monstrous stupidity, I know not, for my own part, any thing that will argue the fenfe or capacity of a people. That the Hottentots have a great many idle ridiculous customs, is most certain. But where is the nation, that has not, in one corner or other of it, customs, in many particulars, as idle? And where is the wife man, who has not a ridiculous fide? Give the Hottentot fenfe but fair play, and 'twill appear like other 'people's.

The Hottentots have an honourable order of men among them, diftinguished indeed by no particular title, but which I may very properly call the Order of the Urine. This order confifts of fuch as have each fingly encountered and flain a lion, tiger, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros or elk. When a Hottentot fingly encounters and slays one of thofe creatures, he is looked upon as a hero; and is, upon his return to the Kraal of which he is an inhabitant, forthwith called up into this order. The ceremony with which he is received into, and made Knight, as I call him, of the Urine, will doubtlefs give the reader a little entertainment.

The hero, upon his return to the Kraal of which he is an inhabitant, goes directly to his own hut; where he squats himself down. He has not fat long at home before he is vifited by an old Hottentot, deputed by the men of the Kraal to make him their compliments of thanks and congratulation upon fo beneficial and fo illuftrious an atchievement; and to acquaint him, that the men of the Kraal expect him immediately to receive from them the honours that are due to his heroic worth. The compliments and the notice being delivered, the hero rifes, and follows the old Hottentot out of the hut to the middle of the Kraal, where all the men wait for him. He there fquats himself down on a mat, fpread on purpose for

him; and all the men fquat round him. Joy fits flufh in the faces of the hero and his friends: envy contracts the features of others; when up to the hero marches the old deputy, and piffes up. on him from head to foot: pronouncing over him certain terms, which I could never get the meaning of. If the deputy is in the hero's interest (and it generally happens that he is) he lays him under a deluge of urine, the more pifs, the more honour. The hero, having before-hand made furrows with his long nails, in the fat upon his body, rubs the pifs as it falls upon his face and every other part, with the greatest eagerness. This done, the deputy lights a pipe of Tobacco or Dacha, and having taken two or three whiffs, gives it to any one he pleases in the circle; who, having taken the fame folace, gives it to another; and fo it goes round till only afhes remain in the pipe; when the deputy takes it again, and shakes the ashes out upon the hero; who still' remains fquat in the middle of the circle, and rubs the ashes into the fat upon his body, with as eager action as he did the pifs; and would not, if he could help it, lofe the leaft particle of it. Then is the hero inftalled Knight, as I call him, of the Order of the Urine. The circle rifes: he follows the example. Every one congratulates him on the high honour he has received; and thanks him for the fignal fervice he has done his country. The hero looks upon himself as raised to the fummit of human glory; and, by the bladder of the beat he has killed, which he wears fastened to his hair, and by the majeftick port he affumes ever after, demands the homage and respect which Hottentot cuftom afligns to his high dignity, and which all his countrymen conftantly pay him.

[To be continued.]

NEWS

Extract of a Letter from Warfaw, May

"T

10.

HE Senators, to the number of 22, drew up and figned the 7th inftant, a manifefto against the Dyet, the principal articles of which are as follows:

1. The Dyet cannot be held in prefence of the foreign troops that fur. round the city.

2. The Senators did not engage the Ruffians to come; they gave no thanks for their being fent, and have not any way given occafion for their arrival.

3. The Ruffians have committed an act of violence in Lithuania, by favouring a pernicious confederacy made for disturbing the public tranquillity.

4. It is against all justice, that in the memorial of the Ruffian ministers, delivered to the primate the 4th inftant, the troops of the crown are accused of having meddled in the Dyetines and other public acts.

5. It is by the unjust proceedings of the fame foreign troops, that the general Dyetine of Pruffia has proved abortive; and this is another motive for protesting against the Dyet.

6. All good Patriots, who love justice, are invited to unite for the fupport of liberty.

"At the end of this manifefto there is an adhesion to the proteft of the Senators, figned by 45 Nuncios." Extract of a Letter from Lifton, May 14. "The regulations which have been lately made with respect to the fmuglers, will have a greater effect on the trade carried on between this place and London than is in general imagined; for, as the balance of trade is greatly in favour of England, we begin already to find it very difficult to make our remittances; the Priests and Monks, whom we ufed to employ in carrying broad pieces and moidores on board the outward-bound fhips in the river, have been for fome time fufpected, and many of them, without respect to their cloth, have been lately

fearched; about three days ago near 400 moidores were taken out of the breeches of an old Dominican, who be fides met with a very fevere reprimand from the custom houfe officers, and fome threats were added, that if he should be ever again detected in fuch illicit practices, his fuperior should be complained to.

"It is a great pity our people in power at home do not hit upon some legal method of making thefe remittances; if the prefent difficulties fhould long subfift, it will prove a great clog on the Portugal trade, which has already too many difficulties to struggle with."

