Church and King!" they spread a terror wherever they appeared. About noon they attacked and demolished the elegant mansion of Mr. John Ryland (late Mr. Baskerville's), at Easy-hill, where many of the rioters, who were drunk, perished in the cellars, either by the flames, or suffocation by the falling in of the roof. Six poor wretches, terribly bruised, were got out alive, and are now in our hospital, and ten dead bodies have since been dug out of the ruins; but a man, who had remained immured in one of the vaults from the preceding Friday, worked his way out on Monday, with little injury. This afternoon the magistrates, anxious to preserve the town from further outrage, until military aid could be procured, attended and swore in some hundreds as additional constables, who, with mopstaves in their hands, marched up to Mr. Ryland's to disperse the mob, who at first gave way; but rallying, after a stout conflict, in which many were severely wounded, the posse comitatus was obliged to retire without effecting any useful purpose.

The country residence of John Taylor, esq. Bordesley-hall, after the greatest part of its splendid furniture had been demolished or carried away, was set on fire, together with the out-offices, stables, ricks of hay, &c. and altogether exhibited a most tremendous scene of devastation. Every exertion to preserve this elegant seat was made by Capt. Carver, but in vain; on offering them his purse with 100 guineas to save the house, he was hustled amidst the crowd, with a cry of "No Bribery!" and narrowly escaped their fury. In the night of

Friday, the house of Mr. Hutton, in High-street, was completely stripped; his large stock of paper, his very valuable library of books, and all his furniture, destroyed or carried away. Fire was several times brought by a woman (women and boys were particularly active in all the depredations), but the majority of the populace, in tenderness to the town, would not suffer it to be applied. From Mr. Hutton's they proceeded to his country-house at Washwood-heath, about three miles from town, which, with its offices, they reduced to ashes. Saturday morning the rioters made an attack on Mr. G. Humphrey's elegant house at Spark-Brook, but were repulsed, and one man killed; the mob however, on a second attack carried their point, and went off after ransacking the house of all its valuable furniture, but did not burn it. Mr. William Russell's house, at Showell-green, experienced all the violence of fire and devastation. The house of Mr. T. Hawkes, Moseley-wake-green, was stripped of its furniture which was either broken to pieces or carried away. Moseley-hall, the residence of the dowager countess Carhampton (but the property of John Taylor, esq.), Mr. Harwood's, and Mr. Hobson's, a dissenting minister, were all on fire at once. Lady Carhampton had notice on the preceding day to remove her effects, as their vengeance was not directed against her; the good old lady gave directions accordingly, and sir Robert and captain Lawley immediately attended on their noble relation, whom they accompanied in safety to Canwell, sir Robert's seat. The whole of

Saturday business was at a stand and the shops mostly close shut up, notwithstanding the appearance of the magistrates and several popular noblemen and gentlemen; for the reports were so vague and various of the number and the strength of the insurgents, and having no military save a few undisciplined recruits, no force could be sent out against them. In the afternoon and evening, small parties of three or five, levied contributions of meat, liquor, and money, with the same indifference that they would levy parish taxes; but the night passed without interruption in the town. On Sunday the rioters bent their course towards Kingswood, seven miles off, extorting money and liquors by the way. There the dissenting meeting-house, and the dwelling-house of the minister, were reduced to ashes; as were the premises of Mr. Cox, farmer, at Worstock, the same day. The reports of every hour of this day appeared calculated to excite alarm in the town, whilst depredation and extortion were committing in the surrounding villages and country seats. Sunday night, soon after ten, three troops of the 15th light dragoons arrived amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants, whose hopes and fears had been visibly depicted through the day in every countenance, as reports of the near approach of the soldiery were spread or contradicted. The town was immediately illuminated, and before morning every thing was tolerably quiet, but the rioters were still continuing their depredations in the country. Their visits to Mr. Hunt's at Lady-wood, Mr. Coates's at the Five Ways, and Dr. Withering's Edgbaston-hall, were

attended with great alarm, but not the injury reported. They exhausted the cellars at each place. and received various sums of money to prevent their proceeding to further violence, but were at the last-mentioned place in great force at the time the troops arrived; which they had no sooner intimation of than they began to slink off in small parties, and the peasantry taking courage, put the rest to flight in various directions. So rapid were the light horse in their route for the relief of this place, that they came here in one day from Nottingham, a distance of 59 miles, but to the great injury of their horses, one of which, a famous old horse that had been in the regiment 18 years, died the following day.-Monday. The town in perfect security, but as much crowded as during the three preceding days, in viewing the military; the mob keeping at such a distance as to render all accounts of them dubious; at one time said to be at Alcester, the next hour at Bromsgrove, &c. which reports, however, were refuted by the earl of Plymouth, who kindly attended as a magistrate of the county of Worcester, as did the rev. Mr. Cartwright, of Dudley.-Tuesday. Flying rumours of depredations near Hagley, Hales Owen, &c. and in the evening certain information was received, that a party of rioters were then attacking Mr. Male's of Belle Vue. A few of the light dragoons immediately went to his assistance; but they had been previously overpowered by a body of people in that neighbourhood, and ten of them are now confined at Hales Owen.-Wednesday. This morning the coun

try

try round, for ten miles was scoured by the light horse, but not one rioter to be met with, and all the manufactories are at work, as if no interruption had taken place. Three troops of the 11th light dragoons marched in this morning, and more troops are still expect ed.

