ufual haunts, and were feen, in great numbers, in the streets of London. This fevere froft put a stop to feveral handicraft trades, and to all manner of husbandry and inland navigation, fo that numbers of the poor, who depended upon fuch occupations, were obliged to have recourfe to the compaffion of the public, and went about the streets driving ploughs, or carrying boats on their fhoulders to excite it. At the fame time neceffaries of all kinds, except flesh-meat. (the graziers pouring their cattle into London for want of fodder) rose to fuch a price, as to distress those who before ufed to be more at their eafe. Collections therefore were fet on foot in moft parishes, and all ranks of people, that could afford it, contribut-. ed chearfully to them. His majefty fent a thoufand pound bank note to the bishop of London for that purpofe; and the dukes of Newcastle and Bedford, and Lord Bute gave between four and five hundred pounds each. Another nobleman, then in the country, is faid to have provided clothing and all other neceffaries for the poor, not only of his own, but of feveral adjacent parishes. At laft the evil produced in fome degree its own remedy. As the water in the leaden pipes froze, and there was a greater call for that element than usual, on account of the great number of fires, which broke out during this froft; wooden pipes were inferted into the mains in almost every ftreet, and thefe wooden pipes being often left open, the ice accumulated to fuch a degree, that at length it became dangerous to walk the streets, fo that there was a neceffity for employing a great number of hands to clear them. But though by these means few perifhed for want of food, feveral perfons were frozen to death in the ftreets and on the rivers, fome of the latter by the ice, on which they ventured, breaking off with them. This froft has been proportionably intenfe, and feems to have fet in much fooner, in France, Holland, and all the other north-eaft countries of Europe; whereas in Cornwal, Wales, and Ireland, the weather was milder than usual. It is very remarkable that, though great numbers of cattle of all kinds perished in the open fields during this froft, feveral sheep, which happened to be buried in the fnow, fallen in fome parts to a great depth, continued well and alive under it five or fix weeks. It was even affured in the foreign papers, that the fervant of an officer, travelling in Germany on an open fledge, having been left behind on the road, as, in all appearance, frozen to death, recovered his vital heat by a fall of fnow, which foon covered him, fo thoroughly and speedily, that in three days time he was able to join his mafter. Though the fires, which broke out during this froft, were very numerous, fcarce a day paffing without one, few of them, except one that happened in the Strand, near Somerfet-houfe, were permitted to get a-head. This, befides greatly damaging the back part of the faid palace, confumed eight or nine houfes, and a poor lady, aged 103, in whose apartment it broke out, while left by herself, unhappily perifhed in the flames. A fire likewise broke out in the vaults vaults of St. James's church, and many bodies were burnt before it could be perfectly extinguished, which proved a work of great difficulty. It was attributed to the carelessness of fome undertakers fervants, in leaving a link burning, or fticking it against fomething,, during an interment there a few days before. Hints by the late bishop Berkeley of the kingdom of Ireland, concerning fires. "Whether tiles and plaifter may not fupply the place of Norway fir, for flooring and wainscot? Whether plaifter be not warmer, as well as more fecure, than deal? And whether a modern fashionable house, lined with fir, daubed over with oil and paint, be not like a firefhip ready to be lighted up by all accidents?" Method of faving lives at dangerous fires. "Into the upper part of a window-frame drive a ftaple, or fcrew in an iron bolt with an eye. Provide two blocks with two or three pullies in each, (which may be had cheap, at any fhip block-maker's) país a rope through each pulley of a length fufficient to reach the ground from the top of the window. Provide also a strong bag or fack, of about four feet deep, and eighteen inches wide, with a wooden bottom, and a few hoops to keep the fack open, as in a hoop-petticoat. When an unhappy occafion requires the ufe of thefe, let the hoop of the upper block be hung in the ftaple; then the party muft ftand on the wooden bottom, and draw the fack up about them, and hang the ftring of the fack on the hook of