fhot, though it was nearly of the fize and fulness of plumage of the parent-bird, I found in its ftomach the following fubftances: flies and beetles of various kinds; fmall fnails, with their shells unbroken; grafhoppers; caterpillars; part of a horfe-bean; a vegetable substance refembling bits of tough grafs, rolled into a ball; the feed of a vegetable that refembled those of the goofe-grafs. In the ftomach of one fed by hedgefparrows, the contents were almost entirely vegetable; fuch as wheat, fmall vetches, &c. But this was the only inftance of the kind I had ever seen, as these birds, in general, feed the young cuckoo with scarcely any thing but animal food. However, it ferved to clear up a point which before had fomewhat puzzled me; for having found the cuckoo's egg in the neft of a green linnet, which begins very early to feed its young with vegetable food, I was apprehenfive, till I faw this fact, that this bird would have been an unfit fofter-parent for the young cuckoo. The titlark, I obferve, feeds it principally with grafhoppers. But the moft fingular substance, so often met with in the ftomachs of young cuckoos, is a ball of hair curiously wound up. I have found it of various fizes, from that of a pea to that of a small nutmeg. It feems to be compofed chiefly of horse-hairs, and from the refemblance it bears to the infide covering of the neft, I conceive the bird fwallows it while a neftling. In the ftomachs of old cuckoos I have often feen maffes of hair; but these had evidently once formed a part of the hairy caterpillar, which the cuckoo often takes for its food. There feems to be no precise time fix ed for the departure of young cuckoos. I believe they go off in fucceffion, probably as foon as they are capable of taking care of themselves; for although they ftay here till they become nearly equal in fize and growth of plumage to the old cuckoo, yet in this very ftate the fofter ing care of the hedge-fparrow is not withdrawn from them. I have frequently feen the young cuckoo of fuch a fize that the hedge-fparrow has perched on its back, or half expanded wing, in order to gain fufficient elevation to put the food into its mouth. At this advanced stage, I believe that young cuckoos procure fome food for themfelves; like the young rook, for inftance, which in part feeds itfelf, and is partly fed by the old ones till the approach of the pairing feafon. If they did not go off in fucceffion, it is probable we should see them in large numbers by the middle of Auguft; for as they are to be found in great plenty. when in a neftling ftate, they must now appear very numerous, fince all of them must have quitted the neft before this time. But this is not the cafe ; for they are not more numerous at any feason than the parent-birds are in the months of May and June. The fame instinctive impulfe which di rects the cuckoo to depofit her eggs in the nefts of other birds, directs her young one to throw out the eggs and young of the owner of the neft. The fcheme of nature would be extremely difficult, if not impoffible, for the little birds, destined to find fuccour for the cuckoo, to find it alfo for their own young ones, after a certain period; nor would there be room for the whole to inhabit the neft. Character of the American General Lee, in a letter from a gentleman at Philadelphia, to Dr Gordon, author of the Hiftory of the Rife, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States. THE character of this perfon is full of abfurdities and qualities of a moft extraordinary nature. His understanding was great, his memory capacious, and his fancy brilliant. His mind was ftored with a variety of knowledge, which he collected from books, converfation, and travels. He had been in moft European countries. He was a correct and elegant claffical fcholar; and both wrote and spoke his native language, with perfpicuity, force, and beauty. From thefe circumftances, he was, at times, a moft agreeable and inftructive companion. His temper was naturally four and fevere. He was feldom feen to laugh, and fcarcely to fmile. The hiftory of his life is little elfe than the hiftory of difputes, quarrels, and duels, in every part of the world. He was vindictive to his enemies. His avarice had no bounds. He never went into a public, and feldom into a private house, where he did not difcover fome marks of ineffable and contemptible meanness. He begrudged the expence of a nurfe in his laft illness, aud died in a small dirty room in the Philadelphia Tavern, called the Canaftoe-waggon, (defigned chiefly for the entertainment and accommodation of common countrymen) attended by no one tober 2. 1782, after being confined to his bed from the evening of the preceding Friday. His diforder was a defluction of the lungs, of three months ftanding, which produced fomething like a fpurious inflammation of the lungs, accompanied with an epidemic remitting fever. Recapitulation of remarkable Frosts, from the Conquest. IN 1076, a fevere froft in England, from November to April. one but a French fervant, and Mr Of wald the printer, who once ferved as an officer under him. He was both impious and profane. In his principles he was not only an infidel, but was very hoftile to every attribute of the Deity. His morals were exceedingly debauched. His manners were rude, partly from nature, and partly from affectation. His appetite was fo whimsical as to what he ate and drank, that he was at all times, and in all places, a moft troublesome and difagreeable gueft. He had been bred to arms from his youth; and ferved as Lieutenant Colonel among the British, as Colonel among the Portuguese, and afterwards as Aid-de-camp to his Polish Majefty, with the