1752. Lightning and Electricity. Eaft-Frizeland, &c. 249 when it concerns only private perfons : But, if the rights or liberties of the publick are any ways interested, truth, and all the truth, however defamatory, ought; always to be told; for otherwife, how could the publick ever oppofe any oppreffion at all? As, fuppofe a man was, by arbitrary power, illegally imprisoned, and denied the common relief of the law; in fuch cafes, would not the publick be highly concerned therein? For, might not the fame hard treatment be every man's cafe? Should not therefore fuch man publickly complain thereof, and make his true cafe known to others, that A they might take proper measures to pre- B vent its being their own? Publick grievances can never be redrefs'd but by publick complaints; and, they cannot well be made without the prefs: Now, if publick oppreffions cannot poffibly be removed without publick, complaining, and, if fuch complaints, tho' ever fo juft and true, fhould be deemed libels against those who caufe them, C would not the rights and liberties of the publick be in a fine fituation? Our laws would be then delufions, our rights but fhadows, and our liberties a dream. To fecure the lives, liberties and properties of the fubject from all fuch oppreffions, is the fole end or intention of juries; and while they act according to their oaths, leaft fway or influence. The hearts of I am, SIR, &c. To what was faid of Lightning and Electricity THO HO' many very able and experienced naturalifts have many years ago afelectricity were one and the fame thing; ferted, that lightning and the power of which notion was grounded on the refem-> blance there was between their refpectives phoenomena; yet refting fatisfied with the conjecture only, they never pointed out any ways or means for the demonstration of the fact. Mr. Francklyn, however, of Philadelphia in America, carried this critical point much further, and has pointed out the means for making the experiment; in which partitular point he has fucceeded beyond expectation. Mr. Lemonier, in particular, one of his most christian majesty's phyficians in ordinary, who is a member of the Academy Royal of Sciences, made the experiment ac they will be a fufficient guard against them? Dcordingly at St. Germain en Laye, during There is a noble inftance of the firmnefs and integrity of a jury, lately publifhed in the cafe of John Peter Zenger, printer, at New York; who was profecuted, by information, for publishing a falfe libel against the governor. Mr. Hamilton, the prifoner's counfel, juftly and bravely owned his client's publishing E it, but infifted, it was not falfe; and would have produced witneffes to have proved its truth, but was denied by the court. In this caufe every artifice of arbitrary power was ufed; and the judges. plainly fhewed, that they fat there only during the governor's pleafure: Yet, notwithanding all the partial influence of power, and bafe direction of the bench, the Jury, their immortal honour, acquitted the prifoner, by bringing in their verdict, Not guilty. When juries thus at according to their confciences, and bravely refift the illegal attempts of arbitrary power, they not only fecure the lives and properties of their fellow fubjects, but tranfmit their names and virtues to pofterity, in the fhining records of eternal fame. confcience of a jury is the fupreme law, the law of right reafon; over which, no rhetorick from the bar, no direction from the bench, hould ever have the The F the tempeft which happened on the 7th inftant; and planted in the garden of the Hotel de Noailles, an iron rod for that purpose. He plainly perceived, that at the first flash of lightning that fell on it, the rod was electrified in the fame manner, and had vifibly the fame appearances, as it would have had in cafe it had been electrified according to art. Abundance of perfons of indifputable credit were eye-witneffes of the effects it produced; from whence it is now demonstrable that the effects of lightening and electricity are the fame. The following, we prefume, will not be une, acceptable to our political Readers. HE fpeculative politicians at Paris pretend to underland thoroughly the whole mystery of the important af fair lately brought on the tapis at Ratisbon. They obferve, that the Brandenburgh minifter at the diet of the empire has not given any fatisfactory answer to the pro ceedings of the Hanoverian minister; reGlative to his Britannick majefty's pretenfions to the principality of Eaft-Frize land; nor has the Pruffian court yet fully refuted all the arguments urged by the court of Hanover in a memorial delivered to the ftates of the empire in February last • See London Magazine for 1738, p. 27. From 250 LETTER from a LADY. B From whence they furmize, that there D The principality of Eaft-Frizeland, which now occafions fuch a warm dif-. pute between his majefty and the king, of Prutha, lies in the north-west part of Germany, bordering upon Groningen, a province of the United Netherlands. It was formerly a fovereign state, under the protection of the Dutch, but upon the death of the laft prince, the king of Pruffia took poffeffion of it, tho' the Dutch alfo claim'd it. Embden is the capital city, to which his Pruffian majefty has lately granted fo many privileges and immuniues, in order to extend its commerce G and make trade flourish in his dominions. LITTER from a LADY to another LADY, (See p. 279) AS your ladyship ever feen two H people thunder-ftruck? Have you June ever seen two Niobes petrify'd? Have you ever feen the pictures of Amazement and Aftonishment? If you have, you have by this time feen lady Lovelace and your flave in the attitudes your fudden flight to the lodge left us. Her ladyship let fall her work-basket, and refumed it thrice; then asked, and anfwered herself, fifty queftions in a breath; and not arriving at any fatisfactory accounts of the matter, called for tea-but did not pour it out, because the amazement of her mind had fwallowed up all her faculties, but those of fpeech.