munity, as in ours, it is proportionably effential. To the fecurity of a free conftitution, it contributes in various ways; by convincing those who are intrusted with the public administration, that every valuable end of government is beft an fwered by the enlightened confidence of the people; and by teaching the people themselves to know and to value their own rights; to difcern and provide against invafions of them; to diftinguish between oppreffion and the neceffary exercife of lawful authority; between burdens proceeding from a difregard to their convenience, and those refulting from the inevitable exigencies of fociety; to difcriminate the spirit of liberty from that of li centiousness, cherishing the firft, avoiding the laft, and uniting a speedy, but tempe rate vigilance againft encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws. Whether this defirable object will be beft promoted by affording aids to feminaries of learning already eftablished-by the inftitution of a national univerfity-or by any other expedients, will be well worthy of a place in the deliberations of the legislature." The prefident was dreffed in a plain fait of American manufactured cloth, when he delivered his fpeech to the Congrefs. WEST INDIES. Kingston, Dec. 12. Thursday laft a free conference, between the committees of the council and affembly, was held in the council-chamber, on the fubject of the lave-trade," to confider what further measures may be the moft expedient to be taken, in confequence of the former refolutions of the joint committee of the council and affembly; when a fpirited remonftrance of the two houfes to the British Parliament, drawn up and prefented by the Hon. Temple Luttrell, met with the most unanimous concurrence of the committee, and was afterwards adopted with little alteration. The following has been handed about as an authentic copy of the remonftrance: To the Honourable the House of Com mons of Great Britain. The remonftrance of his Majefty's most dutiful and loyal fubjects, the Council and Affembly of Jamaica, on behalf of themselves and all perfons interefted in the trade or cultivation of the Weft India Inlands. Ir is with furprife, equalled only by our affliction, we learn that certain innoVOL. LII. vations are projected in parliament, which not only threaten injury to all property throughout the British Weft-Indies, but, in the cafe of many individuals, ftrike altogether at its existence. Twelve propofitions appear to have been offered to the Houfe of Commons in their laft feffion, which were avowed as introductory to an entire abolition of the African flave-trade. The refolutions hereto annexed, which we have thought it necessary to adopt at this important juncture, may demonftrate to the Parliament of Great Britain, that the propofitions are founded on imperfect information and prejudice; on acknowledged grievances, which, if admitted, are remediable, without fo violent, fo impolitic a facrifice. The British nation is pledged for fecurity to her colonies by most explicit and facred public acts, repeatedly held forth to invite settlers to these islands: in proof whereof we refer to the charter granted (by King Charles II. in 1662 and 1664, in confequence of an addrefs from Parli ament), for establishing a Royal African Company; and also to statutes of the 9th and 10th of King William, and to the preamble of an act paffed in the 23d year of his late Majefty King George II. for extending and improving the trade of Africa. On the faith of fuch folemn engagements on the part of Great Britain, her colonifts embarked their fortunes, and adventured with perfevering industry on fpeculative and perilous purfuits; where the weight of every miscarriage has fallen on themselves, while their general fucceffes have poured wealth into the lap of the mother country. An abolition of the flave trade of Great Britain cannot but prove fatal to her colonial interefts; and this blow is meditated when, after having struggled for feveral fucceffive years with most calamitous vifitations of Providence, a dawn of hope juft opens upon us of fulfilling all our pecuniary engagements with Great Britain, and gathering the fruits of our toil. The national opinion oppofed the EaftIndia bill, offered in 1784 by the Minifters of the Crown then in power, because the people at large confidered it as infringing the rights of a refpectable body of his Majefty's loyal fubjects. The rights of the British colonists are as inviolable as thofe of their fellow-citi zens zens within any part of the British domi nions. They are interwoven with the fundamental conftitutions of the empire, and which conftitutions do not give omnipotence to a British Parliament. The authority of a British Parliament is not competent to deftroy, nor partially to mutilate, private properties. We apprehend, fuch a violation of the property of any fubject of the British realm (not under legal forfeiture), without our confent, or without full compensation, would be an unconftitutional affumption of