Mr. URBAN,

July 31.

AVING received a letter from a near relative defiring me to refer to your Magazine, p. 429, I there read with fome furprife my fatement of the late Earl of Gof ford's cafe, as published in the Bath Herald. I certainly did intend to have that matter made as public as poffible; bu, finding the family averfe to it, though all bearing the ftrongeft teftimony to the accuracy of my fatement, 1 complied with their wishes, and fuffered the matter to fall, as I thought, into oblivion; and I can affure you, the epigram of the learned wag woul have done no more than produce a file of contempt; but the flatement having found its way into your valuable Magazine, I truft you will, for the above reafon, acquit me of being in any way intrumental to its having made its appearance, by the publication of this letter.

Now, Mr. Urban, as it is my with to promulgate to the world the arcanu by which I have, under Divine Providence, performed fome cures, many of which appear incredible, the vouchers of which are in my poitellion, and which I am ready to produce, "bearing confirmation frong as proof of Holy Writ: Be it known to the Royal College of Phyficians, as well as to the world at large, I have ascertained, and am willing to prove before them, that, by a counteraction to Antimony, depriving it of all its deleterious and baneful effects, combining it with other medicines, and tempering them in fuch manner as occafion inay require, making them act and counteract each other, I can fubdue every Species o Fever known in his country in a few hours, but as fome fevers proceed from long-rooted difeafe in the inteftines, and frequently from worms, thefe will return with

fresh attacks, but are fubdued as quickly as they appear, until the caufe is deftroyed; and in the mean time the patient continues to gain appetite and frength, and even the medic.nes themfelves prove nutritious, and invigorate the fyftem. I have frequently converfed with Medical Men eminent in their profeflion, who candidly told me they conceived I was in poffeffion of a valuable noflrum, and allowed that many cures I had performed hal excited their aflonifhment, but, finding from my converfation that I proceeded on a filem, inftead of an unvaried noftrum, have expreffed an anxious with that the fubject might come before a Committee of the House of Commons; as fo valuable a difcovery might be of the greateft nfe to mankind in general During the time the malignan Fever raged at Gibraltar, confcious that my medicine would have faved the lives of at least seven out of ten of our brave fellows who fell facrifices to that crul difeafe, I attempted to interest fome perfons of diftinction to endea your to have my fyftem inveftigated. But, not being a regular-bred practitioner, all my efforts were in vain, and thousands of my fellow-creatures fuffered, whofe lives might have been faved to their country. It is not long fince it was mentioned in the House of Commons, that not less than eight thousand of our troops died in one year of the Yellow Fever in the West Indies! Is it not then an object of the fift magnitude, to try by every means to fubdue to dreadful a difeafe? I think I have difcovered the means, and am willing to communicate to Government my fecret-nav inore, have no objection to attend either a Naval or Military Hofpital (or both) under the inspection of two regular, but liberalmind d, Medical Men; and, to prove the fafety, as was the efficacy of my medicines, I will take the fame Į

may

may find it requifite to give a patient in the worst ftage of a malignant fever. I fhall now endeavour, Mr. Urban, to give fome idea of the fyftem on which I have hitherto acted, and which practice convinces me more every day is juft; and I am fixed firmer in my principles, from obferving that the late celebrated Dr. James was of the fame way of thinking, as fome paffages in his Medicinal Dictionary will prove. I have for fome years paft laid it down as an axiom, that all difeafe originates in the ftomach and inteftines; which, if attacked in an early fiage by proper medicines, that will act only on the offending matter contained therein, the difeafe gives way to their effects as if by enchantment; and fuch medicines I profefs to have difcovered, as I can make appear by numerous cafes, with out having recourfe to the various methods of torturing the human body, fuch as bleeding, bliftering, cupping, leeches, fitons, fweating, &c. &c. to all which the patient fubmits with willingness and confidence, becaufe cuftom, during a feries of years, has confirmed the practice. Hitherto no man has been bold enough, openly and avowedly, to attempt a reform of a fyftem fanctioned by fo learned and formidable a body as the Profeffors of the Medical Art; and it may be afked how I dare prefume to obtrude my opinions on the world, knowing the many reputable characters I hall have to oppofe me? I reply, in refpect of my fyftem, I confefs myfelf an Enthusiast; but my Enthufiafin arifes from the ftrongest conviction that I have been, and can be, the happy means of reliev ing the woes, and perhaps prolonging the lives, of my fellow creatures; and, whilft hundreds daily thank me for the eafe and benefit they experience, I feel a confcious pride that places me far above the fafis of the envious, or the jeers of the ignorant.

