To Mrs. SIDDONS, on her Performance of Lady RANDOLPH, in Oppofition to Mrs.

CRAWFORD.

A turkey and capon, and fuch little birds, He gulp'd like a fchool-boy a half orth of curds!

Six rounds of a twelvepenny loaf ev'ry day,

fine,

And acclamations crown each frigid line,

Which thro' thy lips in dull proceffion fteals: Believe me, Siddons, the judicious ftare, And would as foon fee Benfley murd'ring Lear, Or kicking up great Alexander's heels! While fome the motion of thy head admire, Which feems to dance upon elastic wire,

Like that of Punch's antic Queen: A Gentoo feated in the pit would fwear Thy lovely form of India's pretty ware, 'Yclep'd a fhaking Mand'rin."

Then for thy starts, and stares, not one in ten
Are juft, though noify embox'd gentlemen
And ladies call 'em nature!

Attend the weighty council I bestow,
Such pantomimic clap-traps are below,
So beautiful a creature!

O, fov reign of the feeling foul! Atill shine,
Enchanting Crawford !-Phoebus to the Nine!
Spread thy refulgent blaze-
Glow-worms with vapour fathion soon decay,
But thy bright fun many a glorious day
Eclips'd each Poet's praife!

'Twas a doubt with his friends whether Gog, or

EPIGRAM.

WING

VING, foothfayer fage,

Won his almanack page,

Says war begets poverty, poverty peace.

This oracle thus

Is fulfilled by us:

Our focs, by late war

Made poor as we are,

Shake head, and fhake hands, and hoftilities ceafe.

Now let us proceed

The fage further to read;

That peace maketh riches flow; pride is war's ground.

When trade makes us rich,
And pride comes to pitch,
Is events not fo near

As at prefent to fear;

So leave to pofterity this to expound.

J. E.

of his.

PRO

PROLOGUE

To REPARATION.

And tho' befet with cares of brats and strife,
Repent is ftill the lot of married life,
With lefs difhay I meet the awful sentence,

an "Old Woman."

By EDWARD TOPHAM, Efq:

START not, good folks!--I'm only come a

wooing

You know the fair fex ever will be doing;
In Moliere's days, the practice was most com-

mon

For men to truft their works to fome old woman, Whofe matron counfel, and approving choice, Secur'd their favourite Bard the public voice.

Will this bright circle then, who round me fit, Deny my power of giving weight to wit? Is there a gallant fwain who dares repine, Strack by the luftre of an eye like mine? Oh, no-thank Heav'n!-the baby-rage is paft,

And elder ladies captivate at laft;

The full-blown dame, who rules o'er ton and taite,

With rouge for rofes, and for lilies paste,
Now reigns the Ovid of a new-made school,
To teach young gentlemen-to play the fool.
If in the tender paffion then we shine,
And age can give us "fmacks" as well as wine,
No wonder that the fashion is becoming,
And church, law, politics, have their old

women.

Our Bard to-night, all anxious for his fate,
Begg'd th' indulgence of a tête a-tête :
Firit I was coy-but women will give way,
He faw me tender, and produc'd his play;
Requested I won'd make his cafe my own,
And plead a defp'rate caufe before the town.
-Well, then, to speak at once my real mind,
For, on my virtue! I can't be unkind,
Save fome old jokes which now and then ap-
pear,

And drop in Parliament, as well as here;
I trust this Houfe will take the Treasury fide,
Let the debates go on, and not divide,
But as the fcenic fifters long have varied,
And as we with our measures may be carried,
To ftop the mouth of critic oppofition,
We form a tragi-comic coalition.

Water and wine-a beverage half and half-
Broad humour juft peeps in to make you laugh,
While, intermix'd, the tender fcenes appear,
To draw from beauty's eye compaffion's tear;
Such is our author's plan-if trite or common,
Condemn me as a doating falfe old woman!
-But mark the critic, who approves my bard,
May claim a chafte falute" as his reward.

EPILOGUE.
Spoken by Mifs FARREN.

To fpoufe I delegate my vocal powers,

He knows my voice-and hears it at all hours.
Thus-hat in hand, and poiz'd upon one leg,
He'll fart" with Mr. Speaker! Sir
I beg."

"One word"-O hear him! hear him! " [ defy

"The honourable Member in my eye!"

Then o'er the Indian plains his forces rally, Rave about Tippoo Saib and Hyder Ally; While I, the Member's wife, fhall bear a shawl Given by fome ponderous Prince of Leadenhall; Or, up all night, with fresh impatience wait To read next noon the chronicl'd debate, Where in good ftyle, and better words convey'd Spouse wonders at the fpeeches he has made, And with the borrow'd grace enamour'd grown, Stares o'er the tropes and figures-not his own.

