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stand that his uncle was dead in consequence of being attacked by three assassins, one of whom had shot him; that he had escaped, but had been pursued across the fields. The fact of the nephew having, a short time previously, purchased a pistol, bullet-mould, gunpowder, and caps, in Banbury, caused suspicion to fall upon him; and on being inquired of by Mr. Samuelson, who speaks Italian, he admitted that he had bought one for his uncle, who had sent it away. A search was subsequently made on the premises of the uncle, when a bullet-mould, bullets, and caps were found, all of which it was proved the nephew had purchased of a gunsmith in Banbury on the 10th of December last. The bullet taken out of the skull of the deceased, as well as the one that dropped out of his clothes, was made of a peculiar hard white metal, and corresponded with those found secreted in the stable. After the discovery of the bullet-mould, bullets, powder, and caps, which were found secreted in the stable, every effort was made to find the pistol, but in consequence of so much rain having fallen, the ditches became so full, that all the endeavours used were unavailing. Subsequently the millers allowed the water of their mills to be drawn off, which had the effect of lowering the water in the ditches, and then a brown great coat was found in a ditch, and about six yards off a pistol was discovered pressed into the mud. The coat was proved to belong to the deceased, and the pistol was sworn to by the gunsmith as the identical one which he sold to the prisoner on the 10th of December last. The ditch in which the coat and pistol were found was in the direction which it was supposed the prisoner took after committing the murder. Several witnesses, who were near the spot where the murder was committed, stated that they met no men except the deceased and the prisoner, who was seen with the deceased, a few minutes before they heard two reports of fire-arms. The jury found the prisoner guilty, and the Judge passed sentence of death, holding out no hopes of mercy. Kalabergo afterwards attempted to escape from gaul. While in the airing-yard, he clambered on to a wall; a keeper tried to seize him by the leg, but the Italian was too nimble for him; he ran between the spikes along the top of the wall, got on to the roof of the female ward, and then found that he was foiled-that which he had taken for the boundary-wall of the prison was not so. A ladder was got, and the murderer quietly descended. Subsequently to this attempt, Kalabergo confessed his guilt: he signed a short declaration of the fact in the presence of Dr. Tandy, a Roman Catholic priest, and Dr. Harington, the Principal of Brazenose College, a Magistrate; and in that statement he gave permission to his priest to disclose all the particulars of the crime which he had disclosed in religious confession. He was executed on the 22nd inst.

who is the bailiff of Mr. Hussey, at Great Raveley, was awoke during the night by a crash against his back door, and, arming himself with a revolving pistol, he went to the top of the stairs, when he saw by a light below the face of a man at the foot of the stairs. The man then blew out the light and retreated, when Mr. Fairley discovered there was another man in the kitchen, at whom he fired; the fire being returned. He then saw other men, some of them with masks, and fired again, when several shots were fired in return. They then set fire to the parlour, and Mr. Fairley, becoming overpowered by the smoke and by the wounds he had received, and the men threatening to shoot his wife, who came to his assistance, was compelled to submit. After this they ransacked the house, and collecting a number of valuables they made off, having previously regaled themselves with such spirits and eatables as they could find. Titman and Stokes were found asleep on the side of a road in the neighbourhood, in the course of the morning, and apprehended, and Hall, having been implicated in the matter by Stokes, was subsequently taken into custody. A quantity of the stolen articles were found strewed about the road, and Mr. Fairley now distinctly identified Titman and Stokes. The jury returned a verdict of Guilty against all the prisoners, who were known to belong to a notorious gang. They were sentenced to be transported for life.

At the Marlborough Assizes, Matthew Colgan, a gentleman farmer, was tried for Administering Poison to his Wife with intent to murder her. Colgan married the lady two years ago, and received a portion of 500l. with her. When she was domiciled at her husband's, she found there a domestic who had borne a child to him. Colgan wanted his wife to ride in the same car with this woman; the outraged wife uttered such remonstrances that the husband consented to dismiss the servant from the house. Subsequently, Mrs. Colgan discovered that she had returned to the neighbourhood, and that her husband visited her. On Mrs. Colgan's confinement with a child, she was frequently ill after taking liquids from her husband's hands; she grew suspicious, and noticed sediments in the vessels: these she preserved, and they turned out to be arsenic. On one occasion, what had been refused by the wife was about to be swallowed by the illegitimate child: Colgan dashed the vessel from the child's hand. The jury convicted him on all the counts charged; but Judge Torrens said, that as, happily, no life had been lost, perhaps justice would be satisfied by taking the verdict on the fourth countattempting to administer. Sentence, transportation for life.

