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82]  ANNUAL REGISTER For the YEAR 1772.  [83

how far the university powers ex-tend as to the abolishing subscription to the 39 articles in taking degrees. The said matters are said to be in agitation at the university of Oxford.

At a general meeting of the free citizens of Rochester at their townhall, it was unanimously agreed, to transmit instructions to their representatives, to support the motion for shortening the duration of parliaments.--To these instructions Mr. Calcraft returned, that he received them with very particular satisfaction, and hoped to merit the future good opinion of his constituents, whose commands he should ever be ready to obey.--Vice-Admiral Pye, on the other hand, writes, that many of his electors being of a different opinion, he thought it right to act in this business as it seemed to him to be most for the public good.

Extract of a Letter from Dover, February 25.

"Last night there was a prodigious fall of the rock at Shakespear's cliff, the noise of which was head several miles. It has rendered the road along the sea, from this place to Folkstone, quite impassable; and the cliff continues to fall by the houses in Snargate-street almost daily, to the great terror of the inhabitants, several of whom have already quitted their houses, and others are preparing to do so. No lives have as yet been lost, but the situation of those people who live under a rock is very alarming.

"A few days ago, near 100 feet of the castle wall facing the town, fell down, as did also a building lately erected towards the sea, owing to the fall of the rock which supported it."

The marriage-bill passed [4th.]
the House of Peers, and the same was sent to the House of Commons by two judges. 

A debate arose in the house upon the second reading of a bill to repeal the last game law, and the same was thrown out 71 to 51; but some alterations are to be made in the old bill to correct the absurdities in it.

Mr. Sawbridge made his motion for shortening the duration of parliaments, and was seconded by Mr. Townsend.--Though the argument was clearly in favour of the motion, yet the numbers were against it. It was rejected 251 to 83.

An adjourned sessions of gaol delivery at the Old- [5th.]
Bailey was held for passing sentence on 22 prisoners who had been capitally convicted, and afterwards respited, to whom his majesty had been graciously pleased to extend his mercy, on condition of being transported.

From Paris, March 2, they write, that seventeen persons were poisoned in one day at Monsieur Marson's, a famous eating-house in that capital. After the strictest enquiries made by the police and the faculty, it was found that the baker who furnishes that house with bread, accidentally laid it on a board where Marson had strewed a great quantity of ratsbane, in order to destroy the rats; and as this bread was put into the soop that day, the persons who eat of it were poisoned.

Hanover, Feb 20. His Britannic majesty, who is always ready to relieve the misfortunes of his subjects in this electorate, issued an ordinance the 28th of January last, which diminishes one half of a tax they paid last year; this has proved 

a great 

a great relief to the poor in this season of scarcity.

10th. This morning, about five o'clock, died, at his palace of Friedenstein, after a long and painful illness, in the 73d year of his age, his Serene Highness Frederic Duke of Saxe-Gotha. He was brother to her late Royal Highness the Princess Dowager of Wales.

11th. At a meeting of the Society of Arts, a present of twenty guineas was voted to the inventor of a new method of striking whales, by means of harpoons to be discharged from swivel guns; at the same time fix swivel guns, and 24 harpoons of the new construction were ordered to be sent out with the master of the Levia-than, and the like number with the master of the Rising-Sun, both Greenlanders, in order to give the discovery a fair trial.--An uncommon species of red potatoe, with other curious vegetables, have lately been transmitted to the same society by Mr. Valtravers, from the Palatinate, in Germany.

The young gentlemen of St. Paul's school spoke their annual orations before a numerous audience, with universal applause. They passed their examination with such honour, that the worshipful company of mercers have, as a reward to their merit, and an encouragement to their future improvement, enlarged their exhibitions out of the increase of the founder's estate, from twenty to thirty pounds yearly, during the first three years of their college residence; and, after taking their degrees, to forty.

Some workmen making a road near the college in Salisbury, discovered several human skeletons, one of which had an helmet fastened under his chin, which by the form is supposed to be as ancient as the reign of William Rufus. It weighed fifteen ounces. By the side of the skeleton was found an iron head of a spear, ten inches in length, and two in breadth.

The report was made to his majesty of the convicts under sentence of death in Newgate, when James Bolland, for forgery, was ordered for execution on Wednesday next: Thomas Crofts, for a highway robbery; Joseph, alias James Bow-man, for burglary; Andrew Welch, for a highway robbery; John Bowers, for stealing a sum of money out of a public-house at Shad-well; and Thomas Page, for robbing Mr. Matthews, on the king's-road, were respited during his majesty's pleasure. 

13th. This day the main question respecting the preamble to the royal marriage bill was debated, and carried 200 to 164.

A smith at Enfield was apprehended for robbing the north mail in October. He was discovered by being observed to deliver a letter to a stage coachman, by a man, who gave information for the sake of the reward for detecting stage coachman, &c. carrying letters. On searching the coachman, the letter was found; and in it a draught, which had been taken out of the mail. He owned the fact, and has confessed his accomplices.

One Dankeert, a Dutchman, who had engrossed a considerable quantity of corn near Niuport, in Flanders, was set upon by a numerous mob, who, after dividing his corn, pulled down his house, and carried him to the seashore, 

where

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Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-22 19:50:53 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-22 21:04:59 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-23 07:47:38 Verbatim from the instructions: " if a word is hyphenated because it goes across two lines, type it out as one word." ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-23 08:37:43