public ones of the year, which are themselves often inaccurate, often contradictory, We find it very difficult to trace the true causes of events, which time only can draw from obscurity, It is hard to find a connection between the facts upon whose authenticity we may depend; and in. the mass of materials of a dubious authority, it is equally hard to know what ought to be chosen to make out such a connection; yet with all these difficulties, we are of opinion that the reader will find some entertainment, as well as some help to his memory, from reading a connected series of those very remarkable and interesting events which this war has produced, and which he has hitherto no where seen but in a loose detached manner. If we can do this we are satisfied; for we do not pretend to give the name of history to what we have written, THE ТНЕ CHRONICLE. Thomas Mead, Prætore Urbano. Michaele Sweny, fearing to lose so good an opportu nity, and that they would get clear, captain Bray and the pilot got a hawser, and passed it three times round the Machault's bowsprit, and the capstan on the Adventure's quarter-deck, so that the action depended chiefly on the small-arms, which was very smart about an hour. She then struck her colours; but, upon boarding her, began to fire again, which was soon silenced. She had killed and wounded 40 men, with the loss only of one man killed, and two wounded, on board the Adventure. This evening 70 men, on board the Namur in Portsmouth harbour, forced their way into the dock, and from thence set out for London, in Gulielmo Forbes. Vice-comitibus. order to lay their complaints before By a letter from captain 7th. Bray, commander of His Majesty's armed vessel the Adventure, received this day at the Admiralty, there is an account of the taking the Machault privateer of Dunkirk, with fourteen nine-pounders and 182 men. Captain Bray, soon after the engagement began, ordered the helm to be put hard aport, which had the desired effect of laying her athwart hawse, her bowsprit coming in between the Adventure's main and mizen masts. They immediately passed the end of the mizentop-sail sheet through the enemy's bobstay, and made it fast; but the lords of the Admiralty; 15 of whom attempted to procure an audience, but were all ordered to be put in irons and carried back, in order to be tried by a court-martial for mutiny. It is reported that the badness of their provision was the cause of their complaint. A cup and salver, intended to be presented to cap13th. tain Lockhart, was sent this day to Lloyd's, to be viewed by the merchants. It was curiously chased and embossed with the seven French privateers, his own ship, and arms. The salver is 26 inches diameter, with the following inscription: The By a letter from captain 14th. Lockhart to the Admiralty, there was advice that His Majesty's ships Edinburgh, Dreadnought, Augusta, and a sloop, had blocked up the harbour of Cape François for some weeks: that on the 15th of October all the French squadron sailed to drive the English off the coast; and the next day the two squadrons came to a close engagement, which continued till night, when the French squadron, having the land breeze, by the help of their frigates were towed into port, greatly disabled, and the Opiniatre dismasted. They had 300 men killed, and as many wounded. This advice captain Lockhart received from the crew of a St. Domingo. man, which he had taken; and it has since been confirmed by a letter in Lloyd's Evening-post, directly from the spot. The same advices from the Admiralty take notice like. wise of the taking of two French ships both laden with provisions for Louisbourg. The prisoners say, that they sailed from l'isle d'Aix, in company with three other merchantships, laden with provisions for Louisbourg, under convoy of the Prudent and Capricieux, and the Tripon and Heroine frigates, the two former of which parted company with them the day before they were taken. The frigates nude their escape from our ships by its falling little wind, before which His Majesty's ships outsailed them greatly; but there is reason to believe the other merchant-ships are taken by the ships that were left in chase of them. A farmer upon Budgley 18th. common, between Southampton and Redbridge, seeing a man with a blue coat, red waistcoat, and red plush breeches, very ragged, lying on the ground in a very weak condition, took him into his waggon, carried him to his house, gave him victuals and drink; but being full of vermin, made him up a bed of straw in the waggon, under the waggon-house, and covered him with sacks. Next morning he found him dead. He had an ensign's commission in his pocket, dated in March last, appointing him, as supposed, an ensign to an independent company of invalids at Plymouth; but no money in his pocket, except one half-penny. The following message from the King was presented by Mr. Secretary Pitt to the house: GEORGE R. His Majesty having ordered the army formed last year in his electoral dominions, to be put < again into motion from the 28th of November last, and to act with the utmost vigour against the common enemy, in concert with his good brother and ally the • King of Prussia; and the exhaust. ⚫ed and ruined state of that electorate and of its revenues, having ⚫ rendered it impossible for the same to maintain and keep together that army, until the further ne. cessary charge thereof, as well as the more particular measures now ⚫ concerting for the effectual sup. port of the King of Prussia, can be laid before this house; His Ma. jesty relying on the constant zeal of his faithful Commons, for the support of the protestant religion, and of the liberties of