Things were in this ftate, when a fudden tumult at Bruffels threatened immediately the most fatal confequences. The volunteers had fignified to the reprefentative of the governors general their intention of laying down their arms on an appointed day, as a proof of their good difpofition towards a general conciliation; and the offer was received by him with the greatest fatisfaction, as a measure that tended beyond any other that could be adopted to the accomplishment of the wifhed-for purpose. Sept. 20th. On the very morning of the appointed day, when the volunteers were beginning to affemble for the purpofe, an officer of diftinction, who (a circumftance that appears not a little fingular) was not apprized of the intention, gave a rafh order to the foldiers to difarm them by force. The volunteers paffing through the streets, were haughtily commanded to lay down their arms and cockades; thefe, confidering it as an act of premeditated treachery, indignantly refused to comply: an univerfal uproar took place; while the volunteers ran haftily from all quarters to the relief of their breth

ren.

It happened unluckily at this critical inftant, that a fresh body of forces marched into the city; and an alarm was immediately spread, that a concerted defign had been laid for fubduing Bruffels by the force of the army. In the mean time, when the firft fcuffle was over, the appearance of things made the military think it neceffary to unite their whole force, and to form in a body in one of the great fquares; while the volunteers, doing the fame, were drawn up in another fquare.

Their scattering detachments whereever they met fell on with various fuccefs, but with equal fury and animofity, fo that blood was fhed on all fides. Nor were the unarmed citizens inactive, for they tore up the pavements of the streets, and carried the ftones to the tops of their houfes, to overwhelm the foldiers as they paffed. And as if the confufion had not been already fufficient, the peasants from the adjoining country, armed with the weapons of husbandry, rushed in great bodies into the town, determined to fupport, or to perish with their friends and countrymen: fo that every thing announced, along with the probable ruin of the city, a moft bloody and deftructive conteft.

In this feafon of general terror and confufion, count Murray, by an exertion of no fmall courage and patriotism, happily prevented the direful confequences that were apprehended. With the moft imminent danger to his perfon, as the fuppofed treachery was unjustly imputed to him, he paffed through the midst of the enraged volunteers, in his way to the affembly of the ftates, which was then fitting. By his and their temperate conduct the tumult was moft happily fuppreffed; the military were withdrawn; and the volunteers indulged in patrol, ling freely through the ftreets; nor could the fpirit which they dif played on this occafion, and the fearleffnefs with which they every where encountered the foldiers, prove at all detrimental to the public caufe.

The tumult had likewife the good effect of haftening an accommodation. The ftates were fo well fatisfied with count Murray's tem

perate

perate conduct, and held fuch an opinion of the fairness and moderation of his views, that they voted the fubfidies to be paid into the royal treasury; and the volunteers at the fame time laid by their uniforms and other marks of military diftinction. The count in return published the royal declaration; by this inftrument the fundamental laws of the provinces, and the joyous entry of Brabant, were to be preferved entire, as well with respect to the ecclefiaftical as the civil orders; the new tribunals to

be fuppreffed, and the ancient courts of judicature to resume their functions; the office of intendant, and his commiffiariate, to be abolished; the ftates to remain on their ancient footing, and to retain their committee; the abbey-houses, whose heads had a right to fit in the affembly of the ftates, to be maintained, and fupplied with abbots; and the fovereign promifed, that he would confult with the ftates about all objects which were thought infractions of the joyous entry, and would take meatures for granting redress.

CHRO.

B

JANUARY.

Y accounts from Naples, we hear, that Mount Vefuvius, which had been tolerably free from eruptions for near eleven months, had, on the 31st of October last, burit with uncommon violence, and thrown up vast quantities of calcined ftones. The lava deftroyed feveral vineyards four miles from the volcano fix days after, and continued burning with great fury when the letters, which are dated the 23d of November last, came away. It is remarkable, that no previous notice of this eruption was given by any fubterraneous noife taking place, which has generally heretofore been obferved.

By the mails, which arrived on Saturday the 13th from Paris, was received an account of the determination of the court held at Rome on the affairs of the cardinal de Rohan. On the twelfth of the laft month, a particular convocation was fummoned, confifting of fix of the moft refpectable perfonages, who declared, after all proper investigation, in favour of the cardinal. VOL. XXIX.

The order of fufpenfion from his function, on account of a former decifion, is confequently erafed, and he is reinftated in his full privileges.

The following extract of an authentic letter from Leghorn, dated the 15th of December, will clear up the doubts which have arisen refpecting the engagement between the Maltese fleet and the Algerine fquadron. "On the 24th of December laft, the veffels of the two powers fell in with each other, about ten leagues off Meffina, and a furious and bloody engagement enfued, which lafted till night. The Algerine admiral's fhip blew up in the thickeft of the action, and not one of the crew escaped.

"The Maltese have loft two fhips, one of which was funk, and the other burnt, as alfo three xebecs and one galley. The Algerines have loft, befides their admiral, two xebecs, two barks, one polacre, and one row-galley. The Maltese fought with the greateft bravery, and the pirates like defperadoes.

"The lofs of the Algerines, in this engagement, is faid to amount to 1800 men; that of the Maltese [N] muft

muft also have been very confiderable, because the crews of their fhips of war are very numerous.

