not be redissolved by any water: consequently the ship remains perfectly dry in moist, foggy weather, which is the reverse when salts are used to preserve wood, which always re-dissolve, corrode the iron, render the timber damp, and pre judicial to the health of seamen. Ships of war in general last only 12 or 14 years: it is supposed the durability will be increased to 20 years by this discovery; but this remains to be confirmed by experience. It is undeniable, however, that thro' the superior dry state of this prepared timber, the Intrepid of 64 guns, launched five years ago, and lately returned from the East-Indies, where she was sent purposely on trial, has been examined and reported to the Navy-board as perfectly sound, although she proved leaky by running a-ground on her homeward passage. And it is no less certain, that the Intrepid and Acteon frigates at launching proved more buoyant than two other ships exactly under similar circumstances, the former drawing one inch and half, and the latter one inch less water, by which acquisition they were enabled to stow thirty-five tons more provisions, &c. than any other ships of similar scantling; a circumstance of no small importance, where a long voyage produces a scanty allowance to the mariner. A great number of large vats, and other brewing utensils, which have been prepared after the same manner many years ago, by still continuing in a perfectly sound state, afford the strongest presumptive proofs of the future utility of the above invention in naval architecture. In consequence of a resolution pas passed the council, orders were lately given, that no person whatever shall be admitted into any of the dock-yards, public magazines, or fortresses of this kingdom, without previous leave obtained from the governors. The vintage this year about Bonn, and in other parts of Ger many, has been so exceedingly fa vourable, both in quantity and quality, that on the Moselle they were obliged to order that no cyder should be made, there not being a sufficient quantity of casks for the wine alone. The fields of Martinico have been of late infested with ants to such a degree, that the deputies from the different parishes in that island have unanimously resolved to assure 50,000l. of their currency to the person of any nation, who shall discover a method effectually to destroy them. Some years ago, the shipwrights in the king's yards were looked upon as a very happy set of me、 chanics. They had two shillings and one penny a day besides their chips, which might be worth fourpence a-day more. Winter and summer, they were in constant pay and employment; and in the summer months they might work extra, which at one tide, was seven pence half-penny a-day; they might besides remain in the yards as long as they lived; and ac cordingly, many were known to remain there after they had been past their labour, At length, however, most of them grew discontented with their condition, or at least affected to be so; and, having petitioned their superiors for redress, it was thought proper to pay them, for the future, according to their earnings, as practised in the merchants yards, just withholding the chips, the allowance of which was thought to be atteind ed ed with a much greater loss to the publick, than with advantage to those who enjoyed it. But this regulation putting it, so at least their advocates asserted, in the power of any petty officer to deprive them of the hard-earned reward of their labour, instead of remonstrating, as there might be occasion, against any such oppression, they again petitioned for what they called redress; and, on their not obtaining it, numbers of them quitted the yards in May, June, and July last; at a time the government stood most in need of their labour. Nay some at Woolwich, adding violence to complaints, made it necessary to call the ́~ ́~military power, as the readiest part of the posse comitatus, to the assistance of the civil, to prevent mischief; whilst others elsewhere contented themselves with abetting the petty outrages by-women and boys belonging to them; as too mean objects to have any thing to fear from the severer dis cipline of the law; and, in the mean time all the five yards petitioned his majesty himself by their deputies for redress, setting forth, it has been affirmed, that they were sorry to acquaint him, that "their earnest solicitations to the boards having proved ineffectual, they were under the necessity of quitting for ever his majesty's yards, unless redressed in all their grievances;" though it has been affirmed, and not contradicted that we can recollect, that, under the present regulation, they had earned from 3s. 8d. to 4s, 5d. a day; a circumstance his majesty cannot be supposed to have been ignorant of. Be that as it will, the petitioners not only had no answer from his majesty, but the lords of the admiralty published an advertisement setting forth their defection as tending at least, if not actually intended, to distress