Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/113

Rh laries of most of the judges in his majesty's superior courts of justice in this kingdom, are inadequate to the dignity and importance of their offices; and therefore to beseech his majefty, that he would be graciously pleased to advance any sum not exceeding 11,450l. to be applied in augmentation of the salaries of such judges, and in such proportions as his majesty should think fit for the present year; and to assure his majesty that the house would make good the same to his majesty.

The King has been pleased to appoint the Right Honourable George William Earl of Bristol, to be his majesty's ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Catholic King.

[The reciprocal appointment of ambassadors by the courts of Madrid and London destroys at once the credit of the reports industriously propagated of late, of our being upon the eve of a Spanish war.]

Came on in the court of King's bench in Westminster-hall, before Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, the trial on an information against Doctor Shebbeare, for writing a pamphlet called a Sixth Letter to the people of England; when, after a short hearing, he was found guilty, and is to receive sentence next term.

A journeyman barber that lived at Wandsworth, being under some discontent of mind, cut his throat from ear to ear. There was a note found by him with these words: "I have wronged no man, nor never designed it; and am now gone before God."

Was the hottest press for seamen on the Thames that has been known since the war began, no regard being had to protections, and upwards of 800 swept away. The crew of the Prince of Wales, a letter of marque ship, stood to arms, and saved themselves by their resolution.

Matthew West, butcher, prisoner in the new Gaol, and ringleader of those felons, who lately endeavoured to escape from that gaol, got himself loose from an iron collar, in which his neck was fastened, and his arms extended, although he was chained down to the floor in the condemned room. When he got himself disengaged from the floor, he had the resolution to wring the collar from his neck, by fixing it between two of the bars of the gaol window, and by main strength broke it short in two.

Some workmen have lately dug up near Colonna, where it is thought the ancient city of Laubicum stood, (about 14 miles from Rome) an antique Venus of white marble, thought to be of more exquisite workmanship than even the Venus of Medicis, and a fine bust of Lucius Verus, with several vases, lamps, coins, and other antiquities; and a Greek inscription has been discovered near the great building, importing that there was in that place a library.

Ended the Sessions at the Old Bailey, when Jacob Romart, a jeweller, for the murder of Theodore Wentworth, a fellow workman; and Henry Carrier, for publishing as true, an acceptance to a bill of exchange, with intent to defraud, received sentence of death; and 21 for transportation.

Jacob Romart was carried from Newgate to Tyburn, and