3d.

JANUARY.

The rivers and
HE rivers and hores along

week fo covered, with ice, that moft of the corn and other veffels were frozen up. The wild fowl collected upon it in great abundance. Several accidents happened to perfons fhooting with long guns. The landlord of the Feathers-inn, at Tillingham, fhattered his arm fo that it was obliged to be immediately amputated; and lieutenant Seave, of the Acute, gun-boat, in Bradwell-river, had his face feverely wounded. Both were occafioned by the bursting of their fowlingpieces.

4th. His grace John Henry, duke of Rutland, having attained the twenty-first year of his age on this day, it was celebrated with the greateft feftivity, both at Belvoircaftle and Grantham. In the morning the bells of Grantham-church ufhered in the day. Jofeph Lawrence, efq. commander of the volunteer infantry, went, at ten o'clock, with his detachment, to Belvoir-caftle, where they were reviewed by the duke of Rutland and the duke of Beaufort, and at one o'clock they fired a feu de joie. On this day every magnificence was exhibited at the caftle, and every joy which mirth and enterVOL. XLI.

'tainment could give the ruftic was found around its walls. The heir

apparenty of the county, apparent to the throne, the nobility

fons of the first and moll diftinguished families in the kingdom, to the number of about two hundred and eighty, honoured his grace with their prefence on this occafion.

6th. Turnbull, a foldier, who ftands charged with having ftolen, from the mint in the Tower, two bags of 1000 guineas each, was apprehended, at Dover, by the mafter of a trading veffel, to whom he applied for the purpofe of hiring hist boat to carry him to Calais, and offered thirty guineas for his paffage. Some doubts of the propriety of his application arifing in the mind of the boatman, inducing him to ferutinize the countenance of his employer, he was ftruck with his refemblance to the perfon advertifed; in confequence of that idea, he had him fecured until he infpected the advertisement, which leaving no doubt as to his being the perfon, he was fearched in a publichoufe, and on his perfon were found 1010 guineas of the year 1798; in the afternoon of the fame day he was brought to town in the mailcoach, and lodged in fafe cuftody.

Same day, at half past one o'clock, the manfion at Walworth, the property of the widow of the late fhe

B

riff

riff Fenn, and inhabited by her daughter and fon-in-law, fir John and lady Rofe, unfortunately caught fire, and in lefs than two hours was burnt to the ground.-On inveftigation it appeared, that the old lady (Mrs. Fenn) was fitting by the fire, in her bed-room, on the first floor; a coal flew out of the fire and burnt the carpet; the old lady, as fhe thought, extinguished it, but in a few minutes after it blazed out; and in her attempt to put it out, her handkerchief caught fire, which fo alarmed her as to put her in a fenfelefs ftate. Sir John and lady_Rofe, who had been on a vifit to Dover, arrived juft in time to witness the deftruction of their premises.

7th. An account was received in town, from Portsmouth, of the arrival there of the Wolverene gun-veffel, commanded by captain Mortlock. This veffel failed from the Downs only on Thursday last on a cruize off the French coaft, and on the following day he fell in with two large French luggers, one carrying 16 guns, and the other 14, and having on board 140 men each. A very warm action immediately commenced, which was fuftained for near two hours, during which, the Frenchmen attempted to board te Wolverene. Captain Mortlock, with his own hands, lafhed one of the French veffels to an iron ftanchion of his own fhip, which, however, unfortunately gave way, and the enemy got off, and being clofe in with their own fhore, they both efcaped. Captain Mortlock was badly wounded, and the mafter was likewife wounded, and eight men, and a feaman and marine were killed. The Wolverene mounts only 12 guns, and carries but 70 men, and the united force

of the enemy was 30 guns and 280 men. She is the gun-vessel fitted out by commiffioner Schank, with the inclofed plane in the gun-carriages.-Captain Mortlock is fince dead of his wounds.

8th. The lease of Don Saltero's coffee-house, at Chelsea, was fold, with all the curiofities. This wellknown coffee-house was first opened in the year 1695, by one Salter, a barber, who drew the attention of the public by the eccentricities of his conduct, and by furnishing his houfe with a large collection of natural and other curiofities, which till now remained in the coffeeroom, where printed catalogues were fold, with the names of the principal benefactors to the collection. Sir Hans Sloane contributed largely out of the fuperfluities of his own museum. Vice-admiral Munden, and other officers who had been much upon the coasts of Spain, enriched it with many curiofities, and gave the owner the name of Don Saltero; fee Tatler, No. 34, Nichols's edition, where Saltero is ridiculed for his credulity in appropriating his pincufhion and hats to queen Elizabeth's chambermaids, &c. In the fame light is to be confidered a famous relic we have feen in the mufeum of the royal fociety at Crane-court, under the name of Pontius Pilate's wife's grandmother's hat, but better calculated to fit mother Shipton or her grandame. Such collections, however, aided by those of Tradefcant, Afhmole, and Thoresby, cherished the infancy of science, and should be appreciated as the playthings of a boy after he is arrived at manhood.

9th. Paris. The whole range of edifices erected in the interior of the

gardens

violent, and was felt at ten minutes after four in the morning of the 25th of January. Several walls were thrown down, the river was much agitated, and many boats funk. At Rennes the fhock lafted only two minutes, and was not fo violent. It happened there a few minutes before four A M. At Ferté Bernard it was felt about the fame time, and though it lafted little more than a fecond, it was extremely violent. The earthquake was alfo felt nearly at the fame time at Caen and Rouen, but occafioned no damage in either place. It was, we believe, felt on the fame day in Jersey.

