1 have all the properties of the common tar. We hear feveral hundred barrels of it are already collected, the quantity that iffues daily being very confiderable. 28. Saturday morning, at ten o'clock, their majefties went to fee Mr. Whitbread's brewery in Chifwell-freet, which was rendered as convenient as poffible on the occafion; when they had viewed every part of the premifes in a moft minute manner, which took up four hours, they gracioufly partook of fome refreshment provided in the houfe, and they expreffed themfelves exceedingly pleafed with the whole. Mr. Whitbread attended their majefties, and they feemed very much fatisfied at viewing fo large a work totally employed in the confumption of the growth of England. The whole was conducted with the greatest regularity and order, in a very plain and elegant manner. The steam engine in this brewery is erected in a handsome building, fo as to exhibit every part of it at one view; and Mr. Watt, the patentee, was prefent to explain the machine, which afforded their majesties fingular pleafure.-Their majefties were attended by three of the princeffes, the duke of Montagu, lord Aylesbury, lord Denbigh, the duchefs of Ancaster, and lady Har court. Yesterday Andrew Robinson Bowes, efq. Edward Lucas, Francis Peacock, Mark Preveft, John Cummins, otherwife Charles Chapman, William Pigg, and three other perfons, were tried in the court of king's bench, Weftmintier, before juftice Buller, on an indictment charging them with an affault committed on Friday the 10th day of November last, on the perfon of the countefs of Strathmore; after a trial of feveral hours, they were all found guilty.-As foon as the trial was over, Mr. Bowes, by the advice of Mr. Erfkine, withdrew the indictment, he had preferred against the countefs, for perjury. See p. 31. JUNE. 1. Arrived in London, Meffrs. Tenon and Colomb, appointed by the royal academy of feiences at Paris, by order of the French council of state, to vifit all the hofpitals, of every fort, in Great Britain and Ireland, and make on their return, a particular defcription of every inftitution, and its feveral arrangements, management, and advan tages. This commiffion is in confequence of the French government having refolved, on the reprefentations of the royal academy of medicine, to remove the Hotel Dieu at Paris from its fituation in the middle of the city; and to erect four or more grand hofpitals at the outskirts of Paris, and fuch convenient fmall infirmaries in different airy parts of the city, to receive accidents, and fuch tick whofe cafes could not admit of being conveyed fo far from their habitations as to the intended hofpitals. By order of the French govern ment, Meffrs. Tenon and Colomb delivered to fir Jofeph Banks, bart. prefident of the royal fociety, a letter from the prefident and royal academy of fciences of Paris, requeiting the prefident and royal fociety to affift thofe gentlemen in their examinations of the feveral hofpitals. They were received and entertained by fir Jofeph Banks with that zeal and liberality which dif tinguifhes his excellent heart; and, deeming this deputation from France as a high compliment paid to the British nation, fir Jofeph has taken every flep, by application to the British British miniftry, to the feveral offi- without righteoufnefs, and others cial departments, and every fociety or perion who, by their authority, recommendation, or affiftance, could give thofe gentlemen the information they defired. 5. Was tried in the court of king's bench, an action of trefpafs and falfe imprisonment, brought by Mr. Charles Hay, a wine-cooper of Quebec, against fir Frederic Haldimand, as governor of that province, for arrefting him on fufpicion of high treason, as a man difaffected to the king's government and meafures during the late difputes with America, and confining him in a loathfome cell during the space of three years and fixteen days. The confinement was confeffedly illegal; but there were circumftances that justified fufpicion; on which account the jury, which was fpecial, moderated the damages, and found a verdict for the plaintiff, with zool. damages. 6. Lord George Gordon was tried before juice Buller, at the court of king's bench, on an information for having written and published a pamphlet, intituled, "A Petition to lord George Gordon from the Prifoners in Newgate, praying for his Interference, and that he would fecure their Liberties, by preventing them from being fent to Botany Bay." This ftrange performance, being read, appeared to be a farrago of vague reafoning, and abfurd reference, interlarded with a great number of Scripture phrafes. he paffage quoted in the information was to the following purpose: "At a time when the nations of the earth endeavour wholly to follow the laws of God, it is no wonder that we, labouring under our fevere fentences, fhould cry out from our dungeons and afk redrefs. Some of us are about to fuffer execution to be fent off to a barbarous country. The records of justice have been falfified, and the laws profanely altered by men like ourselves. The bloody laws against us have been enforced, under a nominal adminiftration, by mere whitened walls, men who poffefs only the fhew of justice, and who have condemned us to death contrary to law, &c." The attorney general opened the profecution by remarking, that nothing could be more obvious than the purpofe for which this publica tion was intended.