20th. Covent-Garden Theatre was this day burnt to the ground; for the particulars of which dreadful event, the reader is referred to the Theatrical Department of the present work.

Dispatches have been received from Sir Samuel Hood, dated off Rogerswick, August 27th, detailing the particulars of an action with the Russian squadron, under the command of Vice-Admiral Hanichoff, who, after being chased 34 hours by the Swedish squadron, under RearAdmiral Nauckhoff, accompanied by the Centaur and the Implacable, British ships of the line, was forced to take shelter in the port of Rogerswick, (also called Baltic-Port,) with the loss of one ship. This prize proved to be the Sewolod of 74 guns, Captain Roodneff. After taking out the prisoners, she was obliged to be burnt in consequence of being fast on shore, and drawing water in great quantity.

24th. FULHAM.--A melancholy accident took place here one evening this week. A young couple on the point of marriage took a sail in a funny, which upset, and the two lovers were unfortunately drowned. The body of the girl, who was daughter to a boat-builder of this place, has been found; but nothing has been heard of that of her companion. A dog, which belonged to the father of the young woman, was in the boat, and swam to shore. The animal no sooner reached his master's house, than, by his gestures and howls, he attracted some of the family to the Bishop's Stairs, off which the fatal accident happened, and where they beheld the boat in which the lovers had embarked, with its bottom up

AYR. The Circuit Court was opened here this day, by the Right Hon. Lord Meadowbank. The only cases of any interest were the two following:

William Burnside and Thos. Taggart, shoemakers in Kilmarnock, were tried for going into the house of a woman who kept a huckster's shop in that town, and murdering her and her servant maid by means of strangulation, and thereafter robbing the house of a sum of money and various articles. The Jury returned a verdict, unanimously finding the libel Not Proven; and the prisoners were acquitted, and dismissed from the bar, after receiving a suitable exhortation from the Judge, respecting their future conduct in life.

Hugh Anderson, accused of entering a church in Maybole, and stealing a number of tools belonging to carpenters working in said church, confessed his guilt. The Jury having found him guilty accordingly, he received sentence of transportation for seven years.

OCT. 1. BRITISH NAVY.-The amount of the British naval force up to this day is as follows:--At sea, 92 ships of the line, 12 from 50 to 44 guns, 130 frigates, 168 sloops, &c. 166 gun-brigs, and other vessels; total 568. In port and fitting, 33 of the line, 4 from 50 to 44 guns, 34 frigates, 69 sloops, &c. 64 gun-brigs, and other vessels; total 204. Guard ships, &c. 39 of the line, 1 of 50 guns, 3 frigates, 2 sloops, 2 gunbrigs; total 14. In ordinary and repairing, 46 of the line, 13 from 50 to 44 guns, 56 frigates, 49 sloops, &c. 15 gun-brigs, and other vessels;

total 179. Building, 60 of the line, 15 frigates, 22 sloops, &c. 6 gunbrigs, and other vessels; total 103. Grand total 1121.

DUMFRIES.-The Circuit Court was opened here on the 29th ultimo, by the Right Hon. Lord Meadowbank. Joshua Brown was, by his own confession, convicted of sheepstealing, and sentenced to be transported for seven years. Hugh Dallas was tried for, and by his confession found guilty of, forging a receipt for 12 guineas; but, on account of his ingenuous confession, was recommended to mercy. George Turdie pleaded guilty to a charge of having forged bank of England notes in his possession, and was sentenced to be transported for fourteen years. 2d. Yesterday, a girl of the name of Sophia Weaver, about six or seven years of age, who had gone into the fields at Downside, in the parish of Backwell, Somersetshire, to pick blackberries, was missed by her parents. A diligent search was made after her, by several of the neighbours, till 12 o'clock at night, without effect. In the course of their search, they found a deep pit, covered over with brambles and long grass, from which, many years since, lead ore had been extracted, and to which they were led by the barking of a dog belonging to the father of the child. The grass, it appeared, had recently been trampled upon; but the lateness of the evening deterred those who were in search of her from descending. In the morning, however, they returned, and two men were let down with ropes; when, to their great astonishment, the child was found in one of the lanes leading from the pit, standing upright, and free from injury, excepting the little hurt she had received in being

scratched with the brambles. The preservation of the child was still more remarkable also, in her having retired into the lane, as the men in their descent rolled down several large fragments of the rock, which must otherwise have inevitably dashed her to pieces. She remained fourteen hours in the pit. Its depth is upwards of 100 feet.

