pective habitations in a transport of joy; and were soon
reconciled to their abandoned vices, which they seemed to resume with
redoubled affection, and once more bade defiance to the vengeance of
heaven.

PESTILENTIAL FEVER AT THE SESSION IN THE OLD BAILEY.

By this time all the gaols in England were filled with the refuse of
the army and navy, which having been dismissed at the peace, and either
averse to labour or excluded from employment, had naturally preyed
upon the commonwealth. Great numbers of those wretches who, by proper
regulations, might have been rendered serviceable to the community, were
executed as examples; and the rest perished miserably, amidst the stench
and horrors of noisome dungeons. Even the prison of Newgate was rendered
so infectious by the uncommon crowds of confined felons stowed together
in close apartments, that the very air they breathed acquired a
pestilential degree of putrefaction. It was this putrefied air, which,
adhering to the clothes of the malefactors brought to trial at the bar
of the Old Bailey, in May, produced among the audience a pestilential
fever, which infected and proved fatal to the lord mayor of London,
to one alderman, two of the judges, divers lawyers who attended the
session, the greatest part of the jury, and a considerable number of the
spectators. In order to prevent such disasters for the future, the gaols
were cleansed, and accommodated with ventilators, which exhaust the foul
and supply a circulation of fresh air; and other humane precautions were
taken for the benefit of the prisoners.

DISPUTES BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SWEDEN.

The affairs of the continent underwent no remarkable alteration. An
ambassador-extraordinary being sent to Petersburgh from the court of
London, declared to the czarina's minister, that, in case of a rupture
between Russia and Sweden, occasioned by the hostilities committed by
the former power, his Britannic majesty would consider Russia as the
aggressor, and the czarina could not expect that he would supply her
with the succours which he was engaged by treaty to furnish for her
defence, in case she should be attacked. A declaration of the same
nature was made by the ambassador of her Imperial majesty the queen of
Hungary, while the ministers of France and Prussia, who were in strict
alliance with Sweden, gave her to understand that they would punctually
fulfil their engagements with the court of Stockholm, should she
actuall