M. Gefner, first phyfician to the duke of Wirtemberg, has made feveral experiments, by which it appears, that the rind of heath-broom, dried in an oven, and pulverized, anfwers very well in tanning, except that the operation is longer. There is no need of mentioning the very great advantages of fuch a method.

Four pieces of cannon have lately been fished up in La Hogue road, supposed to have belonged to admiral Tourville's fleet, when burned, funk, and deftroyed there in 1692, by the Dutch and English. They were covered all over with a thick incrustation of mud, under which the metal was as impreffible as if they had been pewter, which might be owing to the action of the fea falt; but after being twenty-four hours in the air, the metal so far recovered its natural hardness, that these cannon ftood the strongest proofs. Extract of a Letter from the Confines of Poland, May 17.

"Notwithstanding all the care and pains taken by the prince Primate, we till labour under the greatest uneafinefs. Four candidates afpire to the throne: Count Branicky, if not for himself, at least for a Saxon Prince; Michael Frederick Czartorynski, High Chancellor of Lithuania; Stanislaus Prince Lubomirfky; and Count Poniatowfky. The party of the latter is very

confidera

confiderable, and yet is thought to be not strong enough to procure him the throne. The others omit nothing to ftrengthen their party,"

Berlin, May 22. Laft Sunday the king of Pruffia came from Potzdam, and on Monday, and this morning, reviewed, in the plain of Templehoff, near this place, thirty battalions of infantry, twelve fquadrons of cavalry, and ten of huffars, making in all upwards of 20,000 men. His Royal Highness Prince Henry, his Pruffian Majesty's brother, commanded the whole, as general of infantry; and he had under him four Lieutenant Generals, of whom Prince Ferdinand, the King of Pruffia's brother, was one; his Serene Highness the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick affifted at thefe reviews. The King of Pruffia, will fet out the end of this week to Cuftrin, Stargard, and Magdebourg, in order to review the troops in those provinces. His Majesty has made a military promotion of two Lieutenant Generals, and four Major Generals; and disposed of the vacant regiments.

Last week a nobleman of diftinction difcharged his fteward for exacting money from his lordship's tradesmen before he paid their bills: it is faid he has made a large fum of money by this practice, most of which is now in the public funds. The affair was difcovered to his lordship by means of a letter from one of his tradefinen, who had paid a pretty high premium, and five per cent. discount, to get payment of a bill due a twelvemonth.

The public is cautioned to beware of certain counterfeit crown pieces. They appear to the eye as perfect as any; but are only of copper, thinly plated over with filver. They are of King Charles the Second's time, and are very accufately done; fo that they are only difcoverable by a very close attention to their found, or by breaking them in two, when the fraud appears manifeftly, but not more villainous than curious, A perfón genteelly dreffed, very art fully, lately uttered several of them in a public houfe near Covent-garden:

the fraud not being immediately discovered, he escaped detection; leaving feveral, who had too greedily purchased with a view to gain (as they appear new and perfect) to lament their lofs, with derifion for their avarice; particularly one to the amount of ten pounds.

Monday, June 4. The Albion tranfport, with convicts, put back to Kingroad last saturday fevennight. She had got as far as 30 leagues to the west of Lundy, when a fcheme was discovered (which was to have been put in execution in half an hour) for the transports to get poffeffion of the veffel, and carry her into Spain. A blacksmith, one of the number, had got their irons off. In quelling them, two were wounded, who were carried to Bristol Infirmary. The. veffel has fince failed, having got iron collars, as a farther fecurity for fuch a fet of defperadoes; upwards of 80 in number having fworn to support each other, and to destroy the crew.

Thursday fe'nnight a fhocking murder was committed in the parish of Stanton Quinton, near Malmsbury, in Wiltshire, by William Jaques, other wife Spencer, a failor, on the body of George Harford, a Black. About 3 weeks ago they were both paid off from his majesty's fhip Stag, at Deptford, at which time they received upwards of 281. each; the former went down to Stanton in order to fee his friends, and the latter agreed to bear him company, being in his way to Bristol. For four or five days they continued there, when, Jaques, having pent all his money, preVailed on the Black to accompany him into a neighbouring wood, where he took an opportunity, with a large stick, to knock him down, by striking him on the back part of his head, and with repeated blows broke his jaw-bone, and beat his skull quite in. He then picked his pockets of his money and an handkerchief, with which he made off. The body of the Black was found before it was cold, and the coroner fent for, who fummoned a jury, that brought in their verdict wilful murder, and from evidence then given, it could not be

imagined

imagined to be done by any other than the failor, who had been feen in his company for fome days. The next day the coroner faw a failor, who answered the description given, enter a publick house at the Devifes; he followed him in, feized him by the collar, and kicked up his heels. On fearching his pockets they found 16 thirty-fix fhilling pieces, and the Black's handkerchief; and in his hand he had the ftick with which he perpetrated the murder, all bloody, and part of the Black's hair fticking thereto. On his examination he figned his confeffion, and on Mon day was brought to Fisherton goal. He is a ftout, well-looking, daring fellow, only 23 years of age. The black was formerly a fervant to a merchant in Bristol, but for feveral years paft had been in his majefty's fea-fervice.