the under block, when any one perfon may, with the greatest eafe and fafety, let them down to the ftreet; and drawing up the fack again may, in like manner, let down a whole family, women, children, fick, old and infirm; and, and at last, lower himself down, by only holding the fame rope in his own hand. The most tender and timorous must be convinced of the ease and fafety of this operation, by recollecting that it is the very fame with that, by which the most delicate ladies, when they make a vifit on board large fhips, without any danger, are hoifted up in a chair from their boat, and replaced there again." Copy of a letter from New York, "Since I wrote to you, one of our privateers has fent in a prize here, taken out of a fleet of Frenchmen, bound from Cape François to France: this fleet confifted of about 25 fail of merchant veffels under convoy of three king's frigates, and a merchant frigate of 18 guns. Three privateers belonging to this place, and four Weft India privateers cruizing together, first fell in with them. In the night they took five veffels out of the fleet; and next day, commadore Keppel, who was cruising there with feven men of war, appeared in fight of the French fleet, and, with the privateers, has taken every one of them. Commodore Keppel has carried the four frigates and eighteen merchantmen to Jamaica: they are all richly laden with fugar, coffee, and indigo. Three more are ordered here, and expected every hour." In the courfe of the war we have taken from the French 18 ships of the line, and 36 frigates, and deftroyed 14 fhips and 13 frigates. and and they have loft by accidents 5 fhips and 6 frigates; fo that on the whole their navy has been deprived of 37 capital fhips, and 55 frigates. From the Spaniards we have taken 12 fhips and four frigates. Our lofs has been only 2 frigates taken, and 3 deftroyed, and 13 fhips and 14 frigates loft by accident. That we may lofe no time in exciting the gratitude of the public, towards that brave body, which fo effectually contributed to put a fpeedy and glorious end to the war, by the ever memorable reduction of the Havannah, we give our readers the following fpecimen, of the unparallelled hardships they were now fuffering in their return to Europe, though fome of the facts mentioned in it properly belong to the year 1763. On the 3d of November, admiral Pocock fet fail with the transports (in all about 60) from the Havannah. For three weeks they had a fine paffage, any were within 200 leages of the Lands-end, when the wind coming about to the eaft, and blowing a ftorm, they were difperfed and driven out of their courfe, many of them leaky and ill provided, and unable either to make land, or keep the fea; in this wretched condition feveral perished; the Marlborough bore away in the utmoft diftrefs for Lisbon, and providentally was difcovered by the Antelope from Newfoundland, juft as the thip was ready to founder, fifty men at the pumps having worked night and day inceffantly, till the whole crew was spent with fatigue, and unable to have fubfifted one night longer; the Temple man of war went to the bottom, but her crew were preserved; the Devonfhire fhared the fame fate; the Culloden, if not perished, has fuf. fered the utmost distress; 12 of the tranfports went to the bottom, and the fufferings of thofe who rode it out, are not to be conceived; reduced by famine, and wafted by fatigue, the men appeared like fkeletons, and more than half of them died of thirft, ficknefs, and fatigue. Many of the ships beat the feas for near a month after they had made the land; and being leaky and worm-eaten when they left the Havannah, the continual apprehenfions of death was as terrible to many as death itself. The admiral himfelf did not reach land till the 13th of January, when he arrived at Portfmouth. It is computed that befides what perished in the paffage home, the conqueft of the Havannah has coft the nation upwards of ten thousand men. Some time ago a man having ftolen a fheep at Mitcham in Surry, tied its hind legs together, and put them over his forehead to carry it away; but in getting over a gate, the fheep, it is thought, ftruggled, and by a fudden fpring, flipped its. feet down to his throat; for they were found in that pofture, the sheep hanging on one fide of the gate, and the man dead on the other. There is now living in Yorkshire, one Robert Oglebie, a tinker, whọ at this time travels the country for a livelihood, who was born Nov. 6, 1647, as appears by the register book in the parish of Rippon, in Yorkshire. He is a tall, upright, thin man, and fays, he