CHRONICLE. Jd. JANUARY. Confiderable change has A taken place in the pofition of the ftones which form an extraordinary relic of the ancient fuperftitions of our countrymen. This is attributed to the rapid thaw which fucceeded a very hard froft. Some people employed at the plough, near Stonehenge, remarked that three of the large ftones had fallen, and were apprized of the time of their fall by a very fenfible concuffion, or jarring, of the ground. These ftones prove to be the western of thofe pairs, with their impofts, which have had the appellation of Trilithon; and had long deviated from its true perpendicular. There were, originally, five of thefe trilithons, two of which are even now ftill remaining in their ancient state. It is remark able, that no account has ever been recorded of the falling of the others; and, perhaps, no alteration has been made in the appearance of Stonehenge for three centuries prior to the prefent tremendous downfall. The impoft, which is the smallest of the three stones, is fuppofed to weigh 20 tons. They all now lie proftrate on the ground, and have received no injury from their aerial feparation. They fell flat weftward, and levelled with the ground a ftone alfo of the fecond circle VOL. XXXIX. that stood in the line of their precipitation. From the lower ends of the fupporters being now expofed to view, their prior depth in the ground is fatisfactorily afcertained: it appears to have been about fix feet. The ends, however, having been cut oblique, neither of them was, on one fide, more than a foot and a half deep. Two only of the five trilithons, of which the adytum confifted, are now, therefore, in their original pofition. The deftruction of any part of this grand oval we must particularly lament, as it was compofed of the moft ftupendous materials of the whole tructure.--A fimilar change of weather occafioned the disclosure of á fubterraneous passage at Old Sarum in 1795. The new Emperor of Ruffia has iffued an order enjoining all foreigners in Petersburgh to wear cocked hats, their hair in bags, &c. and not to drive through the city with more than two horses. With refpect to the mourning for the Emprefs, the four firft claffes of people muft furnish their fervants with fables, every coach must have the fame covering, and horses, without diftinction of colour, be provided with black tails. The Emperor has alfo given orders that the penfion of Stanislaus, late king of Poland, fhall be paid with the utmost punctuality. This unfortunate A Prince Prince is ftill at Grodno.-The of any perfonal injury having been wearing of any gold or filver upon fuftained by any one. the uniforms of the military is prohibited. The Order of St. Ann is divided into three claffes: it is alfo fettled that every foldier who fhall have ferved twenty-five years fhall be exempted from military punishment, and rewarded with a medal of the Order of St. Ann.-All the troops that were at Gatfchina with the Emperor, before his acceffion to the throne, have been incorporated into the Life-Guards. The following fact gives a melancholy inftance of the mortality which still rages in the island of St. Domingo: Twenty officers of different corps agreed to meet at a tavern to dine that day week; when the time came, only eight affembled, the other twelve being carried off, in that fhort interval, by the peftilential diforder of the climate! 7th. This being the day appointed for enrolling the Supplementary Militia at Carlisle, a numerous mob affembled to prevent its being put into execution. They went to the Town Clerk, and got from him the balloting books and lifts, which they carried off in triumph, and burnt at the Crofs, amidft the loudest acclamations. They then went to the Clerk of the Peace, being informed that he had in cuftody fome books of a fimilar defcription, but which was not the cafe. He found it prudent to go out to the street, to prevent their forcing the office. They then carried him to the High Conftable's, from thence to the TownClerk's, and then to Captain Fofter's, a magistrate. The mob, which confifted of 1000 at leaft, then allowed him to make his efcape unhurt. We have not heard The gentlemen who ferved at the laft affizes, on fpecial juries for Northumberland, gave their fees, amounting to twenty-nine guineas, to be applied to the release of perfons confined in Morpeth gaol for small debts, three of whom have, in confequence, been released for 291. 8s. and the remaining guinea was given in butcher's meat to the debtors in the fame gaol on Wednefday last. Hague, Jan. 2. A dreadful inundation has taken place at Bois le Duc, where the water is fo high in the town, that a horfe could fcarce get through it without danger of being drowned. Poverty and dif trefs have arifen to the highest pitch. A can of milk is fold at ten ftivers, and nobody can leave the town without expofing their lives to the moft imminent danger. From every part of the country fignals of diftrefs are heard from the villages by the discharge of guns; and nobody can approach thofe diftricts which are probably under water. We fpeedily expect further news refpecting thofe dreadful difafters. The Clerks of the Bank had to make out $0,000 receipts, preparatory to the prefent payment of the confols dividends. 