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world. It is impossible for me to say or to guess at what I may, with my constant bodily health, and with the aptitude and industry which are now become a part of me, be able to do in the way of literary works productive of gain but I can with certainty declare, that beyond the purposes of safety to my family I will retain or expend nothing until no man shall say of me that I owe him a farthing. With regard to any profits that may arise from the Register in England, I at present know scarcely any thing; and I have not any time to digest any regular plan relative to that matter; I shall do this in the course of a short

time.

As I have fully apprised Mr White of the contents of this letter, I beg you to communicate with him on the subject, and to tell him very freely your opinion relative to the whole of its contents. I have, all circumstances considered, a very strong desire to retain my real property in that country, which I so ardently love, and to which I have preserved, through all circumstances, so invariable a fidelity; and though I would abandon that object rather than do any act of real injustice, I will never, while the present infamous abrogation of the laws of my forefathers exists, set my hand to any deed, or give, either expressly or tacitly, my sanction to so infamous a violation of my rights, as well as of the rights of all.

We shall hardly be able to get the manuscript off before the month of January next, but in the mean while I shall be glad to hear from you, and to receive from you any suggestions that you may think useful.

I have the pleasure to tell you that we all enjoy excellent health; and I assure you that it will give us all great pleasure to have the same

sort of account from yourself, Mrs T., and family.

I am, my dear Sir, your most o bedient and most humble servant, WILLIAM Cobbett.

The reply of Sir Francis Burdett:

To MR WILLIAM СОВВЕТТ.

St James's Place, Jan. 31. 1818. SIR, I have just received yours of the 20th November, and carefully, and according to your desire, perused the inclosed to Mr Tipper.

It is not my intention to enter into any controversy respecting the honesty or dishonesty of paying or not paying debts according to the convenience of the party owing. It seems that if it should ever suit your convenience, and take nothing from the comforts and enjoyments of yourself and family, such comforts and enjoyments, and means too of distinguishing themselves, as you think they are entitled to, all this being previously secured, then you think yourself bound to pay your debts; if, on the contrary, that cannot be effected without sacrifices on your and their part, in that case your creditors have no claim to prefer and you no duty to perform. You then stand absolved, rectus in foro conscientia, and for this singular reason, because those who lent you their money when you were in difficulty and distress, in order to save you and your family from ruin, were and are unable to protect you either against your own fears, or the power of an arbitrary Government, under which they have the misfortune to live, and to which they are equally exposed. These principles, which are laughable in theory, are detestable in practice. That you should not only entertain and act upon, but openly avow them, and blind your

own understanding, or think to blind that of others, by such flimsy pretences, is one more melancholy proof of the facility with which self-interest can assume the mask of hypocrisy, and by means of the weakest sophistry, overpower the strongest understanding. How true is our common law maxim, that no man is an upright judge in his own cause; how truly and prettily said by the French, "La Nature se pipe;" nor less truly, though more grossly in English," Nature's her own bawd." In expressing my abhorrence of the principles you lay down for your conduct, and concerning which you challenge my opinion a little unfairly, considering the ridicule with which you at the same time threaten to overwhelm the unfortunate wight who presumes to differ from them, I do not desire that you should act upon any other with regard to me; I should be sorry your family were put to any inconvenience on my account; should your circumstances ever prove so prosperous as to enable you to discharge your debts without in fringing upon those new principles of moral obligation you have adopted, and which for the first time since the commencement of the world, have, I believe, been, though frequently acted on, openly promulgated. As to complaint or reproach, they are the offspring of weakness and folly; disdain should stifle them; but nothing can or ought to stifle the expression of disgust every honest mind must feel at the want of integrity in the principles you proclaim, and of feeling and generosity in the sentiments you express.-1 am, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

F. BURDETT. 6.-The late miser, Mr Courtois, whose death, at an advanced age, has just happened, was for many years a hair-dresser in the metropolis. By dint of extraordinary exertions in

