did not know what authority any body had to fearch his houfe, and refused to deliver his keys; and that he found all the things there above depofed, which had continued under feal till before the grand jury, the day before the trial came on, and that they were then under the feals of the grand jury. (Among these things was a bag with a hundred guineas, and two bags of gold filings, weighing four pounds eleven ounces and nineteen penny weights. The cheft of drawers in which they were found, is defcribed at large in the feffions paper, and is of very curious contrivance. On the teeth of one of the files was fome yellow ftuff.)

Jofeph Nichols depofed, that he is one of the moniers at the mint, where he has been employed twenty years, apprenticeship and all; that one of the tools produced was capable of milling money round the edges; and having look ed at the three guineas paid Mr. Still, the hundred guineas, and the forty guineas, found in Mr. Gueft's bags, faid they had all artificial edges, and appeared to be fresh filed, which might be done with the inftrument before produced, and was not done at the mint at the Tower.

Mr. Chamberlaine produced three guineas, on which Mr. Nichols put edges in his prefence, with the inftrument found in the prisoner's room, and faid they were quite plain, before. Being compared, by Mr. Nichols, with the others found in the prifoner's drawer, the latter faid they were fo near alike, that he believed them all to be done with the fame tool. Humberton depofes to taking

three fmall parcels of filings out of thofe found in Mr. Gueft's room, and delivering them to Mr. Chamberlaine, who delivered the fame to Mr. Lucas; which laft again fwears to having received, affayed them, and found them agreeable to the ftandard, and thinks they might come from the filings of our

guineas.

་

Samuel Lee, a teller at the bank, thinks it was the latter end of March the prifoner had a bar of gold, between five and fix inches long, under two inches wide, and better than half an inch deep; that he asked the prifoner how he came by it, who faid, he had it from Holland. To this Lee faid, he thought it was not like a regular bar of gold, it had a deal of copper on the back. Guest replied, it must be filed off, and that all bars of gold were fo. Mr. Lee being asked whether he had seen any bars of gold before, faid he had fcores of times, but never any with such a fcum.

Thomas Troughton, a jeweller, depofes to having fold two ingots of gold for Mr. Gueft, one about forty-eight ounces, the other about forty-fix ounces, which appeared like bars of gold that came from abroad, and that he understood them as fuch. The firft of thefe was fold the 12th of June laft; the other about fix months ago. Says they were about a foot long, and had no appearance of copper or filing.

Ether Collins, fervant to Mr. Gueft, fwears to having looked once into his book-cafe, in his abfence, when open, and to have feen there a glafs cup with fome yellow duft in it, and by the cup was a file like that produced in court. [N] 4 Prifones,

Prifoner, in his defence, faid he was innocent of the crime laid to his charge.

Robert Fratley, optical inftrument maker; John Hunter, converfant in the mathematical and clock-way; Geo. Hodgson, clockmaker; all for the prifoner, depofe, that the inftrument produced as above in court is fit for milling many other things befides guineas; and the fecond faid it was the greatest improvement he had ever feen.

Several perfons, and among them fome of rank, appeared to Mr. Gueft's character. Those who would perufe this trial more at large, are referred to the feffions paper.

Copy of a letter of her imperial majefty of all the Ruffias, to his ex-• cellency count Wolodimer Orlow, director of the academy of Sciences at Petersburg.

Monf. Count Orlow,

H AVING been informed,

that in the fummer the year 1769, the planet Venus will pafs over the fun, I write you this letter, that you may acquaint the academy of fciences on my part (1) that it is my pleasure that the academy fhould procure the obfervations to be made with the utmost care; and that I defire, in confequence, to know (2) which are the most advantageously fitu ated places of the empire that the academy has defined for this obfervation? To the end, that in cafe it fhould be neceffary to erect any buildings, workmen, &c. may be fent, and proper measures be

taken; (3) that if there be not & fufficient number of aftronomers in the academy for completing the obfervations in the places pitched upon by the academy, I propofe, and take upon me to find out among my marine fubjects, fuch as, during the interval between the prefent time and the tranfit of Venus, may be perfected in the habit of observing under the eyes of the profeffors, fo as to be employed to advantage in this expedition, and to the fatisfaction of the academy. You will, Mr. Count, tranfmit me the anfwer of the academy, with its full opinion about every thing above, that I may give orders for the whole, without lofs of time.

