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water-mark, will be somewhat higher than the present line. How much this height may exceed the present, must remain a subject of conjecture, seeing no certain data can be attained to on this head at this moment. In extraordinarily high tides, which flow at certain seasons of the year, or arise out of certain circumstances, such as storms at sea, when the gale sets the volume of water directly into the mouth of the river; or rains inland, which cause a heavy fall of water downward at the moment when a strong tide rushes upward, &c. &c. the freedom of action in the channel may, and we presume will, permit the water to rise up to a higher point than, under existing circumstances, it has attained. How much this point will exceed the present highwater-mark, whether six inches, nine, or twelve, or even more, where is the calculator who can favour us with an answer? Those whose premises immediately adjoin the Thames above bridge are, however, deeply interested in this event. If the tide should exceed its present extreme height twelve inches, or even six inches, considerable damages might ensue on premises, which, during ages past, have been secure; for ages have passed away since the nuisance beneath London-bridge was brought into existence.

When we behold how closely the river is pent in with buildings, and how numerous these buildings are on both sides, taking in the range from London-bridge to Richmond, it cannot but excite some anxiety as to the consequences, when any portion of the property of such incalculable value as all these premises contain, is within the probability of individual injury or destruction. The histories of inundations along the banks of the Thames furnish us with calamitous instances of suffering, both as to property and persons, and such an alteration as the present, certainly will not decrease, while it may increase, the possibility of similar recurrences. If the tide should flow higher up the Thames than heretofore, it will of course raise the water in the river at those points higher than its ordinary level; and all the reasoning applicable to the distance between London-bridge and Richmond will apply to this extended line.

While we rejoice at the removal of a nuisance which has choked the course of one of the noblest rivers in the world for ages, and involved hundreds of mankind in destruction, a destruction which is extrajudicial, and out of the course of Divine providence; we rejoice, as we do in thousands of cases incident to mortality, with a

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SIR,-In the Staffordshire Advertiser of Saturday, May 2d, we are told of two explosions of hydrogen gas in coal mines, near to this place. This has reminded me of what I have for some time past intended, viz. to once more urge those, at all engaged in coal mines, to use the means of safety.

The scientific researches of your correspondent, who has so ably written on mephitic gases, merit, in my opinion, the highest commendations; but in a practical point of view, the subject requires line upon line, and precept upon precept, and that too in language so plain, that all who read may understand.

The means of safety being, in my opinion, obvious and certain, I cannot but consider the dreadful numbers of lives lost in coal mines, and of others maimed for life, as reflecting very much upon the proprietors of them. Were they as careful of the lives and limbs of their poor workpeople, as they are tenacious of their own pecuniary interests, we should hear less of these deplorable accidents.

Davy's lamps may have done good, and have been the means of safety to many; but there is no absolute safety, except in getting rid of the danger, and that is what I would wish to recommend.

There are three ways of preventing accumulations of hydrogen gas in mines: first, by having openings above every part in work, where danger is apprehended, so as to give free egress to the gas: secondly, to have flexible tubes, one end open at the place where it might accumulate, and the other end having an air-pump fixed thereto, the working of which, would draw out the gas: and thirdly, to have a perpetual lamp burning near to the roof of the parts infected, so as to consume the gas as it issued from the works.

Atmospheric air being twelve times heavier than hydrogen gas, and not spontaneously uniting with it, will, of course, force it upwards, and, where there is sufficient space, force it out of danger; for the danger arises from its compression at the roof of the chambers of the mine; and, therefore, if there is an opening upwards, it cannot explode. And if an open end

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of a flexible tube be fixed near to the roof, and the air be drawn through it, the gas will be drawn out first, and an air-pump of a very simple construction will answer the purpose. The discharging end of the tube should rise a little above the surface of the water in a vessel, with water, say about a foot or fifteen inches deep. The end of the tube should have a valve to work easy, opening outwards, so that air might come out of the tube, but not return. A cylinder of a foot or deep, and say a foot wide, open at the lower end, and at the other closed, except a valve to open outwardly, will answer this purpose. Upon the cylinder being let down in the water, its top should be near to the top of the tube, and upon its being drawn up, there would be a vacuum, but for the air drawn from the tube, and this will be discharged by the valve, upon its being let down again, and by this means gas or common air may be drawn from the interior of the mine, and, if discharged at the bottom of the shaft of the mine, it will find its way upwards.

The combustible quality of hydrogen gas is well known, and is highly valuable, as may be seen in many of our large towns, factories, and shops. It is quite innocent if brought into contact with a blaze, and the oxygen of atmospheric air in small quantities, and under proper management, and the gas emitted from coal works may, no doubt, be brought to give light to those dreary regions: at any rate, it might all be consumed with safety, and, indeed, I am told that it is consumed in some mines.-Yours, &c.

