l£G LON 
eaufe cf a moft melanchbly accident: fifteen bodies were 
taken out lifelefs, having been fqueezed to death in the pal- 
fage by the preffure of thofe out of doors who wanted to 
get admittance ; among the fufferers we find two members 
of the Heralds’ Office, Mefirs. Brooke and Pingo. Seve¬ 
ral others fuffered material injury by bruifes and broken 
limbs. 
On the 17th of May, the colours taken at Martinico 
were depofited in St. Paul’s cathedral ; and on the 13th 
of June, news of the fplendid vidory obtained by lord 
Howe over the French fleet, on the-ift. of that month, 
reached London. On the three following nights the cities 
of London and Weftminffer, and the borough of South¬ 
wark, were illuminated with great fplendour. An addrefs 
of congratulation was voted to his tnajefly ; and the free¬ 
dom of the city, in a gold box of a hundred guineas 
value, prefented to lord Howe. Five hundred pounds 
were alfo provided for the wounded, and tile widows and 
children of thofe who fell in the action. 
Our annals rnuft now 'take notice of the greateft fire 
that ever happened in London or its fuburbs fince the 
year 3665.—On the 23d of July, about three o’clock in 
the afternoon, a fire broke out at Ratcliffe, which con- 
fumed more houfes than any one conflagration fince the 
great fire of London. It was occafioned by the boiling- 
over of a pitch-kettle at a barge builder’s, from whole 
warehoufes it communicated to a barge laden with falt- 
petre, and from that to the falt-petre warehoufes belong¬ 
ing to the F.aft-India Company. The feene was dreadful ; 
the wind blowing ftrong from the fouth directed the flames 
towards Ratcliffe High-ftreet, which, being narrow, took 
fire on both lides, and prevented the engines from being 
of any fervice. From hence it extended towards Stepney, 
until, having reached an open fpace of ground, it flopped 
for want of materials to conlume. About ten o’clock at 
night its devallations on tire tide next Limehoufe were 
checked by the great exertions of the firemen and inha¬ 
bitants. It was a very remarkable circumflance, that an 
exteniive building, the dwelling-houfe of a Mr. Bere, 
ftanding almoft in the centre of the conflagration, re¬ 
mained uninjured, not even a fingle pane of glafs being 
cracked. 
On making a furvey of the extent of the damage, it ap¬ 
peared that out of one thou'fand two hundred lioufes, 
of which the hamlet conliited, not more than five hundred 
and feventy were preferved. About four hundred fami¬ 
lies were deprived of their all, and thrown on the public 
benevolence. In this diftrefs, government fen'ta hundred 
and fifty tents from the Tower, which were pitched in an 
enclofed piece of ground adjoining to Stepney church¬ 
yard, for the reception of the fufferers; and provifions 
were diftributed among them from the veftry. A fub- 
feription was alfo immediately opened at Lloyd’s coffee- 
houfe for their relief; and fome of the gentlemen in the 
neighbourhood attended at the avenues leading to the de- 
folated feene, for the purpofe of foliciting the benevolence 
of thole whom curiufity might lead to witnefs the dif- 
trefles of their fellow-creatures ; and it may be recorded 
among the inftances of the univerfal charity peculiar to 
this nation, that the colledioa from the vifitants, on the 
Sunday following, amounted to upwards of eight hundred 
pounds; four hundred and twenty-fix pounds of which 
was in copper, and thirty-eight pounds fourteen Ihilliiigs 
in farthings. The total turn colleded was upwards of 
fixteen thoufand pounds. 
The oldeff inhabitant of London never vyitnefled fo 
dreadful a fform as that which took place on the 7th of 
Auguil, about four o'clock in the afternoon. The rain 
fell in torrents, and was accompanied by long and tre¬ 
mendous peals of thunder, and vivid flalhes of lightning. 