Such is the potent fpell that all bewitches, For who would fardels bear?-that cou'd make fpeeches.

"Who brook th' oppreffor's wrong, the proud man's lye,

"When he might rife again with-I reply? "Or who wou'd groan beneath life's weary

Paris, Jan. 22.

THE HE public were too precipitate in their cenfures of the Queen of Portugal, for her proceedings on the coaft of Angola. We now learn, with admiration, that that fove reign has destroyed, along the faid coaft, all the Portuguese fettlements where the negro trade was carried on, having declared all the blacks to be free, and they are all to be made Chrif tians. It is well known, that all the kings of Congo and Angola are feudatory to Portugal, and are mafters of all the coaft, from the river Dandas to that of Conza. Upon this rev lu tion, fo much to the honour of this age, the Queen of Portugal ha received the moft obliging letter from the Quakers in America.

Hague, Jan. 25. The accounts we receive from divers towns fituated on the Meufe a very melancholy; the bodies of ice being heape! up to a prodigious height, having changed the course of the river, which has overflowed a great number of villages. The city of Macftricht is inundated to fuch a degree, that it can be entered only by the gates of Tongrefs and Bruffels.

Berlin, Jan 5. An order has been sent to the commandant of the troops b·fore Dantzick, to permit the pallage of provifions into that city; providing carefully that no military utenfils or ftores are concealed with them: This thews the Polish deputies have fucceeded in their mediation.

Copenhagen, Jan. 1. The accounts from Iceland are not very favourable. The volca. noes have thrown out fuch quantities of tulphureous matter, that the country around to a vaft diftance is burnt up, which has reduced many families to mifery, whofe flocks have

died for want of food.

number of boys and girls born are nearly equal; and of the deaths there are 187 more men than

women.

Paris, Jan. 30. During the last year, the number of baptifms in this city amounted to 19,688, that of marriages to 5213; the deaths amount to 20,010, and there were 5715 foundling children taken into the hofpital.

Hague, Feb. 2. According to authentic let ters from Dantzick, the answer of the Court of Berlin arrived there by the ordinary poft, on the 20th of January; that the King hath given orders for raifing the blockade, and that in confequence General Eglofftein the fame day informed the Count Unruhe, he was going to draw off the troops: In effect the centinels hve retired to Langenf hr, and about noon f me fedges, laden with corn, entered the city without any moleftation. The Pruffian troops are preparing to march.

Napies, Dec. 21. We are affured, that in the month of March next a confiderable squadron will fail from these ports to reinforce the Spanish fleet, and attempt in concert a fecond attack on Algiers. Three thousand men are now employed in the dock-yards.

Paris, Jan. 26. It is remarkable, that while at Paris, in Flanders, and in all the North of Europe, they feel the most rigorous cold; at Geneva, Lyons, and every where on this fide, and beyond the Alps, along the Po and the Rhone, they have not felt the leaft cold, but the temperature of the air there has been extremely mild during the whole of the month of December, and to the beginning of February.

Lyons, Jan. 9. This morning the aerial voyagers embarked on board the Fleffelles, the enormous machine built there by way of balloom, and named the Fleffel'es, in honour of the Intendant of that province. It rofe in

fight of near 300,000 perfons, who filled the quays of the Rhone, &c. and were astonished at fo majestic an object, to the height of 500 toifes. The ship at firft directed its course to the north, but at the laft period of its elevation, meeting with a new current of air, retrograded to the fouth. The navigators at this height, perceiving the machine became very warm, were afraid of its taking fire, and therefore defcended not far from the theatre where they had mounted. The noble and deliberate courage of M. Pilaftre-du-Rofier has acquired him the furname of brave.

Dantzick, Jan. 22. The blockade of our city was railed laft week. From that time commodities of every kind have been continu ally coming in. Our joy would be complete, if the embargo on our shipping was taken off; we, however, are induced to hope, that that affair will be treated on without delay at Warf; and yet we are apprehenfive that the conferences may be lengthened, as fresh inftructions are still expected from the Court of Ruffia, which will doubtlefs retard in fome meafure the decifion of our fate.

Hague, Feb. 6. The following is a copy of a letter from M. de Bulgakoff, Envoy Extraordinary from the Empress of Ruffia at the Ottoman Porte, to M. de Calitcheff, Envoy Extraordinary from the fame imperial court at that of the States-General.

