prudently given him a lighted candle through the hole in the door, and that it caught the straw on which he lay, after he fell asleep. Other reports say he declared if ever he should be confined in that room he would set fire to it: it is hoped that was not the case.-The fire was soon extinguished. BARRACK DEPARTMENT.-The third report of the Commissioners of Military Enquiry, which is now printed, is of considerable length. It comprehends an investigation respecting the stores and supplies provided for the use of the barracks in Great Britain, &c. under the directions of the late and present barrack masters general. It appears, from this report, that an unaccountable degree of negligence, to say no worse, has prevailed in this department; and it will scarcely be believed, that the undertaking, by virtue of which Mr. Alexander Davison supplied the great articles of barrack consumption, with the exception of coals, during a period of between nine and ten years, was not derived from agreement settled and approved by the treasury, or secretary at war, but on a simple proposition made to Mr. Davison, in a letter from General De Lancey, and the answer of the former to accept it. "Thus," says the report, "it appears that the management of this important concern was, at one time, left very much to Mr. Davison's discretion, while the barrack office neglected to employ any check to ascertain the reasonableness of the prices of those articles which were provided by him." The whole of this report is of a nature to attract the attention of the public. In the present crisis the virtue of economy should be practised without remission and without interruption; and on this point there can be but one opinion, that abuses should be divcovered and punished. THE DUKE OF RICHMOND'S WILL.-The following are the leading particulars of his grace's will:-To Miss Le Clerc, his grace has bequeathed £2000 a year; to his three daughters, by Mrs. Bennet, £10,000 each; to Mrs. Bennet, the estate of Earl's Court, at present let to Lord Albemarle, at £500 per annum; to the second son of the present Duke, the estate of Itchenor. His grace directed that his body should be opened, which was accordingly done, and filled with slack lime. He had been long of opinion that he had a particular complaint in the bowels, which baffled all medical art to discover or remove. SLAVE TRADE.-Lord Grenville's Bill for the abolition of this traffic, enacts, that after a certain day, to be determined in the committee, it shall be unlawful for any subject of this realm to fit out, man, or navigate any ship or vessel, for the purpose of carrying on the African slave trade, or forcibly to carry away as slaves, any of the inhabitants of any island, country, &c. not being in the possession or occupation of his majesty, or to aid and assist in putting on board any ship or vessel, any such inhabitants, for the purpose of dealing with them as slaves. The distress under 'which the British seamen suffer in France is ex cessive. An officer lately arrived from Verdun, waited upon the com mittee of the Patriotic Fund on Monday at Loyds, for the purpose of making the gentlemen acquainted with the real situation of our seamen, taken as prisoners during the war. This officer affirms, that the scanty pittance allowed each man daily, consisted of a small square piece of bullock's liver, a slice of black bread, and a glass of new brandy. Had it not been for the relief they received from the Patriotic Fund, forwarded to them through a private channel, many of them must have perished from want. The object of the French, in treating our seamen with such inhumanity in this respect, was with the view of making them dissatisfied with their government, by inducing a belief that they were neglected by it, and in order to tempt them to enter into the French service. Numerous were the offers made to them for that purpose, which, to the eternal honour of our brave but unfortunate tars, were rejected with contempt and indignation. A gentleman travelling through Mecklenburgh, was witness to the following curious circumstance, in the post-house in New Stargard : After dinner the landlord placed on the floor a large dish of soup, and gave a loud whistle. Immediately there came into the room a mastiff, a fine Angola cat, an old raven, and a remarkable large rat, with a bell round his neck. The four animals went to the dish, and without disturbing each other, fed together; after which the dog, cat, and rat lay before the fire, while the raven hopped about the room. The landlord, after accounting for the familiarity that existed among them, informed his guest that the rat was the most useful of the four, for the noise he made had completely freed the house from the rats and mice with which it was before infested. MARRIED, The Hon. Colonel Ponsonby, son of the late Lord Ponsonby, to the Hon. Miss Fitzroy, the lovely daughter of Lord Southampton. DIED, The Lady of Sir Harry Parker, Bart. of Melford Hall, Suffolk. In the rules of