148 LON 
to our readers. That they were followed by no iir.nie- 
il'iate eflecls, does not fufprife us. It was hill uncertain 
whether Mr. Fox might not recover; and, in cafe of his 
death, it is not improbable, that hopes were entertained 
of being able to form, without a druggie, a new adminif¬ 
tration, in which his friends would be left out. The ac¬ 
count of his death was received at court with coldnefs 
and indifference ; and inch inquiries into the particulars of 
that event as curiofity diftated, were ftudioufly addreffed 
to thofe who, from the recentnefs of their connection with 
him, were the lead likely to receive from them gratifica¬ 
tion, or confider them as marks of an intereit in his fate. 
No hafre was expreffed to fill up the vacancy occafioned 
by his death. It was rather clef.red, that due confederation 
fliouhl precede the formation of the new miniilerial ar¬ 
rangements which that event rendered neceffary. But if 
expeditions were harboured, that lord Grenville, on whom 
the fuggeftion of the new arrangements naturally devolved, 
would" take this opportunity of feparating from Mr. Fox’s 
friends, they were completely difappointed. That noble¬ 
man feems, on the contrary, to have taken pains to (how, 
that his attachment to his new affociates had been 
ftrengthened, inftead of being impaired, by their connec¬ 
tion ; and that even an event like this, which left him the 
choice of his future partners in the government, was in- 
lufficient to detach him from them. He recommended 
lord Howick to fucceed Mr; Fox in the foreign office ; 
Mr. Grenville to be firft lord of the admiralty, in the place 
of lord Howick; Mr. Tierney to be prefident of the board 
of con troul, in the place of Mr. Grenville, who had fucceeded 
to that office, withaplacein the cabinet, on the appointment 
of lord Minto to the government of Bengal; lord Sid- 
jncuth to fucceed to the prefidency of the council, from 
which lord Fitzwilliam, on account of bad health, was 
defirous to withdraw ; and lord Holland to fucceed lord 
Sidmouth as lord privy feal. In thefe appointments, it is 
worthy of remark, that lord Holland, the nephew of Mr. 
Fox, was the only new member brought into the cabinet. 
When thefe arrangements were fubmitted to his majefty, 
he was gracioufly ple.afed to acquiefce in them. 
The new miniltry found it neceffary to diffolve the par¬ 
liament ; and the returns to the new' one were fuch as 
greatly to add to the weight and influence of the friends 
of adminiftration in the houfe of commons. The whig- 
party, which had been driven out of the reprefentation 
of Yorkftiire in 1784, recovered one of the feats for that 
great and independent county. In Norfolk, after a hard- 
fought conteft, both members returned were whigs. One 
of the feats for Liverpool wuas carried by the abolitionifts 
. againft the traffickers in human flefli. But, on the other 
hand, a friend of adminiftration was turned out of the re¬ 
prefentation of Southwark, and another loft the city of 
Norwich. Weftminfter was the feene of a moll violent 
conteft between a friend of government and a difeontented 
whig; and one of the feats for Middlefex was loft to the 
popular party, by an attack of fir Francis Burdett on the 
memory of Mr. Fox. 
Ireland enjoyed tranquillity during the greater part of 
the prefent year, under the mild and conciliatory govern¬ 
ment of the duke of Bedford. Towards the dole of the 
year, difturbances broke out in the north-weft of Ireland, 
occafioned by a banditti, who went about in the night¬ 
time under the name of Threfhers, committing every fort 
of crime and outrage. Strong applications were made to 
the viceroy, to have thefe difturbances put down by the 
infurrection-law, the ufual remedy in Ireland on fuch oc- 
cafions ; but the duke of Bedford refufed to have recourfe, 
without neceffity, to fo violent a remedy ; and, by proper 
life of the ordinary and regular authority, of government, 
he fucceeded in repreffing and putting a ftop to thefe ex- 
ceffes. 
