partaking of some cake on the preceding Wednesday, at the house of a shepherd named Vellum, in which a quantity of sublimate of mercury had been accidentally mixed. The circumstances connected with this event are particularly distressing. It appeared in evidence before the coroner, that some sublimate was brought to the shepherd's house at Michaelmas to mix with seed wheat, and that a considerable part of the poison remained, which Vellum was desired to destroy. This caution was unfortunately not attended to; and about a month since, the shepherd's wife, in order to destroy vermin, put a handful of sublimate, and the like portion of flour, on a plate in the dairy, without mentioning the circumstance to any one. On Sunday, her mother and sister, who were engaged in cleaning the dairy, supposing that the plate contained flour only, emptied its contents into a puncheon of flour. On Wednesday some neighbours, a out eight in number, were invited by Vellum and his wife to spend a Christmas evening with them; and s-veral cakes were made for the occasion, of which the party present partook. Shortly after, they were all seized with violent pains and sickness, and on inquiry into the probable cause, the circumstances above related were explained. Fortunately, one of the party had strength enough left to inform a neighbour of their situation, who went to procure medical aid; but as the distance was four miles, the night extremely dark, and the roads bad, it was midnight before an apothecary from Gosberton arrived. He found the poor people in a situation the most for

lorn and miserable; neither fire nor candle at hand, and at least half a mile from any house. Slator had expired an hour before the apothecary arrived, and the others were stretched on the floor nearly in a lifeless state. In the course of a few hours, however, he had the satisfaction so far to bring them about as to entertain hopes of their recovery; and they all, except the mother of the shepherd, are now considered to be out of danger. Vellum had before been a sufferer by his negligence; as a short time previous, two of his pigs died, in consequence of some of the subli mate having been accidently mixed with their food.

An inquest was held on Monday the 7th instant, in the Marsha'sea prison, on the body of Mr. Thomas Culver, a debtor in the said prison. The jury was convened at twelve o'clock, and proceeded to the examination of witnesses, which occupied their time till half-past five p. m. when they adjourned till the following day at twelve o'clock, and after three hours investigation and due deliberation, returned a verdict-Died for want, &c.

Extract of a letter from Armagh. "I take the liberty of offering for your consideration an account of a most singular phenomenon which appeared in this country, on the nights of Monday and Tuesday, 7th and 8th instant. On the night of Monday, between six and seven o'clock, it was first perceived. The city of Armagh appeared to the beholders, about six miles in a southerly direction, to be most brilliantly illuminated. From the neighbourhood of Armagh it ap peared as if a number of bonfires were lighted in a N.E. direction. B 2

From

From the hills around, it appeared as if the gentlemen's seats were illuminated; and so impressive was the appearance in the town of Charlemont, that a number of persons applied for the fire engine, in order to extinguish a fire, supposed to be in a neighbouring house, but upon approaching the same, they were agreeably surprized to find the house perfectly safe. From the hills on the borders of Lough Neagh, in the county of Armagh, it appeared as if the county of Antrim, on the opposite side, was entirely illuminated: and on Thursday night there appeared several lights in the same direction, but on approaching where the supposed fire was, it would seem as if it had fled further off."

8. The Thames is now nearly frozen, there being only a narrow channel in the centre of the river free from ice. Two men walked on the ice yesterday from Battersea bridge to Hungerford stairs.

A most daring attempt was made by a party of country people at Clonderalaw bay, to take possession of the American ship Romulus, on the night of the 6th inst. They assembled at about ten in the evening, to the amount of between two and three hundred, and commenced a firing of musketry, which they kept up at intervals for three hours; when finding a steady resistance from the crew and guard of yeomanry, which had been put on the vessel on her first going on shore, they retired. The shot they fired appeared to be cut from square bars of lead about half an inch in diameter. One of these miscreants dropped, and was carried away by his compansons.

9. On the 26th ult. as Mr. Hut

ton, contractor for supplying Dartmoor prison with butcher's meat, was returning from Tavistock market in the evening, having dismounted to refresh his horse at a rivulet, it being dark, the animal escaped from him, and in endea vouring to recover it, Mr. H. missed his way, and was precipitated into an old lead shaft, upwards of sixtyeight feet deep, but there being several feet of water in the bottem, his fall was in some measure broken. On rising to the surface, Mr. H. laid hold of one of the cross-pieces, on which he supported himself; and he plainly heard the passengers conversing on the turnpike-road: but his efforts to make known his situation proving ineffectual, he endeavoured, by means of a pair of scissars, to dig holes in the side of the pit, to facilitate his ascension, and had got within a few yards of the surface, but the earth giving way, he was again plunged into the dark abyss. He remained in this dreadful situation until the Friday following, when he was discovered by a labourer, who was passing by; ropes were immediately procured," by which means he was soon released from his perilous situation, and is now perfectly recovered.

In the storm of Saturday se'nnight, the Hoylake life-boat, in attempting to succour and relieve the people on board the ship Traveller, driven on shore in the Mersey, was overwhelmed by a dreadful sea, and eight out of ten of her crew were unfortunately drowned. The bodies were all found the same day, and carried to their respective homes. The deceased were all near neighbours, and lived in a small village called the Hoose,

near

near Hoylake, in the most brotherly kindness. They had always displayed the greatest promptitude and alacrity in assisting vessels in distress. They have left large families totally unprovided for.