8th. The steeple of Horningtoft church, near Norwich, fell down while the bell was ringing for divine fervice. Fortunately no farther mifchief was done, and no lives loft. 10th. The following curious article is extracted from one of the Paris papers:-Citizen Finot, Prefident of the Provifional Adminif tration of the department of the Youne, formerly a huffar at Av rolles, 11. About noon, a melancholy accident happened in Liverpoolharbour. As Mr. Slack, deputy conftable, was conveying a party of volunteers, raised in Manchester and the adjacent parifhes, for the navy, the boat in which they were proceeding to the tender overfet, by which fatal accident twenty-five perfons loft their lives. BRITISH NAVAL FORCE AT PRESENT IN COMMISSION. Ships of the Line, rolles, and afterwards a member of the National Convention, has found the means of multiplying, by a fingle alliance (not indeed a very common one) his kindred and family connexions. He married, as his first wife, the female Citizen Bribot, widow of Refe, by whom he had a daughter, now living, named Mary Ann Rofe. The Prefident Finot had, by this widow, another daughter, who is alfo now living. His wife died, and, on the 14th of January laft, he married his daughter-in-law, Mary Ann Rofe. The confequence of this marriage is, that the prefident becomes the fon-in-law of his first wife, the father-in-law of At prefent building,-Twentyhis fecond wife, and brother-in-law two fhips of the line, three fifties, of his own daughter Madame Finot becomes the mother-in-law of her fifter. If Madame Finot contributes any little Finots to the Republic, Monfieur Finot will be both their father and grandfather; and the first Mifs Finot will be their aunt and fifter. The following statement of the American finances has lately been officially made to the Houfe of Reprefentatives: Amount of the debt - Dollars. Frigates 124 18 180 184 Total 506 and nine frigates. The receivingfhips, thofe ferviceable and repairing for fervice, with thofe in ordinary, amount to twenty - fix fhips of the line, three fifties, thirty frigates, and fifty-fix floops. This statement is exclufive of the hired armed veffels. Some of the fingle Plays of Shakespeare, belonging to the late Mr. Dodd the actor, were fold at the following prices: The fecond part of Henry IV. 76,096,468 printed by Andrew Wife and Wil3,143,753 liam Afpley, 1606, 31. Ss. - The The annual amount of the taxes 6,552,300 Midfummer Night's Dream, Il. 18s. The intereft of which is The annual expenditure Surples of the revenue, after deducting all expences 5,681,843 870,457 The Emperor of China, many years ago, fignified to his fubjects, that if he fhould live to reign fifty years, he would relinquith his crown. Having extended his reign to that period, he has actually refigned his fovereignty in favour of his fifteenth son. King John, printed by Valentine Sims, for Helme, 1611, 1. 16s,— Richard II. printed by Purfoot and Law, 1621, 11. 13s.-Richard III. printed by Matthew Law, 1615, 11. Abraham Frances's Counteffe of Pembroke's Yuychurch, 1591, 41 7s. Some of the moft curious were purchased by Mr. Nicol, for the King; among the reft, a comedy, en titled, "Gammer Gurton's Fro licks," printed in 1485, fourteen * A 2 years years after printing was introduced into England, in 1471, by Caxton, when the first printing-houfe was ereeled in Westminster. Alfo an Operatical Interlude, printed in 1658, and performed in honour of Admiral Blake, during the Protectorate, entitled, "The Course of Sir Francis Drake, illuftrated with Mufical Sonnets and Scenical Decorations, as acted at theCockpit, Drury-lane." 12. Edinburgh. At feven in the morning, the River Clyde, above the celebrated Fall of Corra, deferted its usual courfe, leaving its bed below, for four hours, almoft entirely dry. The cottonmills of New Lanerk were confequently stopped; and at eleven o'clock, when the waters refumed their courfe, there was lefs at Mauldflie Ford, fome miles below, than what the fmall rivers, the Moufs and Nethan, commonly afford. Although this is the fourth inftance of the fame kind in remembrance, and the fecond fince the cftablishment of the mills, the caufe has not been afcertained. It is, however, fuppofed that the waters have found a fubterraneous paffage betwen the Bonnyton and the Corra Linn. 21. This night, at 11 o'clock, a cottage at Newton Ferrers, about eleven miles from Plymouth, in which flept an induftrious widow (cottager) and her two children, was overwhelmed by the bursting of a very large field and orchard on a hill above the cottage, in Memblard-lane. It totally destroyed the cottage and a barn, and fuffocated the widow and her two children, who were found dead under a very great heap of earth, elm-trees, and cedar-trecs. A large chafin in the field above the cot tage was found, out of which iffued a rivulet of water. The farmers imagine it was owing to the bursting of a fpring that this melancholy accident happened. The bodies were dug out on Monday; and Mr. Whitford, coroner for the fouthern diftrict of Devon, took an inquifition, and the jury returned a verdict," Accidental Death." 23. The Emperor of Ruffia has conferred on Prince Repnin the rank of General Field Marshal. Baron Ungern, Prince Gallitzin, and M. Gudowitz and Ifmailow, formerly Adjutants to the late Peter III. have been appointed Generals. -Count Buxhoyden has been made Lieutenant General and Colonel of a regiment. Prince Kurakin, Vice Chancellor, has received the order of Saint Andrew; and his Majefty has prefented him with the palace of Saint Marcoff, which coft 100,000 rubles.-Prince Nicholas Gallitzin, and M. Teriky Raftaphine, Potemkin, and Plefchtschejef, have lately been made Knights of the Order of Saint Ann. 25. At the Quarter Seffions held at Bourn, for the district of Kefteven, in the county of Lincoln, Jofeph Tye, a blakfmith, was found guilty of ufing feveral feditious expreffions; fuch as "Dn to the K-g-the K-g is a rafcal, and all that belong to him : his Ga refeally defpotic Gt: K-gs are of no use, &c. &c. t is His fentence was, that he fhould be kept in folitary confinement, without fecing or fpeaking to any perfon, except the perfon who takes him his victuals, for the space of twelve months; and at the expiration of that time to enter into certain recognizances. We learn from papers published by |