purgatorius.' In which letter Mr. Robertson returned his Lordship the moft grateful thanks for his kindness, but informed him that he could not comply with the terms required by law to qualify him for fuch preferment. However, Mr. Robertfon continued at Ravilly performing his duty; only, from thence forward, he omitted the Athanafian creed, &c. This gave fome people offence; and therefore he thought it the honeftelt courie to refign all his bene fices together, which he did in the year 1764 and in 1766 he published his book by way of apology to his friends for what he had done; and foon after left Ireland, and returned to London. As this book had been taken notice of in all the periodical performances, and feveral extracts from it inferted in the public newspapers, the author of it was enquired after, and feveral gentlemen in that metropolis received him with great cordiality, and generously contributed to his fupport. In the year 1767 Mr. Robertfon prefented one of his books to his old Alma Mater the Univerfity of Glafgow, and received in return a moft obliging letter, with the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In the year 1768 the Maftership of the Free Grammar School at Wolverhampton in Stafford fhire becoming vacant, the Wor fhipful Company of Merchant Taylors, the patrons thereof, unanimoufly conferred it on him. In the year 1772 he was chofen one of the committee to carry on the bufinefs of the Society of Clergymen, &c. in framing and prefenting the famous petition to the Houfe of Commons of Great Britain, praying to be relieved from the obligation of fubferibing affent and confent to the thirtynine articles, and all and every thing contained in the book of commonpraver. After this he lived feveral years at Wolverhampton, performing The duties of his office, in the greatest harmony with all forts of people there, and enjoying, with a deep fenfe of his infirmities, fome fatisfaction from the reflection, that in his humble station he had done fomething for promoting and fecuring thofe great bleffings of human life, liberty and property, for his fellow creatures; and died * MR. URBAN, Cardigan, Aug. 24. Nanfiwer to the enquiry of your core refpondent, p. 567, concerning the Prefident Bradshaw, who fo fpiritedly exerted himself as a then patriot in bringng Charles the Firft to the block, all that I know is, that he was born at St. Dogmel's, near this town. A defcendant of his lived not many years ago on an estate of his near Tregroes, in Landiffil parish, in this county, who ufed to boaft as much of this act of his ancestor, as the gentleman did of his own who acted as executioner. After flying to Barbados to avoid perfccution, at his death he ordered a monument recording this fact to all pofterity to be erected on his plantation a proof how differently fome perfons thought of Charles from the Courtiers who drew up that fulfome parallel in the Common-prayer between his innocence and merit, and thofe (God forgive them!) of our bleffed Saviour. Yours, &c. A. G. MR. URBAN, Norder to fupport and verify the fuppofition advanced in my late paper July Mag. p. 551, that the Ionians and other Greeks on the continent of Afia were poffeffed of fome particulars in their mythology different from thofe of the European Greeks; I propofe now to produce another paffage from the fame learned and excellent author, Juftin Martyr. When, fays Juftin, (Apologia I p. 31, edit. Thirlby) we affert, that JESUS CHRIST afcended into Heaven, nibil novi ab eis qui apud vos dicuntur effe Jovis filii, afferimus, we allege nothing new or extraordinary, contrary to 'what happened to thofe who with you were reputed the fons of Jupiter.' Then he commemorates Mercury, Æfculapius, Bacchus, Hercules, the Diofcuri, Perfeus, and at last, Subjovis, κὶ τὸν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων δὲ ὑφ ̓ ἵππε Πεγάσε Βελλεροφόντην, ‘and even he who was of an human race, Bellerophon, carried thi⚫ther by the horse Pegafus.' Dr. Thirlby declares roundly, upon this_place, that Justin is mistaken, for the Pagans did not feign that Bellcrophon flew into Heaven, but that he attempted it in vain; and then adduces, in proof of this, certain paffages from Pindar, Ho how, and when, and where, it shall race, Dionyfius the geographer, and oplease his Heavenly Father. * Sec above, p. 745. ther Greeks. It must be allowed, that it was the common notion both of the Greeks and Romans, that the hero. failed in his attempt of flying up to Heaven; but, nevertheless, I am of opinion, that the Afiatics had a different conception of the matter, and were perfuaded that Bellerophon fuccceded in the undertaking; for the anonymous author, wspì disav, published by Dr. Gale, clearly afferts, chap. 13, that Bellerophon actually reached Heaven, tho' not mounted on the horfe Pegafus, et Bellerophon, non volavit, ut in fabulis eft, fed cum aftronomiæ operam navarat, magnifque cogitationibus 'inflaretur, et fideribus confueverat, in cælum non equo, fed cogitatione, 'confedit. So that the hero arrived