288 THE BRITISH THEATRE. Cadi. In good time you did fo. I laid a trap for a fhe fox, and worse vermin has caught himself in it. You would fain break loofe now, tho' you left a limb behind you; but I am yet in my territories, and in call of company, that's my comfort. Ferd. Know I have a trick yet to put you past your squeaking. Zor. What do you mean?-You will not throttle him!-Confider he's my father. Ferd. Pr'ythee let us provide firft for our own fafety.-If I do not confider him, he will confider us with a vengeance afterwards. Zor. You may threaten him from crying out; but, for my fake, give him back a little cranny of his windpipe, and fome part of speech. Ferd. Not fo much as one fingle interjection. Come away, father-inlaw; this is no place for dialogues.When you are upon the bench you talk by hours, and there no man muft interrupt you. This is but like for like, good father-in-law--Now I am on the bench, 'tis your turn to hold your tongue. (He fruggles.) Nay, if you will be hanging back, I fhall take care you fhall hang forwards. (Pulls him along the flage with a fword at bis reins.) Let us the fav'ring minute sei Give all our canvas to the va Take with us freedom, love a And leave remorfe and pain The Cadi being thus fecure dinand and Zorayda are about off for a veffel which is lying dinefs for them, when Fatima in, and declares the Dey's offic in fearch of the Cadi, for fome haviour in his office. The Cadi fcious of his crime, and terri the impending vengeance, agric go off for Spain with Ferdinan Zorayda, taking Fatima with whom the common exigence of has now thoroughly reconciled choice of her daughter-in-law. the story terminates, and the is concluded by a fong from. of the characters. JA ry As Mr. Bickerftaff tells us advertisement, that this little principally Dryden's, the fom the mufic are the only objects confideration. From the fpe we have given of the first, the will be able to judge for himfe with regard to the latter, we m knowledge that fome of the airs ticularly one by Vento, are extr pretty. Zor. T'other way to the arbour with him, and make hafte before we An odd fort of Diverfion, common are difcovered. Ferd. If I only bind and gag him there, he may commend me hereafter for civil ufage; he deferves not fo much favour for any action of his life. Neighbourhood of Symrna. this country there are a number of ftorks, who and hatch their young very larly. The inhabitants, in ord divert themselves at the expene those birds, place hens eggs in ftork's neft, and when the young hatched, the cock on feeing ther a different form from his own cies, makes an hideous noise, brings a crowd of other storks the neft, and who to revenge difgrace which they imagine hen has brought upon her deftroy her, by pecking her to deal the cock, in the mean time, mak the heaviest lamentation, as if wailing his misfortune, which liged him to have recourfe to difagreeable severities. 1769. 289 The Hiftory of the laft Seffion of Farliament, &c. The Hiftory of the Seffion of Parliament, which began Nov. 8, 1768, being the fecond Seffion of the Thirteenth Parliament of Great Britain; with an Account of all the malerial Queflions therein determined, and of the political Difputes thereby occafioned without Doors. Continued from p. 180. TH HE fecond feffion of the prefent parliament, which opened on Tuefday the 8th of November, 1768, was expected with an univerfal impa. fience by the kingdom, as the commotions in America, together with the disturbances in the metropolis at home, in confequence of Mr. Wilkes's election for the county of Middlefex, Alled all ranks of people with an idea, that the House of Commons would proceed to fome extraordinary refolutions. It was alfo imagined, that the king's fpeech would have adverted to the more recent irregularities in the capital, especially as the prefs was hourly teeming with productions of fo inflammatory a nature, as vifibly tended to give the lower orders of the people, already too much enraged, a total difregard of all fubordination and government. His majesty, however, took no notice of diforders immediately domeftic, but confined himself to the general bufinefs of Europe, the affairs of America, and the happy relief which the poorer claffes of the community received from the reduced price of corn. With regard to the first he obferved, that it would have given him great fatisfaction, if all the other powers of Europe had been as careful, as he had ever been, to avoid taking any ftep that might endanger the general tranquility. He faid, that he conRantly received from them the fronget affurances of a pacific difpofition towards this country; but that no affurances fhould divert him from ftedfatly attending to the general intereft of Europe, nor fhould any confideraton prevail upon him to fuffer any attempts on the dignity of his crown, or the rights of his people With regard to the fecond head of his majesty's fpeech, it took notice, that though he had hoped the fpirit of faction was well nigh extinguifhed in America, yet, that late advices in formed him, the inhabitants, even in the capital of a northern colony, were June, 1769. a ftate of disobedience to ali law and government, and had proceeded to meafures fubverfive of the conftitution, notwithstanding he had upon his part taken every step that appeared neceffary for fupporting the laws, and inducing a due obedience to the legisla tive authority of this kingdom. His njefty concluded on this point with adding, that the parliament might rely upon his perfeverance in the fame purpofes, and faying, he did not doubt, but the affiftance they would give, would enable him effectually to cruth diforders, which were pregnant with fo many evils, not only to the colonies