On the 24th of November, about fix o’clock in the 
morning, the debtors confined in Newgate were alarmed 
by hearing Something fall into the yard, and afterwards a 
faint groaning, as it frojn a perfou in diflrele. A turn** 
DON. 
key went into the debtors’ yard, where he difeovered The 
two men, who had been employed to Watch at the top of 
the gaol during Sunday night, in a fituation too Shocking 
to deferibe. One of them, of the name of William Lee, 
had fallen upon an iron bar, which had taken off the top 
part of his fkull, and dallied his brains out, which were, 
fcattered upon the pavement; the other, Robert Simpfon, 
had, if polfible, fuffered a (lill more (hocking death, for 
he had fallen upon fome iron fpikes, one of which entered 
the thick part of his thigh, and penetrated a conliderablc 
way into his body ! The only pofiible mode of account¬ 
ing for this melancholy accident is, that there is a final! 
diviften at the top of the gaol, which they had to crofs ; 
and Simplon, the conftant watchman, and who had been 
watchman at Newgate ever fince it was built, had that 
night unfortunately left his lanthorn at home; and it is 
fuppofed that, in going round the gaol, they muff have 
forgotten this diviiion, and their milerable death was the 
confeq uence. 
Some philofophers have divided the functions of the hu¬ 
man mind into perception, judgment, memory, volition, See. 
and others have clafled them in different ways, accord¬ 
ing to their various ideas on the fubjedl ; but-few, if any, 
have ever mentioned two modifications,or affedtions, which 
are neverthelefs moll prominent : namely, the prurient 
defire of knowing, or curiofily, and the unquenchable 
third’ after unmotived belief, ox gullibility ; the latter being 
the natural conlequence of the former. Not only in Eng¬ 
land, but in all the nations, the deferiptions of which 
have come hitherto, in rotation, under our pen, we have 
had frequent occafion to remark how eafy of belief is man 
in general, and how prone to acquiefcence and blind de¬ 
votion, whenever lie lofes fight of the unerring torch of 
difpaffionate reafon which Providence has placed before 
Jiim, like the Pharos to guide the ffiariner. We have 
never found this propenfity (we were going to call it a ; 
brutal appetite after the naufeous food of lies and decep¬ 
tion) more ftrongly marked, more nefarioully pradtifed 
upon, more abfurdly ridiculous, than in religious matters.—• 
Conjurors, and Cock-lane gholts, are but common tricks, 
and hackneyed hoaxes now—the Itomach is low—the 
wonted appetite recedes, and v.'ants ftimulating—and this 
circumftance gave rile to the tremendous, yet barmlefs, 
prophecies of a Brothers ; and to the monftrous fpiritual 
pregnancies, and blafpliemous abortions, of a Joanna Soutii- 
cott. The modern enemies of revelation have often ob= 
ferved, with a triumphant fneer, that the heathen authors 
did never mention the life and miracles of Chrift ; and, 
by a negative argument, wilh to deftroy fadls which the 
reft of the world had affirmed. It has been properly urged, 
in reply, that it W'as neither the buiinefs nor the intereit 
of pagan writers to mention Jefus in their refpedlive pro¬ 
ductions; and that, if they have done fo, the raging jea- 
loufy and zeal of the heathens foon found ways of dellrcy- 
ing thefe inimical evidences at a time when printing was 
unknown. How>ever, left the partifans of the prophetefs 
Joanna Southcott (hould fuppoie that we are situated by 
the fame invidious motives, we (hall give our readers fome 
interefting ftridtures upon the fubjedt, and thus endeavour 
to raife a fmile upon human extravagance, as a digreffion 
from the ferious duties of the chronicler. The feal of fe- 
crecy (hall not be prefled uponJier fame, and file (hall be 
held up on high for the admiration or fcorn of the people. 
The account is taken from a work profeffi-dly tranllated 
from the Span iff, but with greater probability fuppofed 
to be an original Englifh work. 
In the early part of the thirteenth century there ap¬ 
peared an Englilh virgin in Italy, beautiful and eloquent, 
who affirmed that the Holy Ghoft was incarnatein her for 
the redemption of women ; and Hie baptized women in. 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of herfelf. 
Her body was carried to Milan, and burnt there. Joanna 
Southcott neither boafts of. the charms of her forerunner, 
nor needs them. Initead of having an eye which can fal- 
cinate, and a tongue which can perfuade to error by glof- 
