisements, addreffes, &c. in the Edinburgh newspapers, (to give the fubftance of which would far exceed our bounds), enumerating their grievances, and accufing the board of excife with oppreffion in the levying of the duties; to which, they say, the board has been in ftigated by the folicitations of the London distillers, who look with a jealous eye upon the fuccefs with which the Scots diftillery has been for fome time carried on. Vindications of the conduct of the board, in answer to these charges, have likewife appeared.

The farmers, upon this occafion, joined the diftillers, and had meetings in different parts of the country, for the purpose of confidering the diftillery-laws, &c.We infert the refolutions of the farmers in the parish of Kirklifton, who met at that place on Dec. 20. as they are the fulleft upon the subject, and contain nearly the fentiments of all the reft.

** Kirkliston, Dec. 20. 1785. At a meeting of the farmers in the parish of Kirklifton, held for the purpose of consider. ing the prefent ftate of the laws relating to the diftillery, Mr Thomas Allan in the chair, the following refolves were unanimously adopted:

I. The members of this meeting cannot be perfuaded that administration could ever seriously intend to counte nance any regulation of police, that had a neceflary tendency to hurt the commu

nity at large, and to diminish the national revenue; therefore, if fuch measures have been adopted, it can only, in their opinion, have been occafioned by fome misinformation with regard to facts that do not come within the fphere of their observation, but of men in high ftations: Hence the perfons at this meeting conceive it to be their duty, difpaffi nately to ftate to the public fuch facts, relating to this subject, as confift with their own knowledge, that the legiflature may be thus enabled to perceive what meafures would be best calculated to remove the evils that exist. From thefe confiderations they are induced to represent,

II. That it confifts with the perfec knowledge of every individual member of this meeting, that in confequence of fome new regulations that were adopted about the beginning of laft winter, with regard to the manner of collecting the duties on malt fpirits diftilled in Scotland, a very great number of men, who had for many years followed the business of distillers, in a regular manner, to a confiderable extent, were obliged, at a very inconvenient feafon of the year, to abandon that bufinefs entirely, and found themselves reduced to the hard neceffity of then felling off, at a very inadequate price, the flock of grain and cattle they had provided in their ordinary course of bufinefs.

III. That in confequence of this meafure, the price of barley fell, in the course of a few weeks, from about 18 s. per boll, to 12 s. and fo fmall was the demand for this article, even at this reduced price, that it was with great difficulty grain could be fold at all.

IV. The fame caufes continue to operate, in the fame way, at the present hour. The regulation of excife complained of continues.-The entered diftillers who gave up bufinefs are unable to begin it anew. The demand for barley is inconfiderable, though it is well known that the prefent crop of that grain here is not a good one. In confequence of this diminished demand, every member of this meeting is fubjected to great hardships; and, they in general find, that if things fhall be allowed to continue long in this ftate, they will be unable to perform the ftipulations they have entered into with their landlords, or to pay fuch a rent, as they otherwife could eatily have done.

V. This meeting begs leave to lay be. fore the public a fact that comes within

their knowledge, that, till of late years, there were two common brewers, and two diftillers in this parish, who carried on these branches of bufinefs to a co::âderable extent, but who have been obliged to give over these branches of bufinefs, on account of the rigorous meafures adopted by the commiffioners of excife in collecting the duties; and gaugers of indifferent characters were fent to furvey them, watchmen placed in their ftill-houfes night and day, exchequer profecutions threatened, and other acts of oppreffion ufed, that obliged them to abandon that bufinefs, and feek another; although they had been at a great expence in building houfes, and purchafing utenfils, that are at prefent going into ruin, on account of their not being used, to the great prejudice of the owners, and alfo to the great lofs of the farmers in this parish, as thefe diftillers bought the greateft part of their barley.

VI. The members of this meeting are informed, and many of them have accefs to know it is a truth, that fince the forementioned regulation took place, the fmuggling of foreign fpirits along every part of the coaft, has increased to a moft alarming degree, and is now carried, they believe, to an extent that never was known before; fo that the agriculture and manufactories of this country are difcouraged, and they cannot doubt but the national revenue must be greatly di minished by this injudicious regulation.

VII. The members of this meeting have alfo good accefs to know, that fince the regulation complained of took place, the number of unentered ftills have been

prodigiously increased in every part of this country; and though it is believed, that no clafs of men are more difpofed to difcourage frauds on the revenue than farmers in general, yet in the prefent cafe, the hard/hips of their fituation are fuch, and these hardships arise from a meafure fo apparently injudicious and arbitrary, that it is not to be expected they can in this cafe exert themselves with that decifive vigour which is natural to them, when their minds are not impreffed with the idea of that unmerited oppreffion to which they think they are in this inftance fubjected. It is the earnest with of every member of this meeting, that such meafures may be speedily adopted as thall remove these apprehenfions, which have fuch a natural tendency to induce the community at large to wink at tranfgref

fions of the revenue-laws, because thould this be fo long continued as to grow familiar and habitual, it would be an evil that could not easily be redreffed.

VIII. The members of this meeting are far from prefuming to think they are qualified to judge of the measures that would prove most effectual to remove the evils coinplained of, and therefore avoid entering on that question at prefent. But as furmifes have gone abroad, that the obnoxious regulation was occafioned by the private machinations of certain perfons who wished to promote their own intereft at the public expence; and as the well-being of farmers in general much depends on the obtaining a fair and equitable fyftem of laws with regard to the distillery, they think it would much contribute to that end, if the different parishes would appoint delegates to meet from time to time at Edinburgh, to watch over the progrefs of any bill for that purpofe which may be brought into parliament, and to take such steps as they shall fee proper for obtaining fuch a law as, without diminishing the revenue, may tend to promote the general welfare, and not prove oppreffive to any individuals. With thefe views, this meeting have. chosen Mr Archibald Kid, Mr Cumberland Reid, and Mr David Allan, their delegates, or any one of them, to meet with the delegates of fuch other parishes as fhall approve of this measure, at the Exchange Coffeehouse, Edinburgh, on the fecond Wednesday of January next, at twelve o'clock noon. And they farther agree to contribute their proportion of any expence that may be necessary for effecting thefe ends."

The following addrefs" to the public. in general" appeared in the Edinburgh newspapers at the fame time with the refolutions of fome of the farmers:

“ Dunfermline, Jan. 6. 1786. The convener of the crafts of this burgh having met the corporations, and having feen various advertisements in the newfpapers, from the farmers of the different parishes of Scotland, complaining of the low prices of their grain; and that they are looking up to the landed intereft for their affiftance in parliament, to have the diftillery laws repealed, that by this means they may find a better market for their grain:-The faid incorporations, and a good many more of the refpectable inhabitants there, think the price of grain is rather too bigh already; and that we