rank of Major General. Upon the American Continent's being forced into arms for the prefervation of her liberties, he was called forth by the voice of the people, and elected to the rank of third in command of their forces. He had exhaufted every valuable treatise, both ancient and modern, on the military art. His judgement in war was generally found. He was extremely useful to the Americans in the beginning of the revolution, by infpiring them with military ideas, and a contempt for British difcipline and valour. It is difficult to fay, whether the active and useful part he took in the conteft, arofe from perfonal refentment against the King of Great Britain, or from a regard to the liberties of America. It is certain he reprobated the French alliance and republican forms of government, after he retired from the American fervice. He was, in the field, brave in the highest degree; and with all his faults and oddities, was beloved by his officers and foldiers. He was devoid of prudence, and ufed to call it a rafcally virtue. His partiality to dogs was too remarkable not to be mentioned in his character. Two or three of these animals followed him generally where-ever he went. When the Congrefs confirmed the fentence of the Court Martial, fufpending him for twelve months, he pointed to his dog and exclaimed, "Oh! that I was that animal, that I might not call man my brother." Two virtues he poffeffed in an emi, nent degree, viz. fincerity and veracity. He was never known to deceive or defert a friend; and was a stranger to equivocation, even where his fafety or character were at stake. He died on Wednesday evening, Oc 1114, feveral bridges in England, being then of timber, broken down by a frost. 1205, a frost from Jan. 14. to Mar. 22. 1296, the fea between Norway and the promontory of Scagernit frozen over. 1402, The Baltic was quite frozen over from Pomerania to Denmark. 1409, a fevere froft, with deep fnow, which lafted fifteen weeks, and killed the fmall birds. 1426, the Baltic was frozen over. 1429, the Baltic again frozen over, fo that the people travelled on the ice from Denmark to Lubec, Wifmar, Rostock, and Stralfund. 1434, the Thames frozen fome miles below Gravefend, and fish and merchandise arriving at the mouth of the Thames were obliged to be brought by land-carriage through Kent and Effex to London; it began in November, and lasted till February.. 1683, another great froft for thirteen weeks. 1709, a great froft for three months, with heavy fnows, from Dec. to March. 1716, a great froft when a fair was held on the Thames. 1739, a remarkable froft began on Christmas eve, and lafted nine weeks, when all forts of carriages went upon the Thames, and all manner of diverfions were carried on upon the ice. This is generally called the Great Froft of 1740, lafting 102 days. 1763, the froft lafted 94 days. 1779, it lafted 84 days. 1784, it lafted 89 days; and 1785, it lafted 115 days, being twelve days more than that of 1740. The prefent froft has lafted about fix weeks. The accounts from the North of Europe reprefent it as dreadful. The Thames has been repeatedly walked over, not only at Brentford and Putney, but at Execution Dock, and yesterday oppofite the Custom-house. PAR PARLIAMENT. [vol. 50. p. 648.] On Dec. 17. the House of Lords met, and the Lord Prefident of the Council brought up the report of the committee who had been appointed to examine and report precedents of fuch proceedings as may have been had in cafe of the perfonal exercise of the royal authority being prevented or interrupted by infancy, fickness, infirmity, or otherwife, with a view to provide for the fame, which was ordered to be printed, On Dec. 18. the Commons delayed the confideration of the report till the 19th, on account of Mr Fox's indifpofition. The House then met, and the queftion being put, that the report be brought up, Sir John Sinclair stated his objections to the proceeding. He could fee no neceffity whatever for the fecond refolution, of going into the investigation of the question of right. The third refolution he conceived to be dark and myfterious, and wished the Rt Hon. Gentleman (Mr Pitt) to ftate his reasons for propofing it. Chancellor of the Exchequer wifhed nothing to be disguised. It was expedient that what that House and the other House thould agree to might be reduced to the form of a law; and as they were obliged to provide for the exercife of that authority which could not then be exerciled by the King himself, they were to adopt fuch meafures as the neceffity of the moment would juftify. By the conftitution, and by the beft writers on the law, he conceived what was intended to be purfued to be conftitutional; which was, that previous to bringing in such a bill, power should be granted, enabling the great feal to be put to a commiffion for opening the parliament in the ufual manner, and that thereby commiffioners fhould be appointed to give affent to fuch a bill as both Houfes might think proper to adopt, And fuch mode he conceived to be consistent with the ftrict line of the conftitution. Sir John Sinclair said, that such a proceeding would be an assumption of the whole legislative power by the two Hou fes of Parliament, which was contrary to law. The only mode that ought, in his opinion, to be adopted, was to addrefs his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to take upon him the exercife of the third branch of the legislature during the indifpofition of his father. VOL. LI. Mr. Powys would not oppose the bringing up the report; but was of opinion, that he should be able to prove the doctrine meant to be fupported by the third refolution to be unfounded either in law or precedent. The report