Laftly, it may be of ufe to mention, that when children must be electrified upon the infulating chair, as it is difficult to let them ftay without motion, the moft convenient method is, to let another perfon fit in the infulating chair, and to hold the child whilft the operator is electrifying him.'

In treating of the difeafes for which electricity has been found beneficial, the author begins with those of the rheumatic kind. It is affirmed, that even when of long ftanding, they are relieved, and generally quite cured, by only drawing the electric fluid with a wooden point from the part, or by drawing sparks through flannel. The operation fhould be continued about four or five minutes, repeating it once or twice every day.

Deafness, except when occafioned by obliteration, or a wrong conformation of parts, is either entirely or partly cured by drawing the fparks from the ear with the glass-tube-director, or by drawing the fluid with a wooden point.

The tooth-ache, occafioned by cold, rheumatifm, or inflammation, is generally relieved by drawing the electric fluid with a point, immediately from the part, and alfo externally from the face. But when the body of the tooth is affected, electrization proves of no advantage.

The other disorders in which electricity is beneficial are, inflammations, gutta ferena, fiftula lacrimalis, palfies, ulcers, cutaneous eruptions, St. Vitus's dance, incipient fcrophulous tumors, abfceffes, nervous head-aches, &c.

Hardly in any disease has electricity been found fo advantageous as in obftructions of the menfes, for which it has been lately recommended as the most effectual remedy.

From the great improvement which has lately been made in the method of electrifying, and from the numerous teftimonies in favour of its beneficial effects in various diforders, there is reafon to think that electricity will become a very general refource among medical practitioners, to whom, for information on the subject, this Effay of Mr. Cavallo's must prove highly useful.

Two Differtation upon the Mint and Coins of the Epifcopal-Palatines of Durham, By Mark Noble, Gent. 4to. 75. 6d. ferved. Baldwin.

THESE

HESE Differtations relate to a branch of English antiqui, ties that has hitherto not been investigated with fufficient accuracy. To perform fuch a task, there is required not only a competent knowlege of general history, but an intimate acquaintance with that of the prelates, and the exact ftate, whe

ther

ther stationary or variable, of their respective coins; in all which particulars Mr. Noble affords great fatisfaction.

In the former of these Differtations, the author endeavours to afcertain when, and upon what occafion, the epifcopal palatines of Durham were permitted to have a mint, and to coin their own money. For this purpose, he takes a fhort view of the ftate of the prelatical mints, from the time of the Anglo-Saxons, down to the reign of Edward I. Mr. Pegge, in his Effay on the Origin of the metropolitical and other fubordinate mints, &c. has fhewn that there were, in the reign of king Athelstan, only four private mints, which were thofe of the archbishops of Canterbury and York, the bishop of Rochester, and the abbot of St. Auguftine in Canterbury; all of whom, except the archbishops of York, loft this privilege in the reign of king Ethelred II. but it was foon afterwards restored to them. It appears that at first feveral, if not all, of those who enjoyed the privilege of coining, prefumed to copy the royal manner, exhibiting their effigies upon their money, until king Athelstan obliged them to alter this mode. At the Norman conqueft, however, a different regulation feems to have been introduced, prohibiting those who held private mints from ufing any peculiar device of their own, and obliging them to receive dyes of the fame type with those used in the royal mints. Mr. Noble obferves, that the bishops of Durham appear never to have had any mint till the reign of Stephen, an innovation which he juftly attributes to the neceflity the king was under of indulging the ufurpation of his fubjects.

The author next proceeds to fhew, when, and for what reafons, the prelates were permitted to use any peculiar marks to diftinguish their coins from the royal money. The authoritative introduction of this custom he supposes to have taken place in the reign of Edward I. who was the reformer of our money, and who disused the custom of putting the name of the mintmafter upon the reverse of the money, a practice which had been continued for many centuries; fubftituting in its room the word Villa, or Civitas, but generally the latter. Our author conjectures with much reafon, that it might thence be found neceffary to permit fuch of the prelates as enjoyed a mint, to diftinguish, by fome peculiar device, the epifcopal from the royal coins; as otherwise it would have been impoffible to punish the mint-mafters for any forgeries they might commit, from the difficulty of afcertaining whether fuch of them as debased or counterfeited the money, were fervants to the king or the bishop. This cuftom, however, as our author farther obferves, was continued after the cause had ceased.

In

In the fecond differtation, Mr. Noble enters upon a minute and elaborate account of all the coins of the bishops of Durham, from the reign of Edward I. to that of Henry VIII. both inclufive; placing them refpe&tively to the different prelates by whofe authority they were ftruck. This hiftorical narrative comprizes almost a complete series of their money for near three centuries; with a fucceffion of the bishops during that time, and fome of the principal occurrences in their lives.

For the fatisfaction of our readers, we shall lay before them fome detached extracts relative to thofe antiquities.

Anthony Beak, bishop of Durham, in the reign of Edward I.

• There is no other money of this bifhop, or of any of his fucceffors, but pennies; the reason of this is, that when the bishops of this fee obtained the grant of a mint, it was the only fort of money we had; the archbishops of Canterbury, and York, for fome time, coined only the penny; the firft ecclefiaftical mint that ftruck any other fort of money than the penny, was that of the abbots of Reading, who had a particular charter for that purpose, granted them by king Edward III. in whofe reign we have the penny, the halfpenny, and the farthing; it feems very ftrange that the prelates, particularly the metropolitans, fhould not have had this privilege, as foon as the abbots of Reading; in process of time, however, halfgroats, and half-pence, were coined in the mints of the archbishops of Canterbury, and of York; and the ambitious Wolfey, as primate of York, was bold enough to coin groats.