government in a critical conjuncture, and offering great encouragement to other shipwrights to come in and supply their places; their lordships even ordered the commissioners at the several yards to employ a certain number of house carpenters; and it was not long before this spirited behaviour had the desired effect. The absentees, finding their places likely to be soon filled on the one hand, and their credit for necessaries, whilst unemployed, so much the more likely to fail on the other, even independent of the odium which the charge of an unmanly and ungenerous desertion had cast upon their cause, began to think better of the matter; accordingly they applied by degrees for the favour of being re-admitted into the king's service, and restored to their former privileges in it; and were by degrees re-admitted and restored, after some little menaces and delays, which were probably thought requisite to make them, for their own good and the public's, more sensible of their mistake. By the beginning of this month, they were all entered again, even the old ones, in whom a longer experience of the government's goodness seemed to render the abuse of it more criminal; and we have great reason to believe, that both young and old have ever since behaved with the greatest diligence and alacrity. 2d. to the Americans. St. John's Fort, in Canada, ca, from which supply they are surrendered, by capitulation, now cut off by reason of the present interruption of commerce with America; and that the quantity of wheat and meal flour, bread and biscuit, now allowed by law to be exported to the said colonies from the port of London, will be greatly insufficient for the sustenance and use of the inhabitants of the sugar colonies during the continuation of such interruption; and therefore praying the house will take the premises into consideration; and grant such relief as to them shall A great powder magazine, half a league from Carthagena, in Old Spain; containing between three and four thousand quintals, was blown up by lightning, together with the guard of seven soldiers. Several houses in the country were shaken by the explosion; and almost all the windows broken in Carthagena. 3d. A cause was tried before Judge Gould and a special jury of merchants: the action was brought for the value of a bale of muslins sold to the defendants, which they, on examination of the goods, and finding that they had been exported to obtain the drawbacks, and afterwards smuggled back, to the great injury of the fair trader, and the defrauding of the revenue, immediately carried to his majesty's warehouse; where, on informing the commissioners of the customs of the circumstances, the muslin was seized and condemned. A verdict was given for the defendants without going out of court. The judge, and the counsel on both sides, agreed that it was established by many precedents, that no person, selling smuggled goods, can ever bring an action legally to recover of the purchasers, the property of such goods being, at all times, his majesty's.' A petition of the merchants of London, trading to the WestIndies; was presented to the house of commons, setting forth, that the inhabitants of those islands have hitherto been supplied with very large quantities of flour, bread, rice, and Indian corn, from the continent of Ameri seem meet. Some days ago those miscreants the white-boys, in a visit they paid to Johnstown, in the county of Kildare, Ireland, besides breaking the windows of the inhabitants, and other similar outrages, buried a priest to the neck, first inclosing him naked in brambles and thorns; and threatened the like usage to every priest they could lay hands on, on account of their endeavouring to dissuade them from their wicked practices. Sth. The sessions of gaol delivery, for the high Court of Admiralty, was held at the OldBailey, when two prisoners were tried viz. Thomas Sawyer, on two indictments, for feloniously aiding, assisting, and comforting Samuel Brown in the wilful murder of William Barbut, master of the ship or vessel Hannah, and of Samuel Herley, mate of the said vessel, on the high seas, within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England, viz. in the latitude of 30 deg. north, on the 23d of June, 1774, and who were thrown overboard by Brown, Sawyer being present. On these indictments Sawyer was acquitted. He was also indicted for for feloniously making a revolt on board the said ship, turning pirate, and running away with the same, the cargo of which he and Brown sol to two merchants, who came on board near Trinidada, and delivered at Curassow; after which, returning to the Granades to receive the money, he was, on the information of one of the mariners, apprehended and brought to England. On this indictment he was capitally convicted, and received sentence of death; and was soon after executed at Execution Dock. Brown escaped out of the Marshalsea. A mate of the York Indiaman was tried for the wilful murder of Robert Patterson, on