liquor was sent. They had not been long there before a woman of the town came in a coach, and asked for Captain Cope. Being introduced, she remained a short time, and then said, Who will pay for my coach? Morgridge said I will;' and, having done so, he advanced to salute her; but she pushed him from her in a disdainful manner, and spoke to him in very abusive terms, which induced him to treat her with the same kind of language.

Morgridge's rudeness was resented by Cope, who took the woman's part, and a violent quar. rel ensued between Cope and Morgridge, both of whom were intoxicated. This contest increased to such a degree, that they threw the bottles at each other; till at length Morgridge, inflamed with passion, drew his sword, and stabbed Cope, who instantly expired.

Morgridge, being taken into custody, was tried at the Old Bailey, July 5, 1706; but a doubt arising in the breast of the jury, whether he was guilty of murder or manslaughter, they brought in a special verdict, and the affair was left to be determined by the twelve judges.

The judges having consequently met at Serjeants' Inn, the case was argued before them by counsel; when they gave an unanimous opinion that he was guilty of wilful murder, because he did not kill Cope with the weapons he was originally using, but arose from his seat, and drew his sword, which was deemed to imply a malicious intention.

Morgridge, in the interim, made his escape from the Marshalsca Prison, and went into Flanders, where he remained about two years; but, being uneasy to revisit his native country, he imprudently came back to England, and, being apprehended,

received sentence of death, and suffered along with William Gregg, at Tyburn, on the 28th of April, 1708.

After conviction he was truly sensible of the crime of which he had been guilty, acknowledged the justice of his sentence, and submitted to his fate with a devout wish that his misfortune might have its proper effect, in the preventing similar destruction happening to others.

This is but one instance of several that we shall have occasion to record of the fatal consequences arising from a connexion with women of abandoned characters: but for a woman of this cast, the two men who were thus sacrificed, the one to the impetuosity of passion, the other to the rigour of the law, might have lived, a credit to themselves, and an advantage to the community.

On this occasion it may not be improper to reflect on the horrid crime of seduction. The man who is guilty of seducing a modest young woman from the paths of virtue is, in some degree, an accessory to every crime she may thereafter commit.

Women in general are of natures more gentle, of dispositions more harmless, than men ; yet, when the mind of a woman is once contaminated, she commonly becomes more vicious even than a man of bad character; and the amiable softness of the sex seems to be totally eradicated.

If a youth is tempted to a criminal connexion with a woman already debauched by another, let him reflect that he is but seeking to perpetuate that infamy she has acquired, and to render still baser a miod already contaminated. One would imagine that a slight degree of thought would be sufficient to restrain youth from connexions of

this nature; but, unhappily, the passions are more prevalent than reason, and the connexion is made before the youth has given himself time to think of its criminality.

May the case of Morgridge be an instructive one; and may those who are tempted to a commission of the crimes we would reprobate receive a timely warning therefrom.

WILLIAM Gregg was born at Montrose, in Scotland, and, having received the common instructions in the grammar-school of that town, finished his education in the university of Aberdeen, and was intended by his friends for the study of divinity; but his inclination leading him to seek for advancement in the state, he came to London, and soon afterwards went abroad as secretary to the ambassador to the court of Sweden.

Gregg, during his residence abroad, debauched a Swedish lady, and was guilty of some other irregularities; in consequence of which the ambassador dismissed him from his service, aud he was glad to embark for London in the first ship that sailed.

As soon as he arrived in London, he was engaged by Mr. Secretary Harley, to write dispatches; and letters of great importance were left unsealed, and perused by Gregg. As the account of this malefactor which was given by the Ordinary of Newgate is very superficial and unsatisfactory, we shall give the following extracts respecting him, exactly copied from Bishop Bur. net's history:

At this time two discoveries were made, very unlucky for Mr. Harley: Tallard wrote often to Chamilard, but he sent the letters open to the Secretary's office, to be perused and sealed up, and so be conveyed by the way of Holland. These were opened upon some suspicion in Holland, and it appeared

that one in the secretary's office put letters in them, in which, as he offered his service to the courts of France and St. Germains, so he gave an account of all transactions here. In one of these he sent a copy of the letter that the queen was to write in her own hand to the emperor; and he marked what parts were drawn by the secretary, and what additions were made to it by the lord treasurer. This was the letter by which the queen pressed the sending Prince Eugene into Spain; and this, if not intercepted, would have been at Versailles many days before it could reach Vienna.

He who sent this wrote, that by this they might see what service he could do them, if well encouraged. All this was sent over to the Duke of Marlborough ; and, upon search, it was found to be written by one Gregg, a clerk, whom Harley had not only entertained, but had taken into a particular confidence, without inquiring into the former parts of his life; for he was a vicious and a necessitous person, who had been secretary to the queen's envoy in Denmark, but was dismissed by him for his ill qualities. Harley had made use of him to get him intelligence, and he came to trust him with the perusal and sealing up of the letters which the French prisoners, here in England, sent over to France; and by that means he got into the method of sending intelligence thither. He, when seized on, either upon remorse or hopes of pardon, confessed all,

and signed his confession: upon that he was tried, and, pleading guilty, was condemned as a traitor, for corresponding with the queen's enemies.

At the same time Valiere and Bara, whom Harley had employed as his spies to go often over to Calais, under the pretence of bringing him intelligence, were informed against, as spies employed by France to get intelligenee from England, who carried over many letters to Calais and Boulogne, and, as was believed, gave such information of our trade and convoys, that by their means we had made our great losses at sea. They were often complained of upon suspicion, but they were always protected by Har. ley; yet the presumptions against them were so violent, that they were at last seized on, and brought up prisoners.'

The Whigs took such advantage of this circumstance, that Mr. Harley was obliged to resign; and his enemies were inclined to carry matters still further, and were resolved, if possible, to find out evidence enough to affect his life. With this view, the House of Lords ordered a committee to examine Gregg and the other prisoners, who were very assiduous in the discharge of their commission, as will appear by the following account written by the same author:

The lords who were appointed to examine Gregg could not find out much by him: he had but newly begun his designs of betraying secrets, and he had no associates with him in it. He told them that all the papers of state lay so carelessly about the office that every one belonging to it, even the door-keepers, might have read them all. Harley's custom was to come to the office late on post-nights, and, after he had given his orders, and wrote his letters, he usually went away, and left all to be copied out when he

was gone. By that means he came to see every thing, in particular the queen's letter to the emperor. He said he knew the design on Toulon in May last, but he did not discover it; for he had not entered on his ill practices till October. This was all he could say.

'By the examination of Valiere and Bara, and of many others who lived about Dover, and were employed by them, a discovery was made of a constant intercourse they were in with Calais, under Harley's protection. They often went over with boats full of wool, and brought back brandy, though both the import and export were severely prohibited. They, and those who be longed to the boats carried over by them, were well treated on the French side at the governor's house, or at the commissary's: they were kept there till their letters were sent to Paris, and till returns could be brought back, and were all the while upon free cost. The order that was constantly given them was, that if an English or Dutch ship came up with them, they should cast their letters into the sea, but that they should not do it when French ships came up with them: so they were looked on by all on that coast as the spies of France. They used to get what information they could, both of merchant-ships, and of the ships of war that lay in the Downs, and upon that they usually went over; and it happened that soon after some of those ships were taken. These men, as they were Papists, so they behaved themselves insolently, and boasted much of their power and credit.