there, as Juftin afferts, and as neceffary to his argument, though the Greeks vulgarly reprefented it otherwife; and he confequently in this adspted a mythological particular totally different from theirs. was An old correfpondent of yours, fo long ago as 1755, demonftrated, I think I may fay, under the fignature of Paul Gemlege, that Cardinal Wolfey neither poifoned himself, nor was poifoned of others. He thewed, that the whole of the imagination of his doing it himself refted entirely upon the teftimony of Mr. Cavendish, but that in a MS. of that author (fee Gent. Mag. vol. XXV. p. 27) the claufe, at which time it was apparent that be bad poisoned himself, was wanting; and confequently, that when thofe were once difcarded, there were not the leaft grounds for fuppofing that the Cardinal had been acceffary to his own death. Mr. Malone, I obferve, is a very ingenious and fagacious gentleman (fee P. 505); but, not being aware of Mr. Gemfege's paper, he comments upon thofe words of Shakspeare, in King Henry VIII. and grew fo ill He could not fit his mule, in this manner: None of our hiftori 'ans have observed, that Cardinal Wolfey accelerated his own death; yet the fact is afcertained by the teftimony of Cavendish his gentleman-ufher, &c.;' and then he cites Mr Cavendith's words from a quarto edition of 1641. But now, Sir, in fupport of the MS. cited by Mr. Gemfege, where, as alledged above, the claufe in queftion is abfent, I wish to remark, that in another old MS. which I have had the good fortune to acquire, (and a very old one it is, nearly perhaps as old as See This, however, is not strictly true. Mr. Gemfege's paper. Cavendish the author) the words, at which time it was apparent that he had poisoned himself, are alfo wanting, confequently, that the notion of the Cardinal's having taken poison is abfolutely without foundation, and that no fuch interpretation ought to be put upon the words of our famous bard. In short, it appears to me at p efent, that the words in queftion were firft foifted into the edition of 1641, and have fince been continued in all the subsequent ones, T.Row. 1667, &c. P.S. I embrace this opportunity of putting in a word in favour of Profeffor Meurhus, whofe authority,' S. E. fays, is by no means fatisfactory,' and that his defcription of the Coloffus has every appearance of being much exaggerated.' Gent. Mag. for May: laft, p. 497. But Joh. Meurfus is the faireft of all writers, not only fpecifying the authorities he writes from, but always giving us the very words of his authors, as he has done in this cafe; infomuch that he exaggerates nothing. 'Tis pity gentlemen fhould write with out book from mere furmife and imagination, and give the world fo much trouble to rectify misapprehenfions, Errata in the Conclufion on the Remarks on Offian, laf Month. P. 662, col. 2. 1. 7, for even r. ever. infert Mac Trenmor. P. 665, col. 1, 1. 31, for avlodeon r. ανέλθεσαν. MR. URBAN, T. F. H. THE following account of a peculiar difeafe which prevailed in London about a century ago may be acceptable to fuch of your readers who look on the rife, progrefs, and decline of diftempers, as an intcresting part of natural hiftory: your medical readers need not be informed that it is extracted chiefly from the Pharmaceutice Rationalis of Willis. He calls it the Dyfenteria Londinenfis: it was generally known by the term griping, or plague of the guts. It raged with great violence about the autumnal equinox of 1670, frequently fhewing itfelf without any visible caufe, reducing thofe who were apparently healthy, to the loweft ftate of weaknefs in the fpace of twelve hours. This malady was confined to London and its environs, and did not appear above three miles from the capital. It was not contagious, but only feemed to af Left fect those who, by particular caufes, were predifpofed to it. 1. After continuing a whole month, it began to decline about the middle of October, and nearly vanished by the beginning of November. All evacuations, fays Willis, were of bad tendency when employed towards the cure of this complaint. Medicines of the most warm and ftimulating kinds, united with opiates, were moft beneficial. Brandy burnt with fugar was a very popular remedy. Our author fuppofes the fmoaky and very foul air of London, aided by particular contingencies of heat and moifture, to have been the caufe of this difeifel The winter of 1670 was remarkably fevere, to which fucceeded a very hot and dry fummer. During the autumn of 1671 a fever of the intermittent kind was very general through England, and at this period a bloody-flux was preva lent in London. But it did not reduce the patients fo much, neither was it by any means fo fatal as the former diftemper. The celebrated Sydenham has alfo given a fhort account of these disorders, but differs in his treatment and cure from Willis, as he infifts on evacuations in fome cafes. The numbers who perifhed by thefe difeafes, which do not feem very likely to be confounded with any others, appear by the bills of mortality