power, fubverfive of all public faith and confidence as applied to the colonifts, and muft ultimately tend to alienate their affections from the parent-ftate. Therefore, the British Colonies of the West Indies now claim that protection which the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain have voluntarily granted, and to which they remain entitled by their loyalty and allegiance. ENGLAND. cial nation. The effects of these failures are ftill visible; a very great proportion of the bankrupts of last year being perfons concerned in the linen and cotton business. A more defperate fpeculation never was entered into by the needy and avaricious. That all the adventurers were needy, may be denied. Some of them embarked real property, but ftill it was a fpeculation! a fpeculation of avarice and ambition. Fictitious money and fictitious credit were employed to promote it; yet, happily for the country, the bubble burst before the mischief had done its worst. The commiffioners of the rational debt received the report of its liquication on Saturday, Jan. 30. at Mr Pitt's; when it appeared to stand as under: Confols, Reduced, Old S. Sea, New S. Sea, Capital. Sums paid. L.2,162,550 1,618,761 Lift of BANKRUPTS from 1740 to the end 3 per Ct. 1751, of 1788. Total, 94 501,065 16 3 204,800 153,008 26 5,184,850 3,898,505 10 1 Friday, Feb. 5. Humphries and Mendoza waited on Sir Sampfon Wright, at the office in Bow-ftreet, at his defire, with their fureties; when they were informed by the magiftrate, that if they fhould attempt to challenge each other, or appoint any meeting in future, they would be fubject to feverer penalties: they both promifed they would not, though Mendoza faid he could have wished to have had another trial with Humphries, and then never intended to have fought again. SCOTLAN D. The Edinburgh Equeftrian Circus was opened Monday, Jan. 25 with great variety of entertainments. The company who attended the Circus were no lefs brilliant than numerous. Mr Parker's great abilities in the Equeftrian Exercise were fully displayed on the occafion, and most defervedly applauded. Meff. Sutton, King, and Ricketts, in their various and repeated exertions to please, did not lofe their fhare of merit, and received the gratification of the audience in numerous claps; as did Mr Jenkinson, whole abilities in the Clown to the Horfemanship, excited the laughter of every one present. The Ground and Lofty Tumbling, if not fuperior, was at leaft equal, to any performance of the kind ever exhibited. Me Holland Holland and the Mifs Bruguiers performance in the new Ballet, called Le Vieux Rajeune, was justly confidered excellent; -and Signior Spinicuta's Rope-dancing defervedly received many and repeated burfts of applause. Mr Aldridge's well known abilities as a dancer were displayed in a grand Ballet, compofed by himfelf, called the Caledonian Shepherds, and very well received. Nor fhould it be omitted to mention the lady who accompanied him in the dance, whofe performance was wonderful. This laft entertainment was decorated with a grand and correct view of Glenco, which, for defign and execution, was confidered a mafter-piece of the kind.-In fhort, the whole of the fcenery, various gildings, paintings, and decorations, fhown forth with a chandelier confifting of near 200 lamps, formed a spectacle scarcely to be equalled. The entertainments continue to be performed every evening. Monday, Feb. 1. came on before the High Court of Jufticiary, the trial of John Burns, travelling merchant and hawker, and Alexander Baillie Veitch, grocery merchant and fpirit-dealer in Leith, accused of violently affaulting, beating, and wounding James Squair, and William Meikle, expectant officers of excife, betwixt eleven and twelve o'clock of the night of the 24th of June laft, near the Netherbow. The trial fhould have proceeded on the 21ft December laft, but was then adjourned, on account of Veitch having failed to fift himself at the bar, in terms of bail granted for that purpose. Veitch, on petition, was reponed against the sentence of fugitation formerly pronounced against him; but the confideration, whether the bail-bond thould be forfeited, was reserved till some future occafion. The jury, by their verdict, which was returned next day, having by a plurali. ty of voices found the pannels art and part guilty, the Court pronounced fentence on the 5th; and in regard the pannels were young and the crime unpremeditated, wishing to make the punishment as favourable as the nature of the offence would permit, ordained them to be banished Scotland for feven years, and in cafe of their return, to be whipped, and again banished for seven years.On the pannels withdrawing, Sarah Hunter, who had been imprisoned for prevarication on the trial, was brought into Court, and after a fevere reprimand from their Lordfhips, was difmiffed from the bar. Wednesday, Feb. 3. was executed, on the platform at the weft end of the Tolbooth, Bartholomew Collins, for the murder of Marjory Cowan, his wife, a few days after fhe was