DIED. 8th, at Halle, in Germany, John Reinhold Forfter, L.L.D. in the univerfity of Oxford, the celebrated navigator. He was a native of Pruffia, and a clergyman; elected F. A. S. 1767, and, at the fame time, F. R. S. In the "Archæologia," vol. II. are his " Obfervations on fome Tartarian Antiquities found in Siberia;" In vol. III. "Obfervations on the Parthian Epoch, as found on a Coin in the Imperial Cabinet at Vienna," publifhed by Frolich. Upon Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander declining the fecond voyage with captain Cook, 1772, on account of the want of fome proper accommodation, the board of admiralty, at the fhort warning of ten days, engaged Dr. Forfter and his fon, George, who drew up an account of a voyage round the word, in his Britannic majefty's floop, Refolution, commanded by captain Cook, during the years 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, published in two volumes, quarto, 1777; tranflated into German, Berlin, 1778, 2 volumes, quarto. Mr. Forfter having here faid that Mr. Arnold's watch was unfortunately

topt, Mr. Wales, the aftronomer of the voyage, to whofe cuftody it was committed, felt himself charged with having wilfully stopped it; and Mr. Forfter not immediately iffuing out, by way of erratum, a declaration that the word was flipt in by miftake, Mr. Wales publifhed, 1778, fome warm "Remarks" on the voyage, which were answered, with no lefs warmth, in a "Reply to thofe Remarks," the fame year, by Mr. Forfter, jun. who, the fame year, addreffed "A Letter to the Earl of Sandwich," to prove that he and his father were not rewarded fufficiently, nor agreeably to contract, for accompanying captain Cook in this voyage; which ferves but to confirm our general obfervation, that foreigners, however glad to court, even to fervility, the patronage of England, rarely make thole returns which the liberality and candour of Englishmen demand. If we wanted any other fpecimens of foreign difcontent with us, we may read the junior Mr. Forster's philofophical and picturesque tour through England and France, 1787. Dr. Forfter publifhed "Novæ Species Infectorum, 1771," 8vo. "Ar eafy Method of allaying and claf fing Mineral Subftances; containing plain and eafy Inftructions for any Perfon to examine the Products of his own Lands, or fuch as are obvious in Excurfions or Travels in foreign Countries, without having a complete chymical Apparatus. To which is added a Series of Experiments on the Fluor Spatofus, or Sparry Fluor; abftracted from the Memoirs of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, for the Year 1771," 8vo. 1772. "A Catalogue of the Animals of North America. 1771," 8vo. "Account of Qua

drupeds

drupeds and Birds from Hudfon's Bay," Phil. Tranf. LXII. "Account of Fishes fent from Hudfon's Bay," ib. LXIII. "Specimen of the Natural Hiftory of the Volga," LVII. "Account of a new Map of the Volga," LVIII. Manage ment of Carp in Polish Pruffia," LXI. "Account of Roots used by the Indians near Hudfon's Bay to dye Porcupines Quills," LXII, "Flora America Septentrionalis; or, A Catalogue of the Plants of North America, 1771" 8vo print, ed with his tranflation of Boffu's "Travels through North America, illuftrated with Notes, relative, chiefly, to Natural Hiftory, 1771, 8vo. 2 vol. Alfo, in 1771, a tranf lation of Bougainville's "Voyage round the World," with additional obfervations, and the chart improved.. Translation of Ofbeck's "Voyage to China and the Eaft Indies, 1771,❞ 8vo. 2 vol.; of Kalın's "Voyage to North America, Vol. I. Warrington, 1770, 1772, 1773, London, 1771." Tranflation of BaFon Reidefel's "Travel's into Sicily, and that Part of Italy formerly called Magna Græcia, and a Tour through Egypt, 1773, 8vo. dedicated to Thomas Falconer, of Chefter, efq. Mr. Pennant's brother-in-law. "Characteres Generum Plantarum, quas in itinere ad Infulas Maris Auftralis collegerunt, 1776," 4to. the first fpecimen of of the natural productions of thofe remote countries in the South Seas which Dr. Forfter and his fon were fent out with captain Cook, at the national expenfe, to collect and describe. It contains feventy-five new genera of plants. "Liber fingularis de Byffo antiquorum, quo ex Egyptia Lingua res veftiaria antiquorum imprimis in S. codice

Hebræorum occurrens explicatur. Additæ ad calcem mantiflæ Egyp tiacæ v. on Zaphanath Paaneah, Abrech, Ark, Cherub. the Topaz. 1776," 8vo. "Obfervations made during a Voyage round the World, on Phyfical Geography, Natural Hiftory, and Ethic Philofophy, 1778," 4to. tranflated into French, as a 5th volume to Cook's Voyages, Paris, 1778, 4to. In 1780, Dr. Forfter published a tranflation, from the German, of "Chymical Obfervations and Experiments on Air and Fire,by Charles-William Scheele, Member of the Royal Academy at Stockholm; with a prefatory Introduction, by Torbern Bergman: to which are added, Notes by Rich ard Kirwan, Efq. and a Letter to him from Dr. Priestley," 8vo. He published at Halle, 1781, in Latin and German, "Illuftrations of Na tural Hiftory," with fifteen plates, in fmall folio, engraved at the joint expenfe of fir Jofeph Banks, Mr. Loten, a Dutch Eaft India governor, and Mr. Pennant; with the addition of a differtation on the climate, winds, and foil, of India, and another on the bird of paradife and the phoenix (Pennant's Literary Life, p. 10). In 1786 he pub' the ed, in German, tranflated into English, the fame year, "A Hiftory of the Difcoveries and Voyages made in the North, illuftrated with new and original Maps," 4to. an useful compilation, without much origi nal matter.