Europe, against the dangerous designs of France, and her confederates, finds himself in the mean time under the absolute necessity of recom. mending to this house the speedy consideration of such a present supply, as may enable His Majes• ty, in this critical exigency, to • subsist and keep together the said " army.' In consequence of this message, 100,000l. was unanimously granted, to be taken immediately out of the supplies of last year unapplied, and to be remitted with all possible dispatch. A court-martial was held 21st. on board the Newark, for the trial of the 15 mutineers belonging to the Namur man of war, who all received sentence of death. Information having been given to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, that several officers were recruiting in that kingdom from Great Britain, without the knowledge of the government there, his excellency signified his pleasure to such officers, that they should immediately de. sist from raising men in that king. dom, and that they do immediately discharge all such as they have already enlisted. By letters from Constan30th. stinople, we hear that the caravan of pilgrims, returning from Mecca, had been attacked by a large body of Arabs, who had destroyed, as it is said, from 50 to 60,000 persons. This desperate and unprecedented proceeding is supposed to have taken its rise from the Arabs being disgusted on account of the removal of the Pascha of Damascus to Aleppo, who was greatly esteemed by them, as a generous able man, and the Kislar Aga's having put in his room a man of different principles, who deprived them of some part of their dues, which they receive from the pilgrims. As the chief of the black eunuchs was the cause of all that has happened by that change, which he effected merely to serve his own interested views, the Grand Seignor ordered his head to be sent for from Rhodes, where he was lately exiled, and on its arrival was exposed to public view. Captain Wallace, of the King George, of Bristol, took up at sea, off Bermudas, six men, the crew of the schooner Nancy, of Boston, one Gavian, master; the vessel in a hard gale had overset, but, after they had cut away her main-mast, she righted: but a sea soon after beat in her stern, and having a quantity of bricks abaft, her stern sunk and her head stuck upright, and then the people got on her bow. After the storm abated, they got some mackarel out of the vessel, and an iron instrument to strike fish, and making an awning of one of the sails, which they fixed to the bow, sprit, they lived there 46 days be fore captain Wallace met them į one of them died soon, and two others are deprived of their senses. The The Lord Chief Justice of the King's-bench declared that court's opinion of the case of the bank, note stolen out of the mail, and paid away by the robber, who received the full value of Mr. Miller, at the post-office at Hatfield, and then travelled on the same road in a four-wheel post-chaise and four horses, and at the several stages passed off several other bank notes he had taken out of the mail at the same time; all which, at the request of the owner, who sent them by the post, were stopt by Mr. Rice, cashier of the bank, and an action suffered to be brought against Mr. Rice, for recovery of the money; when after very learned pleadings on both sides, it was most solemnly determined, That any person pay⚫ing a valuable consideration for a 'bank note to bearer, in a fair " course of business, has an 'doubted right to recover the mo་ ney of the bank.' The pretext for stopping them at the bank was, because they had been altered, the figures of 11, which denoted the date, having been by the robber dexterously converted to a 4. un This day being appointed for the execution of the 15 seamen belonging to the Namur, the boats from every ship in commission, manned and armed, attended, and rowed guard round the Royal Anne. A little before 12 o'clock the prisoners were brought up, in order to be executed, and the halters were fixing, when they were informed His Majesty had shewn mercy to 14, but they were to draw lots who should be the man that was to suffer death. Mathew M'Can, the second man that drew, had the unfortunate chance; and accordingly, at a gun fired as a signal, he was run up to the yard-arm, where he VOL. I. hung for near an hour. The reprieved were turned over to the Grafton and Sunderland, bound to the East Indies. It is said, the cause of the mutiny was only the dislike they had to quit the Namur, on board which ship admiral Boscawen, when he took upon him the command of the intended expedition, hoisted his flag, and was to bring the crew of his former ship with him. FEBRUARY. Monsieur Rene Brison, se cond captain of the Prince de 1st. Soubise, who formerly made his escape from where he resided on his parole of honour, went into France, and was sent back by order of the French King, made a second attempt to escape out of Porchester castle, where he had been confined ever since his return. He had bribed the centinels on duty, but his attempt being suspected by the officers of the prison, they planted others at a distance, who immediately apprehended him, and carried him back to the castle, 4th. A marble bust of doctor Claudius Gilbert, formerly vice provost of Dublin college in Ireland, was set up in that college. This excellent person, besides other valuable donations, bequeathed to that college a collection of books, consisting of 13,000 volumes, chosen with great discernment and care. His bust is placed at the head of these. It is the workmanship of Mr. Verpoil; and for the expression and elegance, does great honour to the taste and skill of the statuary. |