John Ahearne, a man nearly seventy years old, has been convicted at Waterford Assizes of Conspiring to Murder James Troy Troy was murdered, but Ahearne did not At the Nottingham Assizes, on the 8th, George Bow- take part in the actual homicide. The victim was a skill, Samuel Simms, George Dunlop, and John Moaks bailiff, whose only offence was being a witness to give were tried for the Wilful Murder of William Roberts. evidence of the handwriting of Ahearne and others to George Robinson and James Alvey had been included notes passed to their landlord for payment of rent; it in the charge, but as to them the bill was ignored. This being believed that in the absence of the witness the case arose out of a dreadful affray, which took place on civil bills should be dismissed. The convict was senі the night of the 13th of October last, between the game-tenced to be hanged. keepers of Lord Scarborough and a large party of poachers, in the course of which Roberts (one of the keepers) was so severely injured that on the 17th of October he died. The Judge, in summing up, intimated to the jury that, in his opinion, the evidence would hardly warrant them in finding the prisoners guilty of murder; but he left to them the question of identity, and to consider whether the prisoners, having originally gone out for the purpose of taking game, had abandoned that intention before the acts of violence were committed, with a view to the question whether the prisoners could at all justify their conduct on the ground of self-defence. The jury found all the prisoners guilty of manslaughter. Judgment was respited upon a point of law. The prisoners were also arraigned upon the charge of night poaching, and, having pleaded guilty, were sentenced to transportation for 14 years.

At the Huntingdon Assizes, on the 10th, John Titman, James Stokes, and John Hall were indicted for burglariously entering the house of Thomas Fairley, at Great Raveley, on the 24th of October, 1851, and Stealing a quantity of Property. It appeared that Mr. Fairley,

At the county Mayo assizes, on the 6th inst., John St. John Bridgman, said to be a monk of the Franciscan order, was found guilty of Burning a copy of the Bible, when Baron Lefroy directed that he should enter into sufficient security to appear to receive judgment when called on, which assuredly he would be if there was any further attempt to commit a similar act of desecration.

A coroner's inquest, held on the 9th ult. on the body of an infant found dead in a house in Newcastle-street, Strand, disclosed the Shocking Condition of that Locality. A woman named Elizabeth Butler said she lived in the room with the child's mother. About six o'clock in the morning, Mrs. Addison, the mother, got up, and said she found it was dead. The father got up too, and expressed a hope it was not, and then, finding it apparently so, ran with it to the King's College Hospital.-The Coroner: Who was the mother of the child ?—Witness: Caroline Hailes, 'my cousin.-The Coroner: Then was she not married? Who did she live with ?-Witness: A man named Addison, a sweep.-The Coroner: Tell me now the whole of the persons who slept in the room? There were Addison, my cousin, two boys, and myself.

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blind. He has property to the extent of 80,0007. Nineteen years ago he lent money to a Mr. Darby, on mortgage of property at Broadstairs; in 1849, Mr. Price refused to receive the interest from Mr. Darby, claimed the property as his own, and would give no account. Mr. Darby made an application in Chancery; Mr. Price refused to obey an order to render accounts, and he was committed for contempt. His son obtained this commission that his father might be released. It appeared from the evidence, that for eight or nine years past the old gentleman has exhibited tokens of insanity. Without the least cause, he had an ill-feeling against his son, and declared that he was constantly attempting to kill him by throwing poison on his bed clothes; he also averred that he received electric shocks from his son, even at times when the son was not near him. Old Mr. Price hung his bed-clothes and his dress out of window, or before the fire, to dry the supposed liquid poison thrown upon them. He said other persons were in league with his son; and he had padlocks put on his door to keep out the "poisoners," but he found them useless, for "the devil got through the keyhole." When the jury visited the unfortunate gentleman in the prison, he exhibited great shrewdness in parrying or answering some of the questions put; he denied several of the statements that had been made to prove his madness, but others of his replies were sufficient to show his unhappy condition. The jury found that he had been of unsound mind since October 1843.