to amount, on an average taken from 1661 to 1680 inclufive, to above 2200 annually. The fmallest number in any year. The greatest 676 4385 From 1761 to 1780 inclufive, about 50 only have died annually of diforders which can be arranged under the fame head. It may alfo be remarked, in order to fhew the different ftates of population of the city in the two different centuries, that the christenings in the first feries of years never exceeded 12,700, whereas in the latter feries they have in fevcial years exceeded 17,0co. The average of deaths for the first twenty years ap Fears to be rather more than 18,000, for the laft twenty about 22,000. Yours, &c. > I. W. Burning of brandy is an erroneous practice, it was the fpirit to no good purpofe: where brandy is required to correct the air La tent, &c. it should be evaporated withow burning. MR. URBAN, A Sept. 6. foot below the furface of the earth, FEW years ago, was found, at a an inftrument for coining Queen Elizabeth's money, in a clofe, near the public road, not half a mile S. E. from Leicester, where ftands a small stone dome rared with free-ftone, called the "Old Conduit," with a date in front, 1602. This, by a leaden fubterraneanduct, feeds a conduit junior in our market-place, though the town is now full of pumps and wells. Many people, I remember, purchased an impreffion of the faid machine inlead for one penny. Coliate the abovewith Bp Fleetwood's account, in the Appendix to his Chronicon Preciofum,p. 19. " That Qu. Elizabeth, in the beginning of her reign, began to remedy. the inconveniences that attended promifcuous coining, by reducing all the mints to the Tower of London. I fend you a fmall piece of coppermoney, found in the Bede-houfe alley, the Trinity-Hofpital, near Leicesters on one fide, "Carol. D: G. Ma. Bri." on the other, "Fran. et Hib." a piece here broken off would admit "Rex.". a correfponding defect for the addition of "us" to "Carol." As two of them might be equivalent to a farthing, I fhould be glad to know where it was coined, and what it was called +: as alfo, to find fome account of the elephant and dagger piece. Perhaps the coinage of John Pares ‡, at the White-hart-inn, on the Coal-liill, Leicester, is not worth your notice. The portrait of King Charles I. at the Eaft end of the South aile of St. Martin's church, in the borough of Leicester, is only a copy of the picture at the title-page of most editions of Εἰκὼν Βασιλική. Its frame is feven feet and a half from fide to fide, and about the fame in height. The parish-books are filent about the time and the artift; but, as it leans towards, and is clole to, the confiftory or fpiritual court, it is fupposed to have been executed at their expence, as their triumph and trophy, who fell with him their patron, and whom their gratitude has revived on canvas their tutelar faint. But where is Abp Laud, their cham + It is one of Charles I.'s first farthings. See Snelling on copper coinage, p. 11. EDIT This is alfo mentioned by Snelling, ub. fup. 22, 27. EDIT. this, the doubt was, whether the extraordinary fecundity was owing to the man fmgly, or woman, or both jointly: the death of the first wife, and the fruitfulness of the fecond, was thought to go a good way in determining the queftion in favour of the man. I faw at Cambridge a poor fhoemaker's wife, who had brought him at once four fine children, and either fhe, as I think, or another wife, had brought two at least before. An aged practitioner, who is believed to have brought above 5,000 children into the world, always de pion and martyr? Gentlemen, there is room for him over his mafter, and even by his fide, locus eft et pluribus umbris; what a marvellous change! He whom in his life-time in 1645 the very women bore arms against to keep him out of this town, is now in quiet poffeffion of that church whofe doors he broke open to fubdue the annoyance from the leads, as appears by an entry in the parish-book, thus: "Paid Fran cis Motley for mendinge the locks of the church-doores, broke by the King's army, three shillings.” Though anagrams are commonly eclared, that if he laid a woman of three, laborate trifles, yet there is a fingular he would keep one; and he once fairly and edifying quaintnefs in the fententi- attempted it. ous import of the following, which is on a funereal tablet on the South wall of the faid church, especially when collated with the English paraphrafe which attends it. The above relation, however aftonishing, may be depended upon, as it came directly from an English merchant at St. Petersburg to his relation in England, who added, that the peasant was to be introduced to the Empress. A few fuch fubjects would remove the great defect af population in her extenfive dominions. Yours, &c. X. Y. MR. URBAN, THE HE letters on Dugdale's mistakes, enquired after in p. 552, were written by Charles Hornby, of the Pipe office, who died about 30 years ago. His ill-nature is properly expofed in the notes to Dugdale's Life in the "Biographia Britannica.” In the trial of Wefton, for the murder of Sir T. Overbury, State Trials, vol. I. p. 330,"fhewing how impoífible it were to convict a poifoner who ufeth not to take any witnesses to he compofing his fibber fauces. Q. What is the meaning of the term SIBBER? Arg, on two bars Vert. three plates. 