The harvest in Spain has failed this year; and the merchants of that country have written to their correfpondents here, to enquire what appearance the wheat makes in England, and in case of a good one, whether it is probable the prohibition of the exportation will be taken off, and they may expect a supply from hence. In Spain the harveft is much earlier than in England, and at Cadiz they had new wheat at market the middle of last month. According to accounts from many parts of England, the wheat makes a most promising appearance; but as to the prohibition being taken off, the merchants have been told there is little or no reafon to expect it, as one good harvest will not now furnish us with the Stock which cught to be kept up.

Extract of a letter from Rome.

"The cruel death of Abbe Winckelmann has fpread a general horror through this city, where he was universally beloved. It is as yet uncertain, who will fucceed him as fecretary of the Vatican, and Superintendant of the antiquities of Rome. His collection of Roman coins he has left to Mr. Wilkes, with whom he was in conftant correfpondence, and to whom he had given a fine antique urn of porphyry. The Abbe was every day with him during his abode in this city, and had then a medal struck of him, on one fide of which was the head, with the words of Virgil, pulchra pro libertate, in the exergue natus 28 die Octobris, 1727. On the other was a crown of laurel, and in the middle, Amicitie vot. In the exergue the two lines of Horace, Serus in coelum redeas, diuque lætus interfis populo quirini.

There is a falfe notion, which generally prevails, that our fellow-fubjects of Scotland approve the meafures of administration, because it is well known that Lord Bute is the fecret mover of every political spring. But the most fenfible among the Scots are enemies to his lordship; for they are convinced he was the caufe of the antient enmity between the two nations being revived in all its force, which, if he had never been born, would have now been almost extinguished, and because he feems determined not to let them, any more than the English, enjoy thofe liberties and privileges, which they begin to relifh among us, fince they have been the heirs of Magna Charta.

TWELVE

QUERIE S.

1. Was the general warrant, under which Mr. Wilkes was apprehended legal?

2. Was the feifure of his papers legal?

3. Was the making ufe of thofe papers in a criminal profecution legal?

4. Was the corrupting a fervant to betray and rob his master

egal?

5. Was

5. Was fhifting the cuftody of Mr. Wilkes, after the Habeas Corpus was known to be granted, legal?

6. Was his commitment to the tower for a bailable offence; and denying any perfon accefs, who was ready to have bailed him, and the depriving him of the ufe of pen, ink, and paper, to apply to counsel, or otherwise, legal?

7. Was the alteration of the records in two criminal profecutions, only the evening before the trials, without his knowledge, and against the confent of his folicitor, legal?

8. Was the branding the North-Briton, No. 45, with the epithet treasonable at first in the general warrant in order to inflame, when in all the fubfequent proceedings that pretence was given up, legal?

9. Was the refufal to accept Mr. Wilkes's perfonal furtender, in order to question the legality of the outlawry, legal?

10. Was the refufal of bail, during the dependance of the que tion on the outlawry, legal?

11. Was the delay of juftice in the reverfal of the outlawry, when it was reversed on the arguments first used, legal? 12. Was the outlawry, legal?

PRAY

RAY when is this rage of the alteration of records and authentic papers to ceafe? Ever fince L- M-juftified the alteration he made in Mr. Wilkes's two causes, the confequence of which was that Gentleman's conviction, every little printer and engraver alters even the original pieces which bear his name, without the leaft fcruple or ceremony.

Mr. S. Bladon, in Paternofter Row, has published a print called the arms of liberty and flavery, and at the bottom has given Mr. Wilkes's last addrefs to the gentlemen, clergy, and freeholders of the county of Middlesex: but, Sir, he has made a material alteration, and has put Mr. Wilkes's name to what he never faid. He declared, the juftice of the nation fhould have place against the first and great criminal, the late fecretary of ftate, Lord Halifax; but in the address re-published by Mr. Bladon, the words are, the first and great DELINQUENT. This proceeding, Sir, is very unfair, and we can never know what a man has really faid, if fuch_alterations area llowed. It is the addrefs of Mr. Bladon, not of Mr. Wilkess

In the Craftsman, or Say's Weekly Journal, the words first and great crimina, are entirely omitted, and without a dafh from the printer, at least, to have informed the reader that the whole fentence was not given.

I do not, Sir, at present trouble you with any other authorities to justify L-M-, except these two of Mr. Samuel Bladon, and Mr. Charles Say; but as I have mentioned the word criminal, I must take notice of what a gentleman fays on that fubject in the Public Advertiser, who figns Pro Bono Publico, and dates his letter from W- Hall, Staffordshire, June 29. The words are, "Surely there is one paffage in that addrefs which deferves cenfure; I

mean

mean that where he mentions the Earl of Hallifax in terms altogether illiberal, and unbecoming a fcholar and a gentleman, in which light I have ever beheld Mr. Wilkes I am the more amazed at this, when I recollect his well-wrote fpirited letter to the Duke of Grafton, (and on other occafions of complaint) where he mentions the behaviour of Lord Halifax, in a manner that dif played that noble lord's true character, and the writer's candor;, nay, in this very lait addrefs, he fays he fhall conduct himself without rancour or malice, and yet declares against the first and great criminal, the late fecretary of state, the lord Halifax, not fo much for the punishment he has merited, as for the example to any prefent or future minifter, who might otherwise be tempted to invade the facred liberties of our country."