Pera, Dec. 29, 1783. "I have the fatisfaction to inform you, that the affair of Crimea, which hath so much engaged the attention of all Europe, is now terminated agreeable to the wishes of our auguft court. Yefterday I concluded, figned, and exchanged with the plenipotentiaries of the Ottoman Porte, an act, by which the latter renews all the former treaties and conventions, except the articles therein contained refpecting the Crimea and the Tartars in general, and which are, by this new act, annulled for ever. I was unwilling to delay a moment the communicating to you, Sir, this agreeable and important news of the re-establishment of peace between the two empires: An affair which had been fo doubtful, and on which the public papers had circulated fo many abfurdities."

Paris, Feb. 6. Letters from Rochelle give r melancholy picture of difafters, which hap

DOMESTIC

JANUARY 30.

pened from the night of the 17th to that of the 18th, occafioned by an exceffive high wind and fhock of an earthquake. The city has fuffered greatly, and feventeen thips are reckoned to be entirely loft on the coaft.

Warfaw, Jan. 23. The Divan's having entirely agreed to the demands of Ruffia is fully confirmed. It remains now to fee what the Court of Vienna will obtain from the Porte, and whether Ruffia will not in her turn play the fame part for the Houfe of Auftria that the emperor has done for her; but can the Grand Signior, without fearing a revolt, fuffer his dominions to be parcelled out to different pow ers, and that without fo much as an attempt to defend them.

Munich, Jan. 19. The cold has been uncommonly fevere here fince the 28th of laft month; on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of the prefent month, Reaumur's thermometer was at 16 degrees below the point of congelatión, which was three quarters of a degree lower than it fell in the year 1709.

Frankfort, Feb. 7. By accounts from dif ferent parts, this winter appears to be univerfally very fevere, and the fn w lays very deep in moft places, the falling of which was preceded by the fame kind of gloom which was fo general during the last fummer.

At Heidelburgh the prefent cold is almost infupportable; but the apprehenfions of the damage which is expected to follow the breaking up of the froit, by the vast quantities of ice with which the rivers are now covered, and will then be let loofe, is truly fhocking to think of; most of the inhabitants of the ftreets next to the river have packed up all their effects, that they may move off the inftant the ice breaks in the river, to give notice of which there cannon placed at diftances, which are to be fired as foon as the ice loofens.

Although fome accounts feem to reprefent the fouth of Europe as free from that severity of weather which the other parts experience, yet we find by letters from Venice, dated the 21ft of January, that they have very fevere froft there, and a great deal of fnow. We have the fame accounts from other parts of Italy, and particularly from Genoa, where the port is fo blocked up with ice, that no fhips can go in or out.

THE Lord Chancellor, attended by twelve fpiritual lords, went from the house of peers to Westminster Abbey, and heard a fermon from the Lord Bishop of Llandaff..

The Speaker of the Houfe of Commons went alfo to St. Margaret's church, and heard a fermon from the chaplain to that honourable

houfe.

Extract of a letter from Warkworth, Jan. 12. "On the 7th curr. a Pruffian veffel, called the Friendfcap, of and from Koningberg,

Pieter Joachim Claaffou, mafter, aden with linfeed, &c. for London, came athore here in

a very diftreffed fituation: They had been for many days water-logged, their fails were almost all torn to pieces, and the people on board, seven in number, were quite worn out with the feverity of the late dreadful storm; and when the veffel ftruck, it blew exceeding hard from S. S. E. with a very mountainous fea, which broke over them half mast high; her rudder came afhore, and the hatchways blew up, and as they had no boat on board, they

U 2

Sent

fent a cafk with a line to it, for the people on fhore to give them affiftance to fave their lives; but, alas! after two attempts of that kind, it could not be got to land, notwithstanding the utmost efforts of every individual for that pur. pofe. A boat was then fent for, but as the fea grew ftill more tempeftuous as the tide advanced, getting to the fhip was quite impracticable; in the mean time, three of the feamen perished on board, in fight of those who had affembled for their affiftance. However, after the fea had a little fubfided, a reward of two guineas was offered to bring the others off, which was attempted by four feamen, but when brought afhore, two of them died; fo that none but the captain and one of the crew furvived. The bodies of the dead were decently buried at Warkworth, and every afliftance was given to the furvivors for the prefervation of their lives. The ship, it is believed, will be got off."

The Alexander, an American hip, is arrived in the River from New-York, by which there are accounts of fresh disturbances having happened at Philadelphia, which the civil power not being able to quell, General Washington had been fent for, and it was expected would fhortly fet out for that place. The Congrefs continued at Prince-Town, but there are difFentions in that body, from which much ill is augured. The forfeited eftates in New York have been put up to fale, but there are no purchafers found; not so much from the want of money, as that the state of the legislative power of the United States is fuch, as to give alarm ing fymptoms that fome other changes will take place on that continent, which renders Property of very precarious tennie.

