fpecting the body, and informed that Mr Hardy was dead, exclaimed, “Is he dead? Then I am the verieft wretch alive!-the most unhappy of mortals!" Mr Proctor, the conftable who had taken him into cuftody, faid, that not thinking it prudent to go up ftairs unarmed, or alone, he and two others had got each a hanger; and going up to the prifoner's door, one of them kicked at it; upon which the prifoner afked from within, if there was a peace officer on the outfide? and having been answered in the affirmative, he faid, "Then I will open the door, and immediately furren der myself into his hands." He accordingly opened the door; and being afked if he had any weapons about him, he replied, that he had only a knife, which was in his pocket, which the witnefs took out: they then all went down ftairs together; and the prifoner, on feeing the body of the deceased, made the exclamation ftated in the furgeon's evidence; and on being put into a coach, he expreffed a hope that God would give him time to repent. In Newgate, the conftable having asked him about the particulars of the melancholy affair, he faid, that Mr Hardy had affaulted him, ftruck him several times upon the breaft, knocked him down, and, pulling him by the hair, was dragging him to the ftairs, to fling him down the flight; and that, in fuch a fituation, he had done what felf-prefervation had fuggefted to him for his deliverance. [Here it may not be improper to obferve, that the deceafed was a very strong, able, mufcular, young man, under thirty years of age; the Doctor is a little man, very feeble, and turned of threefcore.] Upon this the conftable examined his breaft, but found no marks of blows; and having remark ed this to the Doctor, he replied, that his flesh was of fuch a nature, that, if it was beaten ever fo much, it never appeared difcoloured. Both hands of the prifoner were bloody when he was apprehended. On the day after he was lodged in Newgate, the witnefs went to the houfe of the deceased: He examined the ftairs, and traced blood up to the landing place of the Doctor's apart ment, on which place he faw fome drops, and particularly the knob of the bannifter of the landing place was all covered over with blood; he also found the candle on the landing place, and faw that it had been troden under foot. Here the evidence for the Crown was closed.

The Doctor, in his defence, stated, that the fervant-girl having neglected to empty the chamber-pot, he had been obliged to do it himself into the yard; and fome of the water having fallen upon the fky-light, Mr Hardy went up to him in a great paffion, and ufed very illiberal language to him, to which he (the prifoner) had not, of course, made a mild reply; that the deceased, upon hearing this reply, on his way down itairs, returned in hafte, and forced open his chamberdoor, which the prisoner had endeavoured to keep fhut; that he then struck him, brought him to the ground, dragged him by the hair, and faid he would throw him over the bannifters. In this fituation, engaged in a conteft, which, from the ftrength and youth of the deceafed, muft appear to have been very unequal indeed, he had, from an apprehenfion of danger, faved his life for that time, by taking away that of Mr Hardy: he had acted from the impulfe of nature, and that principle of the human heart, which makes a man prefer his own life to the preservation of that of any other perfon; not that he had any idea that, by extricating himself, he fhould have killed Mr Hardy, a man against whom he had never entertained a particle of malice or ill-will; if he had done right, he expected that he would be cleared of the odious charge of murder; if he had done wrong, he was in the hands of his country, and at the difpofal of the laws, to whofe judgement, be what it might, he would fubmit without a murmur.

His counfel then called Mr Curtis of Ivy-lane, behind Newgate-ftreet. On the day that Mr Hardy died, he was alarmed with the cry of murder, and running to his window, which looked into the Doctor's apartment, the walls of the two houfes not being ten yards afunder, he faw the prifoner at the window, and heard him cry out, Murder! and fay that he was in danger of being murdered: the prifoner feeing him, cried out, "For God's fake, come to my affiftance."— Another witnefs proved, that having called out to the prifoner to know why he did not surrender himself, he received for anfwer, "They have got fire-arms, and I am afraid that if I open the door, they will shoot me; but if you will fetch a peace-officer, I will furrender to him initantly."