delivered of a child. He was a middle fized man, about thirtythree years of age, and was born at Carriftone in Ireland. He was bred a maltfter, and had served several distillers there. He was afterwards a brewer's fervant in Edinburgh. He said he had lived with his wife near three years; but did not marry her till about five weeks before the was brought to bed; foon after which, from a fit of jealoufy, and when intoxicated with liquor, he perpetrated the crime for which he fuffered. He died in the profeffion of the Church of Rome; and, agreeably to the fashion of his country, was hanged in a fhirt, having on neither coat nor waiftcoat. His body, after being fufpended the usual time, was given to Dr Monro for diffection, in terms of his sentence. Friday, Feb. 12. Alexander Macdonald, Alexander Menzies, Anne Ker mack, and Janet Kermack her daughter, were brought into the court of feffion. The three laft were witneffes in a process inftituted by Macdonald, for recovery of 3841. contained in a bill said to have been granted to him by William Bruce, late fhipmafter in Dundee, but which bill the heirs of faid William Bruce refused to honour, on account of its having been obtained by fraud and circumvention.-A proof to both parties was allowed, and their Lordships having confidered the fame, found Alexander Macdonald guilty of a fraud in obtaining said bill, and also found these three witneffes guilty of perjury in fupporting Macdonald's claim. The Lord Prefident having requested the opinion of their Lordships with refpect to the punishment proper to be inflicted on the pannels- Lord Alva propofed, that Macdonald should be tranfported beyond feas for fourteen years, banifhed forth of Scotland for life, and declared infamous. Lord Henderland faid, he confidered the propofed punishment as a juft and proper one; that the aggravated nature of the guilt would have led him to any degree of punishment fhort of death. Had it not been from the peculiar fituation of the pannel, be fhould have propofed, that public whipping be added to the the other part of the punishment; but he feared the rage of an incenfed populace might prove fatal to the pannel. All their Lordships agreeing in the propofed punishment, the Lord Prefident informed Macdonald of the opinion of the Court; and he feeming inclined to fpeak, his Lordfhip defired him to proceed, if he had any thing to say before fentence was pronounced. "That, betwixt her Great God and her, it was all truth;" yet, after fuch a folemn appeal, the greatest part of her evidence had been proved falfe. But her guilt did not ftop here; for there was great reason to believe that she had also instigated her daughter to falsehood-one to whom the was bound to have taught a very different leffon. His Lordship then addreffed himself to the daughter, pointed out the Macdonald then addreffed the Court heinousness of the crime fhe had been nearly as follows: "MY LORDS, For near twelve months paft have I been confined within the dreary walls of a jail, with a helplefs family, who have refided in prifon with me, with nothing to fupport them; in confequence of which, I have been under the neceflity of applying to your Lordships for affiftance for myself and them. Fourpence a-day was the poor pittance allowed me, and which behoved to serve us all. You may guefs at the anxiety and pain I felt on their account. And now, after having fuffered fuch accumulated diftrefs, am I to be banished from my native land, from my wife and children? If fo, my forrow is heavier than I can bear, and death itself would give relief." The Lord Prefident, after expatiating on the nature of his guilt, and giving him a fuitable exhortation, pronounced the fentence of the Court. Lord Alva next propofed, that Alexander Menzies be transported beyond feas for seven years, banished from Scotland for life, and declared infamous: That Anne Kermack be imprisoned three months, and declared infamous; and that her daughter, Janet Kermack, be imprisoned one month. Their Lordships fignifying their approbation of this fentence, the Lord Prefident addreffed each of the prifoners. As for Menzies, he had fhown himself to be a moft infamous man, dangerous to fociety, one who neither feared God nor regarded man. He and all of them had formed and perfifted in a scene of perjury and accumulated guilt feldom to be equalled. As to Anne Kermack, her iniquity was great indeed: When called upon in this Court, to fay whether the evidence which fhe had emitted, and which was then read over to her, was truth, or if there was any part of it the wished to retract, the employed an expreffion feldom ufed by any at the bar, guilty of, and exhorted her to better conduct in time coming; in the hopes of which, and on account of her youth, their Lordships had not declared her infamous. Before his Lordship finished, he recur. red again to Macdonald. He faid, he ftood at the head of this combination, which exhibited a picture of guilt and infamy of the blackeft kind, furpaffing any thing he had ever witneffed. He