Yesterday at eleven o'clock a Cabinet Council was held at the Duke of Leeds's office, which was attended by the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Privy Seal, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the two Secretaries of State, Duke of Richmond and Earl of Chatham. The Council broke up at half past two o'clock, when the Duke of Richmond laid the result of it before the King at St James's.

The Prince Bishop of Liege still refuses to liften to the laft laft proposals of his Pruffian Majesty.

In confequence of which, the States of Liege have been obliged to apply to their Clergy, either to advance 200,000 crowns, at 5 per cent, or, in cafe they have not money, to let all the Church plate (except the Sacred Vessels) be coin ed, in order to pay the troops there.

The Pope has addressed a very long memorial to the Archbishop of Mecklin, and the other Chiefs of the Clergy in Brabant, offering himself as mediator between the States and their late Sovereign. This proposal came immediately at the requifition of the late Emperor to the Pope, who offers to have the whole restored on the antient principles of the Constitution.

Mr Hastings, now Earl of Huntingdon, was formerly a common failor in the Royal Navy, but has for some years past been in a fubordinate fituation in the Customhouse at Folkstone.

Madame Masson, the female tennis player, is related, by marriage, to the celebrated Masson, who formerly challenged all England at that game. Mr Biffet, her antagonist, is a young man of good fortune, who was in a gown and cap at Oxford about five years ago, We know not the gentleman's degree, but the lady is apparently an under graduate at tennis; the odds received by her amounting nearly to half the game.

When Mr Howard set out last upon his travels, instead of letters of credit, he carried with him Bank notes; and though, perhaps, such a paper currency was never before seen in Cherfon, where he died, fuch was the public dependance on his veracity, that they took them as cash, and as fuch they were circulated all about the country on the mere credit of his name.

It is much to be regretted, that this amiable man was taken off in the midst of his philanthropic investigation of the causes and cure of that horrible distemper -the plague. He had proposed to pass three years abroad; to vifit Grand Cairo

twice; to go to Conftantinople; to those Northern parts of Africa bounded by the Mediterranean; to ice the armies of the Turks Ruffians, and Imperialists; and to pablish the result of his observations

Quis defiderio fit pudor aut mudus,
Tam chari capitis!

Lord George Gordon says, the Whore of Babylon has inveighed his beloved friend Cagliostro into her arms in de spite of his Revelations.

SCOTLAND.

COUNTY OF EDINBURGH.

March 1. This day, a meeting of the County of Edinburgh was held, for the purpose of confidering the propofal for raifing a new prison and bridewell.

The Lord Advocate in the Chair. Mr Sheriff Cockburn addressed the meeting as to the expediency and propriety of the measure, and laid before them a statement of the expence neceffary for erecting the building, and maintaining the institution, as also the mode of raifing the funds.

1

Mr Cockburn proposed, that the brider well should be under the management of trustees, viz. The Lord President of the Court of Seffion, the Lord Chief Baron, Lord Advocate, the Solicitor General, the Lord Provoit and Magistrates, Dean of Guild and Convener, the Representatives for the city and county, all for the time being, &c. also one or two trustees to be chosen by each of the acceding counties. Each county to defray the expence of maintaining the culprits they might send, and to tranfmit money for that purpose along with them.

Sir John Clerk said, that he was not for confining the trustees to these official Gentleman only. They were very refpectable, and they would be much the better for their advice. But many of them had little or no property in this county, and confequently had little interest in the management of the funds. He thought that the Gentlemen who contributed to the expence, were the most proper persons to take care of their own money, and to fee that it was not improperly laid out.

Mr Robertson Barclay begged to know if the Sheriff had, in his estimate, sepаrated the expence of erecting the prifon from that of the Bridewell. He said the County of Fife, in particular, had no business with building a prifon at Edinburgh.

Fa

Mr Cockburn replied, he had not made the estimates separate.

Mr Macconochie expressed a doubt as to the propriety of receiving some of the counties proposed to be associated; particularly those counties within which the Circuit Courts were held.

Sir John Dalrymple faid, the plan now in question was to affect one-third of the inhabitants of Scotland in the seven affociating counties, and would be a public blessing, or a public curse, according to the regulations it contained; for if it contained only a general extension of difcretionary powers in the two lowest classes of Judges over the common peo'ple, it would drive our own manufacturers out of their country, and prevent for reign ones entering it. Therefore the particular regulations should be inserted in the Act of Parliament itself; and they ought to have two ends in view-one, to make the perfons confined in the workhouse confider themselves not as objects of indignation, but of compaflion and benevolence; on which account they 'should be provided with food, fuel, and raiment, even better than they had in their own houses; and the other, that when they were dismissed from the House, they should be confidered, not as objects of disgrace, but of credit.

