Domestic Occurrences in Great Britain..... Trials of Dr. Hensey and Shebbeare..... Institution of the Magdalen Asylum..... Society for the encouragement of Arts..... Session opened..... New Treaty with the King of Prussia..... Supplies granted..... The King’s Message to the Commons..... Bill relating to ihe Distillery, and the Exportation of Corn..... Petition from the Justices of Norfolk—-Bill for the Importation of salted Beef from Treland continued..... Regulations with respect to Privateers..... New Militia Laws..... Act for the Relief of Debtors revived..... Bills for the Importation of Irish Beef and Tallow..... Act relative to Milford-Haven..... Bill relative to the Duty on Pensions..... Act relative to the Duty on Plate..... Cambric Act..... Unsuccessful Bills..... Case of the Insolvent Debtors..... Case of Cant. Walker..... Remarks on the Bankrupt Laws..... Inquiry into the State of the Poor..... Regulations of Weights and Measures..... Resolutions concerning the Foundling Hospital..... Messages from the King to the Parliament..... Session closed..... Preparations for War..... Death of the Princess of Orange and Princess Elizabeth Caroline..... Examples made of Pirates..... Accounts of some remarkable Murders..... Murder of Daniel Clarke..... Majority of the Prince of Wales..... Resolutions concerning a new Bridge at Blackfriars..... Pire in Cornhill..... Method contrived to find out the Longitude..... Installation at Oxford..... Deplorable Incident at Sea..... Captures made by separate Cruisers..... Captain Hood takes the Bellona..... and Captain Barrington the Count do St. Florentin..... Captain Falkner takes a French East Indiaman..... Prize taken in the West Indies..... Engagement between the Hercules and the Florissant..... Havre-de-Grace bombarded by Admiral Rodney..... Admiral Boscawen defeats M. de la Clue..... Preparations made by the French for invading England..... Account of Thurot..... French Fleet sails from Brest..... Admiral Hawke defeats M. de Conflans..... Proceedings of the Irish Parliament..... Loyalty of the Irish-Catholics..... Dangerous Insurrection in Dublin..... Alarm of a Descent in Scotland
While the operations of the war were prosecuted through the four quarters of the globe, the island of Great Britain, which may be termed the centre that gave motion to this vast machine, enjoyed all the tranquillity of the most profound peace, and saw nothing of war but the preparations and trophies, which served only to animate the nation to a desire of further conquest; for the dejection occasioned by the misfortune at St. Cas soon vanished before the prospect of victory and success. Considering the agitation naturally produced among the common people, by the practice of pressing men into the service of the navy, which, in the beginning of the year, had been carried on with unusual violence, the levy of so many new corps of soldiers, and the endeavours used in forming the national militia, very few disturbances happened to interrupt the internal repose of the nation. From private acts of malice, fraud, violence, and rapine, no community whatsoever is exempted. In the month of April, the temporary wooden bridge over the Thames, built for the conveniency of carriages and passengers, while the workmen should be employed in widening and repairing London bridge, was maliciously set on fire in the night, and continued burning till noon next day, when the ruins of it fell into the river. The destruction of this conveniency proved very detrimental to the commerce of the city, notwithstanding the vigilancy and discretion of the magistrates, in applying remedies for this misfortune. A promise of the king’s pardon was offered in a public advertisement, by the secretary of state, and a reward of two hundred pounds by the city of London, to any person who should discover the perpetrator of such wicked outrage; but nevertheless he escaped detection. No individual, nor any society of men, could have the least interest in the execution of such a scheme, except the body of London watermen; but as no discovery was made to the prejudice of any person belonging to that society, the deed was imputed to the malice of some secret enemy to the public. Even after a new temporary bridge was erected, another attempt was made (in all probability by the same incendiary) to reduce the whole to ashes, but happily miscarried, and a guard was appointed to prevent any such atrocious efforts in the sequel. Dangerous tumults were raised in and about Manchester, by a prodigious number of manufacturers who had left off working, and entered into a combination to raise, by force, the price of their labour. They had formed a regular plan, and collected large sums for the maintenance of the poorer sort, while they refused to work for their families. They insulted and abused all those who would not join in this defection, dispersed incendiary letters; and denounced terrible threats against all such as should presume to oppose their proceedings. But these menaces had no effect upon the magistrates and justices, who did their duty with such discretion and courage, that the ringleaders being singled out and punished by law, the rest were soon reduced to order.
