Star.
London, England, 1801-01-09 00:00:00

~~i~

Advices were yelterday received it the Admi-
ralty from the Channel Fleet, off Breit : they had
Rood the late heavy gales without any damage.
Captain HARDY, who commanded the Morit;
gutter in the memorable Battle of the Nile, goes
with Lord Nzt.son as Captain of the Sr. joss'.
bf 11: guns.
The Sophia Magdalena, --, from Peterlburg,
is arrived at Yarmouth, With lots of anchors And
cables.
• Wednefday fe'nnight the Kirkham, Botts, of
Maryport, from Memel, with timber, was put on
flore on the north-fide of Workington harboui ;
%there fhe will be obliged to difcharge.

The Commillbners for building a new Bridge
over the Thames at Staines, have agreed for an
iron bridge, tho feet in length, from abutment to
abutment, to be in the fame diredtion as the hone
bridge which has heeti taken down, on account of
the centre arch finking. The new bridge is to be
compleated by Michaelmas neat. •
The'Eaft India Company have engaged 24 large
chips to bring home Rice from India. The nntt-
thyy to be imported will be 18,000 tons, wnich
will afford, allowing an individual tlb. of rice per
day, five days fultenance to the population of
Great Britain and Scotland.

A letter, dated Gothenburgh, December to, to a
Gentleman in Leith, fays, " our fitting began about
eight days ago, and promifes well, although prices
are very high. What has hitherto been fatted could
not be (hipped under twenty-five ()linings per bar-
rel on board, containing from is to taoo herrings.
We have few fhips, and tbefe will not go to fea be-
fore we learn the end of the Brisifh and Ruffian
inifunderftanding. Unlefs your liberty of importing
our herrings is prolonged, there will not be time to
fend any to Britain.'
We are informed by a Gentleman itift arrived
from Jamaica, that there is now living in the
pariah of St. Elizabeth in that iaand, • a woman
named Rebecca Mills, whole children, grand-
children, great grand children, and great great
grand children now living, amount to 229. She
has alt her faculties, and. walked from her habi-
dttion to Black River, at the meeting of a Veftry
the hitter end of the year onto, (and back again
—so miles. Her age is not afcertained, but fup..
)toted to be upwards of one hundred years. This
is the family mentioned by Mr. EDWARDS, in his
}Ettore of the Welt Wits, but it then amounted
only to 60.
On a tablet hanging up in the church of All,
hallows Barking, Tor/eat:vet, it is thus written
W"' This church was much defaced and ruined
by a lamentable blow of 17 barrels of gun-powder,
that took fire on the 4th of January, 1649, in a
Chip-chandler's houfe, over againft the fouth fide
of the church, and fterwards was repaired and
beautified again by a voluntary contribution of the
Parilhioners."
The account of this difa (ter is as follows—" One
of the houfes in this place was a fhip-chandler's,
who, on the 4th of January aforefaid, being bufy
in his amp, barrelling up gunpowder, it took fire,
and in the twinkling of an eye blew up not only
that, but all the houfes thereabouts, to the number
(towards the ftreet and in back alleys) of fifty or
fifty. The number of perfons deftroyed by this
blow, could not be known, fOr the next houfe
but one was the Rote Tavera, a houfe always
full of company at that time of night, and that
tiny the paint dinner was at the houfe ; and in
three or four days after, digging, they continu-
ally found heads, legs, &c. miferably torn, and
scorched, h;ficirs many whole bodies, with not
fit much as their cloaths tinged. In this accident
there were two things very remarkable; the
mif-
t'_ii of the bottle of the Role Tavern was
round titttag in her bar, and bne of the drawers
tlandi by the bar-fide, with a pot in his band,
my ftiflcd with dull and fmo.tk ; their bodies
being preferred whole by means of great timbers
Calling acrofs, one upon another. Alfo, the next
morning there was found upon the upper leads of
Barking church, a young child lying in a cradle,-
neither child nor cradle having. the leaf} fign of
any fire or hurt. It was never known who the
ehactwas, to that one of the parifhes kept it for a
memoria/. And in the year 5666 (lays Mr. &rove)
I raw the child then grown up to be a proper mai-
den, and came to the man that had kept her all
that time, when be was drinking at a tavern, and
4 affected the above circumftantc to be true."

LAW iNTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, DEC. is.

WILSON, qui tans, v. VAMISLDIRT.
This was an anion for non-refidence from.the
4th of April, 1799, to the fame period in April,
ISoo, and the fum fued for was &tot. under the
ftatute of Henry the Eighth, enforcing the refi-
dence of clergymen on their benefices.
It was [fated on the part of the Plaintiff that
the Defendant, who is Reftor of the united pa
-
Mlles of St. ary le Bow, St. Pancras, Soaper-
lane, and All Souls, Honey-lane, in London, had
three feveral parfonage boufes in thefe parifhes ;
that he had neverthelefa lived in none of them du-
ring the period fpecified ; that he had not taken
any other houfe within the bounds of thefe pa-
rifhes, but had gone to refide in a houfe in Ely-
Place, in Holborn.