From the circumftance of the fatal tranfaction not having happened in the

prefence

prefence of a third person, it was impoffible for the prifoner to prove any more as to the fact. All the other witneffes were examined to his character; and fo amiable, fo enviable a character was fcarcely ever given to any man, or by fo refpectable a set of men.

Mr Daniel Shiel (a Weft-India merchant) was the first witness called to his character. He said, he had known the Doctor for twelve years, the greatest part of the time in Jamaica; and that he had always found him moft fingularly humane, tender, and kind to thofe who flood in need of his fervices; and that be never knew a man of more gentlenefs of manners, or beneficence of difpofition. The counfel for the prifoner, in order to fhew that he entertained no malice to the deceafed previous to the melancholy affair, afked Mr Shiel, if Dr Magennis had ever fpoken to him of Mr Hardy. He faid that he had told him Mr Hardy was an honeft, ingenious, induftrious young man; that he had got a patent from his Majefty for a curious invention; but that unfortunately he had not met with that encouragement which he deferved; and therefore he preffed him (the witnefs) to purchase from Mr Hardy fuch goods in his way as Mr Shiel used to fend to the Weft Indies. The Doctor he said had urged his request in favour of Mr Hardy more than once or twice either.

Lord Viscount Barrington faid, that he had known Dr Magennis for many years, and during the whole time he had found him a meek, harmlefs, innocent, inoffenfive man. He fometimes heard him complain, that he was neglected by men in power, but he always mixed fo much mildness, temper, and moderation with his complaints, that he clearly fhewed he felt not an atom of animofity against those who were the objects: he had ever found him an advocate for humanity, and a man without gall or refentment.

The Earl of Effingham faid, he had known the Doctor long, as a man of letters and an author: that he had fhewn him fome tracts written by bimfelf, (the prifoner), in order that he might have his opinion of them, previous to the publi. cation: that most of these tracts were in defence of the rights of humanity, for which he had always found him a zealous advocate; and from the knowledge he had of him, believed him incapable of wilfully or maliciously doing an injury to

any man; for he looked upon him as the pattern of meeknefs, and the most inof• fenfive man alive.

Maj.-Gen. Murray (uncle to the Duke of Athol) faid, he had known Dr Magennis ever fince the year 1777: that on his way home from America, he had seen the Doctor on ship board, who was introduced to him by Maj. Ferguson, fince killed in America. The Major had known the prifoner ten years before, and recommended him as a perfon of the greatest tenderness and humanity. The General declared, that he himself had seen fingular proofs of his bumanity. He remembered him to give away to the fick and wounded foldiers under his care, the fresh provifions that he bad for his own table; and be knew him to have lain on the boards in order to accommodate his pa tients with his bed. In a word, he was convinced that he was a man of the greateft humanity, and uncommon gentleness of difpofition.

Mr Edmund Burke had known him for many years, and had every reason to believe him one of the beft-natured men in the world. He could not speak of his knowledge as a physician, because he was no judge of it; but he had heard from several phyficians of the firft eminence, that it was very confiderable. He had never heard him speak harshly of men in power, though he knew that, to use the fofteft expreffion, he had been very ill treated; and he had never felt himself more affected than at seeing so worthy a man in so melancholy a fituation.

Maj. Fleming was acquainted with the prifoner for feventeen years, during which time he remarked in him the innocence and fimplicity of a child, and the greateft fhare of philanthropy and benevolence that he ever difcovered in the breast of man. He had himself been a witness to many acts of his humanity. About nine months ago he was upon Dublin duty, the Doctor was there at the time, and in circumftances not the most easy: he was forry to see him so; and in order to have it in his power to give him fome money, without offending his delicacy, he requefted he would attend a poor patient, and he gave him fees regularly, though his vifits at the time were not wanted, as the patient was attended by the furgeon of the regiment; but, to his great fur prife, he found that he had given away, to the patient and his family more than half of what he had received from him in

fees.

fees. The Major had afterwards lent him a few guineas, which he never intended to take back; but the Doctor, in fome time after, brought him money to repay, and appearing rather hurt at finding it was refused, the Major took it, under this condition that it should be ready for him whenever he should again have a call for it; but the Doctor had left Dublin without calling upon him again.