TRIALS OF DRS. HENSEY AND SHEBBEARE
In the month of June, Florence Hensey, an obscure physician, and native of Ireland, who had been apprehended for treasonable practices, was tried in the court of king’s-bench, on an indictment for high treason. In the course of the trial it appeared that he had been employed as a spy for the French ministry; to which, in consideration of a paltry pension, he sent intelligence of every material occurrence in Great Britain. The correspondence was managed by his brother, a Jesuit, who acted as chaplain and secretary to the Spanish ambassador at the Hague. The British resident at that court having learned from the Spanish minister some secrets relating to England, even before they were communicated to him from the English ministry, was induced to set on foot an inquiry touching the source of this information, and soon received an assurance, that the secretary of the Spanish ambassador had a brother, a physician in London. The suspicion naturally arising from this circumstance being imparted to the ministry of England, Hensey was narrowly watched, and twenty-nine of his letters were intercepted. From the contents of these he was convicted of having given the French court the first notice of the expedition to North America, the capture of the two ships, the Alcide and Lys, the sailing and destination of every squadron and armament, and the difficulties that occurred in raising money for the service of the public. He had even informed them, that the secret expedition of the foregoing year was intended against Eochefort, and advised a descent upon Great Britain, at a certain time and place, as the most effectual method of distressing the government, and affecting the public credit. After a long trial he was found guilty of treason, and received the sentence of death usually pronounced on such occasions; but whether he earned forgiveness by some material discovery, or the minister found him so insensible and insignificant that he was ashamed to take his life, he escaped execution, and was pardoned, on condition of going into perpetual exile. The severity of the government was much about the same period exercised on Dr. Shebbeare, a public writer, who, in a series of printed letters to the people of England, had animadverted on the conduct of the ministry in the most acrimonious terms, stigmatized some great names with all the virulence of censure, and even assaulted the throne itself with oblique insinuation and ironical satire. The ministry, incensed at the boldness, and still more enraged at the success of this author, whose writings were bought with avidity by the public, determined to punish him severely for his arrogance and abuse, and he was apprehended by a warrant from the secretary’s office. His sixth letter to the people of England was pitched upon as the foundation of a prosecution. After a short trial in the court of king’s bench, he was found guilty of having written the sixth letter to the people of England, adjudged a libellous pamphlet, sentenced to stand in the pillory, to pay a small fine, to be imprisoned three years, and give security for his future good behaviour; so that, in effect, this good man suffered more for having given vent to the unguarded effusions of mistaken zeal, couched in the language of passion and scurrility, than was inflicted upon Hensey, a convicted traitor, who had acted as spy for France, and betrayed his own country for hire.
INSTITUTION OF THE MAGDALEN AND OTHER ASYLUMS.
Amidst a variety of crimes and disorders, arising from impetuosity of temper, unreined passions, luxury, extravagance, and an almost total want of police and subordination, the virtues of benevolence are always springing up to an extraordinary growth in the British soil; and here charities are often established by the humanity of individuals, which in any other country would be honoured as national institutions: witness the great number of hospitals and infirmaries in London and Westminster, erected and maintained by voluntary contributions, or raised by the princely donations of private founders. In the course of this year the public began to enjoy the benefit of several admirable institutions. Mr. Henry Baine, a private gentleman of Middlesex, had, in his lifetime, built and endowed an hospital for the maintenance of forty poor maidens. By his will he bequeathed a certain sum of money to accumulate at interest, under the management of trustees, until the yearly produce should amount to two hundred and ten pounds, to be given in marriage portions to two of the maidens educated in his hospital, at the age of twenty-two, who should be the best recommended for piety and industry by the masters or mistresses whom they had served. In the month of March, the sum destined for this laudable purpose was completed: when the trustees, by public advertisement, summoned the maidens educated in the hospital to appear on a certain day, with proper certificates of their behaviour and circumstances, that six of the most deserving might be selected to draw lots for the prize of one hundred pounds, to be paid as her marriage portion, provided she married a man of an unblemished character, a member of the church of England, residing within certain specified parishes, and approved by the trustees. Accordingly, on the first of May the candidates appeared, and the prize being gained by one young woman, in presence of a numerous assembly of all ranks, attracted by curiosity, the other five maidens, with a sixth, added in lieu of her who had been successsful, were marked for a second chance on the same day of the following year, when a second prize of the same value would be presented: thus a new candidate will be added every year, that every maiden who has been educated in this hospital, and preserved her character without reproach, may have a chance for the noble donation, which is also accompanied with the sum of five pounds to defray the expense of the wedding entertainment. One scarce knows whether most to admire the plan, or commend the humanity of this excellent institution.—Of equal and perhaps superior merit was another charitable establishment, which also took effect about this period. A small number of humane individuals, chiefly citizens of London, deeply affected with the situation of common prostitutes, who are certainly the most forlorn of all human creatures, formed a generous resolution in their favour, such as even the best men of the kingdom had never before the courage to avow. They considered that many of these unhappy creatures, so wretched in themselves, and so productive of mischief to society, had been seduced to vice in their tender years by the perfidious artifice of the other sex, or the violence of unruly passion, before they had acquired experience to guard against the one, or foresight to perceive the fatal consequences of the other; that the jewel, reputation, being thus irretrievably lost, perhaps in one unguarded moment, they were covered with shame and disgrace, abandoned by their families, excluded from all pity, regard, and assistance; that, stung by self-conviction, insulted with reproach, denied the privilege of penitence and contrition, cut off from all hope, impelled by indigence, and maddened by despair, they had plunged into a life of infamy, in which they were exposed to deplorable vicissitudes of misery, and the most excruciating pangs of reflection that any human being could sustain; that whatever remorse they might feel, howsoever they might detest their own vice, or long for an opportunity of amendment, they were entirely destitute of all means of reformation. They were not only deprived of all possibility of profiting by those precious moments of repentance, and becoming again useful members of society; but, in order to earn a miserable subsistence, were obliged to persevere in the paths of prostitution, and act as the instruments of heaven’s vengeance in propagating distemper and profligacy, in ruining the bodies and debauching the minds of their fellow-creatures. Moved to sympathy and compassion by these considerations, this virtuous band of associates determined to provide a comfortable asylum for female penitents, to which they might fly for shelter from the receptacles of vice, the miseries of life, and the scorn of mankind; where they might indulge the salutary sentiments of remorse, make their peace with heaven, accustom themselves to industry and temperance, and be profitably reunited to society, from which they had been so unhappily dissevered. The plan of this excellent institution being formed, was put in execution by means of voluntary subscription, and the house opened in Goodman ‘s-fields, under the name of the Magdalen-hospital, in the month of August, when fifty petitions were presented by penitent prostitutes, soliciting admittance. Another asylum was also opened by the hand of private charity, on the Surrey-side of Westminster-bridge, for the reception and education of female orphans, and children abandoned by their parents.