-I, in whom the paffions operate differently, and fometimes not all, steed motionlefs for a while, with my eyes fixt upon the ground; then, as my forces gradually decayed, funk gently down upon the fettee, and word spake never more., I have just recovered the ufe of language enough to inform your ladyship,' that the virtues are all exhaufted; and that it is impoffible to have any longer patience with you, or charity for you. And for my own part, I fhould leave this land with malice in my heart, if it was not for the hopes of feing you again from Denham Court, the land I am going into a Monday; which I need not describe, because your ladyfhip knows it is a good and pleasant one; and which Sir Williama and my lady are peopling with fons and daughters as faft as they can; tho' at the fame time, retain fo much of the good old English hofpitality, as not to grudge their friends a hearty welcome. Lady L. began moving by nine o'clock this morning, that is, from the bed-chamber to the back parlour; and by to-morrow night, I reckon, the chairs and pictures will be at the door, to be ready for the chairmen againft Monday morning. Alas! my dreffing glafs! which is just now fent for, her own being packed up. I tremble for my bed! but have promifed to be up by fix o'clock a Monday morning, tho' I am not to fet out till two in the afternoon. Sure nothing gives her lady. fhip fo much fpirits as a remove! Most people at her time of life love to fit ftill; a plain proof that lady L. is younger than moft old people, and not fo old as many young ones. But I believe the pleasure of being fo near your ladyfhip has added a little to her vivacities; as the hopes of a better ftate, in the intellectual world, animates us enough to go thro' with the evils of the natural. Of fo much ufe (perhaps of little more) are the paffions; which, I believe, comes pretty near the truth: However, I don't infift upon it, because I fhall find out fomething more about them. 1752. A DESCRIPTION of COVENTRY. I go ever day to learn the hiftory of your doors, a piece of ftill life, which affords not many obfervations; except that laft night they were in the fituation your lady hip left them. Have left the picture in Mrs. W's dreffing room, but cou'd not ; for Atay to depofit it in a proper light fince you both departed, I've found out A that I've fifty things to do of my own, which never entered into my head before. But just fo (to resume the metaphor) we hurry thro' life. Among the variety of amufements: which catch us as we go along, and which we feldom fail to make the most of, there's generally a favourite pleasure or two, which fixes and engroffes our attention fo entirely, that we even forget where we are going-till a friend or two drops round us, and then we begin to think it high time to make our will. (Tis well if we do even that.) And this, which is generally the laft act of the important fcene, is, of courfe, burry'd over much in the fame manner as this of mine in town: only with this difference, that I've nothing to leave behind me worth fetting my friends together by the ears for, when I'm gone; tho' cou'd not decently go off the ftage, without bidding your ladyship Adieu. An Account of the three piratical States of BARBARY B C LGIERS is the most wefterly and D tends from Morocco on the west, to the 25 move them. Thus the dey of Tunis is but very lately depofed by his fon, and at Algiers they have murdered 4 of their deys, and depofed 2 within the space of 25 years. There can never want traitors among that abandoned race of men, compofed of robbers and the refufe of Turkey, to confpire the deftruction of the reigning prince and ufurp his throne; for the foldiers who are vefted with this power of election, are either criminals who have been obliged to fly from Turkey, renegadoes, or pirates, who refort hither in hopes of fpoil, and who, notwithstanding their bafe original, look upon themfelves as noblemen, using the Moors and other inhabitants of Africa little better than flaves. They live chiefly by the plunder of merchants that navigate the neighbouring feas; tho' the produce of their country would furnish them abundantly with materials to traffick with, if they applied themselves to husbandry and manufactures. A Defcription of COVENTRY. With a beautiful VIEW of the fame. OVENTRY, in Warwickshire, is an an antient city, feated almoft in the middle of England, 74 computed, and 90 measured miles N. W. from London. But tho' it is within the confines of Warwickshire, yet it is exempted from its jurifdiction, as being a county of i:felf, and having feveral towns and villages annexed to it. The city is governed by a mayor, recorder and 10 aldermen, who prefide over to wards. As a county, they have two fheriffs, a fteward, coroner, two chamberlains, two wardens, and other officers. It was ance a bishop's fee of itfelf, which was afterwards removed to Litchfield, but upon this condition, that the biop fhould be filed bishop of Litchfield and Coventry. Here was a rich convent, deftroyed by the Danes in 1016, from whence the city is fuppofed to take its name, but afterwards rebuilt by Leofrick, earl of Mercia. A parliament was held here in the reign of Henry IV. call Fed parliamentum indofterum, or the unlearned parliament, becaufe the lawyers were excluded; and another in the reign of Henry VI. called by the Yorkists, parliamentum diabolicum, or the devil's