munications being kept perfectly fecret. Another letter from Mr. Dandas to Mr. M'Ritchie, the prifoner's agent, was next read, in anfwer to one from Mr. M'Ritchie, requesting of Mr. Dundas what letters he had of the prifoner's. The anfwer was, that all the letters he had received from Mr. Watt had been delivered to the lord-advocate. The lord-advocate then gave an account of this bufinefs. He had converfed with the prifoner feveral times at his own lodgings, and he had at one time given him fome information which he thought of importance; this was refpecting the difaffection of fome dragoons of Perth, which, upon inquiry, turned out to be ill founded. In March, 1793, an offer had been made to him to difclofe fome important fecrets, provided he would give the prifoner one thousand pounds; this he abfolutely refused: however, fome time after, the prifoner having informed him that he was much preffed for money, to discharge a bill of thirty pounds, his lordship (who was then in London), not withing he fhould be diftreffed for fuch a fmall fum, fent an order for the payment of it. All this happened previously to the meeting of the convention; fince which time, at least fince October last, he did not recollect feeing or having any connection with Mr. Watt.

Mr. Hamilton, counfel for the prifoner, dwelt long on the correfpondence between Mr. Dundas and Mr. Watt. He faid, the prifoner had not deferted the fervice in which he had engaged, but had not had an opportunity of exercising it, till the very time he was apprehended. He was a fpy for government; and it was well known, that a spy was obliged

to affume, not only the appearance of those whofe fecrets he meant to reveal, but even to take part in their proceedings, in order to prevent a difcovery. A fpy in an army, he said, was obliged, not only to affume the uniform of the enemy, but even to appear in arms; and it would be exceedingly hard, indeed, if taken in a conflict, that he fhould be punished for ditcharging his duty.

After the lord-prefident had fummed up the evidence, the jury re tired, at half paft five in the morning, and, in about five minutes, returned with a verdict-guilty.

The trial lafted nearly twenty-two hours.

Yesterday came on the trial of Mr. David Downie, on the fame charge; and, nearly the fame evidence being produced, he was found guilty: but the jury unanimously recommended him to mercy, on account of fome favourable circumstances in his cafe.

And this day, the prifoners being placed at the bar, the following awful fentence was paffed on them:"Robert Watt and David Downie, you have been found guilty of high treafon, by your peers; the fentence of the court is, therefore, that you be taken to the place from whence you came, from thence you fhall be drawn on a fledge to the place of execution, on Wednesday, the 15th of October, there to hang by your necks until you are both dead, your bowels to be taken out and caft in your face, and each of your bodies to be cut in four quarters, to be at the difpofal of his majefty; and the Lord have mercy upon your fouls!"

13th. An alarming fire broke out in the new corn-mills and drying kiln, fituate at Wigan, belonging to Meflrs. Bevan, Chapman, and co. The buildings (which coft-12,000l.)

adwelling-houle; Patrick Murphy, for a rape; Francis Rofe and James Catapodi, for forgery; Thomas Borley, for robbery; and William Mohyneux, for fetting a dwelling-houfe

on fire.

Difpatches were received at the Sierra-Leone houfe, from that fettlement, dated the 13th of June, the 2d of July, and the 5th of Auguft, by the company's fhips, the Ocean and the Amy, which have both arrived at Plymouth with African produce. It appears that the colony were advancing, and the affairs of the company improving in every refpect, when a temporary interruption was given to the peace and order of the fettlement by the turbulence of feveral difaffected Nova Scotia fettlers, who endeavoured to refcue fome refractory persons of their own body, that had been arrested for a breach of the peace. Both the individuals, whofe refcue was demanded, and the ringleaders in the fucceeding tumult, have been either taken up and fent to England, or obliged to quit the colony. The rains had been fevere; no death, however, had happened among the whites for many months, though feveral were indifpofed. An expedition, of about 450 miles circuit, had, been made to the interior country, by two of the company's fervants, one of whom, accompanied by another company's fervant, encouraged by the fuccefs of this adventure, was preparing to fet out on a journey to Tombuctoo, in the hope of being able to penetrate through the continent of Africa. The laft difpatches are dated about three weeks fubies quent to the tumult which has been mentioned, when the peace of the colony feemed to have been fully reitored. All the company's fhips

which were expected to have reached Sierra Leone had arrived.

DIED. 12th. At Warfaw, prince Michael Poniatowsky, brother to the king of Poland, archbishop of Gnefna, primate of Poland and Lithuania, fovereign of the principality of Lowitz, abbot of Czerwin, and knight of the orders of the white eagle, faint Stanislaus, and Malta; born October 12, 1736. This truly benevolent prince was in London in the year 1791, and, during his refidence here, was elected a fellow of the Royal Antiquarian Societies, and aflifted at feveral of their meetings.

At Pinner, Middlesex, Daniel Dancer, efq. a man not more remarkable for his riches, than for his having. lived in a state of apparent extreme poverty. Though fcarcely allowing himfelf the common neceflaries of life, he has left landed property, to the amount of 5001. a year, to dame Maria Tempeft (daughter of Holmes, efq. of Wigton, Leicesterfhire, and widow of fir Henry Tenpeft, bart. of Tong, Yorkshire), and, after her death, to her only fon, fir Henry Tempeft, of Stoke End, Hereford. During Dancer's laft ticknefs, lady Tempeft accidentally called upo him, and, finding him laying up to the neck in an old fack, without even a fhirt, remonstrated against the impropriety of his fituation; when he replied, that, having come into the world without a fhirt, he was determined to go out of it in the fame manner. Requesting him to have a pillow to raife his head, he ordered his old fervant to bring him a trufs of hay for that purpose. His houfe, of which captain Holmes (formerly of the royal navy) has taken poffeffion for his fifter, lady Tempeft, is a moft miferable building, and has not been repaired for half a century,