Mr Alderman Sawbridge had known the prifoner for many years, and he be lieved, that if there was univerfal benevolence in man, it was to be found in the breaft of the prifoner. He was harmless and gentle almost to an extreme; and he (the witness) concluded when he heard of the unfortunate affair that had brought the Doctor into his prefent melancholy fituation, that he must have been under the influence of a strong apprehenfion of imminent danger, or of violent and outrageous provocation and irritation, when he committed the fact: and as foon as the news had reached his ears, he im mediately said, “If he had done this from malice, the nature of the man must have undergone a total change.”

Gov. Nugent (Governor of Tortola) gave him the beft of characters; but the Court at last observed, that it was unne ceffary to bring any more witneffes to his character, as nothing could be poffibly added to make the character already given to the prisoner more amiable or more excellent. Here the evidence for the prifoner closed.

Judge Willes then fummed up the evidence; and firft explained to the jury, from Judge Fofter's Crown Law, the nature of the crime of murder, and the difference between it and manslaughter. Words, however abufive, could not juftify a man in taking away the life of another; to make killing manflaughter, there should be fome act of violence, fome struggle or bustle on the part of the deceafed. And in order to exemplify his doctrine, he quoted a cafe which came within his own knowledge, and which, he said, was very parallel (the Judge's own words) to the prefent. At the af fizes for Northampton, a prifoner of the name of Snow, had been brought before him to be tried for murder. The cafe was briefly this: The prifoner and the deceased, two poor men, had had a quarrel, when the former challenged the latter to fight; the challenge was accepted, and they boxed till they were tired, VOL. XLV.

and then parted: the prifoner went home, and being a cobler, and it being a warm evening, he placed his ftool out in the air, and fat down to his work: Soon after, his antagonist paffed by him on his way home; the quarrel was renewed, and the deceased collared the cobler, and brought him to the ground; they were both down together; the cobler was undermoft; in that fituation, he stuck his awl into the fide of the deceased, and not fatisfied with one ftab, he gave three, each of which gave a mortal wound: The cafe appeared to him, however, to be no more than manslaughter, on account of the ftruggle that had preceded the ftabs. The jury was pleased to think otherwife, and found the prifoner guilty of murder; but he had refpited the execution, with a view to take the opinion of the twelve Judges on the cafe. He accordingly reported it to them the first day of the fucceeding term; and they unanimously refolved that it amounted to no more than mauflaughter.-An awl was as deadly a weapon as a knife: the question therefore to determine was, whether there had been any struggle be tween Mr Hardy and Dr Magennis before the fatal blow was given? There had been no one to prove fuch a thing, if it had even paffed. It must therefore be collected folely from circumstances, if it ever had exifted; and from the circumftances there was room to presume that fuch a thing had happened in the prefent cafe. The deceafed had returned to the prifoner's door, and had the candle fallen out of his hand; for it was found there the next morning, and had been trodden upon. This feemed to argue, that the candle had fallen in the ftruggle, and not when the fatal blow was given; for if the deceafed had had it in his hand when he received the wound, in all probability he must have fallen down ftairs with the candle in his hand, which would have been found near him: on the contrary, the candle was found near the landing place of Dr Magennis, and the body at least fifteen steps lower down. The evidence of Adey Lancashire, before the Coroner, stated that there had been a bustle, and she did not know but there might have been a ftruggle; certain the was that there had been a noife. The prifoner's own cries, heard by Lancashire, ftated that he himfelf was in danger of being murdered; and another witnefs had heard him cry C