To fnbflantiate thefe allegations two witneffes
were called, whore evidence went to prove that the
houfes ftited in the declaration ufually went by
the name of the parfonage houfes, and that they
belonged to the parfon, and the fad of the Defen-
dant not living in them being admitted, no evi-
dence was fleet-Eery to eflablifh this part of the cafe.
It was fully allowed by Mr. Serjeant COCKELL,
Counfel for the Plaintiff, that the Defendant was
a molt eonfeientions and refpeetable clergyman,
and that during this period he had faithfully die
charged the various fundiosu of his important office.
His Grace the Archbilhop of Canterbury, who at-
tended to give evidence, corroborated this tefti-
mony to the excellence of the Defendant's charac-
ter, and from every thing that was produced in
the courfe of the trial he appears to be an ornament
to his profeffion.
On the part of the Defendant it was contended
that one of the houfes fpecified in the declaration,
though it had been formerly the Fite of a parfonage
bottle, was burnt down at the great fire of Lon-
don, and in confequence of the Aft of Charles H.
which exempted patrons from the neceffity of re-
building fuch parfonages as had been burnt down,
and granted them the liberty of giving leafes of
houfes to be rebuilt on the fame Fite, it had been
pc:offered under leafes confirmed by the fucceflive
Archbilhops of Canterbury, the laft of which leafes
did not expire till Chriftmas, 1799. Under thefe
circumfiances it could not with any degree of rea-
fon be argued that this houfe was a parfonage
houfe, which had been polkaed for fo long a pe-
riod on a leafe which could not be difrolvedby any
aft of the Defendant, as in the cafe of one of his
predeceffors the 'cafe had been held to be good
againft the poiliffion of any incumbent. It was
thence argued that it was impoffible for the De-
fendant to live in this houfe during more than the
half of the time Rated in the declaration, and it was
farther attempted to be proved by the evidence of
feveral witneffes, that the houfe was fo fmall and
inconvenient that the Defendant could not have
lived in it during the remainder of the time, in a
manner fo as to have fulfilled the purpofes meant
to be promoted by the ftatute on which the prefent
anion was founded.

It was held that there was no dire& evidence of
the other two houfes being parfonages, fence the
only proof offered was, that they were fo called;
and it appeared as to the houfe held by leafe, that
it was alio commonly denominated a parfonage,
though it turned out in evidence that it was not a
parfonage, but a houfe belonging to the parfon.
A furveyor who was called as a wknefs on the part
of the Defendant, deferibed them as very mean,
(mall, and inconvenient houfes, and it was inferred
that they were quite unfuitable for the refidence of
a clergyman, by lowering him in the ellimation of
his parifttioners, and thus deftroying his ufeful-
nefs as a public teacher. It alto appeared in evi-
dence, that betides thefe three houfes there were
no other houfes in the parifhes which the Defen-
dant could have got to live in within the time fpe-
cified in the declaration. Such was briefly the na-
ture of the defence; but Mr. Serjeant Saar HIRDI
took an obje&ion to the form of the declaration,
the Defendant being there ftyled reltor of the rec-
tory of the united parifhes already mentioned,
wareas he was reElor of three reCtories of thefe
Uied parifhes, the reCtories being left diain&
after the union of the parifhes took place.
Lord ELDON gave it as his prefent opinion that
this °Nation was fatal to the aftion, but refereed
it as the fubje& of a motion to the Court next term
if a verdiCt fhould be found for the Plaintiff. In
cafe a Verdi& for the Plaintiff fhould take place,
another point was refereed for the opinion of the
Court, namely, whether the honks fpecified in the
declaration were really fuitable for the refidence
of the Defendant ?
Lord ELDON, in addreffing the Jury, took occ*.
lion to obferve that a number of aaions of this
kind had taken place which he thought had no ten•
dency to promote the interefts of religion. He was
convinced that in many cafes it would be inexpe-
dient to enforce refidence when it could not be at-
tended with ufeful effelts' and hi reckoned this a
very important fubjeft for the attention of the Le-
iflature. Sitting, however, in his capacity of a
ludge, whatever he might think as a Legiflator,
e was bound to Rate the law on this fubjea as it
really is at this moment, and as it had been con.
(trued by late decifions. His Lordfluip accordingly
read the words of the Statute, explained the con-
ftruftion which had been put upon it, and con-
cluded by Rating clearly to the Jury, that how-
ever refpeCtable the Defendant was in every refpell,•
however it might appear that he had fulfilled all
the duties of his facred office during the twelve
months mentioned in the declaration, if they were
of opinion that the honks therein fpecified WC it
parfimages, or if they were convinced that the
Defendant could have got a iuitable honk in the
bounds of the united parifhes, of which he was
Ream, it became them, hOwever hard the cafe
was, to find for the Plaintiff, leaving their verdiet
fubjeet to the points of law, Rated by the defen-
dant's Counfel.
The Jury, without retirittgi found a verdiCt for
, the Plaintiff