court, acquitted all the defendants. Mr. Adam from London, as leading counsel for the plaintiff, had a fee of 300 guineas; and Mr. Erskine the like for the defendants. DIED. 21.-At Dumfries after a lingering illness, Robert Burns, who excited fo much interest by the peculiarity of the circumstances under which he came forward to public notice, and the genius difcovered in his poetical compofitions. Burns was literally a plough man, but neither in that ftate of fervile dependence or degrading ignorance which the fituation might bespeak in this country. He had the common education of a Scotch peafant, perhaps something more, and that spirit of independence, which in that country is sometimes to be found in a high degree in the humbleft claffes in fociety. He had genius, starting beyond the obfacles of poverty, and which would bave diftingished itself in any fituation. His early days were occupied in procuring bread by the labour of his own hands, in the honourable task of cultivating the earth; but his nights were devoted to books and the muse, except when they were wasted in those haunts of village festivity, and the indul gencies of the focial bowl, to which the poet was but too immoderately attached in every period of his life. He wrote, not with a view to encounter the public eye, or in the hope to procure fame by his productions, but to give vent to the feelings of his own genius-to indulge the impulfe of an ardent and poetical mind. Burns from that reftless activity, which is the peculiar characteriftic of his countrymen, proposed to emigrate to Jamaica, in order to feek his fortune by the exertion of those ta lents of which he felt himself poffeffed. It was upon this occafion that one of his friends fuggefted to him the idea of publishing his poems, in order to raife a few pounds to defray the expences of his passage. The idea was eagerly embraced. A coarfe edition of his poems was first published at Ayr. They were foon noticed by the gentlemen in the neighbourhood. Proofs of fuch uncommon genius in a fituation fo humble made the ac quaintance of the author eagerly fought after. His poems found their way to Edinburgh; fome extracts and an account of the author were inferted in a periodical paper, The Lounger, which was at that time in the course of publication. The voyage of the author was delayed in the hope that a fuitable provifion would be made for him by the generofity of the public. A fubfcription was fet on foot for a new edition of his works, and was forwarded by the exertions of fome of the first characters of Scotland. The fubfcription lift contains a greaternumber of refpectable names than almost have ever appeared to any fimilar production; but, as the book was at a low price, the return to the author was inconfiderable. Burns was brought to Edinburgh for a few months, every where invited and carefled; and at last one of his patrons procured him the fituation of an Exciseman, and an income of fomewhat less than 50l. a year. We know not whether any fteps were taken to better this humble income: Probably he was not qualified to fill a fuperior fituation to that which was affigned him. We know that his manners refused to partake the polish of genteel society, that his talents were often obfcured and finally impaired by excess, and that his private circumftances were embittered by pecuniary distress. Such, we believe, is the candid account of a man, who, in his compofitions, has discovered the force of native humour, the warmth and tenderness of paffion, the glowing touches of a descriptive pencil -a man who was the pupil of nature, the poet of inspiration, and who poffetsed in an extraordinary degree the powers and failings of genius. Of the former, his works will remain a lafting monument; of the latter, we are afraid that his conduct and his fate afford but too melancholy proofs. Though he died at an early age, his mind was previously exhaufted; and the apprehenfions of a distempered imagi nation concurred with indigence and fickness to embitter the latt moments of his life. He has left behind him a wife, with five infant children, and in the hourly expectation of a fixth, without any refouree but what the may hope from public fympathy. In the 64th year of his age, David Rittenhouse, the American philofopher. His history is curious, from the admiration in which his character was held. Rittenhouse was a native of America; and, in the earlier part of his life, he min gled the purfuits of science with the active employments of a farmer and a watchmaker. In 1769 he was invited by the American philosophical fociety to join a number of gentlemen who were then occupied in making some aftronomical observations, when he particularly diftinguished himself by the accuracy of his calculations and the comprehenfion of his mind. He afterwards constructed an obfervatory, which he fuperintended in perfon, and which was the fource of many important discoveries, as well as greatly tending to the general diffusion of science in the western world. During the American war, he was an