Though

Though poor in external appearance, it has been recently difcovered to be immenfely rich within; captain Holmes having, at different times, found large bowls filled with guincas and half-guineas, and parcels of bank-notes ftuffed under the covers of old chairs. Mr. Dancer generally had his body girt with a hayband, to keep together his tattered garments; and the ftockings he ufually wore had been fo frequently darned and patched, that icarcely any of the original could be feen; but in dirty or cold weather they were thickly covered with ropes of hay, which ferved as fubftitutes for boots; his whole garb niuch refembling that of a miferable mendicant. Notwithstanding his extreme penury, Mr. Dancer poflefied many praifeworthy qualities. He obferved the moft rigid integrity in every tranfaction, and was never averle to affift thofe of whom he entertained a good opinion, and whofe embarraffments required a temporary aid; although, at the fame time, it muft be confeffed, he did not lend his money without expecting the ufual intereft. We have not heard whether he has left any legacy to his faithful and only domeftic, old Griffiths, who, however, has for many years paft fared much better than his mafter, having been indulged with whatever he chofe to eat and drink, besides a good and comfortable bed to fleep on. The latter, Mr. Dancer always deemed an unneceffary luxury.-Mr. Dancer feems to have been the principal branch of a thrifty tree, every feion of which was of a fimilar texture. He in herited a confiderable property by the death of a fifter, who exactly resembled him in temper. She feldom quitted her obfcure refidence,

except on being foufed by the noife of hunters and their hounds, when fhe would fally forth, armed with a pitch-fork, in order to check the progrefs of the intruders on her bro ther's grounds; on which occafion fhe had very much the appearance of a mere bundle of rags.—A brother is ftill alive, very rich, and faid to be (if poffible) more penurious than the deceased.

Drowned, in croffing the Thames, at Chifwick, Benjamin Vandergucht, the famous picture-dealer and collector. He was the only son of Mr. John Vandergucht, picture-dealer, in Lower Brook-ftreet, and was one of the first ftudents at the Royal Academy on its inftitution in 1769. He was returning from Chifwick, where he was employed in cleaning and arranging the duke of Devonfhire's pictures. A barge, by the careleffnefs of the boy who was guiding the horfe in the towingpath, ran foul of the boat, which overfet. As Mr. Vandegucht could fwim, it is imagined he was drowned by the clinging of a woman-paffenger, who funk with him, and had in her arms a child a few months old, which was providentially faved by the humane exertions of another of the paffengers. After two hours fearch, his body was found and taken home. His fate is the more to be deplored, as he has left a worthy and amiable widow, and eleven children, to lament their great lofs. Mr. Vandergucht was one of the firft connoiffeurs in painting; he had indeed more experience in the art than any of his contemporaries. He was a temperate, placid, unoffending man, and very much attached to his family.

осто

OCTOBER.

Ift. A curious fraud was put in practice at the Stock-Exchange, by Benjamin Lara, a stock-jobber, who parchafed 500 Irifh lottery tickets of Mr. Dacofta, and gave him a draft for the amount on Ladbroke and co. who faid that Mr. Lara never kept cath with them. It was foon afterwards difcovered that he had borrowed 2,6001. of a friend, for which he had left the tickets as a collateral fecurity, and then got the bank notes he received from him changed into fmaller ones. The affair being immediately difcovered, the injured party went to his houfe at Peckham, where a poft-chaife and four was waiting at the door; but Lara fome fhort time before having been feen and fpoke to concerning the bufinefs, by Mr. Dacofta's fon, who was not then apprized of its being a fraud, he had taken an opportunity of efcaping by the back way of his houfe. One of the notes of 501. was found in the houfe. He was afterwards apprehended by Miller and Kennedy, belonging to the Public-Office, Bow-ftreet, owing to the following circumftance: -- -The above officers, thinking that fome information might be gained by going to Mrs. Lara's houfe, in Aliff-iireet, Goodman's fields (the mother of the prifoner), fet out for that purpose. When they had got near the houfe, they met a perfon whom they fuppofed, from a defcription they had previously received of him, to be the offender's brother, and took him into cuftody. On fearching his pockets, they found a letter, which, though figned with the name of Chriftopher Jennings, from its contents and direction, convinced them that it came from Benjamin Lara; VOL.XXXVI.

on which Miller immediately went to the Golden-Crofs, Charing-crofs, the place mentioned in the letter, where, on inquiring for Mr. Jennings, he was introduced to the prifoner, on whom he found bank-notes and money for the whole of the fum re ceived for the tickets, except about 401. which he had expended fince the affair took place. Some other letters were alfo found on his brother; by which it appeared, that, when Lara left his houfe, near Kenfington, he proceeded to Portsmouth, but, being difappointed in getting an immediate conveyance to the cons tinent, returned, by crofs roads, to London, and put up at the Goldencrofs, from whence he fent the letter that caufed his apprehenfion. He was taken before Mr. juftice Addington, for examination, who, on learning that the offence had been committed in the city, ordered the officers to conduct him to the lord-mayor.

Brightheimfione. A dreadful accident happened yesterday at Hove, in confequence of the inadvertency of a boy who was attempting to blow up fiics with gunpowder, at a public-houfe. He had formed a train, for this purpose, across the fide of the room, at the end of which flood a clofet containing a great quantity of powder. A fpark of the former unfortunately got among the latter, and, fuch were the dreadful confequences of the explofion, that the boy had one of his eyes blown out, and his face moft fhockingly mangled. Two foldiers have likewife fuffered fo much by the same, that their lives are defpaired of. There were feveral more in the apartinent, who efcaped unhurt. That part of the room, however, where the gunpowder ftood, was intirely knocked down by the violence of

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