THOS. BAKEwell. Spring Vale, near Stone, May 7th, 1829.

RAPACITY AND ITS EFFECTS.-. -Badajos, January, 1828.

the

A LADY of great respectability, of the name of Donna Elvira Mendinuetta, aged 77, widow of one of our generals, had the reputation in this town of possessing a great deal of money. Only her niece, Donna Maria de los Dolores Santander, lived with her. It

was said she would inherit all that Donna possessed; who, being very old, it was momentarily expected that Maria de los Dolores would become mistress of her aunt's fortune.

Exclusive of these pecuniary expectations, Maria de los Dolores was very handsome in her person; she, therefore, did not want admirers; but this virtuous young lady would not give ear to them, and concentrated all her cares upon attending her aged aunt.

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During the late political events, Don Jose Ribero had forfeited all his fortune for having bought several ecclesiastical estates, the sale of which had been authorized by his majesty. These were taken from him again, on the monarch's return from Cadiz, in 1823; and, like all purchasers of national property, he lost both his money and his estates. Thus circumstanced, Don Jose Ribero turned broker; but being neither licensed nor sworn in, he acted only as a sort of poaching broker-namely, irregularly and by stealth.

Donna Elvira Mendinuetto had divers little matters of business to settle; and, as she had been for some time acquainted with Ribero, she commissioned him with the same. Maria de los Dolores took an interest in the unhappy fate of Ribero, and this sentiment was presently succeeded by another. Ribero was an honest man, and perfectly disinterested, but by no means insensible to the charms of the young lady. They came presently to a mutual understanding. This was mentioned to the aunt, who not only approved of their reciprocal affection, but calling them one day to her, she said to them-"I am very glad of your mutual passion, and wish to see you united; but, as I have much experience, I should wish a year to elapse before this takes place. Perhaps I shall not live to see that period, advanced as I am in years; but even should I close my eyes, my niece would surely go into mourning for me for about six months, and not marry during that time, by which means I should succeed, although dead, of partly during my own life and partly afterwards, subjecting you to this trial; however, as God may, at any moment, call me into his divine presence, I wish you would send for a notary to draw up my will."

In this will she appointed her niece universal legatee.

Some time afterwards she fell ill; her confessor, who was a Franciscan friar, advised her to forbid her niece having any connexion with Ribero, because he was a freemason-which is equivalent to a Jew and heretic and assured her it would prove d- -n, not only to herself, but likewise to her niece, to listen to the conversation of such an impious wretch. The friar availed himself of the advanced age of Donna Elvira, and of all the arts which Monks know how to display on such occasions, to per suade her to make a fresh will, to annul part of her former one; which he brought about, by her adding the condition-"That she insisted upon her universal legatee and executrix, Donna Maria de los Dolores San

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tander, her niece, not marrying on any account Don Jose Ribero; and that, in case of contravention, the Convent of the Franciscan Friars at Badajos should be her universal legatees."

When this was done, she communicated this fact to her niece; and as there is little secrecy observed between lovers, Donna Maria mentioned all that had passed to Ribero.

Don Jose Ribero said nothing; but next evening (the 29th of October last) when the Monk called upon Donna Elvira, under pretence of affording her spiritual consolation, she being somewhat indisposed, Ribero seized the Friar by the throat, and strangled him by the mere strength of his arm.

With the greatest coolness Ribero called in the neighbours, and explained to them all the motives that had induced him to commit this crime.

The corregidor was sent for; a physician declared what was already known, that the Monk had been throttled, and Ribero was conducted to prison.

In his subsequent depositions, Ribero acknowledged that, if he had to do the thing over again, he should strangle such bloodsuckers of society again and again, as they acted only from egotism, and, under the mask of religion, caused the ruin of many families.

After collecting all the facts of the case, the corregidor, it is said, was almost determined not to condemn Ribero, except to ten years' hard labour in one of the prisons of Africa. But his Assessor, or AssistantJudge, being gained over by the Convent of Friars, interested himself to secure their being revenged for the death of one of their fraternity, and advised the corregidor to make a terrible example in the person of Ribero, who was consequently sentenced to death, and to pay the expenses of the trial.

This sentence was approved by the Supreme Tribunal of the province; Ribero was put into the Chapel, en Capilla, of the condemned, where he displayed the utmost coolness; when one of his friends contrived to supply him with poison, in consequence of which he presently expired.

Although already dead, he was brought on the scaffold, and executed on the 15th of December last.

Donna Elvira died two days after. Donna Maria de los Dolores Santander retired into a Convent of Capuchin Nuns at Zafra, and endowed that Convent with her aunt's whole fortune.

May God preserve your country from Monks and Friars of every description.

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS EXPOSED.