- The Coroner: How old were those two boys?-into the state of mind of Mr. John Price, a Chancery Witness: One was seventeen and the other twenty- prisoner in the Queen's Bench Prison. Mr. Price is a one.-The Coroner: Did you all sleep in one bed?- gentleman of Margate; he is eighty-four years old, and Witness: Addison and my cousin slept in one bed, the two boys in another on the floor, and myself in another bed on the floor.-Then altogether there were six persons of both sexes sleeping in the room. What were the names of the boys, and who were they?-The witness said she did not exactly know their names. They were the sons of Mrs. Hailes. The witness was asked whether she had not a child two years old sleeping, with her?— The witness said she had. (Great sensation in court.)The Coroner: Then why did you keep that back?Was that illegitimate like the rest?-Witness said it was.-Caroline Hailes, the mother, gave nearly a similar account of finding the child dead in the morning, and was asked by the Coroner if she considered this a fit state of living in?-She said she believed it was usual with poor persons. She was examined at some length, but her answers were only a corroboration of the testimony of the last witness.-William Addison, the father, was next called, and, in addition to the above, stated that the whole six had, in different places, slept in the room for the last two years.-The foreman of the jury: Now, mind what you swear. When you lived in Little Serle's-place, had you not an old woman residing in the same room?-Witness replied he had, but she was dead. -The Coroner: Then that made seven of both sexes.The house physician at King's College Hospital, examined the body of the child when it was brought there. He attributed death, not to suffocation, but to a want of free air, under which the child gradually sank and died. -The Coroner observed that never in his life had he heard of such a gross case of immorality as had that day been placed before him.-The jury found "That the deceased died accidentally from a want of free air, and had gradually sank."

A serious Mutiny occurred in the Mersey on the 6th, on board the New York packet-ship Queen of the West. When the crew were mustered for the outward voyage, there were only twenty-six hands; the seamen held that there should be thirty; grumbling ensued, and symptoms of insubordination. The Master, Mors, a German, seized one man by the collar; immediately several of the crew fell foul of him, knocked him down, and beat him with handspikes and belaying-pins. Mors got away and fetched a revolving pistol, which he attempted to fire at one of the men, but it missed fire. Again the crew attacked the master; but eventually they were quelled by the master and mates using cutlasses with great freedom, inflicting numerous wounds, and nearly cutting off the arm of one of the men. The master then tied up a seaman and flogged him. Subsequently, eleven of the crew were taken ashore by the police to Liverpool; but as the riot took place on the Cheshire shore, the prisoners were sent to Birkenhead. On the 8th nine of the men were produced before the Birkenhead magistrates; two were in the hospital, and others were much hurt. The master stated his case, and witnesses were called to corroborate the statement. Mors admitted that he had twice appeared before the authorities at New York on charges of ill-treating passengers, and that he had been fined in small sums on those occasions. Witnesses called on the part of the men stated that the master committed the first assault. The magistrates convicted the seamen of assault: they sentenced one to pay a fine of 5l., three to pay 31. each, and the others to pay costs; with imprisonments, in default, varying in extent from two months to fourteen days.

A shocking Murder of a Child has been committed at Boyn-hill, a village near Maidenhead, in Berkshire. A labouring man, named John Cannon, has, for the last two years, taken as a lodger a relative of his wife, named Isaac Lee, who has always shown certain indications of weak intellect. On Tuesday morning, the 16th, having been left in the house with a little girl about four years of age, a granddaughter of John Cannon's, he cruelly murdered the poor child, it is supposed, by knocking its head against the floor, and afterwards kicking it about the room. He was taken before the magistrates for the borough of Maidenhead, and committed for trial at the next assizes for murder.

At the Lewes Assizes, on the 20th, Sarah Anne French was tried for the Murder of her Husband. It was proved that the prisoner, a young woman of 27, had conceived a criminal attachment to a young man, named Hickman, and had poisoned her husband, in order that she might marry her paramour. Hickman was one of the witnesses, and his evidence showed a profligate intercourse between the prisoner and himself; but it did not appear that there were any circumstances which rendered him an accessory to the murder. In the course of the examination for the prosecution, the son of the prisoner was introduced as a witness. The prisoner turned her head and looked at him for a moment, and then burst into tears. In answer to preliminary questions that were put to him by Mr. Creasy, he said he was eight years old. He had only once been to chapel. He had been taught some prayers, but he did not know the Lord's Prayer. He did not know what happened to people who took an oath to tell the truth and told a lie. It was a wicked thing to tell a lie was aware that something would be done to wicked people who told lies, after they were dead, but he did not know what it was. Mr. Baron Parke, upon this, said he did not think the boy understood sufficiently the moral obligations of an oath to be examined, and he was accordingly removed without being sworn. The woman was convicted and sentenced to death, the Judge telling her that she must entertain no hope of mercy. The young man Hickman was in court when the sentence was given, and he heard his wretched paramour ordered for execution without betraying the slightest emotion.