was then brought up; which being read a first time, the first refolution was put, and agreed to nem, con. The fecond refolution being then put, Sir Grey Cooper fuggested a doubt, whether the House could agree to such a refolution of their committee. He wished them to confider how they were affembled. They were met at the House of Commons at Westminster, but not as a Parliament. They derived no power but from neceffity; and if they went beyond the limits of that neceffity, they would be felf-conftituting a power of the moft dangerous tendency to the conftitution. The precedents which had been quoted in fupport of the power of the two Houfes, he represented as totally inapplicable to the tranfactions of the prefent times. Much ftrefs had been laid upon the ac count in the Parliament roll, of the choice made by Parliament of the Duke of York for Protector of the kingdom during the indifpofition of Henry VI.The record fays, elegerunt et nominarunt Ducem Eborum regni Protectorem. Before any weight was given to this precedent, gentlemen fhould confider whether the two Houfes were, at the time when this precedent was made, their own masters, whether they were fui juris. A little before that period the Duke of York affembled an army of 10,000 men, and marched them to the very gates of London. To his great surprise the gates were shut against him, and he was obliged to retreat. He went to his caftle of Wigmore, where he staid till the end of the year, and then returning to London, he had made fuch a party, that he caused the Duke of Somerfet, King Henry, or Queen Margaret's minifter, to be fent to the Tower. The Lords were all at his mercy and devotion, and fo made choice of him for Protector. How much they were fo, appeared from many circumftances. The Earl of Devonshire, the Duke of York's friend, was tried for treafon and acquitted. The Duke going to the House of Lords fome time after, faid that there were fome things in the indictment against he Earl that nearly touched his (the Duke's) honour, which he willed to have cleared. Upon this B the General) had admitted them to be fo ftrong, that they ought not to be refifted except on grounds that would juftify a bill of exclufion. Mr Martin declared, that, after the greateft attention to the bufinefs before the Houfe, it was his idea, that according to law, to precedents, and the conftitution, the right of fupplying the deficiency of the executive power during the present fufpenfion of it, refted with the two Houfes of Parliament. He then deviated from the question into perfonalities. the Lords, una voce, declared that he was a true and loyal fubject to the King: they feemed to have forgot that fcarcely a year had elapfed fince he had appeared in arms, and had attempted to make himself master of the capital at the head of 10,000 men; and notwithstanding this declaration, their Lordships could not be ignorant of the Duke's defigns upon the crown, which at that time had begun to develope themselves.--The Houfe of Commons was in a ftill more difgraceful fubjection to the Duke. When they af fembled, they found themselves without a Speaker; for Thorpe, their Speaker, was at that time confined by an execution for debt, in a caufe in which the Duke of York was plaintiff; it was for the removal of fome goods from Durham Houfe. The Commons humbly petitioned the Lords for redrefs. The cafe was referred to the Judges, who were of opinion, that except for treafon, felony, breach of the peace, or a confinement in confequence of a Parliamentary profecution, a Member of Parliament was in titled, by his privilege, to a discharge from arreft.-Though this opinion was in favour of the Speaker, ftill Thorpe was not discharged; the Duke of York was too powerful in the House of Lords; and the Bishop of Ely commanded the Commons to chufe another Speaker. Some time after, the King being fome what recovered, Somerset was releafed from the Tower, the Protector was difmiffed from his office, and a new minitry appointed; at the head of which was placed the Duke of Somerfet. The Duke of York, not liking this measure, flew to arms; but with no other view, as he faid, than that of changing the minifters; and he changed them with a vengeance; for at the battle of St Alban's, fought foon after, and won by the Duke of York, the minifters to a man were flain; and the Duke was again reftored to the Protectorship.-From fuch times, faid Sir Grey, was the precedent drawn upon which so much ftrefs was laid! But had it been drawn from the beft of times, ftill it was not applicable to the prefent cafe; for fure no man would fay, that had Henry VI. had a fon of full age, when his lethargic complaint fell upon him, the Duke of York would ever have been named Protector. The claims of a Prince of Wales to repretent his father were very ftrong; indeed, a learned gentleman (the Attorney pointment of a Prince of Wales. There The Attorney General juftified the precedents from turbulent times, and quoted Juftice Forster in his fupport. He faid, that fuch precedents were good as to the power of the two Houses, though they might not be as to their measures. He defied any man to fhew a single law ftating the right of the Prince of Wales to exercise the royal functions on the incapacity of the Sovereign. If gentlemen, he faid, would not agree with precedents formed in turbulent times, their arguments would go to prove that Magna Charta was no law, that having been alfo eftablished in times of the utmost turbulence. The best acts upon the ftatutebooks were made in the deteftable reign of Richard III. As to the claims of a Prince of Wales to the Regency, they were undoubtedly very ftrong, and ought not to be lightly fet