476 
' persed in the six preceding years. The sum 
of 40001. was announced as received from the 
Liverpool Auxiliary Society ; and a large 
sum from Manchester. 
May 9th, the foundation-stone of the New 
Briage on the Thames, from Milbank to 
Vauxhall, was laid with great ceremony, in 
presence of a vast concourse of spectators. 
‘The Prince Regent was prevented attending, 
but was represented by Lord Dundas, who 
officially christened the new pile, ** Regent’s 
Bridge.” This Bridge will be built, exter- 
nally, of a most durable Scotch granite; the 
ornaments and finishings of Portldnd stone. 
Tt will be a straight bridge, like those of 
antiquity, and will consist of seven arches— 
“the central one of 110 feet span, the‘others 
diminishing in size to 90 feet at the ends. 
The water-way will be 702 feet, and the 
whole extent 920 feet. It will icke about 
five years in completion. 
In addition to the 100,0001. voted by Par- 
liament to the suffering Portuguese, sub- 
scriptions, which already amount to a very 
large sum, have been opened in London, and 
all the other considerable towns in the 
kingdom are following the example of the 
metropolis. : 
The committee under the Act passed in the 
Jast session of parliament for rebuilding the 
‘Jate Theatre Royal, Drury-lane, destroyed by 
fire in the month of February, 1809, having 
been for a considerable time anxiously em- 
ployed inthe investigation and arrangement 
of the affairs of the Jate Theatre, are arrived 
at that point when they deem themselves au- 
thorised to lay before the public the following 
proposals:—Jt is proposed to raise a fund not 
exceeding 300,0001. (the sum limited by the 
said Act) upon the conditions and under the 
yegulations therein mentioned, in shares of 
4001. each. Every subscriberjof five shares 
and upwards to be entitled to a personal 
jree admission. It appears to the committee 
that the fund they are empowered to raise 
will be fully adequate to the purposes of set- 
tling with the claimants in the first instance, 
and of rebuilding a theatre of substantial con- 
Struction and moderate size, and that the pro- 
bible receipts, calculated on good grounds, 
will be sufficient to cover the expenses and 
interest, with a fair prospect of profit upon the 
shares. ‘The subscribers are by the Act, 
erected into a joint stock company, so that 
each subscriber is liable only for the amount 
ef his share, and the shares are transferable 
by assignment. The Theatre, with its ape 
purtenances, and all the buildings and ground 
comprehended ijn the lease from the Duice of 
Hiedtord, together with the patents, will be- 
come the property of the said jeint stock come 
pany. Itis further provided in the said Act, 
that at a general meeting of the subscribers, ** a 
dulland distinct statement cf the arrangement 
Incidents in and near London. 
[June 1; 
proposed by the committee, and assented te 
by the claimants and proprietors of the late 
Drury-lane property, ‘shall be’ submitted ta 
the said general meeting for their consent and 
approbation ; and any subscriber disagreeing 
from such statement, shall be at liberty to 
withdraw his subscription and felinquish all 
share and interest in the undertaking” 
In pursuance of the provision of the Act 
above recited, the committee will appoint a 
general meeting of the new subscribers on the 
earliest day possible, whose assent to the 
plan proposed, until ratified at such meeting, 
will be conditional only, and subject to their 
own revision and option of withdrawing their 
subscriptions, if upon the statements made 
they shall think fit so todo. Ten per 
cent. on the amount of the share sub- 
scribed to be paid at the time of subscrib- 
ing, to the account of Samuel Whitbread, Peter 
Moore, and Harvey Christian Combe, esqrs, 
the trustees named in the Act for that spe- 
cial purpose, and to be by them vested in 
exchequer bills, bearing interest for the be- 
nefit of the subscribers, until the funds under 
the sanction of the general meeting of the 
subscribers shall be required by the commirtee 
empowered by the said Act, to carry the pur- 
poses of the Act into execution; who will 
then give notice of the periods of payments of 
the other instalments, The committee under 
the Act will receive and consider of plans, 
estimates, and proposals for contracts for 
building a new Theatre, addressed to the 
chairman of the committee, at Peter Moore’s, 
esq. Great George-street, Westminster, 
The first deposits, with the accruing in- 
terest, to be returned conformably to the Act, 
in the event of any thing occurring so as to 
disappoint the present arrangement, and pres 
vent the plan being carried into execution 
according to the provisions of the said Act, 
Books for subscrigtions are open, and the 
deposits received at the principal banking- 
houses, 
The society for the discharge and relief of 
persons imprisoned for smal] debts have made 
their annual report: the number of debtors 
discharged and relieved within the last year, 
amount to 769, who had 533 wives, and 1536 
children.—The average expence of their li- 
beration is 41. 16s. 1d. each, 
It has been given in evidence before the 
committee of the House of Commons, to 
whom the Bill for a new proposed Southwark 
bridge was referred, that the average loss of 
property was from 20 to 30,0001. annually 
at London bridge, besides about 30 lives 
year; that this was occasioned by the bad 
construction of that bridge, which was ina 
state of decay, there being twa large rents in 
one of the principal piers, and that ic was very 
probable the whole would shortly come 
tumbling into the river; in which case the 
tivey 