He

Messrs. Wilson, omnibus proprietors on a very large scale, having for some time suspected that their conductors have Robbed them, hired a man to ride in certain omnibuses and count the number of passengers on a journey. This led to the detection of embezzlement; some of the conductors not accounting at the end of the journey for the full number of passengers. Three delin- At the same Assizes, Charlotte Larkin, a widow, quents have been convicted at the Middlesex sessions, was indicted for the Manslaughter of a Child ten months and sent to prison for a year. It was stated that since old. This was one of those cases so frequently occurring the commencement of the proceedings against the in the country, where the deaths of children have been culprits, Messrs. Wilson's receipts had increased 807. a occasioned by the administration of narcotics sold under week. different names to the poorer classes, for the purpose of A Commission of Lunacy has been held to inquire" soothing" their children. In the present instance it

appeared that the prisoner had been in the habit of giving her child laudanum, and upon the occasion in question, finding the child more restless than usual, she administered an increased dose, the consequence of which was that it died shortly afterwards. The prisoner was proved to have always previously exhibited great fondness for the child, and there was no ground for supposing that she had any idea of the dangerous consequences that were likely to ensue from her conduct. She was found guilty, and sentenced to three months' hard labour.

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his illicit intercourse with the plaintiff, the matter came before the Bishop of Ripon under the Church Discipline Act, and, after the lapse of a considerable period, the judgment of the Right Rev. Diocesan has been pronounced, depriving Mr. Matthews of his living and all emoluments arising therefrom, the bishop being of opinion that he had been guilty of "the foul crime of adultery with the said Mary Helliwell."

NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
DISASTER.

THE investigation before the coroner into the Disaster at Holmfirth, caused by the bursting of the Bilberry Reservoir, was concluded on the 27th of February. Captain Moody, the government inspector, gave eviThe dence on the construction of the embankment.

