I821.J 



Incidents in and near London. 



479 



A French naturalist was oollecting 

 specimens of natural history, and his 

 museum having led to the notion that 

 he was a professor of the hlack art, the 

 people ascribed to liim the prevalence of 

 a contagious disorder, and rose and 

 massacred not only the philosopher and 



his assistants, but also every European 

 in the neighbourliood, and vast num- 

 bers of all nations engaged in trade, 

 navigation, &c. fell victims before the 

 authorities could interpose to put a 

 stop to the fatal delusion ! 



INCIDENTS, MARRIAGES, and DEATHS in and near LONDON, 

 IFith liiographical Memoirs of distinyuislied Characters recently deceased. 



CHROJrOI>OGY OF THE MONTH. 



April 15. rr^HE g'overnors of Greeii-nich 

 1 Hospit;il have given no- 

 tice of their intcntiou to stop up the road 

 between the burial ground and the Park 

 •wail, wherein the fair has been held at 

 Easter and Whitsuntide, from time imme- 

 morial. This intention, however, is to be 

 opposed at the Kent Quarter Sessions. 



— 16. The late Major Gamble, of the 

 47th regt. foot, has left by his will, (proved 

 this day,) the sum of £14,500 towards the 

 payment of the national debt. 



— 20. The late Mr. Piescheli, (by his 

 will as proved in Doctors' Comnious,) has 

 bequeathed to the Duke of Gloucester, llie 

 sum of £20,000, in testimony of the good 

 opinion he entertained of the Duke's public 

 conduct. 



— 25. This morning tliree of the judges 

 took their seats in tlie Guildhall of West- 

 minster, agreeably to an Act authorising 

 them to transact judicial business, which 

 they could only do heretofore in Term 

 time. 



— 27. At an annual General Court of 

 the Society for the relief of persons impri- 

 soned for small debt.';, it appeared that the 

 number of debtors discharged last year, 

 was 1244, who had 889 wives, with 2410 

 children ; average expence of their libe- 

 ration, including every incidental expen- 

 diture, 21. Is. 3d. each. 



May 1. At the meeting of the Church 

 Missionary Society, May 1st, the funds for 

 the last year were reported at 34,000, and 

 the expendiiure at 55,000. The labours 

 had been successful, even in India, and a 

 discovery has been made that the native 

 language of the Maltese is understood in 

 all the northern countries of Afiica. It is 

 intended, therefore, to translate the Scrip- 

 tures into tlie Maltese tongue. 



— 3. On this and the preceding and 

 following day, Messrs. Thelwall, Dol- 

 by, Benbow, Fisher, Wardell, Ket- 

 TECHER, and some other printers and pub- 

 lishers, were held to bail under one of the 

 six acts for alleged libels ; the assumed 

 prosecutors being a subscription society 

 called Constitutional, (or rather Anti-Con- 

 stitutional,) and the circumstance has cre- 

 ated greater public feeling than any similar 

 proceeding' since the days of Wilkes. 



May 4. The 13th annual meeting cf the 

 Society for promoting Christianity among 

 the Jews, was held in the King's Concert 

 Room. Various affiliated associations have 

 been formed in England, and in all parts of 

 Ireland and Scotland. In the schools are 

 41 boys and 48 girls. The buildings for 

 tlie girls' school is completed. Some thou- 

 sands of copies of the New Testament, &c. 

 in German Hebrew, have been put into 

 circulation. 



— 17. At the annual meeting of the 

 Friends to the London Orphan Asylum, in 

 theCity of London Tavern; (the Duke of 

 Sussex in the chair,) the sum of £1.500 was 

 collected. The object is to relieve desti- 

 tute orphans, and rescue them from pro- 

 fiig-acy and vice. 



— 19. A counter-association is announ- 

 ced to that which calls itself " Constitu- 

 tional.'' Sir. G. Noel has contributed £50 to 

 its funds, and an annual sum of £5. 



At a very full meeting of the pa- 

 rishes of St. Andrew's and St. George, the 

 following spirited and well-timed resolu- 

 lution was passed, G. Revelej', Esq. in the 

 chair, signed by the Vestry Clerk, and pub- 

 lished in the newspapers. 



" That this meeting views with disgust 

 and indignation the formation of a Society, 

 arrogantly pretending to protect the Con- 

 stitution, but really intended to impair its 

 proudest safeguard, by controlling the press 

 to ministerial subservience ; thus mischiev- 

 ously, falsely, and libellously assuming 

 that the Government is so lost to the con- 

 fidence and obedience of the people, and 

 the Attorney-General so deficient in vigi- 

 lance and ability, that neither the increased 

 powers given to the former by the recent 

 restrictive acts, nor the exercise of the 

 latter of the questionable privilege of pro- 

 ceeding by ex officio information, are ca-* 

 pable of restraining the supposed licen- 

 tiousness of the press, without the officious 

 interference of those hungry satellites of 

 power, who are always most abundant 

 under the worst administrations, and who, 

 by their factious bigotry and zeal, aggra- 

 vate the discord, and promote the evils they 

 profess a wish to obviate and to heal." 



— 25. The number of yearly licences 

 taken out by bankers in England and Wales 

 in the yeai- 1815, 831 ; ditto in Scotland, 



same 



