CHARACTERS. 



395 



find no advantage in continuing 

 their business. But, lest the said 

 islanders should suffer inconve- 

 niency by the want of hats, we are 

 fuither graciously pleased to per- 

 mit them to send their beaver 

 furs to Prussia ; and we also per- 

 mit hats made thei'eof to be ex- 

 ported from Prussia to Britain ; 

 the people tlms favoured to pay all 

 costs and charges of manufactur- 

 ing, interest, commission to our 

 merchants, insurance and freight 

 going and returning ; as in the 

 case of iron. 



" And lastly, being willing far- 

 ther to favour our said colonies in 

 Britain, we do hereby also ordain 

 and command, that all the thieves, 

 highway and street robbers, house- 

 breakers, forgerers, murdereis, 

 s — d — tes, and villains of every 

 denomination, who have forfeited 

 their lives to the law in Prussia ; 

 but whom we, in our great cle- 

 mency, do not think fit here to 

 hang ; shall be emptied out of 

 our gaols into the said island of 

 Great Britain, for the better peo- 

 pling of that country. 



" We flatter ourselves that these 

 our royal regulations and com- 

 mands will be thought just and 

 reasonable by our much favoured 

 colonists in England ; the said 

 regulations being copied from 

 their statutes of 10 and 11 Will. 

 III. c. 10.— 5 Geo. II. c. 22.— 

 23 Geo. II. c. 29. — 4 Geo. I. c. 

 1 1 . — and from otlier equitable laws 

 made by tlieir parliaments ; or 

 from instructions given liy their 

 princes, or from resolutions of 

 botli houses, entered into for tlie 

 good government of tlieir o^vn 

 colonies in Ireland and America. 



" And all persons in tjie said 



island are hereby cautioned not to 

 oppose in any wise the execution 

 of this our edict, or any part 

 thereof, such opposition being 

 high-treason ; of which all who 

 are suspected shall be transported 

 in fetters from Britain to Prussia, 

 there to be tried and executed 

 according to the Prussian law. 

 Such is Our pleasure. 

 Given at Potsdam, this twenty- 

 fifth day of the month of Au- 

 gust, one thousand seven hun- 

 dred and seventy-three, and in 

 the thirty-third year of our 

 reign. 



By the King, in his council, 

 Rechtm^ssig, Sec." 



Character of the late Robert Fulton, 

 Esq. from Colden's Life of titat 

 celebrated Engineer, read before 

 the Literary and Historical So- 

 ciety of New York. 



We cannot think that it will be 

 imputed to an undue partiality for 

 our regretted associate, if we say 

 that there cannot be found on the 

 records of departed wo)th, the 

 name of a person to whose indi- 

 vidual exertions mankind are more 

 indebted than they are to the late 

 Robert Fulton. The combined 

 efforts of pliilosophers and states- 

 men have improved the condition 

 of man ; but no individual has 

 conferred more important benefits 

 on his species than he whose 

 memory now engages our atten- 

 tion. 



When we have taken a view of 

 what he hiis done, aiid bestowed 

 some consideration on its effects, 

 it will not rijjpcar that this praise 

 is exaggerated, and \ve sh;dl be 

 obliged to acknowledge that 



though 