out for assistance. Now, if after all this a doubt should arife on the question, the jury of course would be induced, from the uncommonly great character of the prifoner, to lean to mercy. His Lord fhip argued a long time, ftill preferving the due character of a Judge, who, while he labours to enforce juftice and the laws, never forgets that he is bound by law to be counsel for the prisoner,His Lordship having concluded, the jury withdrew; but the judge fearing, that from what he had faid, they might not only not find the prifoner guilty of murder, but that they even would go fo far as to acquit him, generally called to them, as they were going out, and told them, that they could not by law acquit him; for that if his crime was not murder, it must be manslaughter, and nothing lefs. The auditory, being thus prepared for a verdict of manflaughter, were aftonished beyond meature, when on the return of the jury they heard the foreman pronounce the dreadful verdict-Guilty of wilful murder.

The prisoner was then called upon to know if he had any thing to say, in order to fhew why the Court fhould not give him judgement to die, according to law? He faid, "That as the jury had thought proper to give fo dreadful a ver'dict against him, he would fubmit to it, without arraigning it.-But he must fay, that if it was innocent to defend his own life, he was innocent. If it was murder in a man to defend his life when it was in danger, he was guilty. He had not fought to quarrel with the deceased; he did not go down to him, or quit his apartment: on the contrary, Mr Hardy had twice been up with him, had afsaulted him, had struck him, and was in the act of throwing him over the stairs, when by wounding Mr Hardy, and by no other means could he at the time have faved his own life; he therefore, notwithftanding the verdict that had been pranounced against him, muft infift that he was innocent, and in this affertion he would perfevere to his laft breath: he was in the hands of Providence; and would fubmit with the moft perfect refignation to its decrees; his life was now at the difpofal of his Sovereign: be his royal determination what it might, he would bow to it with fubmiffion and compofure."-The Recorder then proceeded to pass the usual sentence, after a most pathetic addrefs to the Doctor, in

which he declared, “ That in thè courle of his duty in that Court, he had never felt fo much pain and affliction as in paffing fuch a sentence on fuch a man as he had been proved to have lived."

Dr Magennis, it is faid, has received his Majesty's pardon, upon condition of two years imprisonment in Newgate.

The fon of the unhappy Dr Magennis's elder brother takes the title of Lord Viscount Iveah, of the kingdom of Ireland; but on account of fome old outlawry, the title is not acknowledged by the House of Peers. The laft Lord Iveah, whofe family-name was Magennis, and who fat in Parliament, was godfon to King William III. and what is not a little remarkable, was murdered. He was paying his addreffes to a young lady, the daughter of a nobleman, but in the courfe of his courtship, he found that he might obtain the lady on more eafy terms than marriage, and he availed himself of the discovery. The confequence was, that his Lordship was way-laid by the lady's brother, and shot to death, when he was totally unprepared for fuch an attack, for he had no fire arms, and only one fervant, who was riding at a confiderable distance behind him; his murderer, on the contrary, had half a dozen fervants, all armed: he killed him between Maynooth and Dublin, and flying the kingdom, was never after heard of. The Doctor's nephew, as head of the branch of the family nearest to Lord Įveah, affumes the title,

THis celebrated officer, whofe ever

memorable defence of Gibraltar will alone juftly immortalife his reputation, is the ninth fon of the late Sir Gilbert Eliott of Stobbs, in the district of Tiviotdale, Roxburghshire, Scotland. He was born at the paternal feat in the year 1718, and being early intended for a military life, received an education suitable to this defign.

After obtaining the first rudiments of learning from a private tutor, he was fent to be completed at the University of Leyden, where he made a rapid progress in every claffical acquirement, and foon be came a perfect mafter of the French and German languages.

