136 A. D. 1727. 



This fame author, treating of Manchefter, in the fame county, ob- 

 ferves, that within a very few years part, here, as at Liverpool, and alfo 

 at Froome in Some rfct (hire, the town is extended in a furprifing man- 

 ner ; being ahiioft double to what it was a tew years ago : fothat, taking 

 in all its fuburbs, it now (1727) contains at leafl: 50,000 people. ' That 

 * the grand manufadure which has fo much raifed this town, is that of 

 ' cotton in all its varieties, which, like all our other manufadhires, is 

 ' very much increafed within thefe 30 or 40 years.' NevcrtheltTs, this 

 vafl place is but a mere village in point of government, as having no 

 officer higher than a conftable : whereby it may poflibly be the largefl 

 village in Chriftendom, according to our legal fenfe of that term. 



The like increafe, and very near as fudden, has happened to the town 

 of Birmingham in Warwickfliire ; which, in point of government, is 

 as much a village as Manchefter. Its vaft increafe is entirely owing to 

 its iron and hard-ware manufacture of a great variety of forts, whereby 

 it is faid to employ upwards of 30,000 people. 



In March this year, departed this life, the incomparably great and 

 excellent Sir Ifaac Newton, aged 85, prefident of the royal fociety, maf- 

 ter of his majefty's mint : probably the greateft philofopher, and un- 

 doubtedly the greateft mathematician, in Europe, whofe entire charac- 

 ter, however, we are far from pretending to draw. It ftiall only fuffice 

 us to fay, in one word, that he has not left his equal, in all probability, 

 on the face of the whole earth ; having, even by all the learned of fo- 

 reign nations, been allowed the pre-eminence, and to be the unri\'nlled 

 glory of the Britifh name and nation. 



This year the general court of the South-fea company agreed to dif- 

 charge all the borrowers of money on their ftock and fubfcriptions in 

 the famous year 1720, who had not already repaid the fame, on condi- 

 tion of their paying back only 10 per cent of the money fo borrowed. 



The general court of the royal African company niade feveral refo- 

 lutions for carrying on their trade, and preventing the feparate traders 

 from interfering with them : for reducing their then nominal capital 

 ftock, fo as every L800 be reduced to Lioo, and fo as their whole capi- 

 tal fliall not exceed L400,ooo, including therein a certain quantity of 

 additional ftock, to be created in their corporate cap.lcity, and to be fold 

 out to individuals, for enabling them to carry on their trade. But it all 

 came to nothing. 



The iflandof Madagafcar lying within the Eaft-India company's limits 

 of trade, an a6l of parliament of this 13th year of King George I was 

 obtained, to enable the South-fea company, with the licence and con- 

 fent of the Eaft-India company, to take in negroes there, and to deliver 

 the fame at Buenos-Ayres : the South-fea com.pany giving fecurlty to 

 the Eaft-India company not to break bulk anywhere within the limits 

 of the later company, nor to fail to any place within their limits, except 