I Expected 'your letter impair of

ly, and received it the 19th of October. We were fomewhat in doubt as to our anfwering the views of our fovereign, till the arrival of your letter, which diffipated our uneafinefs in refpect of the inftruments. ments. Judge yourself, fir, how fatisfactory it was to us to underftand that you would take upon you to procure us the neceffary inftruments, and, moreover, to give us your advice how to proceed fuccefsfully in this important obfervation..

I thank you, fir, in the name of the academy, and on my own account efpecially, hoping a more

favour

my obligations. At prefent, I refer to your judgment the meafures the academy has taken with relation to the tranfit of Venus.

Pursuant to her imperial majefty's orders, in her letter to his excellency Count Wolodimer Orloff, director of the academy, the copy whereof I herewith fend you; the academy having reprefented, that the propereft places in the Ruffian empire for the observation of the duration of the tranfit, are Kola, and parts near it, and for the exit, the borders of the Cafpian fea, has befecched

menon.

St. Petersburg, 23 October, 1767,

A curious account of the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius on the 19th of October, 1767. Extracted from a letter wrote to a friend in England by the honourable William Hamilton, envoy extraordinary and minifter plenipotentiary of his Britannic majefty to the king of the Two Sicilies.

S I have nothing material to

two obfervers to the north, and two to the Cafpian. The flations named by the academy, are Kola, Solowetskoy, Monaftir, Aftracan, and Orenburg. The emprefs, in accordance to the reprefentations of the academy, apprehenfive of the precarious state of the weather at the end of May at Kola and thereabouts, has been pleafed to diftribute four other observers

among thofe quarters. The academy availing itfelf of the high protection her imperial majefty has deigned to extend to this enterprize, has determined one to Jakoutfke, where the duration will not be less than by about 2 lefs than at Kola, Torneaö and janeburg.

Ca

Mr. Wargentin has informed me, that Mr. Mallet of Upfal is preparing for Torneaö, and Mr. Planmann for his former Cajaneburg, fo that this country will be fo fecure in fuch a multiplicity of obfervers, that it may be well hoped, that fome ftation or other will not fail of affording a com

man.

I will endeavour to give you a short and exact account of the eruption, which is allowed to have been the most violent, though of fhort duration, in the memory of I had foretold this eruption fome time, having had opportunities from my villa to watch its motions more minutely than any one here; and thofe threats which you read in the papers, were extracts from my letters to lord Shelburne. The 19th, at feven in the morning, I faw an unusual fmoak iffue with great violence from the mouth of the volcano, and form the thape of a pine-tree, as Pliny defcribed before the eruption in which his uncle perished; by which I knew the eruption to be at hand, and in fact before eight I faw the mountain open, and the lava run from the crack, near the top of the volcano; but as it took its courfe on the fide oppofite our villa, I had the curiofity to go round, and take a nearer view of it: as it requires time and fatigue to go up, I did not come in fight

of

of the lava, which was running in two ftreams down the fide of the mountain, till eleven o'clock. I had only a peafant of the mountain with me, and was making my remarks, when on a fudden about mid-day the great eruption happened about a quarter of a mile from me; at firft it was only like a fountain of liquid fire, which fprung up many feet into the air, then a torrent burst out with a moft horrid noife, and came towards us. I took off my coat to lighten myself, and gave it to the peafant, and we thought proper to run three miles without ftopping. By this time the noife had greatly increased, and the ashes caufed almost a total darkness, and as the earth fhook I thought proper to retire fill farther, and upon returning home I perceived another lava towards the Torre del Annonciata, which in less than two hours flowed four miles. Our villa fhook fo much, and the fmell of fulphur was fo ftrong, that I thought proper to return to Naples; and indeed the fright of the family was fo great that it was impoffible to remain at the villa.