did not appear to be an ignorant man; on the contrary, he feemed to poffefs talents, but which he had ufed to the very wort of purpofes. His Lordship reminded him, that the reafon the Court had not found the bill a forgery, but only falfe and im probative, was on account of its not ha ving been proved that he had figned the acceptor's name; but his having taken it to Bruce in place of a receipt, which the old man meant to have figned, the fraud differed very little in point of criminality, His Lordship said, from what he had now feen of this affair, he could not help doubting whether all was right with refpect to a late trial [vol. 50. p. 411.620.], but this he would now leave with God and his own confcience. His Lordship admonished him, for his own fafety, to guard his behaviour in that part of the world he was going to, as perhaps he would not there meet with fo much ceremony; the fmalleft flip would bring inftant and condign punishment. Macdonald again addreffed the court. He faid, his Lordship had thrown out a reflection, as if he doubted all was not fair in a late trial; but he said, he looked upon it to be a duty he owed to himself and to this country, to declare, (and he would die in the faith of it, and reft his falvation on the truth of it), that Bruce and Falconer were guilty of the robbery of the Dundee bank; and after what Lord Hailes faid to him on these trials, and for which he should ever bear the higheft refpect for his Lordship, had he been been guilty of taking away the life of a North Briton, he behoved to be of all men the moft miserable. Macdonald spoke without the smalleft embarrassment, and with a fortitude and energy that would have done honour to a better cause. Monday, Feb. 13. William Robertfon, watchmaker in Sunderland, was brought to trial before the High Court of Jufticiary, accused of forging guinea notes of the Bank of Scotland, and uttering them knowing them to be forged. The libel being read over, the jury impannelled, and no objection made to the relevancy of the indictment, the pannel was called upon to fay, Guilty, or, Not Guilty? To which he replied GUILTY. The Solicitor-General, who appeared as counsel for the Bank, informed the court, that from certain alleviating circumftances in this cafe, he fhould confent that the libel be reftricted to an arbitrary punishment. After which, the ufual interlocutor was pronounced; and the pannel having figned his confeflion in prefence of the jury, they retired for a few minutes, and brought in a verdict GUILTY. The Court next day fentenced him to be transported beyond feas for fourteen years, and to fuffer death if found at large in this kingdom before the expiration of faid term. Col. Fullarton, in his late excurfion to Greece and Afia Minor, has imported a breed of theep from Colchis, where Jafon, in the firft Argonautic expedition, went in queft of the golden fleece. The animals are of a good fize, long in the body, though fhort in the limbs, and covered with very thick fleeces of wool, reaching down to the ground; but their wool, though more in quantity, is not equal in quality to that of Spain and England. They have been fent to Col. Fullarton's eftate in Ayrshire. MARRIAGES. Jan. 15. At Knock, lfle of Sky, Lt-Col. Donald Macleod, of the Madras establishment, to Mifs Diana Macdonald. 29. Edward Jervis Ricketts, Efq; nephew to Sir John Jervis, K. B. to the Hon. Mifs Twilleton, youngest daughter of the late Lord Say and Sele. Feb. 6. At Blenheim, by fpecial licence, the Hon. John Spencer, eldest fon of Lord Charles Spencer, to the Rt Hon. Lady Elifabeth Spencer, fecond daughter of his Grace the Duke of Marlborough.. Jan. 21. At London, in St Margaret's of three fine boys, as large as moft children workhouse, Anne Cockburn, a poor woman, are at fingle births. They, as well as the mother, are all in health, and likely to live. About two years fince this fame poor woman had twins in the parish work-house, and both the children are alive, fo that he has now five children living, at two births. Lately, at Chipping Sodbury, Gloucesterfhire, the wife of one Summers, a journeyman tailor, of four children, three girls and a boy. The girls are fine children, but the hoy was dead. Feb. 19. Mrs Cumming of Altyre, of a fon. 21. At Edinburgh, Mrs Rudyerd, wife of Capt. Rudyerd, commanding royal engineer for North Britain, of a fon. 23. At London, Lady Apfley, of a fon and heir. fon, Efq; Advocate, of a fon. At Edinburgh, the lady of Neil Ferguf 25. At London, Lady Charlotte Dundas, of a daughter. DEATHS. Oa. 12. 1789. At Clarendon, island of Jamaica, Mr James Baillie, furveyor. Nov. At Cronstadt, aged 31, Sir Samuel Elphinstone, Knight of the order of St George, Captain of her Imperial Majefty's fhip Prince Guftaaf, and Lieutenant in his Britannic Majefty's navy. Jan. 10. 1790. At Oeringuen, in her 18th year, the Princefs Sophia Carolina of Saxe Hildbourghaufen. 12. At Hamburgh, in his 73d year, John Anderfon, Efq; J. U. D. and Burgomaster of that city. 17. At Vienna, the Baron de Wenkstern, |