Yours, &c. JOHN RIDDELL,

Mr. URBAN, Manchester, Aug. 20. IN reply to the query of Vertumnus, p. 607, refpecting the Rev. John Laurence, you are welcome to the following information. Being my maternal, great-grandfather, his works fell into my hands many years ago. has always flood high in my esteem, for the many excellent fentiments difperfed through what I may call his domeftic life, the two volumes on Gar

He

dening, &c. and for his orthodoxy and liberality as a Divine, in the 8vo volume, intituled, "Chriftian Morals, and Chriftian prudence," publifhed when he was rector of Yelvertoft; London: printed for John Knapton, 1717. This is the work to which you refer. It is a little body of found prac tical Divinity, equally free from the Socinianifm of that day, and from the Fatalifm of the prefent, vulgariter Calvinism. The author of it must have been a very learned, and, what is more, an internally pious prieft. The edition of his Gardening in my poffeffion contains a copper-plate of him, by Vertue, taken from an original painting, large as life, now at Pallion, Durham, the refidence of his grandfon, John Goodchild, Efq. Laurence, I believe, is the orthography. He was a prebend of Salisbury; and was offered by the Lord Bishop of Durham the choice of either the living of Haughton, near Dar. lington, or Bifhop-Weremouth. He accepted the latter, and there he refided during the remainder of his life.

His only fon, John Lamence, was rector of St. Mary Aldermanbury, and had alfo a living in Ellex. He alio was a lover of a garden,

His three daughters were married: Elizabeth to Goodchild, of Pallion; Penelope, to Pemberton, of Bambridge Holme; and Mary, to Dale, of Durham.

Yours, &c. JOHN STONEHOUSE,

Mr. URBAN,

August 15. IAM informed that the Rev. John Laurence, enquired after in your Jaft number, p. 608, was buried in the chancel of Bishop-Wearmouth church, in the county of Durham; and that a flone with an infeription was laid down over the fpot: but that fome years afterwards the fione was turned, to fave the expence of a new one, and an infcription to the memory of fome other perfon cut on the other fide of it. He was prefented to that rectory in 1721, and held it till his death, in 1732. The infertion of this in your Magazine may procure a copy of the Epitaph. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

You

S. R.

Exeter, July 19. YOU mention in p.326, three uneducated perfons being licenfed to preach the Golpel. Eight mien ob tained the fame at our Quarter Sef

fions laft week; and I am told, that by the laws of our country they could not be refused.

When a privilege becomes an evil, and fuch it furely is, the greatest, to have the Holy Scriptures explained, or rather I fhould fay perverted, by thofe ignorant men; fomething thould be thought of, if their preaching muft be fuffered, to counteract it; and I would recommend, for this purpote, Mr. George S Waits's Sermons preached before the University of Oxford—“Religious enthufiafin confidered." Thofe fermons, if delivered by a good preacher in every parith church, would, I am firmly perfuaded, do both Religion and the State much good.

Let it not be thought that this is written to benefit Mr. Waits: I have not the happinefs of his acquaintance, nor did I ever fee him; but I have read and admired his fermons. Many people would, if they were to read them, confider thofe Evangelical preachers, I think, in a different point of view to what they do at prefent.

The Evening Mail" reports the following peech of Mr. Sharp, on a late trial, June 24, 1807. Being crofsexamined by Mr. Garrow, he faid, "he was an adherent to the tenets of Johanna Southgate; and that he confidered what fe had written was dictated under the immediate infpection of Heaven." Mr. Sharp faid likewife, that "the Country would be thrown into confufion in March, April, or May, and that all who were fealed in a book which Johanna held would have inftruments put into their hands, to deftroy thofe who were not fealed." If fuch, Mr. Urban, were the promises made by Johanna, what muft we think of those who received the feals on thofe conditions? Should it not be a caution to all, not to have any dealings with them? for whom may they not think it their religion to deftroy! Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

VERITAS.

Aug. 22.

THE HE remaining frictures on your laft volume, promised in p. 622 of your last month, now await you.

་་

P. 1007, col. 2, 118. Is not the Canon of Tongres, here mentioned, the redoubted author of the Hiftory of the Life of Reginald Pole," which in 1776 occafioned as much controverfy as the late "Hifiory of Win

chefter," by a titular Catholic Bishop, has excited? Arcades ambo!

P. 1015. The elegant Epitaph on Bishop Hough appeared in p. 340 of your volume for 1746; and the two copies will ferve to correct each other, A third copy, now before me in MS. reprefents as compofed by Chancellor Smalridge, and not by Archdeacon Totie as mentioned by Dr. Nath in p. clvi. of the Appendix to the second volume of his """ Hiftory of Worcefterthire," and in p. 1014 of your Mifcellany. In the MS. before me the name of Toitie was originally written as its author, and that of Smalridge afterwards fubflituted. In the faid MS. Bp. Hough's mother is defcribed as "daughter of John Byrch of Leacroft, in the;" and four lines after we fhould read "Baleflev;" and in the next line " 1659." The faid MS. alfo adds "Round Lady Lee's figure ou the Medallions: By me he was intirely beloved, and by all other perfons eftermed and valued for her good underfanding, fweet and even temper, courteous and easy carriage, unblameable life, and prudent and exemplary conduct in every condition and circumflance. Jo. Worcefier."

P. 1029, note, 1. 1. "September" fhould be Auguft;" and "June" fhould be " July."

P. 1030, col. 2, 1. 22, for "Lord" read "Mr."

P. 1052. The exquifite lines by Mr. Rofcoe are not from a correct copy; and the last verfe of the fixth ftanza should stand thus ;

"And the Bee brought his honey to