In purfuance of the original intention of Sir Gilbert, affifted by the natural bent

of

of his own inclinations, he then quitted Leyden, and repaired to the Ecole Royale du Gens Militaire, at La Fére, in Picardy, where he received, under the famous Colonel Bellidor, the foundation of that knowledge in fortification and engineering, for which he has fince been fo emi. nently diftinguished; and having in a fhort time arrived at a competent proficiency in the theory of military operations, he proceeded to that warlike country, the kingdom of Pruffia, where he entered himself as a volunteer, for the purpofe of acquiring an equal knowledge in practice.

In the year 1735, he returned to Scotland; and foon after his arrival, being then only feventeen, was introduced by Sir Gilbert to Lt-Col. Peers, of the 23d regiment of foot, or Royal Welch Fuzileers, then at Edinburgh, as a youth defirous of ferving his King and country, and immediately became a cadet in the grenadier company, where he served fomewhat more than a year; attracting, during his continuance in this fituation, the notice and regards of the feveral officers, by his fplendid talents and accomplishments, and not unfrequently entertaining them with a difplay of the Pruffian buffar difcipline, every manoeuvre of which he performed with fuch alacrity and precifion as plainly evinced, at that early period, both a fondness and an ability for the profeffion.

He left this regiment to go into the engineer corps at Woolwich, where he continued till about the year 1740, when his uncle William Eliott, then LieutenantColonel of the ad troop of horse grenadier guards, brought him in as adjutant to that corps, where his great skill, and unwearied affiduity, laid the foundation of that difcipline, which has rendered thofe two troops the finest corps of heavy cavalry in the whole world. With these troops he ferved in Germany, and was wounded at the battle of Dettingen, in 1743, being then lieutenant in the 2d troop. After this he purchased the rank of captain, and was again wounded at the battle of Fountenoy. In the year 1746, he became major, on the advance which took place by bis uncle's quitting the army; and on the 18th of May 1747, Lt-Col. Brereton retiring from the fervice, Maj. Eliott purchased his commission.

Having thus arrived at the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he most difinterested ly refigned his commiffion in the corps of

engineers, which he had hitherto continued to enjoy, though he was then engineer in ordinary, with the pay of ros. a-day, and would have been at the head of that department on the decease of the late General Skinner.

On the 31st of May 1756, he obtained the rank of Colonel; and in the following month, was appointed aid-du-camp to his late Majefty.

In July 1758, he received the command of the light horfe, which went upon the expedition against St Malo's, as Brigadier-General, under the Duke of Marlborough.

On the 10th of March 1759, he was appointed to the 15th regiment of light dragoons; on the 25th of June a MajorGeneral; and the 1ft of Auguft, in the fame year, is faid to have headed the fecond line of horfe under the Marquis of Granby, at the battle of Minden.

In the beginning of June 1760, his regiment being perfectly formed, and completely difciplined, he fet out for Ger many with the Earl of Pembroke, his Lieutenant-Colonel; and the very day his regiment joined the army, it was ordered on action. The Hereditary Prince of Brunswick commanded the detachment, which confifted of fix Hanoverian and Heffian regiments, Luckner's huffars, two brigades of chaffeurs, and Eliott's light horfe. Thefe laft, though they had never before seen the face of an ene my, cut their way through the veteran troops of France, entirely routed them, pursued them with fuch rapidity that they forced them to renew the engagement, and crowned their victory by taking five battalions prifoners, with their com mander in chief, Maj. Gen. Glaubitz, and the Prince of Anhalt Cœthen, as well as fix pieces of cannon, and all their arms and baggage.

Prince Ferdinand, in his public orders after the battle, gave teftimony to the particular bravery of Eliott's regiment; and declared he could not "enough commend the courage, good conduct, and good countenance, with which that regiment fought."

The 19th of January 1761, he was conftituted a Lieutenant-General; and in 1762 was ordered home from Germany, for the purpose of affifting, as fecond in com mand, in the memorable reduction of the Havanaah. But far from fanctioning the shameful ravages which followed the fuccessful termination of this expedition, the

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luftre