SHIPWRECKED MARINERS.-An interesting experiment has been made at Woolwich, by a gentleman of Yarmouth, on a vessel at anchor in the Thames, upwards of 100 yards from the shore, before a committee of the general officers of the artillery, Commissioner Cunningham, Admiral Lossack, and several officers of the royal navy, for the purpose of effecting a communication with a ship stranded on a lee-shore, and to bring the crew in perfect safety from the wreck. A rope was projected from a royal mortar across the ship supposed to be stranded, by which was hauled on board by the crew a large rope, to be made fast to the mast-head, and kept at a proper degree of tension for a cot to travel on it, by a tackle purchase, that likewise admitted of the vessel's rolling; at the same time was sent to the ship a tailed block, with a small rope rove through it; each end of the small rope was made fast to the end of a cot, that conveyed it to the ship, and brought a person in perfect safety to the shore. The whole service was performed in a quarter of an hour.

4th. LONDON.-Court of Common Council.-Mr Waithman proposed a motion to address his Majesty on the subject of the late Convention in Portugal. He began by deprecating the unexpected and reprehensible appointment of Sir Hew Dalrymple to such an important

command; and then referred to and commented upon some of the articles of the treaty, particularly the 5th, 7th, and 8th; he condemned the honourable terms granted to the French; their being suffered to carry away all their acquired property, and the disgraceful terms upon which the Russian squadron was surrendered, while no article was stipulated regarding the liberation of the 5000 Spaniards then imprisoned on board the squadron. He took a retrospective view of the addresses of the corporation of London, on the failure of the expeditions to Minorca in 1756, and to Rochford in 1757, and the consequences of those addresses. After dwelling again upon the incapacity of the General appointed to command in those expeditions, he concluded by moving, That an humble and dutiful address and petition be presented to his Majesty, expressing our grief and astonishment at the extraordinary and disgraceful Convention lately entered into by the Commanders of his Majesty's forces in Portugal and the Commander of the French army in Lisbon, praying his Majesty to institute such an enquiry into this dishonourable and unprecedented transaction, as will lead to the discovery and punishment of those by whose misconduct and incapacity the cause of the country and its allies have been so shame fully sacrificed."

The motion was seconded by Mr Quin, who went over nearly the same grounds as the former speaker; and particularly expressed his astonishment that 10,000 British subjects were left in the prisons of France, while the French army had thus been allowed safely to return.

Sir W. Curtis opposed the address,

VOL. I. PART. II.

as improperly interfering with the intentions of his Majesty's ministers; but the motion was carried unanimously, and a committee appointed to frame the address.

Yesterday the remains of Professor Porson were removed from the London Institution, Old Jewry, to be deposited in Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge. The hearse, accompanied by four mourning coaches and six private carriages, arrived at Cambridge this day at two o'clock. The body lay in the hall, in state, till five, at which hour the Lord Bishop of Bristol, (master of the college), the vicemaster, senior and junior fellows, bachelors of arts, scholars, and other members resident in the university, in their academical habits, and in black scarfs, bands, and gloves, walked from the combination-room, accompanied by the chief-mourners into the hall; and, after moving round the body, which was placed in the midst, they took their seats, the chief-mourners being placed on the right hand and left of the master.

Several epitaphs in Greek and English verse, the effusions of reverential respect for his high attainments, and of love for his virtues, were placed on the pall, and were read with the most sympathetic interest by his former associates in study. An anthem was chaunted by the choir; and the body was then conveyed to the chapel, supported by the eight senior fellows, and followed by the junior fellows, bachelors, scholars, and servants of the college two and two.

On entering the chapel, which was illuminated, the Lord Bishop, chief-mourners, and all the members of the college took their places, and the choir performed an anthem.

After which, the lord bishop read the lesson, and the procession moved in the same order to the grave, which was at the foot of the statue of Sir Isaac Newton, and surrounded by those of all the illustrious persons which this college has produced. When they had taken their stations round the grave, and the body was placed above it ready for interment, the funeral anthem was performed by the choir, in the adjoining chapel, during the most perfect silence of the auditory, and with the most solemn effect. The service was then read by the lord bishop with as awful, dignified, and impressive a pathos as was ever witnessed on any former solemnity of the kind. He was himself overwhelmed as he proceeded by his feelings; and he communicated the sympathetic emotion to every listening friend of the deceased. Nothing could be more solemn nor more affecting than his tone and delivery. The whole assembly seemed to be oppressed with sorrow at the irreparable loss which the university, and the world in general, had sustained by the death of such an ornament of literature.

