110 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



successfully. Nothing can be more 

 pleasing than to see tlie bustle 

 which this occasions, and the num- 

 ber of vessels constantly going 

 backwards and forwards. In the 

 new harbour there were above 40 

 sail at one time ; and it is sup- 

 posed that there are from 5 to 600 

 boats emploj'ed in the herring- 

 fishing on the coast, above 100 

 of which are from the southern 

 parts of Scotland, and some from 

 Northumberland. 



29. Leeds. — It must be satisfac- 

 tory to every well-wisher to quiet 

 and good order, to know from the 

 most unquestionable authority, that 

 not less than a thousand men, to 

 whom illegal oaths had been ad- 

 ministered, have, within the last 

 four or five days flocked to the 

 magistracy at and near Stockport, 

 to abjure those oaths, and to take 

 the oath of allegiance. 



Unio)i-Hall. — A man of de- 

 cent appearance applied to the sit- 

 ting magistrate, under symptoms 

 of great distress of mind, for re- 

 dress of various injuries inflicted 

 upon him by a person, who, he 

 said, had long held him in subjec- 

 tion by the power of witchcraft. 

 The person complained of, had, for 

 some time, been his opposite neigh- 

 bour; and although it had been his 

 (the complainant's) constant study 

 not to offend him, being well aware 

 of the influence he possessed with 

 the powers of darkness, yet he had, 

 in some way or other, been so un- 

 fortunate as to incur his displea- 

 sure ; and severely he had suffered 

 for it both in person and property ; 

 as the wizard had at different times 

 destroyed his clothes, tainted his 

 provisions, prevented the smoke 

 ascending the chimnies, soured the 

 liquor in his cellar, and on various 



occasions, when the compIainanC 

 has been under the necessity of 

 going out on business, had so fasci- 

 nated his powers of vision, that on 

 his return home, nil his efforts to 

 discover his ov.n door had proved 

 ineffectual. These circumstances 

 had obliged him to remove from 

 tlic Kent-road to Westminster; 

 but even by that he had not escaped 

 the power of his enemy, who still 

 retained his influence, and exerted 

 it in a manner yet more painful to 

 him, by inflicting upon him gouty 

 and rheumatic pains, and torturing 

 him in various ways. Under all 

 these circumstances, he entreated 

 the magistrate to cite the magician 

 before his tribunal, and to inflict 

 such pains and penalties upon him 

 as should prevent his disturbing 

 societ}' for the future. The magis- 

 trate promised to comply with his 

 request, and advised him in the 

 mean time to go home, and rest 

 satisfied that no effort in his power 

 should be wanting to prevent the 

 evil spirit troubling him in future. 

 With this assurance, the com- 

 plainant declared himself perfectly 

 satisfied, and said, he felt that in con- 

 sequence of his having thrown him- 

 self on the protection ol the Bench, 

 the pains with which he had for so 

 long a time been afilicted were 

 very much abated. 



31. A court-martial was held in 

 the Downs, on the hon. Henry 

 Blackwood, commander of his 

 majesty's ship Warspite, upon a 

 charge of having caused the death 

 of a master of a merchant schooner 

 in the Mediterranean, by ordering 

 several guns to be fired into her. 

 The merchant vessel, it appeared, 

 was going up the Mediterranean, 

 when captain Blackwood was com- 

 ing down with a convoy, and the 



usual 