"The Maltese fleet having returned in a moft fhattered condition, it is at present very doubtful on which fide the victory was obtained. The moft general opinion, however, is, that it terminated in a kind of drawn battle." Extract of a letter from Clonmel, Ireland, Dec. 28.

"We lay before the public the following circumftances relative to the murder of John Dunn.

"Dunn was an induftrious farmer, and lived on the lands of Fennor, contiguous to the road leading from Longford Pafs to Urlingford; about the middle of January last his horfes were taken away, and abufed by the White Boys, feveral of whom being known to him, he threatened to lodge informations against them, if his horfes were again taken; on account of this declaration, the White Boys went to Dunn's houfe the 31ft of the fame month, took him naked, in triumph, to Beggar's Inn, in the county of Kilkenny, a diftance of about five miles, where a grave was prepared, in the center of the three roads, in which they buried him up to the neck; but not content therewith, they moft inhumanly cut off both his ears, which they nailed to a public pump in the faid town, where they remained for fome days. In confequence of this outrage he lodged an information, and three of the of fenders being taken, he attended at the last affizes of Clonmel to profecute, but the prifoners found means to have the trial put off, and the White Boys, in order to defeat the operation of the laws, and put an ef

fectual ftop to the profecution, went armed with guns, on Sunday night the 17th inftant, about the hour of nine o'clock, to Dunn's house, broke open the door, took him out of bed, and with a hatchet clove his head, laying it open from the crown to the joining of the neck, and then fevered the mangled head from the body."

January 1ft, 1787. A ftriking inftance of the effects of temperance appears in Mrs. Price, of Beckley, in Oxfordshire, a maiden lady, who is now in her ninety-eighth year, and has all her faculties in full perfection, being able to read the fmalleft print without the help of glaffes. About two years fince the cut two young teeth, and at the fame time her eyes received fresh vigour. A letter from Belfaft ftates 6th. a moft ferious dispute which has arisen between the Earl of Donnegal and Lord Chief Baron Yelverton, of Ireland.

The facts are as follow:

"The Lord Chief Baron purchafed from a gentleman named Pottinger, a piece of ground which had been in poffeffion of his anceftors for many years.

"This piece of ground is fituated in the county of Down, on the banks of the river Lagan, and communicates with the town of Belfast by a narrow bridge.

"The town of Belfast is the fole property of the Earl of Donnegal, who bas always refufed to let what is called in Ireland an improving leafe, to any of his tenants, but fets his leafes up to fale, and lets the premises to the highest bidder, without any regard to the intereft of the old tenants; which conduct, fomé years ago, gave

rife to a very ferious infurrection of feveral thousand infurgents, under the denomination of Hearts of Steel. "The Lord Chief Baron feeing the advantages which muft arife from building a town oppofite to Belfast, banked in a large piece of the sea strand by a ftrong mound, and marked out the place fo inclosed into ftreets, which he let to tenants on leafes in perpetuity.

"An elegant new town was rifing from this foundation, when a num ber of armed men, under the direction of the Seneschal of Belfaft, and the overfeer of the Belfast canal, came down from the inland country, and fo far demolished the works as to let in the fea.

"The Chief Baron is now on the ground overfeeing the repairs, with friends prepared to oppofe and repel any further attempts to injure him."

At the clofe of the Old

19th. Bailey bufinefs on Tuesday the 16th, the following cafe ftands as most remarkable. Samuel Burt, condemned to die for a forgery on Mr. Evans, gold-beater in LongAcre, to whom he was an apprentice, was brought up and informed by the recorder, that his majefty had remitted his fentence of death, on condition of transportationwhich mercy, in a fpeech of fome length, the convict begged to decline. The recorder took every pains to convince him of the impropriety of his conduct. But the prifoner, acknowledging his majefty's clemency, faid," The object for which he wifhed to live not being in his power to obtain, he declined all interceffion in his favour, and muft beg leave to have his fentence put into execution." On which the re

corder informed him, that he should wait till the first day of next feflions, and if he then perfifted in his refolution, he fhould fuffer. The prifoner then returned from the bar, faying, "he fhould ever keep his intent, and only wished that the day was already come."

Whitehall, Jan. 20th. One of the king's meffengers, dispatched by the Right Hon. William Eden, arrived here on Thursday morning laft, with a convention between his majefty and the most christian king, concerning the execution of the late treaty of navigation and commerce, which was figned at Verfailles on the 15th inftant, by Mr. Eden and his moft chriftian/ majefty's plenipotentiary.

Bruffels, Jan. 20th. The emperor has abolished the court dreffes hitherto worn by the ladies of the court; and alfo the custom of kiffing the hands of the fovereign and the royal family, and all kinds of bending of the knee and kneeling down, his majefty looking upon the latter as only due to the Deity.

Paris, Jan. 23d. The Droit d'Aubaine in France, both as to perfonal and real property, is abolished fo far as may affect any future claims of his majesty's British and Irish fubjects. This was declared by an arret which paffed a few days ago.

DIED. Lately, at Upfal, aged 77, the famous Walerino, the most celebrated natural philofopher of the prefent age, and well known through France for his curious works in mineralogy.

At Horton, near Leak, Staffordfhire, Mary Brook, who in Auguft laft arrived at the age of 119 years. She lived fingle 50 years, was then married; lived a married life 50 [N] 2

years,