various ways, and through a most rigid system of economy in his expenditure, this man (who seemed to have no small portion of the Charteris and the Elves blended in his composition) died immensely rich, having amassed, according to confident reports, nearly L. 200,000! Old Courtois was long well known in the purlieus of St Martin's and the Haymarket. His appearance was meagre and squalid, and his clothes, such as they were, were pertinaciously got up in exactly the same cut and fashion, the colour being always either fawn or morone. For the last thirty years, the venerable chapeau was uniformly of the same cock. The principal fact, however, in which this fervent votary of Plutus appeared before the public, was his curious and nearly fatal affair with the unfortunate Mrs Maria Theresa Phepoe. About twenty years ago, this ill-fated woman projected a rather bungling scheme, in order to frighten her old acquaintance and visitor, Courtois, out of a considerable sum of money. One evening, when she was certain of his calling, she had her apartment prepared for his reception in a species of funereal style-a bier, a black velvet pall, black wax candles lighted, &c. No sooner had the old friend entered the room, than the lady, assisted by her maid, pounced on him, forced him into an arm chair, in which he was forcibly held down by the woman, while the lady, brandishing a case knife or razor, swore, with some violent imprecations, that instant death should be his lot, if he did not give her an order on his banker for a large sum of money. The venerable visitor, alarmed at the gloomy preparations and dire threats of the desperate female, asked for pen, ink, and paper, which being immediately produced, he wrote a check on his banker for (we believe) two thousand pounds. He immediately,

retired with precipitation, happy to escape without personal injury. The next morning, before its opening, he attended at the bank with some police myrmidons, and, on Mrs Phepoe's making her appearance with the check, she was arrested, and subsequently tried at the Old Bailey, on a capital charge grounded on the above proceedings. However, through the able defence made by her counsel (now Mr Justice Fielding,) who took a legal objection to the case as proved, and contended that she never had or obtained any property of Mr Courtois, on the principle that possession constituted the first badge of ownership, she was eventually acquitted. Truth, however, obliges us to add, that Mrs Phepoe, who was once connected with a respectable family in the sister island, was in about four years after capitally convicted on a charge of cutting and maiming a poor woman, for which she suffered the last penalty of the law. Some years since, the late Lord Gage met Courtois, at the court-room of the East India house, on an election business. "Ah, Courtois," said his Lordship, "what brings you here?" "To give my votes, my Lord," was the answer. "What! are you a proprietor?" "Most certainly." "And more votes than one?" "Yes, my Lord, I have four." "Aye, indeed! Why, then, before you take the book, pray be kind enough to pin up my curls!" with which modest request the proprietor of four votes, equal to L.10,000, immediately complied.

7.-The King's jewels were this day discovered in the following remarkable manner :-Mr Rundle and Mr Bridge, of the firm of Rundle, Bridge, and Rundle, had been engaged, for several days before this circumstance occurred, in estimat

ing the value of her late Majesty's jewels, previous to their "being sold, and their produce divided among her Majesty's four daughters." On the Wednesday preceding, Messrs Rundle and Bridge finished the valuation, which was immediately notified to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent. As soon as he heard it, he attended at Buckingham-house, to see them divided among his Royal sisters. The Princess Augusta was present at the meeting for this purpose. On the jewels being apportioned into four several heaps of equal value, a question arose about the manner in which they were to be deposited, until it should be necessary to re-produce them. One of the female attendants suggested, that in a lumber room, not very far distant from her late Majesty's apartments, a number of empty boxes were stowed, which had been used on former occasions as cases, in which the royal jewels had been carried to and from the Bank of England, (where they are usually deposited,) to Buckinghamhouse; and "perhaps," said she, "these may serve the purpose for which they are wanted, without troubling Messrs Rundle and Bridge to send for fresh packages from their house in town." The suggestion was thought good; and the boxes were accordingly ordered to be produced before the royal company. In examining one of them, which on first sight appeared to be filled with nothing more than the lawn or silver paper, in which jewellery is in general enveloped, the King's sword, star, loop, garter, and other jewels, were unexpectedly discovered. The discovery took place in the presence of the Regent himself, who expressed uncommon delight at the occurrence.

8. The will of her late Majesty

was this day proved in Doctors' Commons, by Lord Arden and General Taylor, the executors. The personal property is sworn to as being under L.140,000. The will is in substance as follows:-Her Majesty directs her debts, and the legacies and annuities given by her will, to be paid out of the personality, or out of the sale of personals, if there is not sufficient in her Majesty's treasury to provide for those payments. Her Majesty states her property to consist of a real estate in New Windsor, called the Lower Lodge, and of personals of various descriptions, which are classed as follows:-1. Those which the King purchased for L.50,000 and presented to her, (supposed on her marriage.) 2. Those presented to her by the Nabob of Arcot. 3. Those purchased by herself, or being presents made on birth-days or other occasions. In the event of the King surviving, and being restored from his malady, Her Majesty bequeaths to him the jewels which he purchased and gave her. Her Majesty gives the jewels presented by the Nabob of Arcot to her four remaining daughters, directing those jewels to be sold, and the produce divided amongst the four daughters, subject to the charge of debts, &c. The remaining jewels she gives equally amongst the four daughters just mentioned, to be divided according to a valuation to be made of them. The house and ground at Frogmore, and the Shawe establishment, her Majesty gives to the Princess Augusta Sophia. Her books, plate, house-linen, china, pictures, drawings, prints, all articles of ornamental furniture, and all other valuables and personals, she directs to be divided in equal shares, according to a valuation to be made, amongst her four younger daughters. Her Ma