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Hunting. After reflecting upon the hunting of the chamois, where the antelope is fairly pitted against a man,—strength for strength, stratagem for stratagem, and danger for danger,-how poor must our modern hunting appear! A field of eager sportsmen, fortified against a little fatigue by every excitement of a morning's meal, and mounted upon the swiftest and surest horses, meet to pursue a stag, that is brought to some favourable spot in a cart. The poor creature has probably been hunted several times before for it is the object of the huntsman to save him from the dogs, if possible, that he may again be tormented. But he will remember the first fearful cry of the distant hounds-he recollects that the sheltering wood was no protection to him, and that the dogs followed him even to the shelter of the peasant's hovel, when he threw himself upon man for succour: he was rescued, it is true, from their devouring teeth; but he felt all the agonies of anticipated death. And can the creature thus renew such feelings without intense suffering, or his pursuers so excite them without cruelty? In spite of all the trapping of modern staghunting, it is just as unworthy in its principle as the bull-baitings and dog-fights of the populace; for its object is the same,the torture of an unoffending creature for our own amusement.-These remarks coincide with

The Humble Petition of a Poor Deer, now a Prisoner, to the Gentlemen by whose order, and for whose pleasure, she was committed.

Gentlemen, though I am one of the rank of beings of a nature greatly inferior to yours, and which our common Creator and Sovereign has subjected to your despotism, I

presume, by the assistance of a kind friend, to address you in this manner, and lay before you my distressed case, in hope of your compassionate regard.

I was, gentlemen, born free, and tenderly brought up in the full enjoyment of my natural rights, till my lord and master, tempted by the prospect of gain, sold me to your leader of the chase; and, though I have never done him or you any injury, I am, by an act of mere arbitrary power, deprived, at once, of all the dear delights of liberty and social life; shut up, a close solitary prisoner, in a place void of light even at noon-day.

Some of my friends have inquired into the reason of this barbarous treatment of a harmless creature, who are told, that it is

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in order to prepare me the better for the chase; for, by this means, they propose, it seems, to render my naturally irritable nerves still more irritable; and the painful sensation of fear to which I am subject, the more exquisite; and that, when I am wrought up to the highest pitch of sensibility, I am suddenly to be dragged from my dark prison, turned out at once into the wide world, and to be violently pursued by men, dogs, and horses, with the utmost fury, as if I had been one of the most destructive creatures upon earth; and, thus, by the swiftness which my poor trembling heart gives to my slender legs, I am to afford them the more of what they call sport, till, no longer able to satisfy their savage cruelty, I fall a victim to that death I so painfully laboured to avoid.

You men say, there is a God that judgeth in the earth, and that he is both just and merciful; if so, will he not, somehow, avenge my wrongs? Permit me, however, gentlemen, to entreat you to consider, and enter into my case seriously, as accountable to that Being for your treatment of his creatures. Though sportsmen, I will not believe that you can be so lost to all the feelings of humanity, (not to say of religion,) as not to commiserate my unhappy lot; persuaded that you have been led to countenance this unkind and cruel treatment of your petitioner, so far as you have done it, rather from a thoughtless devotion to the pleasures of the chase, and the example of others, than from any settled principle of cruelty. I flatter myself, therefore, that, moved by this humble remonstrance, you will be prevailed on to spare me from the shocking sufferings you intend, and restore me to the full enjoyment of that liberty to which nature has given me so just a claim, and which I have done nothing to forfeit; and your petitioner, gentlemen, will, as far as her powers permit, gratefully acknowledge the favour; while all my friends, of which I have many, especially of the tender sex, whose sentiments you most highly reverence, will applaud your conduct, as doing the highest honour to the native goodness of your heart. DAMA.

CONSIDERATIONS ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS.

(By Thomas Wemyss.)

I. THEY cannot derive their sanction from the Jewish law, that having been long since abolished. Besides, in six out of the seven precepts, to which the punishment of death was attached by the Jewish law, our legis129.-VOL. XI.

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lature has dispensed with that penalty, viz. idolatry, blasphemy, Sabbath - breaking, abuse of parents, perjury, and adultery. If the Jewish law be at all binding, we are not at liberty to remit the punishment in six cases, and retain it in the seventh, viz. murder.

11. If sanguinary punishments do not derive their authority from the Old Testament, they certainly have no countenance from the New, which is a system of mildness and mercy throughout, and recognizes transgressions as sins against God, rather than as crimes amenable to civil society.

III. The present practice of punishing capitally partakes too much of the lex talionis, or ancient law of retaliation, which is plainly abolished by the gospel, and has in it much of the vindictive character, in opposition to the prerogative of Him who saith, "Vengeance is mine."