Sunday afternoon a constable took up a notorious gambler, dreffed in the gayeft tafte, in St. James's Park; but as he was carrying him to the Gatehouse, fome friends to the gambler artfully gave it out to the mob to be an arreft, on which they inconfiderately rescued the prisoner, and broke the constable's staff to pieces.

Extract of a Letter from Cambridge, June 3.

We hear that our Vice-chancellor is prefented, by the marquis of Rockingham, to the living of Keveston, in Huntingdonshire, worth near 300l. a

year.

"It is very obfervable, that the vicechancellor had not the honour to be at all known to his lordship, and that the marquis's only motive for diftinguishing him with fo particular a mark of his regard, was the vice-chancellor's steady conduct and integrity in the late conteft for the office of high steward.-A noble inftance of generosity in his lordfhip, and what has here given the greatest pleasure to all true lovers of liberty, of the university, and of our happy conftitution."

Lady Northumberland being under a neceffity of leaving town on monday, on account of the death of Mrs. Smith

fon, her mother-in-law, the grand illuminations defigned as a compliment to his majefty's birth-day, were postponed till her ladyfhip's return, which was on tuesday evening; when every thing was conducted with a decorum and magnificence peculiar to the Countefs of Northumberland: 1500 perfons of diftinction were invited, and the garden was decorated with 10,000 lamps, 400 of which being fixed to the balluftrades defcending by the fteps, had a most beautiful effect. Two bands of mufick were provided, one in the house, (where the great gallery was illuminated to an astonishing degree of fplendor) and the other in the garden, which anfwered alternately, and upon Lord Granby's entrance ftruck up" See the conq'ring Hero comes"; a mark of refpect to the extraordinary merit of that illuftrious officer, which was inftantly returned by a general huzza from the whole company. The company departed at half an hour after twelve, and at feven o'clock yesterday morning her ladyship fet out for Sionhouse.

-

Wednesday, June 6. The following letter, afcribed to father Beauvais, a Jefuit, clearly explains the fentiments of the Members of that Society, with regard to the oath required of them in France: it is addreffed to one of his relations,

"Out of the kingdom, my dear kinfman, I must go: I have spent 35 years in training up and forming Citizens, and now these functions are at an end. At the age of threefcore I fee myfelf constrained to seek a retreat, and, in a foreign land, to end a life, 42 years of which have been devoted to the fervice of the country. In the rigorous alternative of exile, or of an oath which, I think, I cannot take: I he fitate not, and depart a victim to what I owe to the facred engagements I have contracted, full of refpect for the hands that ftrike, fubmiffive to those that permit, and imploring only the hand of bim who fupports."

For

1764.

I

T would be a mortifying circumftance to thofe, who have spent great part of their lives in the study of the prevailing fyftem of philofophy, to reflect that, after all the pains they have taken, their time hath been totally thrown away; were it not for the comfortable profpect of being indemnified, in a few hours, by the perufal of a two fhilling pamphlet, for the many years mifpent in turning over the voluminous performances of former the. orists. Every one knows that ours is the age of improvements. To build bridges, join rivers, cut roads, pave the streets, and demolish fign-posts, are common objects; to effect the discove ries of the longitude and the perpetual motion are fomething greater; but to discover a new fyftem of philofophy, founded on the univerfal operations of nature, is certainly one of the greatest atchievements of this or any other age! "I was long diflatisfied, fays Mr. Usfher, with the mechanic philofophy, because I apprehended it did not afford a fufficient caufe or explication of the grandeur, the beauty, the order, and defign of the vifible creation; all of which appear fo legibly and strongly marked, throughout every part of this VOL. III.

material affemblage, that no force, or power of fyftem, are able to efface of fufpend the common sense of them; this common sense, if I may call it fo, comes unfought to the mind of man, as foon as he opens his eyes, or feels the unavoidable train of his own perceptions and the further his reflections follow and trace out the particulars that form the vast group of beings around him, (provided he remain unbiaffed by system) the more minutely and univerfally will he perceive this beauty, order, and defign; and the neceffity of refolving them into a caufe, fuperior to matter and mechanifm.

"The wretched and inadequate explications of the mechanic system, always made me look upon it as fufpicious and deceitful: I confidered, that it accounted for the formation and production of bodies, by unperceivable qualities or modes; and that it was only fupported by an analogy to effects perceived by fenfe. I then examined the foundation of this analogy, and difcovered with furprize, that there was not in fact the least ground or reafon for it; and that perceivable mechanic qualities, or modes, had none of those miraculous effects, ata tributed fo lavishly by the mechanic philosopher to his minute and invifible fhapes, fizes, and motions; and, in fhort, that the whole scheme was a philofophical chimera, totally repugnant to all known truth and reality.”

PP

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