At the Derby Assizes, on the 13th, Anthony Turner, was indicted for the Murder of Mrs. Barnes, at Belper, in December last. The prisoner had been employed by Mrs. Barnes, who was a widow lady of considerable property, to collect certain weekly rents, but as he was apparently unpunctual in the business a disagreement took place which resulted in his discharge. According to his own account there was a misunderstanding jury found a verdict, declaring that the Bilberry Reserregarding the support of a natural child of a brother of voir was originally defective, and the commissioners, the deceased, which was in his custody, and for whose engineers, and overlookers, culpable; that the commissupport he had made some deductions from the rents, sioners have been "guilty of gross and palpable negliwhich also formed a subject of dispute. On the night gence" in allowing the reservoir" to remain for several of the murder, after having been heard to utter threats years in a dangerous state;" that they regret that of vengeance, he borrowed a carving knife of a neigh-through the commissioners being a corporation, they bour, and making his way to the house of the deceased, cannot find them guilty of manslaughter; and that they he rushed past the servants, up stairs to the deceased's hope government will consider the subject with reference room in a state of great excitement, and a noise having to future provisions. After the delivery of the verdict, been shortly afterwards heard, on Mr. Bannister, the Captain Moody offered some remarks on the insecure deceased's nephew, entering, he found Mrs. Barnes state of the Holm Styes Reservoir. Describing the conweltering in her blood, with a fearful gash in her struction and the defects of the reservoir, he made this throat. She expired shortly afterwards, while the startling statement-"You remember how strongly I prisoner made his escape as he entered, but was soon impressed upon you the importance of the waste or after apprehended. The jury returned a verdict of flood-waters being able to escape freely; and that I guilty, and the learned Judge passed sentence of death. recommended a by-wash in preference to a waste-pit. The case of Mrs. Cumming (see "Household Narra- There was a by-wash designed and constructed at this tive for January, page 7,) came before the Court of reservoir; but when I went up to see it, I found that a Chancery on the 27th instant. This lady had been wall had been built across it, and firmly puddled, so found to be of unsound mind, under a Commission of that the water falling into this reservoir must have Lunacy, at the expense of 50007., while her property poured over the top; and, had it risen a few feet more was of very small amount. Mrs. Cumming having on the night of the 4th, the time of this catastrophe, applied for leave to traverse the inquisition, the legal you would have had a flood down that valley, meeting question of the competency of this application was the flood from the Bilberry Dam Reservoir at right debated at great length; and on the above day the angles, and the destruction would have been most Lord Chancellor gave judgment, that Mrs. Cumming awful. I assure you, that when I saw this wall built had the right to traverse; stating, that, in his interview across the by-wash, my expression was, 'These people with her he had found her perfectly rational and col- are insane.' I could not believe it possible that sensible lected. In concluding his judgment, the Lord Chan-men-mill-owners, knowing the operations of watercellor made the following important observations :- could suffer such a thing to exist. But so it was; Before he parted with this case, he must say that it was it with my own eyes, or I would not have believed it. one which the court had heard with much pain. This By the instructions of the magistrates, I took upon property is of small amount, and even with care-and he myself instantly to order the removal of this wall." In saw no signs of care could ill afford the costs of these conclusion, he referred to the miserable pay of the man proceedings. Unless it was managed with the strictest in charge of each reservoir-5l. a-year. Intelligent and economy, the whole of it will be swallowed up in the careful management could not be expected for that sum. proceedings professedly taken for the purpose of pro- Mr. Thomas Newsome, for many years a reporter at tecting it. It would be a lasting reproach to the parties Leeds, was Killed on his return from the Holmfirth on both sides—not excepting the counsel by whom they inquest. At Huddersfield he had to change carriages are advised, if these proceedings are allowed to be carried on the railway; he got into a wrong train; when it on in such a manner as to exhaust this poor lady's pro- moved he discovered his error, and in attempting to perty. Let them seriously think of this. This lady is leave the carriage he slipped between the wheels and now very infirm in health and aged, being 76 years old. the platform. He died a few days after. He repeated that it would be a lasting disgrace to all parties concerned, and it would be a reproach too on the law, if through these proceedings the few years which will be left to her must be spent in poverty. Here had no less than eight counsel been engaged in supporting and opposing this application, three on the one side and five on the other. He now made an order that only the costs of two counsel on each side should be allowed: and he would make an order that future expenses to be incurred in these proceedings be cut down to the lowest possible point, for he was determined to preserve what remained of this lady's property, if it is in the power of the great seal to preserve it.

Some time ago, the Rev. Stephen Matthews, incumbent of Hanging Heaton, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was charged with having committed Adultery with a girl named Mary Helliwell, a teacher in the school under his superintendence, and the daughter of one of his parishioners. After two investigations before the magistrates, in which the bench acquitted the rev. defendant of being the father of a child, the result of

I saw

A Fatal Railway Accident happened on the morning of the 5th, on the London and North-Western Railway, near Kilburn-gate. While some 200 or 300 men were engaged in gangs in carrying out some alterations in the sleepers, a down coal train was heard approaching, which led a gang of five men incautiously to step aside on to the up-line. At the same moment the up-train was coming up; it had entered the curve, and was travelling at the rate of perhaps 35 miles an hour. Unhappily the men were unconscious of the close approach of the mail, and they coolly enough awaited the passing of the coal trucks. The driver of the mail engine sounded the steam whistle, but the unhappy men continued on the line, the noise of the coal train no doubt preventing them hearing the whistle. The next moment or so the train was upon them. By some extraordinary effort two of the men contrived to escape, but the other three met with a horrible and instantaneous death. The train went over their bodies, and they were found frightfully mutilated. Their limbs were severely mangled, and the head of one was

A poor woman was Killed by an Ox on the morning of the 13th inst., near Sadler's Wells Theatre. A large drove of beasts was being driven to one of the lairs near Islington, for next day's market at Smithfield, and one of them, in passing by a fruit stall, which has for many years been kept near the theatre by an old woman, made towards it, and the owner, fearing he would upset it, endeavoured to frighten him away with her hands. This appeared to infuriate the bullock, for he instantly left the stall and ran at the woman with great fury and forced her against the wall, where the animal, which had no horns, continued butting at her in a dreadful manner. The drover appeared afraid to go near. The bullock then left her, and joined the drove. The poor woman was taken up in an almost insensible state and conveyed to the hospital, but died during the night.