I defire to know of this gentleman, if the iffuing a general warrant against the perfonal liberty of every man in England, and an order for the feizure of his papers, is not a crime, a very heinous crime, and of confequence if the perfon who commits it is not a criminal, a great criminal, fhall I fay a more enormous crime he could not well commit? In my opinion, that word can never be better applied. It is the very proper word on this occafion. I have likewise seen it lately employed on another atrocious affair with great fitnefs. I mean, Sir, in the addrefs of the city of Carlile to their Representatives, Lord Edward Bentinck and George Mufgrave, Efq. their worthy and free conflituents, alluding to the late partial conduct of the fheriff of the county of Cumberland, Sir Gilfred Lawfon, in the return of the Favourite's fon-in-law, Sir James Lowther, against a clear majority on the poll, make ufe of this expreffion : "In cafe any inftance of mifbehaviour in returning-officers fhould occur, we call upon you to exert yourselves to the utmost in detecting and punishing with feverity CRIMINALS of that fort."

Now, Sir, without bringing you or myfelf into any difficulties in the court of King's-bench, or the house of lords, I will go a ftep farther than. Mr. Wilkes. He has declared that he will proceed against Lord Halifax, as the firft and great criminal; I add, that I hope hereafter to be justified in calling his lordship a convict. I think, Sir, this muft happen. He must be convicted in the courfe of a few months, from the known firmnefs and incorruptibility of Mr. Wilkes, who is regularly purfuing, equally in and out of prifon, the plan of Liberty and fupporting the laws againit the favourers of defpotism and the oppreffors of his country.

The gentleman, Sir, attempts to justify Lord Halifax's iffuing a general warrant by the large catalogue of Secretaries of State above thefe forty years past, and even that idol of the people, the late Mr. Pitt. I will venture to fay that there are fcarcely any political points, however oppolite and contradictory, but may be in this manner juftified by the conduct of Mr. Pitt; and whoever pleads for or against continental wars, for or against German alliances, for or against the encreafe of the army at home, &c. &c.

R

may find

an

an apology for all he defires in the fpeeches, and from the conduct of Mr. Pitt. Colonel B, his prefent favourite, once told him in the house that he was a heap of contradictions. But, Sir, the gentleman will be, I believe, the faft man in our island who quotes Mr. Pitt. That idol is no longer worshipped. The people have found of what bafe materials it was compofed, have thrown it down, and fcoff at the very name. It lieth proftrate in the duft, and fhall never be raised again.

He fays, "Mr. Pitt was proved to have been guilty, when in that lift (of Secretaries,) of being the invader of the sacred liberties of his country. I wish to hear what atonement he has fince made to Liberty, or in what point he has endeavoured to fecure our conftitution against the late attempts of our enemies at home, or to prevent them for the future. But he has got from the crown by the help of the people, the three objects of his guilty ambition, a title, a place, and a penfion, has finished his political ca reer by the gratification of the only things he had in view, and is now, I fuppofe, as happy as his health and his confcience will let him be. The public, however, purfue his name with a just indignation, and we may at present fay with Cicero, populare nunc nihil tam eft quam odium popularium

He adds, 66 as I have the honour of knowing Lord Halifax to be a true-born Englishman, and a ftaunch whig, I will pawn my life for his appearing upon every important occafion as vigilant and fpirited in the defence of the liberties of his country as any Wilkes in the kingdom." This is a bold affertion, when we have before seen that Lord Halifax iffued a general warrant; when for four years he has fupported the legality of it, and when Mr. Wilkes has in this very caufe, as well as in other inftances, stood forth for Liberty. In principle I believe his lordinip to be a Whig. In place, like other Whigs, he acts the Tory. Turn him out, he recommences Whig, and fo continues till he gets in again. This is the cafe of almost all our great men. There is nothing so like a Tory, as a modern Whig in place. A real modern Tory out of place (if there are any fuch) acts like, though he will not own the principles of, a Whig.

I am, Sir, your's, &c.

A. B.

AN IMPARTIAL REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, &c.

A Letter to an Augüft Affembly, on the prefent Pofture of "Affairs: wherein the hard treatment of Mr. Wilkes, and the Caufe of Riots are duly confidered, and Remedies provided.” Quarto. 25. Tomlinfon.

IT

T were to be wifhed that the author would review his title page, and instead of duly confidered, fubftitute dully confidered. There has not appeared a more confused, more rambling, and more trifling performance upon the subjects he treats, of, during the prefent unfettled ftate of the

nation.

When we confider either the method or ftyle, the periods, or the matter of this writer, we cannot help thinking that he has followed Quintilian's advice, which is to learn to write, before he learns to read."

A ferious and friendly Addrefs to the People, with regard to the Caufes of their prefent Complaints, &c. and a Touch by the Way at those who may be answerable for the Mischiefs not only done by the Populace, but by the Military. By a Tradefman. Is. Nicoll.

Weak and malicious performance, intended to charge Mr. Wilkes with the late riots, and the difagreeable circumftances which happened lately in St. George's Fields. The author ftiles himself a Tradefman; but it is evident that he is like to make but a poor trade of writing. But to give him a touch by the way, in his own language, we would advife him, as he advifes others, to forego his pen," Be wife -be peaceable-and mind his bufinefs.'

A Letter to the Author of the North Briton, No. 50. By a Barrifter of the Middle Temple. 1s. Nicoll.

TH

HE author ftiles himself a barrifter, but does not seem to be well enough verfed in the law for an attorney's elerk. He is fo great an adept in writing, that he fets out

with