the Fleet prison, Mr. S. Chiffney, a well known jockey upon the turf. In the ordinary obituary of the Carlisle Journal, the decease of persons of the following great ages is announced:--one of 91 years; one of 89; one of 86; one of 83; one of 79; one of 77; one of 75; and one of 74; besides three aged persons, the number of whose years is not mentioned. In Dublin, in his 72nd year, the Right Hon. Brice, Earl of Milltown. Francis Gould, Esq. the manager of the King's theatre. He was a worthy and an accomplished gentleman. MONTHLY MIRROR, FOR FEBRUARY, 1807. Embellished with A PORTRAIT OF ISAAC REED, ESQ. ENGRAVED BY FREEMAN, PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETORS, By J. Wright, No. 38, St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, And published by Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, in the Poultry; sold, also, by all the Booksellers in the United Kingdom. Next month a portrait of Miss Bolton, from a fine likeness by Dé Wilde. A metrical character of Isaac Reed, in our next. "More more miseries," are too miserable for insertion. We have received a beautiful poem from our good friend Bloomfield, the ingenious author of The Farmer's Boy, &c. which shall be given next month. The parody on " Said a smile to a tear,” beginning— "Said a pint of small beer, "To some ale that was near, "And foam'd like a horse in hot weather" is very droll, but the mauvaise plaisanterie, at the end, makes it unfit pages. bagnaticus will find our loss his gain. oorth,) calls the "principal" of our no reason to complain of. What he (without referring work, he will, in future, have Mr. C. H. Graves, the grandson of the author of the Spiritual Quixote, shall receive an answer to his letter by the post. We refuse the challenge of Grim Griffinhoof. As he intends to blow out brains, we should not meet on equal terms. We are obliged by the communications of I. B. but for the very reason that Mr. Lofft's sonnets appear this month, I. B.'s must be deferred. I. C.'s hint we shall endeavour to comply with. His not admiring a review of a book, because forsooth it had been published a whole "six months," is very funny indeed. The verses of E. C. on her husband, shall (the third stanza excepted) have a place. A wife's singing the praises of her husband is certainly an extraordinary event, but we are still at a loss to see how the "scaly tenants of a stream," can well join in either a song, or a dance, or in any part of orgies but drinking, to which we do not suppose the lady invites them. Henrica's favours shall 66 We lament that Incognito, the " (6 Scurvy politician" does not understand" what Vindex means; but it is hard that he should blame us for his wunt of understanding. LITERARY NOTICE. Mr. Park, the editor of Harrington's Nuga Antiquæ, has long been preparing an enlarged edition of Lord Orford's royal and noble authors, which is now on the eve of publication. It will bring that popular work down to the present time, and is to contain portraits of the principal personages, with selected specimens of their literary productions. MONTHLY MIRROR, FOR FEBRUARY, 1807. BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE LATE ISAAC REED, ESQ. [With a Portrait.] THE name of ISAAC REED is indeed a “" venerabile nomen." That peculiar erudition, which he so eminently possessed and se pily exercised on the pages of our immortal Shakspear' him dear to letters, while the gentleness of his nature and the upright, unswerving honesty of his character, rendered him an honour to mankind. He terminated a studious and useful life on the 5th of Jan. 1807, in his sixty-fifth year. He was interred on the 13th in Amwell church. His father was a baker, and lived in the parish of St. Dunstan in the West, where Mr. Isaac Reed was born. With a laudable ambition, the parent anxiously desired to place him in a more distinguished post amongst men than had fallen to his own lot, and his wishes were crowned with complete success. The son, under proper tuition, improved rapidly in classical knowledge, and in the liberal study of the law, and ultimately became a good solicitor and conveyancer. He had long been an ancient of the honourable society of Staple Inn.His last licence to practise was taken out in 1798: but what more particularly belongs to the few words we have to advance on this occasion, is the literary concerns of his day, in which he most delighted, and by which he was most distinguished. He was, nevertheless, exceedingly diffident in these matters, and with great reluctance ever came before the public with his name. The Westminster and European magazines, as well as many other periodical works, have been greatly served by his lucubrations. The prefaces of numerous labours of learning will also shew how willingly he lent himself to further any publication of merit. His correctness was singular; and his excellent memory and extensive knowledge of English literature and black letter learning, made him a store-house always to be visited with ad |