11. The fall of snow on Friday night the 4th, was so very great as to render the northern roads almost impassable. The mail coach from Boston could not be dragged more than four miles on Saturday through the snow, but the guard proceeded on horseback with the mail. The mail from London was conveyed in the same manner in to Poston about six o'clock on Saturday evening.

Saturday was one of the most piercing cold days ever felt at Stamford. The wind blew. boisterously from the east, and occasioned such heavy drifts of snow as to make the great north road in many places impassable. The Leicester coach, on the way to Stamford, was upset in the snow at Burton-Lazarus, and several passengers were much hurt in consequence. The Carlisle mail was dug out of the snow near Tickencote, and with difficulty got to Stanford with eight horses, three hours later than usual; but it could 'proceed no further than Thornhaugh, whence the guard was obliged to take the letter-bags on horseback. Three coaches from the north lay all night in the snow, about a mile from Stamford, and as many near Wansford. With the assistance of fifty men, the road became passable for carriages at twelve o'clock on Sunday. In some places the snow had drifted six feet deep.

Two persons perished in the neighbourhood of Lincoln last

week, owing to the inclemency of the weather: one of them was Mr. R. Lambe, of Haddington; he had spent Christmas-day con, vivially with some friends at Swinderby, and attempted to walk home about ten o'clock. The other was a labouring man, named Arnold. Both were found to have fallen into ditches, and to have perished from cold or suffocation.

On Tuesday morning, the 15th instant, when the men employed at the lime-kiln near St. Catherine's, Waterford, went to their work, they found a man and a woman lying dead on the edge of its eye. The parties were soon recognized; the young man having lived in the immediate neighbourhood of the kiln, and the unhappy woman, who, we understand, was the widow of an industrious carpenter, at no great distance from it. The wretched youth was known to have been drinking at a late hour in the neigbourhood the preceding evening, and it is thought the parties must have found their way into the yard at low water, through the sluice at John's Hill. Incapable of reflection, they had suffered themselves to be so much attracted by the heat of the kiln, as to seek repose on its very crown, where, rendered senseless by the mephitic vapour, they were retained till death closed their mortal career. When found, one side of the man was literally roasted.

15. The following general order was issued from the Adjutant-general's office, Dublin, Jan. 1811.

66

Reports having been circulated, that Catholic soldiers have been prevented from attending divine worship according to the tenets of their religion,and obliged, in certain instances,

instances, to be present at that of the established church, the commanding officers of the several regiments are to be attentive to the prevention of such practices, if they have in any instance existed in the troops under their command, as they are in violation of the orders contained in the circular letter of the 14th of May, 1806, and since repeated to the army; and the Catholic soldiers, as well as those of other sects, are to be allowed, in all cases, to attend the divine worship of the Almighty, according to their several persuasions, when duty does not interfere, in the same manner, and under the same regulations, as those of the established church. (Signed)

"WM. RAYMOND, Deputy Adjutant-General,

"N. RAMSEY, Major-Assistant Adjutant-Gen." So late as Friday morning last, some of the artillery; privates and drivers, quartered in Enniskillen, continued to do duty with turned coats, for having attended, according to law, on the worship of their church; but on the evening of that day the scene was somewhat changed the general order arrived; and on the Sunday the Catholic soldiers of the garrison were marched to the Roman Catholic chapel accompanied by two officers of that religion.

Deal, Jan. 15.-Sunday night, the 13th, the ship Cumberland, Barrett master, arrived in the Downs from Quebec, under a jury-foremast and bowsprit, having pitched her bowsprit and foremast away in a heavy gale of wind off the banks of Newfoundland. From seven till eight o'lock on Sunday

morning, she was attacked by four French lugger privateers, between Dover and Folkestone, the first of which hailed to know if he wanted a pilot; Capt. B. having suspicion of her, replied in the negative; immediately after, another privateer ordered him to lay back his mainyard, and the whole of them commenced a fire of musketry, and two of them ran alongside and boarded the Cumberland; previous to which the captain had ordered all the ship's crew into the cabin, they being armed with their boarding pikes; as soon as about twenty men came on board, the captain ordered the ship to be sheered off from the privateers, leaving the Frenchmen no good retreat, and on the ship being boarded, the privateers ceased firing: in the mean time the ship's company rushed forward, and cleared the deck; the greatest part of the boarders being killed, and the remainder jumping overboard. Immediately after, another came alongside, and told the captain they would give no quarter: on hearing this, the ship's company cheered them; and they were boarded, and cleared in like manner. This was repeated three times afterwards, with the like success on the part of the ship's crew, and their taking three prisoners, two of whom were wounded, and one has since died of his wounds. Immediately after this, Capt. Barrett discharged three of his carronades, loaded with round and canister shot; the first was seen to carry away the mainmast of one of the privateers, and the second carried away the bowsprit of another, and it was supposed destroyed many of the men, as they were heard to

cry