He had come to the County Meeting to ftate how these two objects could be obtained; from what he had feen at Lyons, to obtain the first; and from what he had seen in Germany, to obtain the fecond.

At Lyons he had gone into a great house of charity and industry, contain⚫ing near two thousand people, a little before dinner-time. At twelve o'clock the food was prepared in large cauldrons holding several tons. To each three perfons a pound of beef was allotted, which was cut into several small pieces. To cach three persons two pounds of bread, very hard burnt, and cut alfo into small morsels, was allotted, and an equal quantity of legumes. As much water was mixed as would cover the whole, and it was then stewed for three or four hours over a fimmering fire, till it was redu'ced to a complete jelly or foup. Some of it was sent to him at his inn, and it was 'as good as the best family in Edinburgh eats. What the perfon did not eat at dinner, he got at fupper.-One pound of dry bread was allotted to each three perfons breakfast, a crust of dry bread being 'the common breakfast of the greatest people in France. Now, the expence of

the same practice extended to Scotland, would stand as follows: - One third of a pound of a beef, one penny; a pound of bread, one penny, (which last he calculated from a plowman and his family being allowed fix bolls of meal in the year, weighing each a hundred and twenty pounds, for him, his wife, and children, of which he supposed him to eat the half, and the boll to cost eleven shillings;) a bottle of beer one halfpenny, (which he calculated by fopposing the beer brewed in the Workhouse, and by deducting the brewer's profit, the Excife, and the accursed tax of two pennies in the pint, which is a full fecond Excife upon the landholders, tenants, and inhabitants of the country;) salt and other trifles one halfpenny, the whole making threepence. He supposed another threepence to go for raiment of a nature to be washed, fewel, washing, and bedding, which threepence is a very large article of credit in calculation; the whole would make fixpence. The work of the prisoner, upon an average, would be but the difference, that is, the gain of fixpence, should go, not to the house, but to the prifoner when he left it, if he behaved well. On the one fixpence, the prifoner would live better than he had been accustomed to atdohome, and the other would be a saving to which he had been still less accustomed..

a

Thilling

The fact which he had seen in Germany was this: Close to the Penitentionary Workhouse, there was a voluntary Workhouse, into which every stranger that wanted work entered that pleafed. If he would not work, he was scourged out of the house; if he was worth his work, he was well taken care of; and the prisoners, when dismissed from the Penitentionary House, were al-lowed to continue there as long as they liked, in order to regain their characters by mingling with industrious people. Now, in the fame way in the Edinburgh Voluntary Workhouse, the prisoners when dismissed, after getting their earnings in decent clothes, the tools of their trade, the residue in money, and a certifi-cate of their behaviour, should be allowed to go into the voluntary Workhouse as long as they pleased.

This last was a matter of confiderable consequence to this country. Most of the Scotch who were going to England for work, took Edinburgh in their way, or came to Edinburgh for employment, which they knew not how to get. Their com-mon way was to stand at the Cross every Monday,

Monday, from seven till nine o'clock in the morning, like so many beafts, and many of them not even understanding the language. If they miss employment that day, they get none till the next Monday, and are obliged to beg or steal in the mean time. But open the door of the Voluntary Workhouse to them, and you will remove the great fource of those two vices. And if to this you add a public regifter, containing the numbers of people wanting work, and the various worksthey are fit for, you will let every man who wants workmen go to a shop where he is fure of finding them.

He had only to add on the head of regulations, that in travelling very flowly (because he attended his wife who was fick) from Lisbon to Ostend, it was the object of his curiosity to know how the poor of different countries were taken care of; and as most of the great houses for them in foreign countries have printed regulations, which are diftributed to excite public charity, he got as many as he could, with all books on those fubjects subjed that he could procure. When he came home, he made a present to the Royal Infirmary of such as related to infirmaries, and the rest to Dr Macfarlane, who was then writing on that subject, or to Mr Beaufoy of the House of Commons, whose generosity to this country entitled him to them. These may be recovered, and may suggest other regulations.

Sir John concluded with making a motion, which, after undergoing several alterations and additions, was agreed to unanimously by the Meeting, and is in fubstance as follows:

1. "That this Meeting agree in geperal to the propriety and expediency of erecting a Bridewell at Edinburgh.

