Province of Ulfter defcribed. 8 fhould call his cafe a difcrafy of the brain, occafioned, perhaps, by an uncommon concern for his patients, and anxiety for their welfare. An infirmity of the intellectual organs, liable to increafe with age. That the Dr. is an honeft, well meaning man, I believe, but his account of the fpectres he has feen, heard, and felt, amounts to no more than fairy tales, and are folely the creatures of his own imagination. That there is no space we know of, void of its peculiar inhabitants is allowed, but how comes the doctor to think of furnishing our grofs atmofphere with fpiritual beings, which is found to be the receptacle of the smalJer kinds of infects, the ova of fome larger, and the lighter vegetable feeds? As ferious as the doctor appears, he must not flatter himself that all your readers can be fo on this fubject. And the additional value the fet invifible, vifible, audible, palpable attendants, manifeftly difcovers, befides a fmall thare of vanity, that he is mastered by a fuperftition more grofs than the moft ludicrous wag, I fhould hope, 'could have found reafon to fuggeft. I am, &c, W. A DRAMATIC ANECDOTE. He comes to my Houfe; eats my Meat; and and when I afk a civil Account of all this Sir, fays he, I wear a Sword! Truterom which Vanbrughi deHE original ftory of Sir John viated, is not with certainty known. On all hands it is agreed, that "my lady was not only ftrictly virtuous, but that Sir John was a fond husband." Some fay he was an officer in the army, but more that he was of the law profeffion, and at the bar. Conftant was upon a vifit to him, in the country, once upon a time when Sir John was obliged to go out upon urgent bufinefs. "My dear, fays lady Brute, I intreat you not to leave the houfe whilft Conftant remains along with me in it." "I must look over my papers, anfwered Sir John, which will keep me for fome time in the parlour." No fooner had the knight taken leave, than Conftant grew fweer upon my dy, he kiffed her hand, he killed her neck, he proceeded to violence; ny lady shrieked out fo as to alarm her hufband, her fervants, and the fervants Jan. of Conftant, who were then in the family: the uproar was inftantaneous; Sir John flew like lightning to the room, burst open the door with all his force, and found Conftant with his hand clapped to his fword, demanding of him to draw. A duel en fued; Conftant got wounded, according to fome, in the thigh; according to others, in the 1 ft arm; and was immediately obliged to quit the house,"So far the MS. in the Brit. Muf. It is reported, that Sir John fought his damages in the regular courfe of law; if this be a fact, the particulars may, with more certainty, be known, by fearching the records whenever they can be perused. Defcription of the Province of ULSTER, one of the Four into which IRELAND is divided, with an Accurate MAP of that Province. HIS Taft province is bounded on the weft, by the western ocean, on the north by the Deucaledonian ocean, on the fouth with the province of Leinfter, and on the SW by the province of Connaught; it is of a round form and about 420 miles in circumference. The chief city is Londonderry, and it contains fix bishops fees (Raphoe, Derry, Down, Clogher, Dromore and Kilmore) befides the primacy of Armagh. It takes in the counties of Donnegai or Tyrconnel, Antrim, Fermanagh, Derry and Down, all bordering on the ocean, and the inland counties of Cavan, Monaghan, Ardmagh and Tyrone, which include ten market towns, twenty-nine boroughs, which fend members to parliament, and three-hundred and fixty-five parishes. This province is particularly well-watered, and was anciently well wooded; and the fertile meadows, the hanging hills and the fpacious plains, fit for tillage or pafture, make it delightful to the traveller as well as fruitful to its inhabitants. But what renders it fuperior to the rest of Ireland is the great linen manufacture which is carried on in it; which spreads over it a face of induftry and commerce unknown, at prefent, in the other parts of the kingdom. (See a whole fheet map of Ireland and a defcription of that kingdom in our vol. for 1764, p. 64. -Allo a map and defcription of the province of Leinfter, in our laft vol. p. 388.) The 1766. The Hiftory of the laft Seffion of Parliament, &c. The Hiftory of the Selon of Parliament, which began Jan. 10, 1765, being the fourth, Sefton of the Twelfth Parliament of Great-Britain; with an Account of all the material Questions therein determined, and of the political Difputes thereby occafioned without Doors. Continued from our last Vol. p. 656. FROM the foregoing dar macy of what a number of people might have been, and indeed may itill be, furprized into penalties and profecutions by the concifeness of its title; for, by a claufe towards the end of it, we find it enacted, that all penalties and forfeitures inflicted by this act, not otherwife provided for, may be fued for before the refpective courts above appointed, within fix months after committing the offence; and shall be payable, one moiety to his majefty, and the other moiety to any perfon who fhall fue or profecute for the fame; and may be recovered and levied either by the ufual execution of the law of Scotland, or by diftrefs and fale (rendering the overplus, after all charges are deducted) by a warrant figned by the judge or magiftrate before whom fuch offender fhall be convicted, which warrant fhall contain a power to enter houfes, and break open doors, in order to make fuch diftrefs effectual; and may be carried into execution without néceffity of any previous intimation of the conviction; but not till fix days, after the convic ROM the foregoing abstract of tion. The courts here meant must be the justices of peace in England, and in Scotland the juftices of peace, the heriff or ftewart court, and the baillie court in boroughs; for there are no other courts above in this act appointed; but I muft fuppofe, that this claufe, notwithstanding the general words, was meant to relate only to retailers of beer, ale, &c. and the clerks of the peace in Scotland: and that the claufe I have before mentioned, which impowers one or more justices to hear and determine the Laid offences against this act, was meant to relate only to retailers of beer, ale, &c. and the clerks of the peace in England; and confequently that all the other penalties inflicted by this at are to be fued for and recovered