-It purported to be an addrefs to lord George Gordon; but, as it would appear, had been actually written by him felf, with a view either to raise a tumult among the prifoners within, in an endeavour to procure their deliverance; or, by exciting the compaffion of thofe without, to caufe a diflurbance, and produce the fame effect. It was now but a few years fince, he faid, without meaning any particular application in the prefent inftance, that the citi zens of London had feen those effets completed, which this pamphlet went to produce; and the confequences were too well known to need a repetition. It included the law and the judges in indifcriminate. abufe: he would not contend for abfolute perfection in the former; but those who condemned our laws, fhould not relide under their juris diction. The criminal law was no where attended to with more care, or enforced with fo much lenity. -This, however, had nothing to do with the prefent cafe, as the defendant had fufficiently fhewn, by his conduct, that reformation was not his object. John Pitt, the turnkey of New gate, was then called. He depofed, that, that, in the month of December laft, lord George Gordon had repeatedly vitited the lodge, and afked to fee the prifoners, particularly thofe under fentence of death, which request was often denied. On the publication of the pamphlet in queftion, lord George fent a copy to him, and others to Mr. Akerman, and Mr. Villette the ordinary. A few days after, he found a man and woman diftributing them in great numbers at the door of the prifon, Ip confequence of this, he waited on lord George at his houfe in Welbeck-ftreet, and told him that there was fad work about the diflribution of the pamphlet; to which his lordship replied, "No matter, let them come on as foon as they pleafe; I am ready for them." He then faw a great number of the books in the room, and took one to Mr. Akerman, at lord George's particular defire; and alfo gave a direction to the refidence of thofe perfons who had distributed the pamphlets in the Old Bailey. The records of the conviction of feveral perfons were then read and authenticated; and Mr. Akerman, and Mr. Hall, the keeper of the New Jail, Southwark, were called, for the purpofe of proving, that there exited, at the time, convicts of the fame defeription as thofe who were fuppofed to have addreff ed the pamphlet to the defendant. Lord George afked the witneffes, feverally, whether he had ever any conference with the perfons mentioned in the record; to which they replied in the negative. His lordship then entered on his defence; which was delivered in a defultory manner, and made up of materials as heterogeneous as ever went to fuch a compofition. A petty fraud, he faid, committed in his own family, had firft drawn his at tention to the laws against felony, when he found that it conftituted a capital crime, though the fum taken was no more than eighteen pence. He then entered into a history of our criminal law, from the time of Athelstan, for the purpose of proving that code, in its prefent flate, to be by much too fanguinary. This, he faid, was a fubject which ftruck his heart. He had communicated his ideas to lord Mansfield, and to the recorder, who had admitted their propriety; and to judge Gould, who had defired him to put his thoughts on paper. This was all he had done in the prefent inftance. His idea was only to enlarge the powers of the judges; though wicked lawyers had attributed to him another intention. He quoted the act of parliament for fending the convicts to South Wales, as a proof that the legislature thought with him on the fubject: he quoted the Gazette of last Saturday, as a proof of his majesty's at tention to God's laws, which he faid were directly contrary to the prefent practice: and he affured the court, that, if he had time to fend for his books, he could fhew them that every word of his pamphlet was actually in the Bible ! -His lordfhip complained very much of thofe vexatious profecutions which were inftituted against him, He quoted Blackstone's Commentaries, book iv. cap. 23. who fays, that informations filed ex officio, by the attorney general, are proper only for fuch enormous mifdemeanors as peculiarly tend to disturb or endanger the king's government, and in the punishment or prevention of which a moment's delay would be fatal." This, he faid, had by no means appeared in his cafe, as one of the informations against him had been pending for tena and the the other for fix months. This extraordinary mode was therefore a grievance on him, which was not juftified, as it appeared, by any preffing neceffity. He exhorted judge Buller not to lofe the prefent opportunity of intructing the jury on the difputed point, whether they were to judge of law as well as of fact. He then complained, that spies had been set over him by the treasury for several vonths; and concluded with repeating his declaration, that his object had been reformation, not tumult. His lordfhip fpoke for upwards of an hour and a half. Judge Buller, having briefly fummed up the evidence, remarked, that there could be no doubt of the fact of the defendant's having written and published the libel, the former of which he had actually confeffed. There remained, therefore, only to determine whether the averments in the information were equally true; that is, whether the judges of the different courts, his