29th. This day two proclamations were issued from the secretary of state's office, the one offer ing a reward of 100/. for discovering and apprehending every person concerned in the late riots at Birmingham: and the other offering the same reward for discovering the author, printer, or publisher, of the inflammatory handbill.

Edinburgh.-At the court of session, lord Eskgrove, as ordinary in the outer-house, this day decided a cause of a curious nature. A young lady had betrothed herself to a merchant in Aberdeen; the marriage-day was set, a house taken and furnished, servants hired, and the lady furnished with her marriage-ring. In the course of a long epistolary correspondence, she manifested the strongest attachment and most inviolable fidelity to him; but all of a sudden she changed her mind, and married another. Feeling the disappointment, her former lover brought an action of damages against her and her husband. Before it came into court, the lady died. The action was, however, insisted on against the surviving husband; but the lord ordinary, after a full hearing, in the course of which there was much humour and ability displayed, dismissed the action. His lordship was clearly of opinion, that, till the moment of the marriage

ceremony, it was in the power of the lady to recede. Though her letters contained the strongest effusions of love towards the pursuer, and even a direct promise of marriage, yet they at the same time shewed that her friends were against the connexion, and that all their intimacy had been carried on in the most secret manner. His lordship therefore considered, that any man who endeavours to inveigle a young woman into a clandestine marriage, and a marriage against the consent of her friends, was guilty of an immoral act; consequently, not entitled to maintain an action of damage, when his intentions were frustrated by a returning sense of duty upon the part of the lady.

16th. Lord Loughborough, as the senior justice of oyer and terminer and general gaol delivery, imposed a fine of five hundred pounds upon the county of Essex, for the negligence of the gaoler in some matters relating to the county gaol, which fine was afterwards regularly estreated into the court of exchequer. The county, with a view to try the legality of im. posing this fine, obtained a writ of certiorari to remove the record of the fine, as made at Chelmsford by the clerk of the arraigns during the assizes at which it was imposed. The attorney general, however, conceived that the parties were not entitled to this writ; and, instead of returning the record, he moved the court of exchequer that the writ might be quashed, as having been improvidently issued and the point was this day debated by Mr. Bearcroft and Mr. Wood, on behalf of the county of Essex. But the Court took time to consider of

the

the question. Lord Chief Baron Eyre now delivered the opinions of the Barons, that the writ must be quashed quia improvide mandavit. He said, there was no doubt but that the court of exchequer had authority to grant a certiorari to remove the record of a fine but that it was not a writ to which a defendant was entitled ex debito justitiæ, especially in the present case because he might plead, and go to issue upon the estreat as well as upon the record. His lordship illustrated this law in that high and dignified style of eloquence by which he is so eminently distinguished, and shewed, in a great variety of instances, the reason on which the Court had formed their judgments; particularly the case of Sir John Read, in the reign of Charles II. who, as sheriff of the county of Hertford, was fined five hundred pounds by Mr. Justice Wyndham, for not doing his duty at the assizes; in which case, though the record of the fine was removed by certiorari, yet it appeared to be at the instance of the king, and before the fine was estreated; and the case of the inhabitants of Cornwall, who, in the reign of James II. were fined for not keeping the county gaol in repair. The writ of certiorari was accordingly quashed, and the county left to plead to the estreat as they should be advised.

Between the hours of four and five in the afternoon, as a poor woman was gathering chickweed in a field adjoining the long lane, known by the name of Cut-throatlane, which leads from Kennington common to Camberwell, she suddenly perceived the body of a man upon the ground near the ditch, with his throat cut, and the

blood streaming near him. On his right-hand lay the razor with which he had destroyed himself, and also his cravat, so deliberately had he done it. The poor woman's shrieks, at the sight of a spectacle so horrid, soon brought all the labourers in the neighbouring brick-fields, and the passengers within hearing. On examination, he appeared to be about thirty years old, well-dressed, in a genteel drab-coloured coat, toilinette waistcoat, fustian breeches, the late new-fashioned blue thread stockings with white clocks, silver shoe and knee buckles, and in his pocket two half-guineas, four shillings and six-pence in silver, and some half-pence. Having no papers about him which could lead to a discovery of who he was, he was taken to Lambeth bone-house to be owned.

17th. A case of great consequence came on to be tried in the court of King's Bench. The plaintiff, Petit, had been committed to prison by Justice Addington, for indecent behaviour, and interrupting him while engaged in his duty. The jury, upon the trial, found a verdict for the plaintiff, with 5. damages, subject to the opinion of the court upon the question of law, "Whether the defendant, as a magistrate sitting at the office in Bow-street, had a right to commit the plaintiff, without binding her over for her good behaviour?" The plaintiff, by warrant was com mitted for an indefinite term, the warrant concluding with these words: "Until she be discharged by due course of law."-She_continued in prison upwards of two months. Mr. Erskine contended, that the defendant while sitting at his office, acted in a ministerial,

and