m the narrow
views of particular people, as well as from the prejudice of party.

FIRE IN CORNHILL.

The spirit that now animated the citizens of London was such as small
difficulties did not retard, and even considerable losses could not
discourage. In the month of November the city was exposed to a dangerous
conflagration, kindled in the night by accident in the neighbourhood of
the Royal Exchange, which burned with great fury, and, notwithstanding
the assistance of the firemen and engines, employed under the personal
direction of the magistracy, consumed a great number of houses, and
damaged many more. That whole quarter of the town was filled with
consternation: some individuals were beggared; one or two perished in
the flames, and some were buried in the ruins of the houses that sunk
under the disaster.

METHOD CONTRIVED TO FIND OUT THE LONGITUDE.

The ferment of mind so peculiar to the natives of Great Britain, excited
by a strange mixture of genius and caprice, passion and philosophy,
study and conjecture, produced at this period some flowers of
improvement, in different arts and sciences, that seemed to promise
fruit of public utility. Several persons invented methods for
discovering the longitude at sea, that great _desideratum_ in
navigation, for the ascertainment of which so many nations have
offered a public recompense, and in the investigation of which so many
mathematical heads have been disordered. Some of those who now appeared
candidates for the prize deserved encouragement for the ingenuity of
their several systems; but he who seemed to enjoy' the pre-eminence in
the opinion and favour of the public was Mr. Irwin, a native of Ireland,
who contrived a chair so artfully poised, that a person sitting in it on
board a ship, even in a rough sea, can, through a telescope, observe
the immersion and emersion of Jupiter's satellites, without being
interrupted or incommoded by the motion of the vessel. This gentleman
was favoured with the assistance and protection of commodore lord Howe,
in whose presence the experiment was tried in several ships at sea with
such success, that he granted a certificate, signifying his approbation;
and in consequence of this, Mr. Irwin is said to have obtained a
considerable reward from the board of admiralty.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

INSTALLATION AT OXFORD.

The people of England, happy in their situation, felt none of the storms
of war and desolation w