majefty's law officers, were thofe alluded to, on which the jury were to determine. The jury, without hesitation, returned their verdict, GUILTY. The printer, Thomas Wilkins, was then tried, and found GUIL TY. Lord George then prefented an affidavit for the purpose of putting off his trial on the fecond information; stating, that he had proceeded, accompanied by a proper perfon, to Mrs. Fitzherbert's, in order to ferve her with a fubpoena: that, on appearing at the door, he read the original fubpoena, and at the fame time prefented the copy and a fhilling; but was, together with his attendant, turned out of doors by the fervants; under thefe circumftances, fo contemptuous both to the name of the king himself, and his “dearly beloved Francis Buller," it would, he was convinced, render it indifpenfably neceffary for the court to poftpone his trial; and, as he confidered the virtues of the judge equal to his abilities (both of which he admitted to be bright), he trusted his integrity would still remain unfullied, and that the court would not proceed to try him till they had evinced their power fufficient to the production of his witneffes, and believed they would not attempt to decide on him till they were firft enabled to do him juftice. The attorney general faid, that he could not poffibly allow the merits of this affidavit. The notice of trial had been given near three weeks ago; therefore an ineffectual attempt to ferve a fubpoena but two days ago, could not form a sufficient claim to any farther delay. He wifhed alfo to know to what parts of his defence the evidence of Mrs. Fitzherbert would be applicable. Lord George replied, by mentioning a converfation which, he faid, he had with Mrs. Fitzherbert at Paris, with the relation of which he intermingled fo many allufions to the fituation of that lady, either too indelicate, or too abfurd for repetition, that judge Buller was compelled to interpofc. His lordfhip was with fome difficulty filenced; and it was then ordered, that the trial fhould proceed. The information was then read; which stated, as libellous and feditious, two paragraphs which ap peared in the Public Advertiser, on different days in the month of Augutt laft, relating the particulars of a vifit paid by count Cagliostro, accompanied by lord George Gordon, to Monf. Barthelemy, the French Chargé des Affaires, enlarg against him, and make good the fame." On Monday the 14th, Mr. Burke brought up the articles of impeachment, which were ordered to be taken into confideration on a fubfequent day. And this day he brought up another article of impeachment. At the fame time, he informed the lord chancellor, that "Mr. Hattings is now in cuftody of the ferjeant at arms. ready to be delivered at the bar of this houfe." The lord chancellor read the meffage to the houfe; after which it was read by the clerk. At this moment the houfe was very full, and in the most profound and awful filence. Lord Wallingham then flated the nature and importance of the caufe; and traced the history of the feveral impeachments for mifdemeanors, which were upon the Journals, and the feveral fecurities which they gave to the houfe, for their appearance. His lordship then moved, First, "That Warren Hattings be taken into the cuftody of the gentlemen ufher of the black rod." Secondly, "That he be brought to the bar, and admitted to bail, himfelf in ten thousand pounds, and two fecurities, in five thousand pounds each." The first motion was put and carried; and black rod having received the proper orders, repaired to the houfe of commons, and took Mr. Haftings into custody. He was conducted to the lobby; when black rod informed the house, that "in obedience to their lord hips commands, he had taken Mr. Haftings into cuftody, and was ready to deliver him at the bar."-Upon which he was ordered to be brought to the bar. The houfe was now feated in the form of two ranks: the lord chancellor on the woolfack; a great number of the commons behind, and on each fide of the throne, and the bar crouded with gentlemen, forming a molt interesting scene. BLACK ROD, MR. HASTINGS. entered the house, and after the proper obeifances, the prifoner was placed at the bar, when he dropped on his knee. Being permitted to rife, the lord chancellor faid, “ Read the articles of impeachment." After the clerk had read the title of the general charge, black rod, by defire of Mr. Haftings, defired that the articles might be read fort! The duke of Richmond said, he could not, upon fuch a folemn occafion, confent to the application. His grace was hitherto utterly unacquainted with the nature and extent of the charges; therefore he felt it his duty to hear them read with the attention they deserved. The lord chancellor agreed in opinion, and the articles were ordered to be read at length. At half after feven the clerk began reading and continued until ten, at which time the fixth charge was finished; when Lord Townshend rofe, and mov. ed, that the two remaining charges might be read short, in order to ease the houfe, and the prifoner, from the exceffive fatigue of reading them at length. The duke of Richmond oppofed the motion. A converfation took place, at the clofe of which it was agreed to go on, and Mr. Haftings was allowed a chair. At eleven the articles were finished, and the lord chancellor demanded of him what he had to fay in his defence. Mr. Haftings answered," My lords, |