2. "That a Committee be appointed to confider ist, What Counties, if any, should be associated with the Town and County of Edinburgh in this institution; -2dly, What rules and regulations, to be observed in the Bridewell, it would be necessary to infert in the act of Parliament, and what powers should be given to the Magiftrates or Managers by the act to be exercifed over those confined there; -3dly, What is the most proper method of raifing money to defray the expence of

the erection.

3. " That the Resolution of the Meeting should be printed and published."

A Committee was accordingly appoint ed, who areto report to a future Meeting. The thanks of the Meeting were afterwards unanimoufly voted to Mr Sheriff

Cockburn, for the great trouble and at tention he had bestowed on this business

Further Particulars of what Sir John Dalrymple faid on Monday last, at a Meeting for a Bridewell common to feveral counties.

Sir John faid, that though a friend to the plan, he was not a friend to the mode of raifing the money, for two reasons: fir first, because the public ought to pay for it; and next, because if not done by the public, the Corporation of Edinburgh was to pay too little, but the inhabitants of the City and the Landed Intereft of the County too much,

With regard to the first of these heads, it was the general practice of England, for the public to pay for works in which great bodies of the people were interested. For example, Newgate was repaired in the reign of King William, and rebuilt in the present reign by public taxes, not by particular afsessments. The fame was the cafe of the Bridge of London, of Blackfriar's Bridge, of ge, of St Paul's Church, of the reparation of the Exchange, of the Infirmary, of Newgate, of the works at Portsmouth, at Milburnhaven, at Hull; and, as he had heard, (though he was not fure of the fact, because he had not feen the statute) even of the Bridewell of Shoreham. Many other instances might be given; but the best example of all is, that the two great English Penitentiaries near London, to be erected upon what is commonly called Mr Eden's act, are by the statute to be paid by the public; and he saw no reason why public works in England, that were not to affect one-twentieth part of the people, either directly or eventually, should be built at the public expence, when public works in Scotland, which were to affect one-third of the peo ple directly, and many more eventually, were to be built two-thirds, or rather three-fourths of the money, at the expence of individuals.

There was another reason why Government should pay for a Bridewell so ex tenfive, to wit, that Government were to reap the benefit of it in finding recruits for the army and navy, it being well known that Sir John Fielding had fent more recruits from the bridewells and prisons of Middlesex, than had been got by all the recruiting serjeants and pressgangs there.

With regard to the other head; he faid, the proportion of the Corporation of Edinburgh was not to be above a hundred pounds or two out of 12,cool. the fura needed

meeded; while the inhabitants of the town, and the landed interest of the county, were to pay about 4,000l. betides the maintenance of the Bridewell. In return for this hundred pound or two which the Corporation was to pay, they were to get rid of the expence of repairing their prifons, and maintaining their prifoners, which must be a very confiderable one; They were to get the nuisance of their city-prison removed from the middle of their town, and their town thereby embellished: They were to get the patronage of what was called the establishment of the House, that is to say, the gift of places, to the extent of 3001. a-year; for the addition of the Great Officers of State, and other great men, to the act of Trustees named by the Corporation, he confidered as a mere trick; because they might not have a foot of land in town or county, would never attend, and were mere men of straw; yet, almost every penny of this eftablishment, added to the maintenance of the House, was to be paid by the inhabitants of the town, and by the landed intereft of the county. In this bargain, he thought the inhabitants of the town, and landed interest of the county, had been fold to the governing part of the Corporation, that is, to those who chose the member of Parliament.

The reason was obvious. Formerly the county and Corporation stood in op posite interests; Lord Arniston having the one, and Lord Milton, for the late Duke of Argyle, the other. The confequence was, that the county was a check upon the follies and jobs of the Corporation. He meant no offence. All Corporations are subject to both, because their Magistrates are continually shifting, and have no intereft in the revenues they administered. In short, the county was formerly the husband, the Corporation the wife; and the county, like all wife hufbands, took care to keep his wife in order. -But all this was now reversed. Town and county were now to be represented by the fame family. The Corporation was become the husband, the county was become the wife; and she, like other wo men, was obliged to bring her portion along with her. Her portion for a Bride well was to be 2,200 and odd pounds, befides maintaining an establishment, the fervants of which, not the, but her hufband, was to name. This was not all:This imperious husband had fix kept mistresses, the fix afsociating counties, whom he did not, like other lovers, pay but made the poor fluts pay him. A

husband is often more kind to his mistrefses than to his wife. The fix new wen ches are to pay only half a year's landtax; but the good old woman, Mid-Lothian, is to pay for a whole year, and to maintain the House besides. This was an unlucky state of things, because it would give room for ill-natured people to say, that while other candidates with their own money bribed corporations, the candidates for the town and county had joined to bribe the corporation with the money of the county..

