custody, and committed to Newgate. His case stood for trial in Octo. ber, but, pleading that he was not ready with his defence, it was put off till December, and then again to January, on his physician making affidavit that he was too ill to be removed from his chamber.

Being convicted on the clearest evidence, he received sentence of death; but, great interest being made in his behalf, he was reprieved, and it was thought he would have been pardoned, ou condition of transportation, but for the intervention of the following circumstance:

The friends of Loxton, hearing that a reprieve was granted, advised his widow to lodge an appeal at the bar of the Court of King's Bench; and she went thither with some friends, to give security for that purpose: but the relations of Bird, hearing what was intended, were ready in Court, with witnesses, to depose that this was the second wife of Loxton, his first being still living. This being the fact, the Court refused to admit the appeal, as the second could not be a law. ful wife.

This affair occasioned so much clamour, that Bird was ordered for execution on Monday, the 23d of February; on the night preceding which he took a dose of poison; but that not operating as he had expected, he stabbed himself in several places. Yet, however, he lived til the morning, when he was taken to Tyburn in a mourning-coach, attended by his mother and the Ordinary of Newgate.

As he had paid little attention to the instructions of the Ordinary while under confinement, so he seemed equally indifferent to his advice in the last moments of his life. Being indulged to stay an hour in the coach with his mother, he was

put into the cart, where he asked for a glass of wine; but, being told it could not be had, he begged a pinch of snuff, which he took with apparent unconcern, wishing health to those who stood near him. He then rehearsed the apostles' creed, and, being tied up, was launched into eternity, on the 23d of February, 1719, in the 27th year of his age.

He declined making any speech, but delivered the following paper to his friends the day before his execution:

'It will be expected that I should say something, at this time, as to the fact I am going to suffer for.

'I do not pretend to say I did not kill the deceased, but humbly conceive that both the laws of God and man will justify self-defence; which I call God to witness, into whose arms of mercy I am now going to throw myself, was my case.

Unhappy is that gentleman who falls into such hands; for there was not one evidence for the king that was not manifestly perjured, as I have faithfully set forth in my printed case, with all the justice a person expecting nothing less than death was capable of. And it is also as evident that the proper evi. dences on my side were never called. I wish I could persuade myself, that mismanagement did not proceed from the infidelity of my attorney, employed in my trial; for it appears but too evident that he never made one regular step towards my interest; and I wish I could aver that he did not arm my enemies against me.

After all this, his majesty, in his great wisdom, thought fit to grant me a reprieve, and ordered me for transportation; but the restless malice of my enemies would not fix here.

The pretended widow of the deceased lodges an appeal against me. How she had a right so to do I leave those gentlemen learned in the law to determine: yet this, with her fallacious petition, found entrance to the royal fountain, and turned that former stream of mercy from me; causing his majesty to recede from his first degree of mercy, and order my execution; under which sentence I still, with all humility,

submit.

'Another reflection, I am credibly informed, is cast upon me, in order to make my load the greater; which is, that I was frequently visited, during my confinement, and even since my conviction, by lewd and infamous women. I cannot say that I have not been visited by divers women, but do not know them to be such: some of them were relations, and other persons who had business with me relating to my unhappy circumstances. What will not malice invent?

'There is one thing more which I omitted in my printed case, relating to my adversary's evidence; deposing that the deceased Loxton fell without the door: which, I declare solemnly, is utterly false; for what was done was in the room; I was not off from my bed when the accident happened; and, when he dropped, he fell backwards upon the bed.

'I might take notice of many more false aspersions, but will omit them; having, I thank my God, forgiven them all.

In the next place, it will be expected that I say something of my religion.

I declare that I die a Protestant, and of the communion of the Church of England, whose doctrine teaches me to forgive my enemies, which sincerely I do; humbly begging, at the same time, that all those

whom, through inadvertency, heat of blood, or any juvenile folly, I have offended, will do the same by me.

As for the manifold reflections cast upon me since my confinement, the pretended widow's violent prosecution, the farrier's notoriously false affidavit, and all other offences committed against me, I heartily forgive them.

And, to conclude, I wish all gentlemen would only weigh the fatal cause of my unhappy exit, and avoid all such houses as that the scene of this misfortune was first laid in: let me be an example to them to avoid those rocks I have split upon; that they may, with less dif ficulty than I have found it, be able to compose their thoughts (which I thank God I have done), through the assistance of his divine Spirit, and sink into a willing resignation to his divine will.

EDWARD BIRD.'

This unfortunate youth seems to have fallen a sacrifice to the irregu larity and violence of his own passions, to the pride of his heart, and his love of lawless pleasure. Hence let the youth who read this be taught to walk in the plain paths of sobriety and discretion, neither turning aside to the right hand nor the left.' His taking poison and stab. bing himself, to defeat the execution of the law, is a strong proof of that pride of heart we have mentioned. He could be guilty of a crime de. serving the utmost ignominy, but dreaded to sustain it. Humility, then, is another doctrine to be learnt from the fate of this man.

