To conclude this detestable catalogue: the Duke of Luxemburgh is said to have confessed, that a priest and himself prevailed upon an infamous woman to extend herself on the altar of his chapel, and submit to have a wafer consecrated on her person, which was intended as a charm to procure the Duke success in his amours; and that he was concerned with La Voisine the accoucheur in procuring abortions, and making virgin parchment of the skins of infants, on which to write charms for the removal of those whose lives were required by the fraternity.

The British public, amazed at these almost incredible horrors, made them the constant theme of conversation; and the names of the wretches were pronounced by every tongue with execration. The editors of Newspapers, ever upon the watch for remarkable events, conveyed those to their readers in rapid succession; and, fearful that the fate of Parisian poisoners might be received with less interest than the acts of Englishmen employed in the same pursuits, they resolved to invent similar stories.

How inferior are even the imaginations of the sons of Albion to those of their Gallic neighbours! The latter poisoned with astonishing facility: the former, infinitely less enlightened, fabricated the following silly tale, evidently the composition of a mere novice in the grand conceptions of a Trianon, a Voisine, or a Luxemburgh: in short,

it

it must be acknowledged, we were centuries behind our enemies in this art.

"We have of late had very strange reports of the poisonings in France, the relations of which are so monstrous that they are almost incredible; but, by a circumstance which lately passed in a Tavern near Cripplegate, the possibility is the more credible. A person who spoke good English (but, by his tone and mien, supposed to be a Frenchman), came to the said Tavern, and bade him shew him a room. The drawer having shewed him a room, asked him what he pleased to drink?

"He told him he would drink no wine of his drawing, and bade him call another. When the other came, he embraced him closely with seeming great affection; and, laying his cheek to his, the drawer thought he was about to whisper with him, but the gentleman put his tongue in his mouth upon which the drawer got from him, and going down stairs, he called to him, and bade him bring a pint of sack; but the drawer refused to carry it up, telling his master how he had been served, who thereupon sent up another drawer with it.

:

"The gentleman immediately drank off the sack, and came to the bar and paid for it, saying he staid for other company, but they not coming, he would stay no longer. The drawer, immediately after the kiss, found a sharp pricking upon

his tongue, and within an hour fell stark mad, and so continues, to the great astonishment of all that know him."

SPECIMEN OF EXALTED CHARITY.

This shall be given verbatim from "The True Domestic Intelligence" of March 5, 1680.

"The Lord Bertlet, who liveth in St. John's near Clerkenwell, out of his generous bounty, hath proffered not only to lay out the money for redemption of the English captives in Algiers, until it be raised by the brief his Majesty hath granted for that purpose, but also to go himself in person to treat for their ransoms, and accordingly is making preparation for his voyage."

EARTHQUAKE AT MALAGA IN 1680.

This unfortunate city experienced most fatally that earthquakes have a centre whence the concussion becomes weakened, till at length the effects are harmless. A shock was felt at Madrid on the 9th of October, which was perceived at Cadiz, Seville, and other places, without producing any material injury to those cities: at Malaga, on the contrary, the motion continued eight minutes, in which short period 871 houses were completely destroyed, 1,259 rendered uninhabitable; and of 6,000, the number composing the city, it was supposed not 300 escaped partial derangement.

Eighteen

Eighteen convents, four hospitals, a college of Seminarists, and a parish-church, were so completely shaken that the greater part were considered beyond the possibility of repair; nor were the palaces of the Governor and Bishop exempted from the general calamity. At the moment this melancholy detail appeared in the London Gazette, it had been ascertained that 40 persons were killed and 112 wounded; but it was well known that considerable numbers laid concealed under the ruins.

EARTHQUAKE and fire at SMYRNA, 1688.

The reader will, perhaps, be pleased to have it in his power to compare the effects of this species of phenomena at places so remotely separated as Smyrna and Malaga. The fatal event, which is the subject of the present article, occurred between the hours of eleven and twelve at noon, on the last day of June; and, in one minute, Nature accomplished the destruction of buildings which years of patient perseverance had merely served to complete.

Numbers of houses fell, and it was supposed not a single habitation escaped uninjured. The neighbourhood of Smyrna felt the shock with abated violence, and the islands of Meteline and Scio suffered but slightly. At Constantinople, the concussion was just perceptible, and on the same day. The great church of Smyrna, where

the

the Metropolitan, the Patriarch of Alexandria, and several Papas or Reverend Fathers, had assembled to prayers, became a mass of ruins in an instant, and buried those unfortunate priests and their auditors.

The Jews lost 400 of their number, and Aron Aben Haim, a Rabbi of uncommon sanctity, greatly honoured during his life, and sincerely regretted after this unexpected termination of it. To these victims the accounts add 5000 nameless persons as a moderate calculation.

Four hours after the ruin of the city had been partially completed, a fire broke out in the Genoese house, situated in the Frank Street. The wind happened unfortunately to be high; and the consternation of the survivors preventing the least exertion to check the flames, they soon destroyed the street just named, and all the town spared by the earthquake, except some scattered buildings in the suburbs, and on the declivity forming part of the site of the town.

The British Consul, and half of the English residents, happened to be absent from their houses, and, upon the first alarm, went on board the ships consigned to or owned by them; through which fortunate circumstance but three of their lives were lost, though several were severely bruised. Equally upon the alert, after the danger appeared to have subsided, the British merchants succeeded in saving much of their mer

chandize,