immediately, but to all the dominions of his crown. He then, in the third place, advifed the parliament to take every poffible precaution against a return of the calamities ari fing from the exorbitant price of provifions, and fummed up his whole fpeech by recommending unanimity in all their public deliberations. In answer to this fpeech the parliament immediately refolved upon a dutiful addrefs, in which they gratefully acknowledged his majefty's paternal regard for the happiness of his people, which had made him conftantly foli cirous to fecure them the inestimable blefling of a profound tranquillity; adding, that they entirely depended on his attention to the general interest of Europe, and received the utmoft fa- tisfaction from his affurance, of fuffering no attempt, either upon the digni ty of his crown, or the rights of his fubjects. They expreffed the fincereft concern for the diforders of America, and declared, that though they should be ever ready to redrefs the jutt complaints of the colonies, they were ne vertheless determined to maintain the fupreme authority of the British legiflature over every part of the British empire. They then thanked his majetty for the meatures he had taken to fusport the laws in the colonies, and affured him of their unabating readinefs to concur with him in every regu 290 The HISTORY of the laft Seffion of Parliament. June lation that appeared likely to establish the conftitutional dependance of the Americans, which was fo indifpenfibly necefiary for their profperity, as well as for the profperity of the parent kingdom. And in answer to the concluding paragraph of the fpeech, they declared themselves animated with the moft lively fentiments of gratitude for his majefty's benevolence in mitigating the diftreffes of the poor in the article of corn, profeffing them felves ftrenuoufly defirous of guarding against future calamities from that fource, and afluring him, that his own exalted example would, on all occafions, fill them with an uniform folicitude for the happiness of their country. Having refolved upon this address, the parliament next congratulated the queen upon her happy delivery of a fecond princefs, and proceeded to the more immediately active business of the nation. The first object of this generally national kind, which engaged their attention, was the price of corn, from the exorbitant rates of which, as well as from the very diftreffing scarcity, not only the poor, but the middling parts of the people, had been long very melancholy fufferers. To prevent therefore the like calamities in future, the House of Commons, on Monday the 14th of November, immediately after his majesty's answer to their addrefs was reported by the Speaker, ordered a bill to be brought in, for extending the prohibition, not only on the exportation of corn, grain, malt, flour, bread, biscuit, and ftarch, but on the extraction of low wines and fpirits from wheat and wheat flour. The order for this falutary purpose fcarcely took place, when Mr. Wilkes's celebrated petition, which, at this time, more than any other affair, engroffed the univerfal attention of all ranks, was prefented by Sir Joseph Mawbey, member for Southwark.The petition contained a recapitulation of all the proceedings against Mr. Wilkes, from the time of his first apprehenfion, by a general warrant, in April 1763, to the time of his commitment to the King's Bench prifon in June 1768. It specified, that in April 1763, Mr. Wilkes, though a member of the House of Commons, was apprehended by a general warrant, and carried before the earls of Egremont and Hallifax, then his majesty's principal fecretaries of ftate, who notwithstanding he had applied for a writ of habeas corpus to the court of Common Pleas, which was directly ordered, as he acquainted their lordships at his examination, and was only charged with misdemeanor, committed him to the Tower, and for an interval of three days denied his friends all access to his perfon; during which period his house was plundered, his bureau broke open, and his papers carried away, under the fanction of minifterial authority. The petition next fet forth, that after Mr. Wilkes's discharge from the Tower by the court of Common Pleas, a fubpoena was served upon him from the court of King's Bench, upon an information that feveral of the jurymen, who were to ferve on the trials that followed this information, had only a day's notice given them; that the records were materially altered by Lord Mansfield's order against the confent of his folicitor; that even his own papers, which were seized under the general warrant, were made ufe of as evidence against him; and that Philip Carteret Webb, Efq; then folicitor to the Treafury, fuborned one Michael Curry with public money, for the fame purpose. Mr. Wilkes then informed the house, that in the preceding March he had been elected to reprefent the county of Middlesex in parliament, and that in April the court of King's Bench committed him to prifon, in confequence of verdicts irregularly obtained, and in the June following fentenced him to a farther imprisonment of twenty-two months: he therefore fubmitted his cafe to the confideration of the house, and made no doubt but its well known juftice and wifdom would grant him an effectual and a speedy redress. The house, on receiving this petition, ordered it to lie upon the table, but at the fame time directed, that a copy of the records on the proceedings against Mr. Wilkes, on the feveral informations in the court of King's Bench, fhould be produced for their infpection, which was accordingly done on the 23d; when a new motion being made for reading his petition again, it was refolved, that the matter of it should be heard on the fecond |