S9S 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



and ancient church, which was laid 

 in ruins with a most tremendous 

 crash. This beautiful gothic struc- 

 ture, which the architect seems to 

 have exerted his utmost abilities to 

 complete, and which was 186 feet 

 in height, was in a moment levelled 

 with the earth ; and the greater part 

 of it being precipitated upon the 

 body of the church, sunk the roof 

 along with it in common devasta- 

 tion. 



Providentially no lives were lost, 

 although some people were passing 

 near the church at the tlm?, and 

 many large stones were projected, 

 with astonisliing force in almost eve- 

 ry direftion, to the distance of 70 

 or 80 yards. 



The same storm prevailed in the 

 metropolis and its neiahbourhood : 

 a poor woman w.is killed by the 

 lightning as she was crossing Mount- 

 street, Grosvenor-square. A gen- 

 tleman's house at Woolwich was 

 set on fire by the lightning, whicli 

 was with great difficulty extinguish- 

 ed by the engines and the assistance 

 of the garrison : a bullock on the 

 Kent-r9ad was struck blind, and 

 two horses at Uxbridge killed. 



26th. This morning, about ten 

 o'clock, a fire broke out at the 

 melting-house of Mr. Littel, tal- 

 low-chandler, near Crispin-street, 

 Union-street, Bishopsgatc, occa- 

 sioned by the boiling over of a cop- 

 per of stufl', which consumed the 

 whole of the premises. Before the 

 engines arrived, the flames commu- 

 nicated to the house of Mi-. Cam- 

 pion, and the two adjoining, which 

 ■were also burnt; when the flames 

 were got under by the engines and 

 firemen. 



27th. The king held a grand 

 levee at the queen's house for the 

 first time since his recovery, at which 



were present the foreign ambassa- 

 dors, all the great officers of state, 

 and a vast number of the nobility- 

 After the levee a privy council was 

 held for the purpose of receiving the 

 recorder's report ol 16 convitts un- 

 der sentence of death ; when Pro- 

 vidence Hansard, for forgery, was 

 ordered for execution on Thurs- 

 day. 



To the great satisfaftion of a 

 Crowded court, the Honourable 

 Admiral Berkeley obtained a ver- 

 di«ft this day in the court of exche- 

 quer, against the editor and pub- 

 lishers of a periodical jmper, entitled 

 " The Royal Standard and Political 

 Register," for a libel on hN> profes- 

 sional character. This infamous pro- 

 duel;ion insinuated that the admiral, 

 when captain of the Marlborough, 

 in tlie memorable aflion of the 4th 

 of June, had conducted himself in 

 a manner unworthy of his high rank, 

 name, and reputation : than which, 

 according to the evidence, nothing 

 could be more unfounded, or mali- 

 ciously false ; as it appeared, most 

 nucontrovertibly, that his conduft 

 during that arduous conflict equalled, 

 if not excelled, that of any other 

 officer in the fleet, both in skill 

 and personal courage, and had met 

 with the most unbounded approba- 

 tion of his superiors. The damages 

 awarded were one thousand pounds, 

 a sum humanely proportioned by 

 the jury to the narrow circum- 

 stances of the ostensible libellers. 

 Earl St. Vincent, Lord Bridport, 

 Lord Duncan, the venerable Sir Pe- 

 ter Parker, and several other dis- 

 tinguished naval chara6ters, attend- 

 ed the trial, to have borne their tes- 

 timony, if necessary, to the high 

 professional merit and character of 

 the admiral, but from the course 

 pursued by his very eloquent advo- 

 cate. 