active affertor of the cause of independence. Since the conclusion of the peace, he successively filled the offices of treasurer of the ftate of Pennsylvania, and director of the national mint, in both of which capacities he was alike diftinguished for ftrength of judgement and integrity of heart. Hesucceeded the illustrious Franklin in the office of prefident of the philosophical society; a fituation which the bent of his mind and the course of his studies had rendered him eminently calculated to fill; and towards the close of his days he retired from public life to the enjoyment of domestic happiness, when he formed a circle of private friends, who will continue to admire his virtues as a man, while the world will applaud his talents as a philofopher. AUGUST. The count de Montmorin ar 3d. rived in town, being charged with dispatches from Louis XVIIIth to the count d'Artois, at Edinburgh. This nobleman brings advice, that on Wednesday the 19th of July, at ten o'clock at night, as the king of France was looking out of the window of an inn, at a town belonging to the elector of Treves, called Dillingen, near Ulm, on the Danube, he was wounded in the himlelf to a Mr. Graham, painting, in the most pathetic language, the distress that he laboured under, both as to his circumftances and bodily afflictions. The horrors he experienced when afleep, he says, cannot be equalled by any human distress; at such times he was a prey to the most frightful apprehenfions. Tolull his difordered fenfes, he had daily taken a large dofe of laudanum, which at length turning his brain, occafioned his exit. upper upper part of his forehead by a finished, in which he addresses ball, fuppofed to have been fired from a horfe pistol on the opposite fide of the ftreet, which was about 25 yards wide. The ball took an oblique direction, and made a fingular wound of three inches long, without penetrating the skull; no furgeon being immediately at hand, one of the gentlemen of his fuite cut off the hair, and applied the first thing he met with in order to ftop the bleeding. The confufion was great, by which means the perpetrator of this inhuman deed made his efcape; he is fuppofed to be a Frenchman from the Republican arıny, bribed for this purpose, and connected with others who facilitated his escape. The town has a wall round it, but, perhaps, not more than four feet high in many places. This affaflin must have been particularly acquainted with the king's perfon, as the duke de Fleurs was ftanding close by him at the time, in a narrow window, and is nearly as corpulent in his perfon. The ball was found on the floor, flattened by having ftruck the wall afterwards. The king was not materially hurt, and in three days afterwards pursued his journey to Ingoldstadt, in his way to Saxony. At Stafford affizes an extraordinary incident took place: One of the prisoners (Wm. Cottrell) was indicted for a burglary and robbery in the house of Mr. Forman, of Handsworth, to which he pleaded guilty; nor could he be perfuaded to offer any other plea, until the Judge threatened, in cafe he perfifted, to order him for a fpeedy execution-He then pleaded not guilty, and his trial proceeded. However, fufficient evidence not appearing to convict him, he was, of courie (though very unexpect edly), acquitted. 9th. A cricket-match was played by eleven Grenwich penfioners with one leg, against eleven with one arm, for one thousand guineas, at the new cricket-ground, Montpellier gardens, Walworth. About nine o'clock the men arrived in three Greenwich stages; about twelve the wickets were pitched, and the match commenced. Thofe with but one leg had the first innings, and got ninety-three runs; those with one arm got but fortytwo runs during their innings. The one-legs commenced their fecond innings, and fix were bowled out after they got tixty runs, fo that they left off one hundred and eleven eleven more than those with one arm. Next morning the match was played out, and the men with one leg beat the one arms by 103 runnings. After the match was finished, the eleven one-legged men run a sweepstakes of one hundred yards distance, for twenty guineas, and the three first had prizes. roth. On Wednesday morning, about eleven o'clock, one of the Dartford powder mills, about half a mile distant from the place, blew up with a dreadful explosion. Four perfons loft their lives. nth. This afternoon, a gentleman going down Gray'-innlane in a whiskey, the horse took fright and fet off full speed; his servant, seeing his master in such a situation, unfortunately for him, came up to the horse, and seized the bridle, but was not capable of stopping him. The beast turned up a narrow passage by Chads Wells; the fervant ftill running and holding. In turning round the passage the near shaft caught the man in the body, which it clearly run through, and was stopt by the wall. The gentleman was thrown violently from the carriage, but not much hurt. The servant was killed. 