This prelate's money is diftinguished by having a cross moline (which was his family arms) upon fome part of them: he was very oftentatious of his armorial bearings, as may be obferved by his great feal, in which it appears upon his upper robe, as well as on the left fide of the chair in the fame feal.'

-Lodowick de Bello-monte, or Beaumont, fon of Lewis Beaumont, by Agnes his wife, and brother to Theobald, archbishop of Paris. Though he was lame of both legs, and fo illiterate as not to be able to read his confecration bull; yet being defcended from the blood royal of France, he was at the important fuit of the kings of England and France, advanced to this fee; he intended to have been confecrated and installed at Durham upon St. Cuthbert's day, in Sept. an. 1317, by two cardinals who had been sent by the pope, to effect a reconciliation between the kingdoms of England and Scotland; but in their way to that city, they, together with the bishop's brother, Henry, were fet upon by a gang of lawless banditti, commanded by Gilbert Middleton, keeper of Mitford caftle, and obliged them to pay a large fum of money to regain their liberty. Thefe daring incendiaries however were foon after brought to

condign

condign punishment, and the caftle demolished. The bishop was confecrated on our Lady's day, in Lent, an. 1318. He was a ftrenuous affertor of the rights of his diocese, and was fo fortunate as to get restored to him, a great part of the territories and privileges which his two predeceffors had been deprived of. He died in the following reign.

This prelate copied the example of bishop Beak, in putting his family arms upon his money, which were, azure, femy of fleur de lis, a lion rampant, or. His pennies are known therefore by having, in the place where the mint mark was afterwards affixed, either a lion rampant only, or with a fleur de lis on one, or both fides of the lion. The legends on the obverse are EDWA. or EDWAR. R. ANGL. DNS. HYB. On the reverse, they read, CIVITAS DVNELM. and probably fome may have the name of the city of Durham wrote otherwise, as during this, and the preceding reign, we have upon the reverfe of the Durham pennies, DVRELIE. DUREME. DVR REM. and DVNELME. and upon thofe of king Henry III. DVR. and DVNOL.”

Laurence Booth, bishop in the reign of Edward IV.

• He conducted himself with fuch great moderation and propriety, during the contentions between the families of York and Lancaster, that it gained him the esteem of both parties. It is however probable he was a favourer of the pretenfions of the white rofe, for king Edward IV. on the zoth of September, in the thirteenth year of his reign, promoted him to the important office of lord chancellor of England. After prefiding over the diocese of Durham near twenty years, he was an. 1476, promoted to the fee of York, and was fome time after his tranflation prefented by the pope with a cardinal's hat. He died May 19, an. 1480, and is buried at Cawood church, near York.

This bishop obtained a charter which is dated the 21ft of July, an. 1473, by which he and his fucceffors were allowed to coin both pennies and half-pennies, and alfo to make truffels and ftandards, for the fame during the king's pleafure. The grant recites, that it had been immemorially the privilege of the bishops of this fee to coin the former fort of money, but never the latter. From hence it is clear, that this prelate was the first that had a mint for half-pennies, and that not till this reign. Probably there was never any money of that value coined before at Durham; for though there were royal mints during the reign of the three firft king Edwards after the Conqueft, who all coined both half-pennies and farthings, no moof either of these kinds have been found of theirs of this

ney city.

Bishop Booth, by his licence, dated the 26th of August, in the fame year that he received his charter from king Edward IV. gives permiffion to William Omoryche, of York, goldfmith, to grave and print two dozen of truffels, and one dozen

of

of standards for pennies, and four ftandards and eight truffels, for half-pennies; by this we perceive that there was but a fmall quantity of half-pennies in proportion to the pennies, and probably the coining of them was foon difcontinued by this prelate, for by another licence dated the 4th of Auguft following, granted by him to the fame perfon, the latter was to grave and print three dozen of truffels and two dozen of flandards for pennies, but no mention is made of half-pennies.'

Thomas Ruthall, bishop in the reign of Henry VIII.

He was in great favor with king Henry VIII. who made him a privy counfellor, and employed him in many important bufineffes both at home and abroad. He was ordered by that prince, to draw up an account of the royal revenues, which he accordingly did; at the fame time took an estimate of his own riches, and bound them up in vellum, which he laid up together, but, unfortunately for him, when Henry fent cardinal Wolfey for the royal eftimate, the fervant by mistake, delivered the bishop's, which the cardinal (though he was apprized of the mistake, being jealous of our prelate), prefented to the king, telling him it would inform him where to apply when he wanted money; for the bishop was the richest fubject in the kingdom, it appearing by this account that he was worth one hundred thoufand pounds, a vaft fum for a private perfon to poffefs at that time. When the bishop difcovered the error his fervant had made, it had fo great an effect upon him, that his uneafiness threw him into a diforder which put a period to his life; he died at London, on the 4th day of February, an. 1522; his body was depofited in St. John's chapel in Westminster abbey his monument bears this modeft infcription:

:

"Hic jacet Tho. Rowthall, Epifcopus Dunelm. & Regis Hen. VII. Secretarius, qui obiit 1524

The Reformation, which took place in this reign, put a period to all private mints, that had been enjoyed by prelates, and fome other ecclefiaftics, for many preceding ages.

Mr. Noble has traced, with great perfpicuity, the hiftory of the epifcopal mint at Durham, from its origin to the time when it was abolished: and he has illuftrated the description of the coins with numerous engravings, which mark the fucceffive variations under different prelacies and reigns. The fidelity and accuracy of the whole appear to be eftablished upon the best authorities; among which, in an appendix, we meet with authentic papers, taken from the records of Durham, and other repofitories.

* The date upon the monument is erroneous, it should be 1522.'

FOREIGN