One of thele was feen to come down, and flrike the ftreet 
on theeall fide of Temple-bar, producing an effed limi- 
lar to an explofion of gunpowder ; every particle ol ftraw, 
mud, and even the water, being completely fwept from 
D O N. 
the pavement, while the houfes on both fides of the ftreet 
were violently fliaken, and the doors of fome of them 
forced open : fortunately, the rain had driven every per- 
fon from the Itreet. Among other damage done by the 
violence of this fform, the centre beam of the roof of 
Lloyd’s coflee-houfe was fplit, and great part of the ceil¬ 
ing fell into the coffee-room, followed by a torrent of 
rain, which in a few minutes covered the whole floor. 
Many balls of fire fell in the ftreets, particularly at the 
weft end of the town ; by which feveral people were thrown 
down, but only one perfon was killed. 
Some riots at Charing Crofs and St. George’s Fields, on 
account of real or fuppofed kidnapping, occurred during 
the furamer, and rouled the vigilance of the magiftrates° 
The recruiting-houfes were the objed of the fury of the 
populace; and nothing could quench the increafing evil 
but the prefenca of large bodies of iiorfe and foot guards, 
direded by the moderate, but firm, condud of the ma- 
giltrates. 
At length, by the unwearied exertions of its leaders, 
the Correlponding Society, as it was called by the founders 
of that nioft dangerous and undermining affociation, had 
affumed a formidable afped, being corapofed of an im- 
menfe number of the middling and lower clafles of the 
community, who, not only in their meetings, but alfo in 
common converfation, were equally free in their cenfures 
of the war, and in their withes for the fuccefs of the French. 
The avowed objed of their affociation was, a reform in 
parliament; but they were charged with views of another 
kind; with a delign of deftroying the conftitution, and 
introducing a republican form of government; and that 
this accufatiou, fo far as it regarded fome of the leading 
members, was well founded, cannot be denied, though the 
indiferiminate application of it to all was certainly wrong. 
The circumflance, however, which rendered them prin¬ 
cipally obnoxious, was the intimate connedion they held 
with the convention that affembled in Scotland, fome of 
the principal leaders of which had been tried, and found 
guilty of high-treafon. 
Iu this dangerous Itate of things, it was at laft deter¬ 
mined by government to apprehend the leading members 
of the Correlponding Society, and on the 12th of May of 
the fame year (1794), Thomas Hardy, their fecretary, was 
taken into cultody. Soon after, Daniel Adams, fecretary 
to the fociety forConftitutional Information, the celebrated 
John Home Tooke, the Rev. Mr. Joyce, domeltic tutor 
to lord Mahon, and John Thelwall, were apprehended, ex¬ 
amined before the privy-council, and committed to the 
Tower. Oil the 25th of Odober, the)'- were brought to 
trial, before a fpecial commiflion at the Old Bailey ; a bill 
of indidment having been previoufly found by the grand 
jury. The firtt perion tried was Thomas Hardy : his trial 
lalted eight days ; but, the evidence not being fufficient 
to fubftantiate the commiflion of fuch-an overt ad as is 
required to conffitute the crime of high-treafon, iie was 
acquitted. Mr. Tooke was next tried, and acquitted for 
the fame reafon; as was Mr. Thelwall, whofe trial fol¬ 
lowed ; after which the other prifoners were brought to the 
bar, pro forma ; but no evidence was adduced againff them. 
Thus ended a bufinefs, which, if coniidered in itfelf, 
was at firff of an inflgnificant nature ; a plot in which 
two clergymen and a thoemaker were the mod formidable 
engines, not being calculated to inl'pire much terror in a 
government where the landed property is moftiy in the 
hands of thole who wifely think that their lafety is infe- 
parabie from that of the conllitutibn, and vice verja.: but, 
if this affociation be confidered as to its extent, its con- 
nedions, its fecret machinations, pradices,and clandeltine 
workings, foflering a contrary power in the very bofom of 
public and private eftablithments, and undermining, by 
l'urreptitious means, the authority of civil magiftracy, we 
cannot wonder at the warm and effedive part that the 
city of London took on the occafion. Had not the ge¬ 
nius of our protedion, and the bold meafures of Mr. Pitt, 
interfered, 