The king's palace, though not fo near the mountain as our villa, is ftill within reach of lavas, there, being no less than feven, one upon another, under the palace. I thought it right to acquaint the court of the impending danger, and advifed the Marquis Tanucci to perfuade his Sicilian Majefty to remove to Naples directly; but, for what reafon I know not, my advice was not followed; and the confequence was, the lava coming within a mile and a half of the palace, and the thunder of the mountain increafing, the whole Court was obliged to remove in

The ex

the middle of the fame night in the utmost confufion. plofions of the volcano occafioned fo violent a concuffion of the air, that the door of the king's room at Portici was burst open, and one door in the palace, though locked, was forced open; and what is more wonderful, the like happened in many parts of Naples itfelf. The mountain for three days made this noife by fits, which lafted five or fix hours each time, and then was perfectly quiet: we did not fee the fun clear almoft the whole week, and the afhes fell in quantities at Naples fo as to cover the houses and streets an inch deep or more. 'Tis really wonderful to think of the quantity of matter that came out of the mountain in fo fhort a time, for on Thursday the lavas ceafed running, and if I had not examined them myself fince, I could not have believed it: from the place where I faw the mountain burft, to the point where the lava ftopped near Portici, is to be fure feven miles, and five miles of this it travelled in two hours, the very road I came down; notwithstanding which, in fome places the torrent is two miles broad, and the lava 40 feet high; it took its courfe through. an immenfe water channel that is about 400 feet deep, and actually. filled it up in fome places. Stones of a moft enormous fize were thrown up from the mouth of the volcano near a mile high, I believe, and fell at least half a mile from it: in fhort, it is impoffible to defcribe fo glorious and horrid a fcene; for whilft this was going on, Naples was crowded with proceflions, women with their hair loofe and bare feet, full of every fuperftition. The prifoners killed

out. The cardinal archbishop's gate was burnt down, because he would not bring out St. Januarius; and when he was brought out on Thursday, a mob of an incredible number of people loaded the faint with abufe for fuffering the mountain to frighten them fo: their expreffions were-You are a pretty faint protector indeed! you yellowfaced fellow! (for the filver in which the faint's head is incafed, is very much tarnished), and when the noife of the mountain ceafed, they fell upon their faces, and thanked him for the miracle, and returned to the cathedral finging his praises, and telling him how handfome he was. One man's faith in the faint was fo great that at the head of the proceffion, when he came in fight of the mountain, he turned up his bare b to it, and faid, now kifs it, for here comes Genariello. I am forry to fay that all this is actually true: nay it would fill many fheets was I to tell you half what I faw laft week of this fort. The mountain is now quite calm, and I believe for the prefent there is an end of this eruption, but I do not believe all the matter is yet come out., I am very glad fo much is come out, and that Genariello did not ftop it fooner; for if he had, we fhould furely have had an earthquake, and been demolifhed. This laft eruption has fully fatisfied my curiofity, and I should be as well fatisfied if the mountain was 100 miles from this capital.

pired, the prince of Monaco told his officers and fervants that he must then acknowledge the rank of his unfortunate gueft, by fuch refpect and honours as he was able in that fituation to pay to his memory; that he had ordered a cannon to be fired every half hour till the body should be depofited on board the fhip, and the chambre ardent to be prepared for the lying in ftate, according to the cuftom of that country, with his body-guard to attend, and a guard from the regiment. Accordingly the preparations were made in the largelt apartment of the palace, hung with black; a high canopy in the middle of black and filver, with a reprefentation of a coffin of the fame, upon fix ftages, or steps of black, on each of which were a row of tapers in large gold and filver candlesticks; on the coffin, a filver pillow with a coronet upon it, the fword next on the coffin, and then the garter, george, and ftar; on the ground, a row of torches round the whole; under the canopy, behind the ftage, was placed the coffin, which was made as near as poflible in the English manner, covered with the pall; on each fide were two mutes, and behind Col. St. John, Col. Morrifon, Commodore Spry, and Mr. Schutz, attended: the whole lighting confitted of near 200 tapers. The proceffion from thence to the water-fide was fixed for Sunday at four o'clock in the afternoon, according to the order hereunto fubjoined, and the chambre that morning. At the fetting out ardent was opened at nine o'clock of the proceffion, a fignal was made for the fhip to fire minuteguns till the body fhould be on

board;