fent were thereupon fworn of his majefty's most hon. privy-council, and took their places at the board accordingly.

Several fhops were confumed by fire at Newcastle.

18th.

The houfe of commons unanimoufly refolved, "That the thanks of this house be given to Mr. Speaker, (who, on account of his age, has declined any further fervices in parliament) for his conftant and unwearied attendance in the chair, during the courfe of above thirty three years, in five fuc ceffive parliaments; for the unfhaken integrity and fteady impartiality of his conduct there; and for the indefatigable pains he had, with uncommon abilities, conftantly taken to promote the real interest of his king and country, to maintain the honour and dignity of parliament, and to preserve inviolably the rights and privileges of the commons of Great Britain." Upon which Mr. Speaker faid,

"I was never under fo great a difficulty in my life to know what to fay in this place, as I am at prefent.

Indeed it is almost too much for me.- -I can stand against misfortunes and diftreffes; I have flood against misfortunes and diftreffes; and may do fo again; but I am not able to ftand this overflow of good-will and honour to me. It overpowers me; and had I all ftrength of language, I could never exprefs the full fentiments of my heart on this occafion of thanks and gratitude. If I have been happy enough to perform any fervices here, that are acceptable to the house, I am fure I now receive the nobleft reward for them, the nobleft that any man can receive for any merit; far fuperior in my eftimation to all the other emoluments of this world. I owe every thing to

this houfe; I not only owe to this houfe, that I am in this place, but that I have had their conftant fupport in it; and to their good-will and affiftance, their tenderness and indulgence towards me in my er rors, it is that I have been able to perform my duty here to any degree of approbation: thanks therefore are not fo much due to me for thefe fervices, as to the house itself, who made them to be fervices to them.

When I began my duty here, I fet out with a refolution and promife to the houfe, to be impartial in every thing, and to fhew respect to every body: the first I know I have done, it is the only merit I can affume; if I have failed in the other, it was unwillingly, it was inadvertently; and I afk pardon, moft fincerely, to whomsoever it may have happened.I can truly fay the giving fatisfaction to all, has been my conftant aim, my ftudy, and my pride.

And now, Sirs, I am to take my laft leave of you. It is, I confefs, with regret, because the being within these walls has ever been the chief pleasure of my life: but my advanced age and infirmities, and fome other reasons, call for retirement and obfcurity. There I fhall fpend the remainder of my days; and fhall only have power to hope and to pray, and my hopes and prayers, my daily prayer will be for the continuance of the conftitution in general, and that the freedom, the dignity, and authority of this houfe may be perpetual."

It was immediately refolved, nem. con. "That the thanks of the house be given to Mr. Speaker, for what he has now faid to the house ; and that the fame be printed in the votes."

ture effects and eftates of prisoners discharged, liable to their creditors.Debtors to the crown, and prifoners who owe above 1000l. to one perfon, unlefs the creditors confent, are excluded in this act; and creditors oppofing the prifoner's difcharge, to allow him 3s. 6d. per week; on non-payment to be discharged. All perfons entitled to the benefit of this act, are to obtain their discharges before the 31st of March, 1763.-Likewife by a clause never inferted in any former act of infolvency, creditors may compel any prifoner, already or hereafter charged in execution, to appear at the quarterfeffions, with the copy of his detainer, and deliver in a schedule of his eftate, and on his fubfcribing the fame, and making a difcovery of his eftate, he is to be difcharged; on refufing fo to do, or concealing to the amount of 20l. fuffers as a felon. - Prifoners upon procefs out of the courts of confcience, are included in this act; and all who took the benefit of the act 28th George II. to be excluded. -Mariners, and thofe who have been in the fea or land fervice, are upon their discharge, if under fifty years of age, and approved of, to ferve during the prefent war; and if they defert may be arrested and imprisoned at the fuit of their creditors.

It is computed that there will not be less than 600 perfons cleared by the above infolvent act, from the prifons in and near this metropolis, who have been in the land and feafervice, and who by the act will be obliged to go again.

The compulfive claufe in this infolvent act, may be taken advantage of, and a prifoner discharg

ed, in virtue of it, without any debt at all being fubfifting, or any oath or proof made of one, as thus: The prifoner may confefs a judgment to his friend for a fham debt, execution may be taken out thereon, and the prifoner charged therewith. In this cafe, the prifoner will stand charged in execution, juft in the fame manner as if it were a real debt; and upon notice in the Gazette, from the fham creditor, (and in other refpects alfo pursuing the act) the prifoner must be discharged; and, as no oath of a debt previous to the confeffing fuch judgment is neceffary; fo neither have the juftices any the leaft authority to enquire into the reality of it, nor to call the creditor before them to make proof of it. The remedy (if it is thought to want one) must be left to those only, who have the power to apply it.

The city of Chefter hath a peculiar court, called a court of Exchequer, (the only one of the kind in England) out of which all or most of the writs in that county are iffued; and when any, perfon is ar refted by a writ out of that court, he is kept confined (unless he canfind bail) till the next day of appearance, and then brought to the bar, where it is demanded of him, to pay down the fum due to his creditor, with cofts, or give immediate fecurity to the court for it; neither of which demands it is in the power of the unhappy debtor to comply with, or he certainly would not have been brought before that court, nor fuffered the difcredit of an arreft. Upon his involuntary refufal, he is committed to jail, not as a debtor, but for disobeying an order which is impoffible for him to obey.

By

By this means no perfon arrested by a Chefter Exchequer writ can reap any benefit from this act, though every way a proper object of it.