He added on that head, that even the proportion which the landed interest was to pay, was unequally laid on. The produce of the county in coal, was almost equal to the produce of the land. Yet the coalmafters were not to pay a farthe ing for their coal. One of them, who is said to make soool. a-year by his coal, was one of a meeting of a very few who lately concerted the present plan, but by accident it was forgot to make the coalmasters pay any thing.

He concluded by calling the serious attention of the Meeting to the confe quences to their children if the public was to pay only one fourth, and the corporation, which had a monstrous eftate, if rightly managed, (perhaps equal to one third of the rent of the County), were to pay only a trifle of a hundred pound or two to the plan. There was a fatality of miscalculation attended all public expences, both in Edinburgh and in the County of Edinburgh. The Regi ster Office coft three times more than the estimate; the North Bridge cost four times more; the Physicians Hall and Library was in ruins within, from miftakes of estimates. The Obfervatory was on ruins on the outside, notwithe standing that the glorious speculum, the finest on earth, worth tool. had been bequsathed with his last breath by Mr Short, who made it, to his native City; but which speculum, to the fcandal of science, has never yet been even put up. Go into the Affembly Rooms, and you will find them crouded, not with gay fiddlers and dancers, but with the melancholy faces of subscribers met to fell their bankrupt property to an innkeeper. Look at the turnpike roads of the County. A fmall fum was asked at first, but the demand a few years after was swelled to a great one. A few years ago, the sum of 9000l. was laid on at a flap by Parliament; a few months ago 12,000 more was laid on at another flap; and he defired it to be remembered when he

was

was dead, that ftanding where he did, he had foretold that 12,000 more would be called for before a dozen years ran round. Paft experience might shew what would happen in future. L. 12,000 was at, present afked for the Bridewell. In a few years the County and the inhabitants of the Town will be told, that unfortunately the estimates of the buildings had been erroneous; that the establishment of sool. a year was too little; that more perfons were committed to the Bridewell than was expected; that less profit had arisen from their work than was expected; that their treasurer, (perhaps a decayed Magistrate), poor man! had unexpectedly become bankrupt with some thousand pounds of their funds in

his hands. The late Mr Farquharfon, who was trustee for half the bankrupt estates in Scotland, used to fay, that the landed intereft of Scotland was in debt to one third of its value. Let those who heard him lay their hands on their heart, and ask if it was not their own situation; and he prayed to God, that their public prodigality might not be erecting a house for fome of their own children to in habit.

Preferments.

John Crawford, Efq. of Auchmains, Member of Parliament for Glasgow, &c. in room of the Right Hon. Ilay Campbell, now Lord President of the Court of Seffion.

The Right Hon. George Viscount Falmouth, and the Right Hon. Dudley Rider, sworn of his Majesty's mofi Hon. Privy Council.

The Right Hon. Lord Frederick Campbell, and the Right Hon. Dudly Rider, Commissioners of the Board of Controul.

John Lord Rollo, an Ensign in the 3d Regiment of Foot Guards.

The Earl of Harcourt, Master of Horse to her Majesty, in room of Earl Waldgrave deceast.

Mr Alderman Boydell had the honour of Knighthood conferred on him when he prefented the first number of his edition of Shakespeare to their Majefties.

Dr James Black Professor of Chymistry in the University of Edinburgh, first Physician to his Majesty in Scotland, in room of Dr Cullen deceaft.

The Earl of Chesterfield, joint PostMafter General, in place of Earl of Westmoreland, now Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

ter.

Births.

1

Lady Charlotte Dundas, of a daugh..

The Lady of Sir Hugh Dalrymple, Bart. of a daughter.

The Rt. Hon. the Countess of Haddington, of a daughter.

The Hon. Lady Abercromby of Berkenbag, of a daughter.

Mrs M-Kenzie of Allan Grange, of. a fon.

Mrs M'Leod of Cadbale, of a daughter. Mrs Nicholson of Carnack, of a fon. Mrs Duff of Fetteresso, of a fon.

A poor woman near Huntly of twe boys and a girl, who were all baptized; one boy died foon after.

The Lady of Lord William Murray, of a fon.

At Hackney, Mrs Mann, of a fon, and three days after, a second hearty strong boy, who with the mother have every appearance of doing well.

Deaths.

In the flower of his age, Alexander Johnfton,