Monthly Chronicle.

At the late Session at the Old Bailey , John Taylor , of Fleet-street , London , ( one of the principal witnesses against Watt and Downie , convicted of High Treason at Edinburgh ) , was tried for Bigamy , in feloniously marrying Margery Sophia Richardson , spinster , his former wife being then alive . The first witness was William Bearle , who said that he well knew the prisoner , and that he was married to Miss Sarah Marshall , on the 16 th of May , 1781 , at Baldock Church , in Hertfordshire ; the witness knew of his own knowledge , that Sarah Marshall was alive on the 19 th of September last . J . Barnley proved that the

prisoner ' s first wife was alive about ten days ago ; on his cross-examination he said he was not subpcened to give evidence by any relations of the prisoner , but by Mr . Pearce , the Clerk to Mr . Martin , now under confinement for High Trea ^ son ; he did not know that Mr . Pearce had himself ever been apprehended for High Treason . Margery Sophia Richardson , the second wife , was then called ; she proved that she was married by licence on the 30 th of May , 1790 , to the prisoner , at St . Bride's Church , Fleet-street ; she did not call it a misfortune to have been married to the prisonerbut she conceived it a happiness ; she knew

, lhat he was a married man at the time , and so did all her relations , who consented to her being married to him ; she said she loved , honoured , and obeyed him , and should always consider herself as his wife ; she had heard that his former wife could not receive the conjugal embrace , and though she did not at the time know of the second marriage , she afterwards highly approved of it , and she and the witness were upon terms of the greatest friendship ; she added , that she believed the prosecution against the prisoner originated solely in spite and malice . Mr . Pearce ( Clerk to Martin ) said he had instituted the present

prosecution from motives of justice , conceiving the prisoner to be a bad man ; he had no intention of convicting the prisoner to prevent his giving evidence against any persons charged with High Treason ; lie acknowledged he had been apprehended for High Treason , but was discharged by the Lords of the Privy-Council , upon his undertaking to appear when called for . Mrs . Taylor , the first and real wife , was offered as an evidence for her husband , to acknowledge what the other wretch , Richardson , had asserted of her being physically unfit for a wife . ' The Counsel for the prosecution objected to her testimony as

illeg-al : it was rather strange , he said , that the hoary defendant-at the bar had not discovered the inability of his wife before the termination of so many years , and before he met the precious witness who had just given her testimony . Mrs . Taylor ' s evidence was rejected . The evidence being closed , the Recorder observed to the Jury , that the witness Margery Sophia , with whatever confidence she seemed to pride herself on her connection with the prisoner , was yet to be considered in no other view than a prostitute , and he was surprized that the relatipns of this woman should so far forget themselves , as to assent to an union" so contrary to every legal , moral , and religious precept . The Jury found the prisoner Guiltv .

Sometime since , a gentleman and his family travelling on a road where there was an opposition between the inn-keepers , at a short distance before he came to the end of a stage , ordered the driver to take him to the inn which he had before been accustomed to use ; at the instant of which the fellow , putting bis hand to his hat , and looking over his shoulder , says , " Please your honour , have the children had the small pox ? ' cause the landlord ' s children at that house have got it now . " The gentleman being struck with the supposed honesty of the knight of the whip , knew not how sufficiently to make him an adequate

conpensation for this timely information , and in consequence gave him a ' very handsome acknowledgment at parting with him . On his return , meeting with his former acquaintance , the innkeeper , and on enquiring after his and the health of'his family , he discovered it to be a fraud , in consequence of the usual bribery of his opponent . A wager of a very whimsical nature has lately been made , and has not , as we ¦ understand , been yet determined . A sporting Gentleman proposed to deposit 50 guineas that he would find a man in thn room where they were sitting , who should anv time -. silkin a month fight any man of eqml -.-.-eight and age in the king-