by virtue of the first of the four laft January, 1766. • See our laft claufes of this act, which enacts, that all penalties and forfeitures inflicted by this act, not herein before otherwife difpoled of, fhall be paid, one moiety to his majesty, the other to the informer and profecutor, with full cofts of fuit, to be recovered by action, &c. in any court of record, &c. Therefore it were to be wished, that the penalties, which were to be fued for by the two other claufes, had been diftinctly expreffed; but I muft fuppofe that, as it was near the end of the feffion when this act was ordered to be brought in, and as the frauds required the immediate application of a remedy, the act was drawn up and paffed in too great a hurry, of which the penult clause is a remark. able proof. By this claufe it is enacted, that the money arifing by the duty by this act charged upon the admiffion into any corporation or company, fhall be applied to the fame uíes as the former duty; and the money arising by the additional duty of 205. by this act charged on policies of alfurance, fhall be applied as the former duties were. Now in this act there is not fuch a duty charged upon any policy of affurance. From the 6th refolution of the committee of ways and means of May 6th *, being one of them on which this act was founded, it appears, that fuch a duty was intended, but, in the hurry, it seems, it was forgot to infert any enacting claufe for this purpose. This hurry was probably the reafon why the title of this act was made fo imperfect, a neglect which is of the moft dangerous confequence to the fubject; for confidering the great number of acts now paffed in every felfion of parliament, it is not to be fuppofed, that they are all read with attention as foon as published,even by our lawyers, much lefs by our merchants, hopkeepers, and tradefinen, who have always too much business upon their hands to think of reading any act of parliament, unless from the title, C vol. p. 398, which 10 The HISTORY of the laft Seffion of Parliament. which they fee in the Gazette, they can perceive that it may affect them, or the trade they are concerned in. For this reafon the title of every act ought to be an index to, or a compleat abftract of, the act itself; and as it is always with pleasure I applaud any public measure, or the conduct of any public minifter, when I can do it with fincerity, I cannot upon this occafion omit obferving to the honour of the late speaker of the house of commons, that, during the many years he with fo much dignity filled the chair of that houfe, he took particular care, that the title of every act, paffed in his time, fhould fome way or other point to every thing contained in the act itself. And as it will be abfolutely neceffary to make fome act in the next feffion of parliament, either for repealing, or for amending this act, I hope care will be taken to give that new act fuch a title as may give fome notice of its contents to every perfon that may be affected either by the amending or amended act. I likewife hope that, upon that occasion, feveral other amend ments will be made, befide that relatting to the 20s. duty on policies ; for I can fee no reason why one juftice of the peace in England fhould be impowered to pafs fentence and punish an offence, which by the fame act is made to require the concurrence of two juftices in Scotland. As little can I fee a reason why the profecution of every offence, made fo by this act, fhould not be limited to be within fix months after committing, or at least after difcovery of the offence, as in my humble opinion it seems to fhew a difregard to the ease and fecurity of the fubject, to Create offences by act of parliament, and leave the profecution without any li mitation; and to enact that a man's house fhould be broke open, and his goods feized, without an intimation of any conviction, fhews ftill a greater difregard, unless it had been exprefsly enacted, that every fummons for appearance upon the profecution fhould be perfonally ferved upon the fuppofed offender; for we all know what tricks may be played with regard to every other fort of fervice, and by fome malicious trick of this kind, an honeft innocent man may have his Jan. houfe broke open, and his goods seized, before he has heard of any profecution, efpecially as it is not determined either by this act, or by the faid act of the 29th of Geo. II. what quantity of liquor fold fall denominate the feller to be a retailer, confequently a brewer, of fmall beer or fome of our ftrong ales, may innocently commit a breach of thefe acts without knowing it, and an informer may swear, nay may really think, that a man has retailed beer or ale without a licence, though by fuch fale he cannot by law be deemed a retailer; therefore, no fuch informer, let him think what he will, can be indicted, and punished for perjury; and what may not a spiteful man do when he knows that he is fecure against punishment, and has a pretence for reprefenting himself to his patrons as a diligent faithful officer, though in that particular cafe he was by his fidelity and diligence led into a mistake. May 8. Upon motions feverally and diftinctly made by Mr. Jenkinfon, the following refolutions of the committee of ways and means, and of the committee of fupply, were refpectively again read, viz. The two refolutions of the 28th of March, the 2d refolution of the 4th of April, the ad refolution of the zoth of April, the 7th refolution of May the 6th, the first resolution of May the 7th, and the 2d refolution of the committee of fupply of the ad of April; after which it was ordered, that a bill fhould be brought in upon the faid refolutions; and that Mr. Jenkinfon, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Lord North, Sir John Turner, Mr. Hunter, Mr. James Harris, Mr. Attorney General, Mr. Solhcitor General, Mr. Whately, and Mr. Paterfon, fhould prepare and bring in the fame; and then upon a motion made by Sir W. Beauchamp Proctor, an inftruction was ordered to the faid gentlemen, that they do make provihion in the faid bill for indemnifying perfons who have omitted to make and file affidavits of the execution of indentures of clerkships, and to give further time for the making and fil ing fuch affidavits. According to thefe orders Mr. Paterfon prefented to the house, on the 9th, a bill for granting to his majef ty a certain fum of money, out of the finking |
