Proceedings in copies of many inflammatory fugitive pieces, hand-bills, alarms, refolves, of town meetings, and minutes of council; but as there was no outrage committed but at Bofton, it were unneceffary to trouble the house with all the incendiary fcribbling and printing in the different colonies. It may, however, be neceffary to obferve, that all the printed and circulated trash were plentifully landed with the fafhionable phrafes of defperate plans of defpotifm; minifterial defigns to ruin their liberties; flavery; galling fetters; forging infernal chains; encouraging popery; defpotic rule;" &c. &c. " The letters from the different Governors contain a minute and regular detail of the state of their respective provinces, and particularly of the capital cities of each, frorn the first intelligence of the teas being fhipped at home, till its arrival in America, and return back, or deftruction. Above all, Governor Hutchinson's letters are the most precife, exact, and circumftantial. He appears to have left nothing untried to preferve the peace of the town, and fecure the property of the Company. He appears to have endeavoured, firft, to footh, and, when that did not do, to intimidate the fac tion. It was the Governor who advifed the confignees to apply to the Council for their advice, for the prefervation of the tea committed to their care, and for their perfonal fecurity; for two of his fons were the two principal confignees. He alfo, during the height of their turbulent, unlawful, and feditious affemblings, before the tea was destroyed, fent the Sheriff to the town-metting at Bofton, commanding the people affembled there to break up and depart. When the Sheriff, Mr. Greenleafe, entered the hall, and intimated that he had a paper to read from the Governor, the faction put it to the vote, whether he fhould be permitted to read it, or not? After fome debate, permiflion was granted, and the Sheriff accordingly proclaimed, the Governor's orders for them to difperfe. The infant he had done speaking, the faction faluted him with an univerfal hifs, which continued during his ftay, and accompanied him in his retreat. The proclamation was afterwards pub thed in the Gazette, from whence it was copied into the other papers, and tommented upon with every mark of contempt and indignity. Before the arrival of the tea, the Parliament, 1774. 453 Governor appeared to have taken every measure that prudence could fuggeft, or good policy juftify, both for the fecurity of the Company's property, and for the fafety of the confignees. The principal leader of the faction was applied to: he commanded the Gover nor's company of Cadets: and though it was hardly to be expected that he would mufter the Cadets to oppofe his own party, it was judged neceffary to make him acquainted with his duty, and to leave him without excufe. The application, as was foreseen, was without effect, and no steps were taken either to preferve the peace, or to fecure the tea. The felect-men of the town infifted, indeed, that Mr. Rotch, the owner of Capt, Hall's ship, should demand a clearance outward from the Custom-house, in order that the tea might be carried back. Mr. Rotch, knowing that the demand was unusual, refifted for a long time, till finding his life in danger, he was conftrained to comply. The Cuftom-houfe refufed to grant him an illegal clearance. The Governor was then applied to for a pass, without which the veffel would have been stopt at Caftle William; but this was alfo refufed to Mr. Rotch, because it was totally inconfiftent with the duty of a Governor to grant a pafs to a veffel that had not been regularly cleared at the Cuftom-houfe. This negociation, therefore, being brought to a crisis, a town-meeting was called about the middle of Dec. laft, when an account of the feveral demands and refufals, with the reafons that prevented the compliance, were very fairly reported by Mr. Rotch; upon which a fignal was given, and prefently a number of men difguifed, like Indians, boarded the veffel in which the tea was ftowed, broke open the chefts, and committed the contents to the fea. This is a fuccinct account of the proceedings at Boston, as they happened in regular fucceffion. It happened, that the fhip bound for Bofton was the first, of those employed by the Company to carry the tea, that reached her deftined port Every civil precaution appears to have been tried, to preferve the property and the peace of the town; his Majesty's Council, the Cadets, and the militia were all applied to, without effect; the Sheriff read a proclamation to the faction, commanding them to diffolve their affembly, and this proclamation was immediately afterwards inferted in the Gazette; both the Sheriff and the pro clamation 456 Wifbech Infcription corrected.