afide: he did not fay that the grounds upon which they might be fet afide ought to be the fame as would warrant a bill of exclufion; but certainly he was of opinion that they ought to be very like the fame. Still he maintained, that as a Regent was an officer unknown to the common law, the Prince could have no legal claim to the Regency which he did not derive from Parliament, by whom alone a Regent had ever been made, except, perhaps in the cafe of the Earl of Pembroke, who affumed the office of Regent, without the knowledge or confent of Parliament, in the minority of Henry III. Mr Wyndham contended, that the Prince had a right to the Regency; and he defied any gentleman to produce any law, precedent, or usage, to the contrary. He reprobated the precedents that had been produced, as contrary to the fpirit of the conftitution, which in no inftance had countenanced the departure from the common rights of nature in the ap was was not one reason that could be advanced for an hereditary Monarchy, that did not hold good for an hereditary Regency. Mr Hardinge infifted, that there never was a Regent that had been self-appoint ed, nor one that had pretended a right to affume that dignity, nor one that had enjoyed it who had not been fettered one way or other. The precedent of the Revolution had been much infifted on, and it had been strongly urged on a former day-" To go ftrait forward to the point, and immediately declare a Regent as your ancestors did a King." The cafes were by no means parallel. It had been faid, the Houle at that time had declared the throne vacant, and the Prince of Orange King, without entering into theoretical questions. So far from it, that one of the most subtile and theoretical queftions was then difcuffed, and decided, that ever was framed a declaration refpecting the right of William and Mary to be King and Queen jointly, with a definition of the feparate powers of each. The right of the two Houses to legislate had been queftioned-that Convention did legiflate. Mr Hardinge read the copy of a resolution of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons, refpecting King William and Queen Mary. After mark ing strongly the difference between the Revolution and the prefent cafe, Mr Hardinge faid, gentlemen feemed to con found hereditary and elective right. It may probably be afked, Was the crown hereditary or elective? He would fay hereditary; and it undoubtedly is fo: but if the King upon the throne conducted himself in fuch a manner as to forfeit his crown, it then became elective. And there the advantage to the Heir Appa. rent came round again; for where there was a defect in the exercise of the executive power, that House had a right to make provision for it; but they must not violate the Hereditary Right of the Crown. Mr Anftruther entered into a long legal argument, to prove the fuperior rights of the Heir Apparent to the Regency over every other fubject. He warned the committee against the measure of mifapplying the great feal. If fuch a measure were once allowed, it would justify them for ever to exercife the executive power, and thereby conftitute themselves into a Republic. He reprobated the precedents formed from turbulent times; but that reprobation did not, he said, deftroy the validity of Magna Charta, for that refted more upon its own intrinfic merit than upon any act. He declared, that he ne ver would give his confent to any refolution which gave the lie to their own act; firft, by declaring the King incapable of bufinefs, and then putting his name to a commiffion as if in full health. He laughed at the idea of commiffioning any one to put the great feal, as in the name of the King, to a deed which the King had never feen: this he called forging the Great Seal, and confequently criminal in the eye of the law. As well might the two Houfes order a new feal to be made, and make their commiffioners and themselves perpetual. It was a pity, he said, that the Convention at the time of the Revolution did not cause the river Thames to be dragged for the great feal which King James had caused to be thrown into it: had they done so, and found it, they might have faved themfelves a world of trouble about forms; they might have made themselves a regular Parliament, and carried on the government in the name of a King, without having an efficient King. Mr Dempfter faid, he thought the Houfe had been wrong from the beginning, and he would propose an amend. ment to the fecond refolution, which he hoped would fet all right again. He had drawn up his motion without confulting with any man upon earth, and he did not yet know whether there was a man in the House would fecond it. To render the amendment plainly intelligible, we ftate the refolution at length :-That it is the opinion of this committee, "That it is the right and duty of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons of Great Britain now affembled, and lawfully, fully, and freely reprefenting all the eftates of the people of this realin, to provide the means of supplying the defect of the perfonal exercife of the Royal authority, arifing from his Majefty's faid indifpofition, in fuch manner as the exigency of the cafe may feem to require.” The amendment was firft to leave out the words right and; next, to leave out the words, in fuch manner as the exigency of the cafe may feem to require," and infert in their ftead the following: "By addreffing his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, the Heir Apparent to the crown, and now of full age, to take upon him the care of the civil and military affairs of the kingdom during his Majefty's illness, and no longer." This amendment, he faid, would reBa ftore |