the high seas, about three leagues from Bencoolen, and acquitted. His Grace the Duke of 9th. Grafton resigned the seals. Mr. Wilkes, on going out of of fice this day at Guildhall, made a long speech to the livery, full of the severest reflections on two great assemblies and the ministry. He charged the first with endeavouring to establish despotism, in NewEngland; and popery, in Canada: the second, with an attack upon every commoner of England, and the essential privileges of London, in the person of a citizen of London, Mr. Randal, whom they ordered, unheard, into custody, without any appeal to a jury, only for disrespectful words against a member of their house; and the ministry, with advising the King not to receive their petitions and remonstrances on the throne. Then, after expatiating on his opposition to all these measures, and his diligence in the discharge of all his other duties, as Lord Mayor of the city of London, he renounced the usual exemption from public business during the ensuing twelvemonth. 12th. Being Sunday, about 'seven in the afternoon, three villains got into the house of a ba-. ker in Winchester-street, by means of a pick-lock key; but the house having been attempted for several Sundays past, nearly about the same hour, a proper guard was kept; and the robbers hardly entered, when the foremost of them received a shot in the head, which killed him on the spot; upon which the other two immediately made off, though it is thought one of them was wounded by the same shot which killed his accomplice. pair of pistols, four guineas, and three half. guineas, were found in the pockets of him that was killed; who proved to be one Armstrong, formerly employed in the EastIndia warehouses, but who had been transported some time ago for a theft. The fellows had got a mourning-coach in waiting to carry off the effects. A Hague, Nov. 21. The effects of the late storm of the 14th instant appear, by accounts from all parts of this province, to have been much more dreadful than was at frst apprehended. Commerce has suffered greatly by the many vessels lost on our coasts, near the Texel; in the Zuyder sea; at the mouth of the Maëse; and more particularly on the sea-coast of Holland, which is in many places covered with wrecks and merchandise. The violence of the north-west wind (which blew on the 14th the whole day) had raised the tide in the morning to a very uncommon height; and the waters on the ebb being prevented, by the continuance of the storm, from returning, in the evening were increased to such a degree, as to occasion inundations in many parts of North and South Holland, and even in the province of Utrecht. Among the towns partly or entirely overflowed, are those of Amsterdam,, Munikendam, Edam, Horn, Dort, Rotterdam, Beverwyk, Delfshaven, and Maassluys. All the districts in the neighbourhood of Heusden were under water, as also the country bordering on the river Y, between Haarlem and Amsterdam, and on the opposite shore of that river in North Holland, and the country lving at the mouth of the Maëse near Rotterdam, particularly the inds of Blackenbourg and Roosenbourg. The force of the wind and waves was so great, that a ship at Amsterdam, bound to Petersburg, was carried over two dykes between Muiden and Amersfort, and carried to the distance of 200 yards on the land. The dykes are damaged in many places by this tempest; but, wherever there appeared any breaches, the inhabitants, by their great diligence and activity, immediately repaired them, and by that means prevented the ruin of the country. But, notwithstanding their vigilance, the waters rose above the level of the dykes, and overflowed the country, carrying away, with the torrent, houses, cattle, furniture &c. and some persons have perished. The fishingtowns have also suffered greatly by the loss of their boats. By the most exact inquiries it has been found, that the rise of the waters was, at this time, eight inches higher than in the year 1682, and two inches higher than they were in the year 1717. Workmen are employed in repairing the damages; and the communication between Haarlem and Amsterdam, which had been interrupted, is now opened. [So far the London Gazette.] During this storm, the Cranbrook, of London, burthen 500 tons, Charles Suttie, master, laden with cloth, bales, and sundry other merchandize, bound for Jamaica, having been wrecked about eight o'clock in the forenoon of the 14th, on the Goodwin Sands off Deal, Mr. Suttie with four others betook themselves to the pinnace, whilst the rest of the crew and the passengers got into the long boat; which last was, between three and four in the afternoon of the same day, driven ashore on the coast of Sangatte, off Fort Lapin, near to Calais, having on board thirty persons, mariners and passengers. As soon as the people on shore discovered the long boat in the road, driving at the mercy of the winds and waves, they flocked to the coast, in order to be ready to give immediate assist ance |