Professor Porson was born at East Ruston, in Norfolk, on Christmasday, 1759. Exhibiting evident signs of prodigious genius, he was sent to Eton by Mr Norris; and by the exertions of his friends was enabled to enter a student at Trinity College, in 1777. In 1781, he took his degree of master of arts, and in 1791 was elected Greek professor of Cambridge, with a salary of but 40l. ayear. In 1795, he married Mrs Lunan, sister of Mr Perry, editor of the Morning Chronicle, but who sank under a decline in April 1797. It is needless here to enter into an enumeration of his literary compo

sitions, or to appreciate their merit, as they are known to every classical scholar throughout Europe.

5th. LONDON.-Daring Burglary. -Countess Morton's house, in Parkstreet, has for several days past, been surrounded by a set of suspicious fellows, who generally met about dusk. The servant-maid entrusted with the care of the house, having taken notice of them, gave information at Marlborough-street Office. Accordingly, last night, three Police Officers, well prepared with arms, went to the house, and at eight o'clock they sent the servant out; after which they secreted themselves in a closet adjoining one of the rooms, having provided themselves with a candle. Soon after the departure of the servant, the kitchen bell was rung several times, and not being answered, the ringing was followed by a hard knocking at the door. The thieves thinking there was no person in the house, broke the door open, and went to the room adjoining the closet where the officers had concealed themselves, when the latter rushed out upon the robbers, who were five in number.--A battle immediately ensued, and in the scuffle the candle was put out. One of the officers had just time to discharge his blunderbuss, and shot one of them in the left arm the shot went through the bone. Thus rudely assailed, the robbers attempted to make their escape through the back part of the house, by jumping off the first floor leads into Park-lane; in the attempt one of them broke his leg, and was immediately secured. The man that had been shot ran down South-street, and turning down a Mews where there was no thoroughfare, he was also taken: the other three escaped.

One of them must have received a severe wound, as a cutlass was covered with blood, and those taken had not been touched by it. The two men who had been taken, it appears, are reputed house-breakers. They were taken to Mount-street watch-house. As soon as the man that had been shot was brought in, he dropped down, and fainted from loss of blood. Medical assistance was immediately procured. He has since undergone the amputation of an arm.

7th. This day Mr Brooke, a lottery-office keeper in Piccadilly ended his life by, shooting himself with a pistol through the head, in the necessary. The clerk and several neighbours hearing the report, rushed in and found him dead. He had been in a desponding state for a fortnight before, during which time his brother had been with him adjusting his accounts. On Thursday morning he seemed better, and went out about eleven o'clock with a friend in a hackney coach, and on his return he invited several of his neighbours' children to spend the evening at his house, to celebrate his eldest daughter's birth-day. He had been for many years clerk to St James's-market, and has left a wife and four children. The Coroner's inquest has sat on the body, and brought in a verdict-Lunacy.

10th. GREENOCK.-On Thursday night, a boat, with four men in her, two of them of the name of M'Kinlay (father and son) left this harbour for Skipness. When off Mount Stuart, island of Rothesay, the boat, from her being old and in bad condition, split, when they all perished. This melancholy accident happened within view of several other boats, but who, in consequence of its blow

ing hard at the time, accompanied with a heavy swell, could render no assistance. Another boat, supposed also to belong to Skipness, went down, the same day, near to Port Bannatyne, county of Bute.

12th. LONDON. This day, at two, the following address from the City of London was presented to his Majesty at the Queen's palace, by a deputation, consisting of the Lord Mayor, the Recorder, the Sheriffs, Common Council, &c. and was read by the Recorder:

TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

The humble and dutiful Address and Petition of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council assembled.

MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,

We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the city of London, in Common Council assembled, most humbly approach your Majesty, with renewed assurances of attachment to your Majesty's sacred Person and Government, and veneration for the free principles of the British Constitution; to express to your Majesty our grief and astonishment at the extraordinary and disgraceful Convention lately entered into by the Commander of your Majesty's forces in Portugal, and the Commander of the French army in Lisbon.

The circumstances attending this afflicting event cannot be contemplated by British minds without the most painful emotions, and all ranks of your Majesty's subjects seem to have felt the utmost concern and indignation at a treaty so humilia