188 Letter on Affairs in general [FEB. 



cos, Galezes, and Venda da Vallee; and from thence it is out a few miles 

 to Fozdao, a small village on the edge of the Mondego from whence the 

 river is navigable for boats of small burthen to Coimbra. From Coimbra, 

 excepting only about two leagues of deep sand and pine-forest between 

 Alcoentre and Rio Maior, and about five leagues more of bad chaussve and 

 liills between Condeixa and Coimbra, and three from Sacavem to Lisbon, 

 you have one of the finest roads in the world running all the way to the 

 capital. 



DEAD IN LAW. 



" Yet, all thy goods being forfeit to the state, 



Thou hast not left the value of a cord ! '' 



Merchant of Venice. 



A singular defence to an action of debt was set up at the Court of Requests 

 in Holborn, a few days since. Mr. Brown, (the plaintiff,) a "licensed 

 victualler," claimed eight shilling? from the defendant, (Mr. Pearce), being 

 the amount of a public-house score; and Mr. Pearce, pleaded that, since 

 the debt accrued, he had been condemned to le hanged for robbery ; a 

 sentence, which, though not carried into effect, had balanced accounts be- 

 tween him and all the world at large. The commissioners held that the 

 defence, though new in its character, a good one ; and Mr. Pearce, who 

 had a little "national debt," in different places, outstanding in chalk 

 against him, went away obviously regarding the judge who had passed 

 sentence upon him, as the very best friend he ever had in the world. 

 Query : As a sentence to be hanged dissolves all contracts whether in 

 chalk or otherwise into which a man has previously entered would it 

 be of power, I wonder, to dissolve his marriage, and divorce him from his 

 wife ? As it was the custom, in former days, for persons to submit knotty 

 points to each other in this Magazine I shall feel obliged to any " Cor- 

 respondent" who can give a solution of my question. 



There is a great dispute in the French newspapers, which of the con- 

 tending parties in Portugal, at this moment should be called the " rebels." 

 The " rebels," I take it, must always be the beaten party ; terms of re- 

 proach are, in general, more descriptive of a man's position than of his 

 quality. Thus, Sir Joseph Banks properly objected to Johnson's defini- 

 tion of the word " weed a wild, worthless herb." The knight's own de- 

 finition was a great deal more like the thing " weed/' sub. from Veod, 

 Saxou. " A plant that grows in the wrong place," 



The Globe of last night states, that "early yesterday morning, as some 

 boys were skaiting on the canal in the Park, the ice gave way, and one of 

 them was unfortunately drowned" and goes on to " lament that the 

 Police officers are not more vigilant in preventing such accidents." The 

 Police officers must be negligent of their (ulterior) interests, as well as of 

 their duty, if they really are negligent in preventing them. I am surprised, 

 however, that the " Patent Skaiting," which was exhibited a few years 

 since at Covent Garden Theatre, did not make more way. It was, at 

 least, as pleasant an exercise, I should think, as skaiting in the natural 

 way ; and had the peculiar advantage that it could be executed in a warm 

 room. 



A filthy wrangle is going on,^ promoted it appears by the Dean and 

 Chapter of Windsor against the executors of the late Duke of York, as to 

 the property of the Field Marshall's baton, of which his highness died 

 possessed. This baton, which appears to be a moveable of considerable 

 value, the Dean and Chapter claim as their PERQUISITE. It would be 