A caution to charitable perfons. I had, for feveral years, the care of a large parish in the fuburbs of London, in which was a prifon for debt. Somewhat more than twenty years ago, I received a letter from one Dr. Burnett, who lived fomewhere near Bristol, defiring me to fend him an account of the number and circumftances of the prifoners in our jail. I accordingly made the ftrictest enquiry in my power, and wrote back word, that at one of my vifits, I found the number of perfons confined to be eleven, and at another, thirteen; that they were in for very trifling fums, and that, if he pleafed to authorise me, I was confident, I could discharge them all for a very little money. To make my ftory fhort, feveral letters paffed between us, when at last he wrote me word, that his fellow trustee, a lady of rank, did not chufe any one fhould do the bufinefs but himself; and that he would call upon me in a little time to thank me in perfon, for the trouble he had given me in this affair. In a few days afterwards he did call upon me, and informed me, he had been down at the prifon, and released five and thirty of the moft miferable objects that could be conceived.

Being greatly aftonished at fo great and fo fudden an increase of prifoners, it not being two months fince I took an account of them, I immediately went to work, with all my might, in order to fatisfy myself about it. And in this I met with no trouble at all, it being well known in the neighbourhood, that

as the jailor had always notice of the doctor's coming, in order to get the difcharges ready, fo in the morning before he came, he (the jailor) got between twenty and thirty poor neigbours to be shut up in the prifon, for which trouble they had ufually a crown a piece, and who were discharged three or four hours afterwards in great form.

I was moreover informed, that the jailor's mother was always one of thefe fictitious prifoners, and that he had been difcharged by Dr. Burnett a great many times.

Thus the best things are fometimes abufed; and to what fad purposes one of the nobleft legacies was perverted, in the inftance before us.

R. F.

A proclamation was issued 21ft. for diffolving the prefent parliament, and declaring the calling of another, the writs to bear tefte this day, and to be returnable May 19th; and two others, one for the election of the fixteen peers for Scotland, on May 5th, and another for continuing all officers, not already removed or discharged, for the fpace of four months, &c. His majefty alfo ordered writs to be iffued for the election of the members for the convocation of the clergy.

His majefty was pleased to declare the right hon. the earl of Halifax, lieut. gen. and general governor of his majesty's kingdom of Ireland.

To appoint the duke of Newcaftle, Wm. vifc. Barrington, [in the room of Mr. Legge lord North, James Ofwald, Efq; and Gilbert Elliot, Efq; [in the room of [G] 4 James

James Grenville, Efq;] to be commiffioners of the treasury.

To grant to vifc. Barrington, the office of chancellor of the Exchequer, [in the room of H. B. Legge, Efq;]

To appoint lord Anfon, Dr. Hay, John Forbes, and Hans Stanley, Efqrs; lord vifc. Villiers, [in the room of admiral Boscawen, deceas'd] and Tho. Pelham, Efq; [in the room of G. Elliot, Efq;] commiffioners of the Admiralty.

To appoint lord Sandys, [in the room of the earl of Halifax] Andrew Stone, Soame Jenyns, Edw. Elliot, and Edw. Bacon, Efqrs; together with John Yorke, Efq; Sir Edmund Thomas, Bart. and George Rice, Efq; [in the room of Thomas Pelham, W. G. Hamilton, and Wm. Sloper, Efqrs:] commiffioners for trade and plantations.

Tregoney in Cornwall, March 15th. As fome of our tinners were lately employed on a new mine, one of them accidentally ftruck his pick-axe on a stone. The earth being removed, they imagined, from its fize, that it was a rock; but fome characters being perceived on. a more close inspection, together with its fhape and hollow found, when ftruck, made them conclude it to be (what on opening it proved) a coffin. On removal of the lid, they discovered the skeleton of a man of gigantic fize, which, on the admiffion of the air mouldered into duft. One entire tooth remained whole, which was two inches and half long, and thick in proportion. The length of the coffin was eleven feet three inches, and depth three feet nine inches.

Whitehall. His majefty 21ft. having been pleafed to appoint the right hon. William Pitt,

Efq; to be one of his majesty's principal fecretaries of fate, the oath of fecretary of ftate was this, day, by his majefty's command, adminiftered to him in council.

Wednesday fe'nnight came afhore, about ten miles from Swansea, a whale; the country people obferving the approach of it, concluded it to be the hull of fome very large veffel; but when the tide left it, the fands being uncommonly fhallow, they perceived it to move, which ftrange and unexpected fight induced them to come nearer, and then they were convinced it was a fish; which with very little difficulty they deprived of life. When entire fhe meafured 63 feet in length and 16 feet in breadth, the fan of the tail was 18 feet, and the jaw bones 15 feet the conntry being ftrangers to fuch a thing, it is thought the profit will not exceed 30 1. but if among people of underftanding, would undoubtedly yield 1000 l.

:

Being Eafter funday, his ma22d. jefty and the royal family went to the chapel-royal, and heard a fermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Newton. After which his majesty received the holy communion from the bishop of Durham, aflifted by the sub dean,

Died at Verfailles the duke 23d. of Burgundy, eldest fon of the dauphin, aged 9.

Ifaac Darking, alias Dumas, (fee Characters, p. 51.) was executed at Oxford. Having declared that he valued not death, but only the thoughts of being anatomized, a large body of bargemen attended on the occafion, carried off his body in triumph, and conveyed it to the next parish church, where, while fome rung the bells others open

ed