69 Children, D by his fecond wife IMENSIONS of the Bull Oak, 1 yard from the ground Clofe to the ground II Γ 13 r in 7 о 5 18 1 7 4 I The infide is quite decayed; and when I faw it, a cow and a fheep had sheltered themfelves within it. The head is very round and flourishing. T.O. ORIGINAL MEMOIRS of Monfieur HENAULT, Prefident of the First Chamber of Inquests in France. CHARL HARLES JOHN FRANCIS HENAULT was born at Paris February 8, 1685. His great grandfather, Remi Henault, ufed to be of Louis XIIIth's party at tennis, and that prince called him The Baron, becaufe of a fief which he poffeffed near Triel. He had three fons, officers of hofe, who were all killed at the fiege of Cafal. John Remi, his father, an efquire, and lord of Mously, counfellor to the king's fecretary to the council, kept up the honour of the family, and, becoming farmer-general, made its fortune. He was honoured with the confidence of the Count de Pontchartrain; and, being of a poetical turn, had fome share in the criticifms which appeared against Racine's Tragedies. He married the daughter of a rich merchant at Calais, and one of her brothers being prefident of that town entertained the Queen of England, on her landing there in 1689. Another brother, counfellor in the parliament of Metz, and fecretary to the Duke of Berry, was affociated with Mr. Crozat in the armaments, and, dying unmarried, left a great fortune to his fifter. Young Henault carly difcovered a fprightly, benevolent difpofition, and his penetration and aptnefs foon diftinguished itfelf by the fuccefs of his ftudies. Claude de Lifle, father of the ceLebrated geographer, gave him the fame leffons in geography and hiftory which he had before given to the Duke of Orleans, afterwards regent. Thefe inftructions have been printed in feven volumes, under the title of "An A"bridgement of Univerfal History.” On quitting College, Henault entered the Oratory, where he foon attached himself to the ftudy of eloquence, and, on the death of the Abbé Rance, reformer of La Trappe, he undertook to pronounce his panegyric, which not meeting the approbation of Father Maffillon, he quitted the Oratory after two years, and his father bought for him, of Marefchal Villeroi, the lieutenance des chaffes, and the government of Corbeil. At the marshal's he formed connections and even intimate friendships with many of the nobility, and paffed the early part of his life in agreeable amufements, and in the livelieft company, without having his religious fentiments tainted. He affociated with the wits till the difpute between Rouffeau and De la Motte foon gave him a difguft for thefe trifling focieties. In 1707 he gained the prize of eloquence at the French Academy, and another, next year, at the Academy des jeux Floraux. About this time, M. Reaumur, who was his relation, came to Paris, and took leffons in geometry under the fame mafter, Guinée. Henault introduced him to the Abbé Bignon, and this was the first step of his illuftrious courfe. In 1713 he brought a tragedy on the ftage, under the difguited name of Fufelier. As he was known to the publick only by fome flighter pieces, Cornelia the Veftal met with no better fuccefs. He therefore locked it up, with out printing. In his old age his paffion for thefe fubjects reviving, and Mr. Horace Walpole being at Paris in 1768, and having formed a friendship with him as one of the moft amiable men of his nation, obtained this piece, and had it printed at a prefs which he has at his country feat, from whence a beautiful edition of Lucan had before iffued. In 1715 Mr. Henault, under a borrowed name, brought out a fecond tragedy, intituled Marius, which was well received and printed. He had been admitted counsellor in parliament in 1706, with a difpenfation on account of age, and in 1710 prefident of the firft Chamber of Inquefts. Thefe important places, which he determined to fill in a becoming manner, engaged him in the moft folid ftudies. The excellent work of Mr. Domat charmed him, and made him cager to go back to the fountain-head. He spent feveral years in making himself master of the Roman law, the ordonnances of the French king, their cuftoma, and public law. M. de Morville, procureur general of the Great Council, being appointed ambaffador to the Hague in 1718, engaged Mr. Henault to accompany him. His perfonal merit foon introduced him to the acquaintance of the most eminent perfonages at that time there. The grand penfionary, Heinfius, who, under the exterior of Lacedæinonian fimpli city, kept up all the haughtiness of that people, loft with him all that hauteur which France itfelf had experienced from him in the negociations of the treaty of Utrecht. The agitation which all France felt by Law's fyftem, and the confequent Tending |