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picked up some twenty or thirty yards from the body. A large meeting of the inhabitants of the parishes of The mutilated remains were afterwards removed to the St. Matthew's and St. John's, Manchester, on the 9th Kilburn station. An inquest was held on the bodies, inst., considered the propriety of petitioning parliament when the jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death," in favour of the Substitution of Reproductive Labour adding to their verdict a recommendation to the direc-for Non-productive Labour or Compulsory Idleness in tors to take precautions to prevent the recurrence of the Workhouses, as a means both of ameliorating the conaccident in future, by the men being more effectually dition of the pauper population and of diminishing the warned on the approach of trains. burdens of the ratepayers. The Rev. Mr. Bentley, rector of St. Matthew's, presided; the rector of St. John's, and three other clergymen, Alderman Pilling, several common councillors, and other leading citizens, took part in the proceedings. The chairman advocated the cause of reproductive labour. On the 1st of January, 1850 (he said), a period of boasted prosperity, there were upon the rate-books of England and Wales 931,328 persons receiving in-door and out-door relief: what an incredible waste of money, and loss of human labour; and what an enormous amount of incentives to crime, of pernicious influences on society and public virtue, that fact suggested! He introduced to the meeting Mr. Stark, the Secretary of the Poor-law Association, a body which was formed some time since to inculcate the principle of giving reproductive employment in workhouses, and which is now increasing its activity and enlarging the sphere of its influence. Mr. Stark stated, that the principle of reproductive pauper employment is making great progress in America, and is even applied in Spain. The Liverpool Poor-law Board had appointed Mr. Carr, the late master of the Cork Workhouse, to the mastership of the Liverpool Workhouse; a deputation from the vestry having been to Cork and satisfied itself of the great advantages, both to the poor inmates and to the ratepayers, which Mr. Carr had there obtained by an intelligent application of reproductive employment among the paupers. Resolutions to petition Parliament in favour of the objects advocated by the speakers were unanimously adopted.

A young man met a dreadful Death by Machinery on the 9th inst. His name was Charles Brookfield. He worked in the Hoyland Corn Mill, near Sheffield, and was employed in cleaning some part of the machinery with an old sack, when the sack got entangled with the spindles, and before he could disengage his hands he was caught up and whirled round a shaft at the rate of one hundred and twenty evolutions per minute. His lifeless body was found in a shockingly mangled condition.

Mr. J. F. Ansley, an under-graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, and son of Mr. Gilbert Ansley, of Houghton Hall, Hants, has been Killed by a fall from a Horse. He was in a field trying a horse which he purposed to buy; the horse cleared several fences, but one it refused; Mr. Ansley lost his seat, the horse dashed off round the field, the young gentleman kept his hold of the saddle for a time, but ultimately fell to the ground with his foot entangled in the stirrup, and he was thus dragged round the field several times, his head striking against the ground at every stride of the horse. He was taken up insensible, and soon afterwards expired.

SOCIAL, SANITARY, AND MUNICIPAL

PROGRESS.

The annual general meeting of the Royal Literary Fund corporation was held on the 10th inst., Sir R. H. Inglis, Bart., in the chair. The report stated that the sum of 1635l. was distributed during the past year in relief to distressed authors and their families, making the total sum so applied from the commencement of the institution 40,5351. The Marquis of Lansdowne was re-elected president; the vice-presidents, council, and officers were re-elected; C. Baldwin, Esq., being elected to the vacant officer of treasurer; and B. Corney, Esq., to that of auditor.

The fourth anniversary festival of the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest was held at the London Tavern, on the 16th inst., Lord Granville in the chair. A report from the committee was read, stating that 11,194 persons had obtained relief from the charity since its commencement in June, 1848, and that the attendance of patients had frequently amounted to from 150 to 170 during a single day. The total receipts during the year 1851 amounted to 7845l. 2s. 11d., of which 72227. 19s. 6d. had been expended, leaving a of erection at the Victoria Park it was estimated would cost 15,606l. 2s., of which 5510l. 8s. 8d. had already been paid, so that there remained a sum of 10,095l. 3s. 4ď. still to obtain. At the close of the entertainments donations to the amount of 50187. were announced, including the sums of 5007. contributed by Mr. S. Gurney, 300l. by Mr Joseph Tucker, 2507. by Mr. H. E. Gurney, 2501. by Mr. Henry Tucker, 2501. by Mrs. Stone, 631. by Mrs. Dixon, of Stanstead-park, and 507. additional by Mr. Henry Tucker.