The situation of Bird's mother, in her attending him to Tyburn, must have been dreadful beyond all expression! Mr. Bird had been well educated, and ought to have made a different return to the care of his parents. Women in general, however, should consider that it is by a

religious education that the mind of the child is most likely to be guarded from the contamination of vice. The sacred maxim will hold good in most

instances: Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart therefrom.'

CATHERINE Jones was indicted at the Old Bailey, on the 5th of September, 1719, for marrying Constantine Boone, during the life of her former husband, John Rowland.

Proof was made that she was married to Rowland, in the year 1713, at a house in the Mint, Southwark; and that, six years afterwards, while her husband was abroad, she was again married, in the same house, to Constantine Boone; but Rowland, soon returning to England, caused his wife to be indicted for this crime.

The prisoner did not hesitate to acknowledge the double marriage, but insisted that the latter was illegal, as Boone was an hermaphrodite, and had been shown as such at Southwark and Bartholomew fairs, and at other places.

To prove this a person swore that he knew Boone when a child, that his (or her) mother dressed it

in girls' apparel, and caused it to be instructed in needle-work, till it had attained the age of twelve years, when it turned man, and went to sea.

These last words were those of the deposition; and the fact was confirmed by Boone, who appeared in Court, acknowledged being an hermaphrodite, and having been publicly shown in that character.

Other witnesses deposed that the female sex prevailed over that of the male in the party in question; on which the jury acquitted the prisoner.

It is impossible to describe how much this affair was the subject of the public conversation at, and long after, the time that it happened: and it would be idle to make any serious remarks on it. We can only express our astonishment that an hermaphrodite should think of such a glaring absurdity as the taking a wife!

JOHN Matthews was the son of a printer in Aldersgate Street, to whom he was apprenticed; but, his father dying, he continued to serve with his mother. Having made con. nexions with some persons of Jacobitical principles, he printed some papers against the government, for which he was once taken into custody; but, the evidence being incomplete, he was dismissed.

Encouraged by this escape, he was induced to print a pamphlet, entitled Ex Ore tuo te Judico: Vox Populi vox Dei.'* For this offence he was brought to his trial on the 30th of October, 1719, when it appeared that he had composed the pages of the pamphlet in question, but locked them up, lest they should be found, and made use of to his prejudice.

An elder brother of Matthews, apprehending that the youth might endanger himself by his propensity to the printing such pamphlets, directed a journeyman, named Lawrence Vezey, to lock up the door of the printing-office every night, and bring him the key: but Vezey, like a villain as he was, first suffered the young fellow to print the supposed treasonable matter, and then gave evidence against him.

A general warrant being granted by the secretary of state, for the search of Mrs. Matthews's house, the

messengers of government found a number of the supposed libel in a room which the prisoner acknowledged to belong to him; on which he was carried before the secretary of state, who 'committed him to Newgate, on his refusing to give up the author.

When Matthews was arraigned at the bar, Vezey swore that the prisoner brought the form, containing part of the book, to the press, and bid him pull a proof of it, which he did; and that the prisoner afterwards came down to him, and said that the pages had been transposed, but he had now put them right; and he then pulled him another proof: he said that then the prisoner desired this evidence to come early in the morning to work off the sheets, saying that he himself would take care of the paper, and that every thing should be ready.

Vezey for his trouble. This evi dence was likewise confirmed by Harper, as far as he was concerned in the transaction, and he added that he saw the prisoner composing the matter from the manuscript copy.

The counsel for the crown ex. erted their utmost abilities to aggravate the crime of the prisoner, and, the king's messengers swearing to as much as they knew of the affair, Matthews was found guilty, and sentence of death was passed on him.

After condemnation he was attended by the Reverend Mr. Skerrett, who also accompanied him to the place of execution. His whole behaviour after sentence was such as might be expected from one who had too much sense to expect favour from the people then in power; for it was not customary with the ministers of George the First to extend mercy to persons convicted of treasonable offences: but perhaps their seeming want of humanity will appear the more excusable if we reflect on the fatal consequences that might have ensued from the rebellion in 1715.

But nothing can excuse the method they took to obtain evidence in this case. It is but of late years that the issuing of general warrants has been legally condemned; and Englishmen are not a little obliged to the man who procured the condemnation of those warrants. Happily, we can now sit quietly, and write our sentiments in our own houses, without being liable to have our papers seized by the arbitrary mandates of a secretary of state. While we recollect that we are obliged for this favour in a great degree to the perseverance of Mr. Wilkes, we should not forget that the judicial determination of