12th. A dreadful earthquake has nearly destroyed the city of Lattaique in Syria. The first shock was May 16th, which lasted about eighty-fix seconds. Upwards of three thousand persons were buried in the ruins of the houses. A great part of the mosques are destroyed. The small town of Gibellet is also totally destroyed, and several houses thrown down at Tortosa and Tripoli. 20th. This morning a duel was fought in Hyde-Park, beVOL, XXXVIII. tween Mr. William Carpenter and Mr. John Pride, both Americans, in which Mr. Carpenter received his antagonist's ball in the side, which penetrated nearly through his body; and, notwithstanding it was immediately extracted, he died on Monday morning. The coroner's jury fat on the body, and brought in their verdict wilful murder. 27th. Nantz. A fire took place in our fuperb theatre during the third act of Zemire et Azor; which caught the transparency inn the apartments of Zemire, at the moment when the mechanist and his assistants were busy repairing the bust of Azor, which had met with an accident in coming up a trap not fufficiently open. The flames spread with such aftonishing rapidity, that in five minutes the whole theatre was in flames, and this fuperb monument of the decorative talents of Cruci, the town architect, was foon a heap of deplorable ruins. The walls alone remain. The wardrobe and other decorations were totally consumed, and some persons loft their lives. Among the audience, however, a few bruises, inevitable from the confufion, were all the damage, except a pregnant woman, whois stated to have been borne down by the crowd, and shockingly trampled upon. Those behind the scenes were in a dreadful condition. Three persons much burnt, have been drawn out from the flames. The tocsin was founding at the moment of the account departing, the interior part still burning, and the sight of new victims was perpetually feared. This morning about four o'clock, some villains got into a house in Fludyer-street, occupied by fir RichD ard ard Glode, who was out of town, and had packed up every article of value that was portable. The sheriff's 'dress clothes, liveries, &c. were ready for removal; when the thieves were fortunately heard by Mrs. Johnfon, the proprietor of the house; who, with great spirit, went up ftairs, where he met one of them. She gave an aların; but no watchman or patrole was to be found. At length the fucceeded in getting down ftairs, in fpite of the oppofition made by the thief, and opened the ftreet door. Part of the neighbours were by this time alarmed and at the door; they had found out a patrole and watchman, to whom Mrs. Johnfon delivered her prifoner. A number of picklock keys were found, and every lock in the house had been opened. On attending at the Public-office, Queen-fquare, to prosecute, the prifoner was of course called for; but the watchman and patrole had been overpowered by him, in fome way or other, and he had efcaped. DIED.-Thomas Yates, esq. a lieutenant in the navy (to which rank he was admitted June 24, 1782) and an artift of some merit, having published prints from drawings by himfelf of two celebrated naval actions. He was great nephew to the late celebrated comedian, but by whom he had for fome years been unaccountably neglect ed; and he has now loft his life in consequence of a dispute with Miss Jones relative to the poffeffion of the theatrical veteran's house in Stafford-row, which Miss Jones confidered to be her property; and in which, for fome little time, they both refided. On the 18th of Auguft, Mr. John Sellers was brought into the house, to protect Miss Jone and her property; and, on the 21st, Richard Footner was introduced for the fame purpose. On the 22d, the wife of Mr. Yates being abfent, he dined alone about three o'clock; and, walked after dinner into the garden at the back of the house. On his return, the door being faftened, his servant, Mary Thompson, attempted to get him in at the kitchen window. One of the perfons who had fastened him out, finding that he was likely to gain admittance, fred a piftol, the ball from which entered the right fide of Mr. Yates. The noise giving an alarm, fome neighbours climbed over the garden-wall, where they found Mr. Yates bleeding. Dr. Cruikshanks attended him twice the fame evening, and had great hopes; but next morning, at nine, pronouncing the wound mortal, Mr. Yates made his will, and expired about noon, leaving five children, and a widow pregnant with a fixth. (Mrs. Yates is very elegant in her person, and made her appearance last season at Coventgarden theatre, in the character of the Grecian daughter.) In confequence of the coroner's inqueft, Sellers, Footner, and Elizabeth Jones, after a regular examination at the public-office in Bow-ftreet, have been committed on a charge of wilful murder. Two gentlemen of great refpectability, who had never before seen Mifs Jones, offered bail for her to any amount; which the magiftrates refufed. On a fecond examination, August 29, the idea of premeditated guilt was in a great degree removed; but the prisoners were again fully committed. Mr. Sellers formerly kept a Staffordshire warehouse on Gar |