THE result of an investigation, ordered by the Royal Commissioners of the Great Exhibition, shows the prime cost of the building and its maintenance up to the 30th of November, 1851, together with the cost of taking down the building and reinstating the ground, after deducting the probable value of the materials, is 159,9187. 10s. 2d. In the list of items appended to the report are— -Messrs. Fox, Henderson, and Co., for cast-balance of 6227. 3s. 5d. The new hospital in progress ings, 23,0937.; Messrs. Cochrane and Co., cast iron, 15,6897.; Mr. Jobson, cast iron, 57097.; Messrs. Chance, Brothers, and Co., glass for the roof, 13,094.; Messrs. Kershaw, Lee, and Co., calico for roof, 16251.; Aberdare Iron Company, for wrought iron, 16651.; Messrs. Moser and Son, and Messrs. Pfeil and Co., for iron and ironmongery, 23007.; Mr. T. Ledger, for gas fittings, 13231.; Mr. Gardner, for hire of horses, 12467.; Messrs. Dowson and Co., for timber, 31,5507.; Mr. Birch, for sash bars, 29497.; Mr. Rose, for oil and paint, 3700l.; and Messrs. Pontifex and Wood, for white lead, 12007., &c. The item for wages alone amounts to 59,1887.

A parliamentary paper on the subject of Savings Banks has been printed, from which it appears that on the 20th November, 1850, there were 1,092,581 individual depositors in savings banks, whose deposits, with interest, amounted to 27,198,5637. There were 12,912 charitable institutions depositing with savings banks, amounting to 655,0931., and 7506 friendly societies to 1,077,3267. The total depositors numbered 1,112,999, and the amount, with interest, 28,930,9821. There were besides 586 friendly societies in direct account with the Commissioners of the National Debt, and the amount deposited was 2,277,3407.

The annual meeting of the friends and supporters of the Liverpool Female Penitentiary was held on the 22nd inst. The report stated that forty-one years had now elapsed since-roused by the enormous extension of prostitution in that town-some benevolent persons had founded the institution for the succour and relief of the penitent. During those forty-one years, 1576 unhappy women had passed through the institution, receiving, in a greater or less degree, in proportion to their own sincerity and earnestness, the advantages which it was calculated to confer. 535 females, once the outcasts and scourges of the community, had been enabled, on leaving the institution, to pursue a course of industry and virtue, whilst many had been restored

to the home of their early days, and to the arms and hearts of their parents. Fortified by the results of experience, the committees had from time to time extended the institution. Large additions had been made in the course of the last two years, chiefly with the view of making more productive the labour of the inmates. The earnings of the penitents had consequently increased, and hopes were entertained that they would still further increase, and thus tend to place the resources of the institution on a more secure basis. The receipts had not been sufficient to meet this outlay, and the treasurer's account showed that there was a balance of 1067. 19s. Sd., which would be increased by two bills not yet sent in, to 2007. The applicants for admission in the course of the year were 116, of whom 52 were refused. There had been restored to their friends 8, and the whole number which had left was 69, leaving 53 in the house.

Returns have been printed by order of the House of Commons respecting the Import and Export Trade of the United Kingdom. In 1822, the value of the imports into the United Kingdom, calculated at the official rates of valuation, amounted to only 30,531,1417., and in 1850 they reached to 100,460,4337. In 1822 the exports from the United Kingdom were 53,470,0991., and in 1850 they had reached to 197,309,8767. There is also an increase in the value of the articles and produce of manufacture of the United Kingdom exported. In 1822 the real or declared value was 36,966,6237., and in 1850 the value of such exports amounted to 71,367,8857. There has been an improvement in the trade of this country until it has reached its present high state, as evidenced by the document now printed.

Some parts of Ireland, hitherto the most disturbed and wretched, appear to be in a state of unprecedented Quiet and Prosperity. The shortest and lightest assizes known in the county of Tipperary for a long series of years, have closed without a conviction for murder, or indeed for any very serious crime. The Limerick papers state that there has not been a single labouring man or woman, able to work, unemployed in that part of the country for several weeks past. Emigration, nevertheless, proceeds at as great a rate as ever, and the price of berths in emigration ships has been considerably raised in all the Irish ports.