jesty appoints Lord Arden and General Taylor trustees for the property bequeathed to her daughters Elizabeth and Mary; stating that property to be left to them for their sole benefit, and independent of any husbands they have or may have, and she also appoints Lord Arden and General Taylor her executors. The will is dated November 16, 1818, (the day before her Majesty's death.) It is in the hand-writing of General Taylor; and two of the attesting witnesses are Sir Francis Millman and Sir Henry Halford.

By an act passed in the 18th of George II., a sum of L. 20,000 was provided for the owners of any ship that should first find out and sail through a north-west passage from Hudson's Straits to the western and southern oceans of America; and in the 26th of the King, the reward was extended to the discovery of a northern passage, by sea, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and for the first approach by sea within one degree of the Pole. These acts are now repealed; and by a new act of last session, the reward of L. 20,000 is to be given for discovering a passage by sea between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; and to those who shall first approach within one degree of the Pole, a reward of L. 5,000. And to encourage attempts which may not be accomplished, a proportionate reward may be adjudged by the Commissioners for the discovery of the longitude, who are to be guided in their judgment by the inspection of the ship's papers; and the Privy-Council are to direct the proportions of the reward. The regu lation of the Commissioners' meetings are also under the direction of the Council. Lord Colchester, D. Gilbert, Esq., Colonel Mudge, Dr Wollaston, Dr Young, and Captain Ka

ter were appointed Commissioners, until January 1. 1820.

At a Court of Contributors to the Royal Infirmary, held a few days prior to this date, some discussion took place of which it may be proper to give a brief outline. A long report from a committee was read, in which ample justice was done to the exertions of the Managers for the last year; and it cannot be doubted that, considering the important avocations and serious duties which many of them had to attend to, their indefatigable attention to the interests of this great charity merited particular praise. A motion was also made for the appointment of Visitors to assist the Managers in keeping up a continual surveillance over the Hospital; but it was withdrawn, on the understanding that the subject would be taken into consideration by the Managers, and brought again before the Court, should they deem it necessary. Some questions were also put respecting a sum of above L.11,000, which was recently in the hands of the Magistrates of Edinburgh, at the rate of 4 per cent; respecting the quality of the broth served out to the patients, and the circumstance of two wards being kept empty, as was supposed, while several fever patients had been rejected for want of room. It was explained, that the two wards in question were used for airing bedding, and for other purposes of cleanliness necessary to the Hospital; and as to the other questions, it was agreed that they should be reduced to writing, and answered at the next meeting of the Court.

About the beginning of January, Catherine Paulowna, sister of the Emperor Alexander, widow by her first marriage of Prince Peter Frederick George of Holstein-Oldenburgh, and married, on the 24th of

January 1816, to the King of Wurtemberg, then Prince Royal, by whom she had two princesses, was attacked with a rheumatic fever, in the course of which an erysipelas having seized on the brain, occasioned an attack of epilepsy, which terminated her existence on the 8th of January, at the age of little more than thirty.

9. The proceedings of the CourtMartial which condemned Messrs Arbuthnot and Ambrister have been laid before Congress, and published in most of the London daily papers. The charges against Mr Arbuthnot were three in number :-1st, Exciting the Creek Indians to war against the United States, he being a subject of Great Britain, with which the said States were at peace. 2d, Acting as a spy, and aiding the enemy-supplying them with the means of war. 3d, Exciting the Indians to murder W. Hambly and E. Doyle, subjects of the Spanish Government. The Court-Martial found it had no right to try Mr A. on the third charge, and no evidence was produced of his being a spy. The first, and the latter part of the second charge were alone established, and on them Mr A. was found guilty. The evidence in support of the first allegation consists, for the most part, of Mr A's. own letters addressed to Governor Cameron of the Bahamas; Mr Bagot, our Ambassador at Washington; Colonel Nicholl, a British officer; his son, and certain American agents. It is clear, however, that these charges ought not to have involved the slightest punishment. Arbuthnot, or any other individual, had an unquestionable right to supply the Indians with arms and ammunition. The Creeks and Seminoles were communities absolutely independent of the United States; consequently owed them no allegiance;