Three feveral periods have occurred fince Christmas-Day, that the quickfilver in the thermometer has been wholly compreiled into the refervoir. Such occurrences have not happened Before in fixty years.

Feb. 4. A machine, nearly upon the plan of that conftructed by Mr. Moore a few years Ance, was exhibited upon the Serpentine River. The inventor called it an ice balloon, and it travelled with amazing celerity, having a fort. of keel made of iron, and being impelled forward by a fpring, giving motion to a wheel at The front of the carriage. The novelty of the invention induced feveral people of fashion to side in the above machine, and feveral of them handfomely complimented the proprietor for hisingenuity; but the price demanded was but the moderate fum of one penny from each paffenger. A hog was roafted whole upon the ice the fame day, and afforded an extempore meal o a great number of people.

Mr. Plowright, farmer, at Swaffham, in Norfolk, was found frozen to death upon Swaffham-beath, where he had loft his way the night before, amidst the now, which in many parts covered the ground to the depth of ten or twelve feet.

Sheriffs appointed by his Majefty in council for for the year 1784, viz. Fork C. Dalbiac, of Hungerford-park,

Bedfordshire. W. Goldsmith, of Streatley,
Buck Rich. Scrimpshire, of Amersham,
Cumberland. John Chriftian, of Unerig,
Cheshire. Tho. Willis, of Swettenham,
Camb' & Hunt'. Tho. Shepheard, of March,
Cornwall. Jofeph Beauchamp, of Pengreep,
Devonshire. Thomas Lane, of Coffiect,
Dorfetfhire. Ifaac Sage, of Thornhill,
Derbyshire. John Radford, of Smalley,
Eflex. Robert Preston, of Woodford,
Gloucestersh. Giles Greenaway, of Barrington,
Hertfordsh. J. Thomas Ellis, of Widiall-hall,
Herefordshire. James Walwyn, of Longworth,
Kent. Charles Booth, of Steed-hill,
Leicestersh. Charles Grave Hudfon, of Wanlip,
Lincolnthire. George William Johníon, of
Witham on the Hill,
Monmouthsh.Ch. Chambré,of Llonfoift, Efqrs.
Northumberl. Sir F. Blake, of Fowbray, Bt.
Northamptonsh. Rich. Kirby, of Floore, Efq;
Norfolk. Sir Thomas Durrant, of Scottow, Bt.
Nottinghamth. Pendock Neale, of Tollerton,
Oxfordsh. Arthur Annefley, of Bletchingdon,
Rutlandshire. John Hawkins, of Brooke,
Shropshire. William Child, of Kinlett,
Somerfetfhire. Andrew Guy, of Enmore,
Staffordth. John Edenfor Heathcote, of Longton,
Suffolk. John Wenyeve, of Brettenham, Efqis.
Southampton. SirJ. Carter, of Portfmouth, Kt.
Surrey. W. Alderfey, of Stoke, near Guildford,
Suflex. Thomas Dennet, of Afhurit,
Warwickshire. Francis Burdett, of Bramcote,
Worcestershire. Thomas Bund, of Wick,
Wiltshire. William Chafin Grove, of Zeals,
Yorkshire. William Danby, of Swinton, Eigrs.
10. A court of commo-council was held at
Guildhall, at which the lord-mayor, recorder,
and twenty aldermen were prefent.

A motion was made by Mr. Dornford, and feconded by Mr. Birch, that the thanks of the court be given to the right honourable Mr. Pitt, for his able, upright, and difinterested conduct as first commiflioner of the treatury, and chancellor of the exchequer, in the prefent alarming and critical juncture of affairs; which was unanimously refolved in the affirmative.

Another motion was made by the fame gentleman, that the freedom of this city be prefented the right honourable William Pitt, in a gold box, of the value of one hundred guineas, as a mark of gratitude for, and approbation of his zel and affiduity in fupporting the legal prerogative of the crown, and the conflitutional rights of the people; which was carried unanimously.

Extract of a letter from the Surgeon of the Duke of Athol Indiaman, which was unfortunately burnt.

"The fecond morning after our arrival, a bout feven o'clock we were alarmed with the cry of fire in the lazaretto, where the spirits are kept; the flames were already violent, and fpreading rapidly; immediately under the lazaretto is the powder magazine; you can better conceive, than I defcribe, our deplorable &tuation; fixty of our feamen preffed, and only the officers, with a very few who remained, to fupprefs a dreadful fire. We exerted ourselves