IV. Except in the case of murder, the punishment of death is greatly disproportioned to any crime that a man can commit against society, no amount of property being to be placed in the estimate as an equivalent to a man's life.

v. No punishment inflicted by human laws ought to be wholly retributive or vindictive; but rather simply punitive and corrective, the great object, properly considered, being not to retaliate on the offender the whole weight of infliction his crime may seem in the eye of man to call for; but to chastise with a view to reformation and amendment. This method used to be observed, and perhaps still is so, in Holland, where capital punishments are very rare, but where severe corporal chastisements, joined with labour and imprisonment, await the offender.

VI. Our present system seems to be founded on human pride, passion, and cruelty. We take the shortest method of disposing of the criminal, we despatch him on the scaffold, and put him out of sight, without a single attempt at his correction, whether his offence be burglary, forgery, or simple larceny, whether he be nineteen or forty-nine years of age, whether he be a hardened offender, or one who has lately, entered on a course of crime.

VII. The frequent spectacle of public executions has a hardening tendency, and serves to perpetuate, among the lower orders at least, some of the barbarous dispositions of ancient times, besides being utterly inconsistent with the refinement, integrity, and humanity of a nation calling itself Christian.

VIII. It does not appear that capital punishments tend to diminish the number

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of crimes, and in those countries, where punishments are mildest, there are generally the fewest atrocities. The experiment of the sanguinary method has been tried for ages, with little apparent effect. It is now time to try the other method.

IX. If those persons whose crimes are such as to render their liberty dangerous to society, were placed in perpetual, or even in limited confinement, and put under a regular and severe course of labour, they might still render some benefit to society, and enjoy a season for reflection and reformation, which would often result in the happiest effects.

x. It is affirmed that the cost of transporting felons to foreign parts, amounts to more than the expense of confining them at home would do.

XI. The public prisons, penitentiaries, and bridewells, with little additional charge and trouble, might be constructed to embrace this benevolent object, and afford a time and place for many an unhappy man

to become amiable and virtuous.

XII. However criminals may be dealt with, it is certain that no legislature has a right to cut short an offender's probation, and consign him to eternal misery; temporal pains and privations are all they have a right to inflict. If they shall claim the right to punish with death, let us ask from whom they received it?-Certainly not from God;-and if they answer, From society-we inquire again, What is society, but a compact or corporation of individuals, no one of whom is vested with a power over the life of his fellow. If it be referred to the monarch, we reply, that his station as king makes no difference in this respect. He is still only a human being, and no society can transfer to him a right they do not themselves possess.

XIII. It is plain that our government are well affected to any improvement in the criminal code, and that both they and the judges of the land are inclined to lenity and mitigation of punishment, as appears from the few who are executed, compared with the numbers that are condemned: and it is well known that our gracious and benevolent sovereign always signs a deathwarrant with the strongest reluctance.

Now therefore would be a suitable time for petitions to be presented by every town and province in the empire, expressive of public opinion on this subject; and should this be done, we might have the happiness to see a milder system adopted, many lives spared, and much misery prevented to the innocent families and friends of the offenders.

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THE PENITENTIARY OF SING SING, ON THE EAST BANK OF THE HUDSON.

THE following interesting article is extracted from Captain Hall's new work on America:

In several parts of his book he bears strong testimony to the wise and benevo lent exertions which are making in the United States to improve prison discipline, by rendering it as efficacious for the refor mation of criminals, and the protection of the public, as possible:

"The prison at Sing Sing when completed, which it probably is by this time (1829,) will contain eight hundred cells, four hundred of which are on the side facing the river, and a like number on the side next the land. The block or mass of building, formed of these two sets of cells placed back to back, may be compared to a long, high, and straight wall, twenty feet thick, perforated on both sides with four parallel and horizontal ranges of square holes. This again is encased on all sides by an external building, the walls of which are ten feet distance from those of the inner work or honeycomb of cells. These outer walls are pierced with rows of small windows, one being opposite to each door, and so adjusted as to afford abundant light and fresh air, but no means of seeing out. Stoves and lamps are placed along the area or open space between the external wall and the inner building, to afford heat in winter, and light to the galleries after sunset.

"As soon as the prisoners are locked up for the night, each in his separate cell, a watchman takes his station on the groundfloor abreast of the lower tier, or, if he thinks fit, he may walk along the galleries past the line of doors. His feet being shod with mocasins, his tread is not heard, while he himself can hear the faintest attempt at communication made by one prisoner to another; for the space in front of the cells seems to be a sort of whispering or sounding gallery, of which fact I satisfied myself by actual experiment, though I do not very well know the cause. In this way the convicts are compelled to pass the night in solitude and silence; and I do not remember in my life to have met before with any thing so peculiarly solemn as the death-like silence which reigned, even at noon day, in one of these prisons, though I knew that many hundreds of people were close to me. At night the degree of silence was really oppressive; and like many other parts of this establishment must be witnessed in person to be duly understood.