par liament, from the attainder of Richard duke of York, his fen the earl of March (afterwards Edward IV.) the earls of Salifbury and Warwick, and their adherents. Edward IV. for its difloyalty to him, took the fword from the mayor, and diffranchifed the city, which redeemed its charters on payment of 500 marks; and he was fo well reconciled, that in four years 252 A DESCRIPTION of COVENTRY. June Lincolnshire, earnestly importuned him to remit the taxes, and to free the citizens from all fervile tenures; but could not prevail with him, unless the would confent to ride naked thro' the most frequented part of the city; a condition which he was fure her modefty would never comply with: But, in compaffion to the city, the tradition fays, that, after having ordered all the doors and windows. to be shut, upon pain of death, the rode thro' the streets on horfeback, naked, with her loofe hair about her, which was fo long, that it covered all her body but her legs. Camden fays, that nobody looked after her; yet the story goes, that a poor taylor peeped out of his window, and was thereupon struck blind. Be this as it will, his figure is put up in the fame window, of the High-ftreet, to this day. Upon Godiva's riding naked, as above, earl Leofrick remitted the taxes he had impofed on the citizens; in memory of which they fet up his picture and Chers in the windows of Trinity church, with this infcription: B I Lurick, for the love of thee, years after he kept St. George's feaft here, and food godfather to the mayor's child. Its prefent charter was granted by K. James I. 'Twas formerly well walled and very ftrong; but K. Charles II. after his reftoration, ordered it to be difmantled, because it held out against his father; and fo the walls, which were A three miles in compafs, with 26 towers, were demolished, and only the gates left ftanding, which are 12, and very noble and beautiful; at one of which hangs a fhield-bone of a wild boar, much bigger than that of an ox, faid to have been flain by the famous Guy earl of Warwick, after he had with his fnout turned up the pond, that is now called Swanefwell-pool, but more anciently Swine'swell. The prince of Wales has a large park and domain here, but very ill kept, the park being used for horfe-races. In the reign of Henry VIII. a ftately cross was erected in the middle of the marketplace, by a legacy of Sir William Holles, lord-mayor of London, which is 60 feet high, and adorned with the ftatues of feveral of our kings, as big as the life. The city, which had formerly many religious houfes, is large, populous and rich, but the buildings generally old. It had, in the laft age, a confiderable manufacture of cloth and caps, which is much decayed, its chief manufacture now being tammeys, D and the ordinary forts of ribbons, especially black. It has two markets weekly, viz. on Wednesdays and Fridays, and four annual fairs. The water of the river Sherburn, on which the city ftands, is peculiar for its blue dye, whence Coventry blues became very famous. 'Tho it has but three parish churches, it has four teeples, there being at the fouth end of E the town a tall fpire by itself, the only remains of a church that belonged to a monaftery of grey-friars. St. Michael's church, built anno 1349, in the reign of Richard II. is very remarkable for its curious Gothick architecture: It has a ftone fpire, of excellent workmanship, 300 feet high, which, 'tis faid, was more than 22 years building. The windows of the town-house are of painted glafs, reprefenting fome of the old kings, earls, &c. who have been benefactors to the city. Earl Leofrick, above mentioned, who died the 13th of Edward the Confeffor, seems to have been the first lord of this town; and there is a story concerning him, handed down by tradition, and firmly believed G Church. here, which we must not omit, and which is as follows: That this earl having heavily taxed the citizens, for fome offence they had given him, his good lady Godiva, daughter of Thorold, a fheriff of F And they have an annual proceffion of cavalcade, on the great fair-day, the is ufual for the Warwickshire gentlemen, Friday after Trinity Sunday, reprefenting Godiva fo riding thro' the town; and it at their annual feaft, to reprefent her in the fame manner, with Guy earl of Warwick on horfeback, arm'd cap-a-pee, before the cavalcade. In Edward the Confeffor's time this city was in poffeffiort of the carls of Chefter, who gave a great part of it to the monks; and it was afterwards annexed to the earldom (now dukedom) of Cornwall. The roads to the town are kept well paved for a mile round. Here is a free-fchool (with a good library) founded by John Hales, Efq; with the name of king Henry VIIIth's fchool, a charity-fchool, and an hofpital. The city fends two members to parliament, who at prefent are William Grove and Samuel Greatheed, Efqrs. and gives title of earl to the family of Coventry, who are alfo viscounts Deerhurst. EXPLANATION of the VIEW. 1 Road from Warwick. 2 New Houfe. 3 Sponne Gate. 4 St. Babblake church. 5 Grey Friers Gate. 6 worth. Grey Friers 7 Coventry Crefs. 8 BedFord's Hofpital. 10 Trinity Church. 11 St. Michael's Church. 12 St. Mary's Hall. 13 Chilefmere Gate. 14 Little Port Gate. 15 New Cate 16 The Park. JOUR UNIV JEBATES m p. 215. empt of this think, in a .. One part 1 of: I hope that we stand or convincing bufly refufed of fubmiffion 'n fhewn by ever brought an we want tinately conɔt from the a very long e facts which of, and can oof; and as from New >ned in this ery properly, is notoriously the strongest made ufe of otion. That , was fome:ious, it was f he had any ablishing that was presently ifperfed over hewed a fixt F poffible, an e established OF 2 M |