-American Advertisement. fame authors, where that word will evidently admit of no other fenfe. Hence we eafily difcover Hamlet's meaning to be, that the relation which he bore to the King, his uncle, was fomething more than that of cousin, or nephew-[a little more than kin]~ the King having now married his mother; but though he was become his fon by this marriage, yet was his new relationship ftill inferior to that of nature, Hill an unnatural one,→ [and lefs than kind the marriage being founded in two unnatural crimes, murder and incest; hereby farcaftically glancing at the enormity of the King's ties confidered, &c. fhews it to have been the general practice to bury our ancient Kings with rings upon their fingers; and mentions particularly the will of Richard II. who directs that he would be buried in this manner, according to royal cuflom. This cuftom might, probably, prevail in Denmark, as it did in this kingdom; and, if fo, will ferve to explain this paffage, which has been given up by Dr. John. fon, with fome others of the critics, and has proved a puzzle to all. Caerhaes, Cornwall, O&. 18. Mr. URBAN, villainy, who, by fuch a complication IT of vice, was, again't nature, entitled to call him his fon, as well as his nephew, or confin. The other paffage is in act i. fc. 8, where the Ghoft, defcribing the unprepared ftate in which he was hurried by his brother to the grave, ufes the term unanneal'd. The line, in Mr. Capell's edition, runs thus: "" unan Unhousel'd, unanointed }, unannecl'd. This word has been variously written, and varioufly interpreted:—unanel`d--importing, according to Pope, "no knell ung"..." unknell`d," as it were, or "unknall'd:". unaneal d--- fignifying, in Theobald's opinion, ointed, not having the extreme unction; from the Teutonic prepofition an, and ole, i. e. oil:"—and unanneal`d, "that is (fays Hanmer) unprepar'd's" be caufe to anneal metals is to prepare them in manufacture. Perhaps, after all, the proper reading may be unanqul'd, from annulus [a ring], the ob vious fignification of which is, without aring on the finger. Dr. Ducarel, in a curious work published a few years ago, entitled Anglo-Norman Antiqui The foreft walks are wide and fpacious, Tit. Andronic. act ii. fc. 1. You must think this, look you, that the worm will do his kind, Ant. and Cleop. act v. sc. 2. Dr. Johnfon reads difappointed, in the fenfe of unprepared; but it is not probable that the poet should ufe fo general a term, when he is specifying the particular kinds of preparation the King wanted when fent to the grave, viz, the hofte, - unboufeld;"—confeffion and abfolu tion" no reckoning made," &c.The idea of his general unpreparedness had been fully expreffed in the line preceding, Cut off even in the bloffoms of my fin. T will be rendering an effential fer vice to many well-meaning poor people, who diflike their fituation at home, and are inclined to feek their fortune in America, to let them know what they have to expect on their arrival on that continent. The following advertisement, which is copied verbatim from the New York Gazette, of May 10, 1774, will best explain what they have to trust to: 'Servants just arrived from Scotland, to be fold on board the Commerce, Capt. Ferguffon, mafter, lying at the Ferry-tairs; among which are, a number of weavers, taylors, blacksmiths, nailors, fhoemakers, butchers, fawyers, wheel-wrights, hatters, and spinfters, from fourteen to thirty-five years of age. For terms, apply to Henry White, or faid mafter on board.-New York, Y. D. April 18, 1774.' Mr. URBAN, YOUR correfpondent is not yet quite correct in his copy of the Conftable of Wisbech Cattle's epitaph; his name is Braunftone, and the date of his death 1401. Had his learned expofitor been apprifed of these differences, he would not have referred us to the Bramfione pedigree, nor have entertained a thought about the date of the King's reign, which is no where mentioned. Indeed, it is not easy to conceive how Mr. T, Row could mistake l'alme for l`hn, or not be ftruck with the unusual phrafe of de qui for "de l'alme de qui Dieu de fa grace ait mercy." His difficulty about Braunftone's being buried at Clifford, in the county of Hereford, was, no doubt, owing to fig. V. and VI. of the letter-prefs referring to the fame infcription in the plate. Yours, &c. D. H. [The other errors mentioned by this gentleman were noticed and corrected, a few copies only having passed the prefs without correction.] EXPLANATION 457 Explanation of the Plate,bycellaneous Obfervations. EXPLANATION of the PLATE. THE cup here reprefented was a pre-hed by Bishop Keith, in his truly atherto unnoticed in any collection, is fent made to Mr. Wilkes, by the City of London, in 1772. It is here exhibited as a mafter piece, which does equal honour to the artifs who formed the defign, and thofe employed in the execution. On the upper part of the cup, according to antient cufton, the city arms, with the DAGGER in the firit quarter, are very curiously emboffed. Beneath is a noble bas-relief, very highly finifhed, which feems to intimate an idea of the meaning of the DAGGER, or SHORT SWORD, in the city arms, very different from what the antiquarians have hitherto fuggefted, either of the DAGGER, as alluding to that with which Sir William Walworth, a Lord Mayor of London, in the time of Richard II. killed Wat Tyler, or, as others fuppofe, to the Underneath, the makers names are infcribed, which, no doubt, will long preferve their memory. Notices relative to Bishop Ross.-The YOUR correfpondent Y. D. at page 153 of your prefent Volume, may not diflike to be informed, that the very curious letter, relative to the Revolution, communicated by him as GENT. MAG. 0.7. 1774. 2 |