Miss Sellon, the Superior of the Sisters of Mercy at Plymouth, having been charged by the Rev. Mr. Spurrell, vicar of Great Shelford, with Popish practices, has published a reply at the request of the Bishop of Exeter. Miss Sellon acknowledges that she has advised her pupils, or "children," to confess, and she states that that confession is practiced "by thousands in the English church, church," and that " the benefit of absolution" is granted by Episcopal clergymen. She does not deny that one of her pupils, as an act of penance, was ordered to make the sign of a cross on the floor, with her tongue-this was an act of self-abasement,' and she has heard that it has been recommended for sins of falsehood, &c., "by one of our bishops and eminent divines." Miss Sellon also washes the feet of her "children" and others, doing it "in obedience to our Lord's commands." Her pupils also wear "religious symbols" under their dress. She is said by Mr. Spurrell to have used the words, "My child, when you hear me speak, you should think it is the voice of Jesus Christ." The sisters remark that it is so exceedingly unlike my manner of speaking, that it bears evidence to them that these words were not said: I am quite certain that the words were not said as is represented. It might be that I was saying that the directions of a superior ought to be,

and were, the will of God for a person; so they are in all things lawful, and so I always teach and believe." She also acknowledges to burning candles before a print of the Virgin and Child in her private oratory, and argues in favour of praying for the dead and for the guardianship of angels.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE.

The Queen held a Chapter of the Order of the Thistle on the 25th, when Lord Saltoun was elected a knight, and invested with the insignia of the Order.

The Duchess of Athol has been appointed mistress of the robes to her Majesty, in the room of the Duchess of Sutherland, who has resigned.

Mr. J.Marshall has been elected Dean of Faculty by the Scotch Bar in the place of Mr. Anderson, now Lord Advocate.

Lord Monteagle has been elected President of the Art-Union of London.

Professor Blackie, of Aberdeen, has been elected by the Town-Council of Edinburgh, to succeed the late Professor Dunbar in the Greek chair of the University of Edinburgh.

Sir William Gibson Craig, and Sir William Johnston have been added to the members of the General Board of Directors of Prisons in Scotland.

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year.

M. MERLE, the senior of the dramatic feuilletonists of the Paris press, died on the 27th ult., aged sixty-seven.

LADY MARGARET MILBANK died on the 8th inst., in Eatonplace, in her twenty-seventh year. She was the only daughter of the late Lord Grey of Groby, and sister to the Earl of Stamford.

MADAME SOPHIE GAY, the celebrated writer, and mother of Madame Emile de Girardin, formerly Madlle. Delphine Gay, died in Paris on the 4th inst.

THE REV. DR. KEATE, formerly Head Master of Eton College, died at his house in Hartley Westphall, Hants, on the 5th inst., in his seventy-ninth year.

SIR WILLIAM AUGUSTUS MONTAGU, C.B., K.C.H, Vice-Admiral of the Blue, died on the 6th, at Ryde, Isle of Wight. He was a midshipman of his Majesty's ship Russell, at Camperdown.

THE REV. SIR HARCOURT LEES, BART., died on the 7th, at Blackrock House, county of Dublin, aged seventy-five years. Marshals, died at Venice, on the 2d inst., aged seventy-eight MARSHAL MARMONT, DUKE OF RAGUSA, the last of Napoleon's

years.

M. ARMAND MARRAST, the principal author of the Constitution which President Bonaparte tore up on the 2d December, and the once influential editor of the National, has died at Paris. Apoplexy struck him two months since; he never rallied; and he has passed away in the prime of life.

JOHN SEALY TOWNSEND, a retired Master in Chancery, and one of the distinguished ornaments of the Irish bar in the days of its greatest brilliancy, died at his residence, Kilvara, near Dublin, on the 18th inst., at the age of eighty-seven. He was the contemporary and competitor of Plunkett, Curran, Saurin, Bushe, Pennefather, &c.

21st inst., aged seventy-three years.
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR H. WHEATELY, BART., C.B., died on the

SIR CHARLES F. FORBES, M.D., Deputy-Inspector-General of
Hospitals, died on the 22d inst., aged seventy-three years.

COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES.

THE news from the Cape of Good Hope has assumed | Their columns mustered between them some 5000 men, a more favourable complexion; the latest operations levies and regulars, including 90 of the 12th Lancers. against the Caffres having proved successful. These operations commenced in the beginning of December by the concerted march of two divisions under the respective commands of Major-General Somerset and Colonel Eyre.

After encountering some spirited opposition from the Caffres, who not only manœuvred with a force of native cavalry, but discovered some knowledge of stockading, the two columns succeeded in crossing the Kei, sweeping

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