was married to his wife feventy-three years, by whom he had twelve boys and thirteen girls, and that the lived to. the age of 106. He can hear, and fee to work, as well as ever he did in his life. Died lately. Mrs. Baffet at Hal, dane-houfe, near Exeter; who, it is faid, has left to the hospitals of Bath and Exeter 500l. each, and 400l. to the poor of four parishes in Cornwall and Devonshire. Mr. Evan Owens, at Denbigh, aged 100, Mrs. Efch, at Agnes-Burton, Yorkshire, aged 100. At Dijon in France, Touiffant Maratrai, aged 112; at the age of 75 he married his second wife, by whom he had children. He was a labouring man, and always enjoyed a good state of health. A general bill of the christenings and burials in London, from December 15, 1761, to December 14, 1762. In the courfe of this year were chriftened at Norwich, Males 525. Females 570. Increased 4. Buried, Males 586. Females 570. Increased 91. Át Liverpool, chrift. Males 438: Females 403. Increafed 51. Buried, Males 564. Females 562. Increafed 375. Marriages 375. Decreafed 17. At Dublin, chriftened, Males 1043. Females 1447. Increased 281. Buried, Males 1273. Females 1217. Increased 198. Harlem in Holland, Born 751. Died 1674. Increased 31. Amfterdam, christened in the reformed and Lutheran churches 4320. Married 3316. Buried 8412. Newcastle, christened 522. Increased 101. Buried 532. Increafed 131. At Manchester, chriftened, Males 373- Females 316. Decreased 86. Buried, Males 274. Females 300. Increased 46. Married 351. In 26326 creased 11. ter; which I fend you, general, to be communicated to the army. "Coufin, I thank you for the obliging congratulations in your letter of the 23d past, on the happy conclufion of the peace, to which your good conduct at the head of my army hath fo greatly contributed. readily confent to your demand, and am very glad that after fo much fatigue, you will enjoy, in the bofom of peace, that glory which you have fo juftly acquired. Being, moreover, convinced how much I owe to your great merit, you may be affured of my perfevering in these fentiments, being, with much efteem and devotion, coufin, your devoted coufin, St. James's Dec. 3, 1762. GEORGE R." "In confequence of this permiffion which his majefty has graciously given me, I refign to general Sporcken the command of the army, which I fhall leave to-morrow the 24th of December. I am the better fatisfied, as his majefty has condefcended to repeat to me his approbation of my conduct: and I have the most grateful fenfe of the favours with which you honoured me during the time that I commanded the army. I fhall never forget with how great and happy fuccefs I fought at the head of the brave troops that compofed the army, for liberty, and for their country and mine. This I fhall always remember, and it will make me think continually on the obligations I owe to the generals and officers in particular, who, by affifting me with their experience and their good advice, enabled me to ferve my country, and to difcharge, at the fame time, the truft with which I was honoured by the king. I therefore defire, general, that you will return them my fincere thanks, and that you will also thank, in my name, the whole army, for the obedience they paid to me whilst I had the honour to command them. Neuhaus, Dec. FERDINAND, 23, 1762. Duke of Brunfwick." The marquis of Granby's letter of thanks to the British forces in Germany. Dated Munfter, Jan. 1. "Lord Granby has hoped to have had it in his power to have feen and taken his leave of the troops, before their embarkation for England; but a fevere illness having detained him at Warbourg, and his prefent ftate of health obliging him to take another rout, he could not leave this country without this public teftimony of his entire approbation of their conduct, fince he has had the honour of commanding them. Thefe fentiments naturally call for his utmost acknowledgments: He therefore returns his warmeft thanks to the generals, officers, and private men compofing the whole British corps, for the bravery, zeal, difcipline, and good conduct he has conftantly experienced from every individual; and his moft particular and perfonal thanks are due to them for their ready obedience, upon all occafions, to fuch orders as his ftation obliged him to give, His beft endeavours have always been directed to their good, by every means in his power; and he has the fatisfaction to think he has fome reafon to flatter himself of their being convinced, if not of the efficacy, at leaft of the fincerity of his intentions, if he may judge by the noble return their behaviour has made |