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tural interest, by increasing the value of cattle. Mr Robinson, in reply, contended that the effect of this measure to the consumer would be to raise the duty on the ton of candles from £.12: 10s., its present rate, to £.20; and as to the farmer, he would not benefit by it more than three shillings in the value of an ox. It was before known that Ministers did not approve the plan, which met with so little encouragement from the House, that the question did not go to a division.-The House then proceeded with the Army Estimates; Mr Hume proposed various reductions, on one of which, the salary of the Judge-Advocate-General, only seventeen Members voted with that Gentleman.

22.-Mr Lambton presented a petition from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, praying a remission of Henry Hunt's punishment, but which was so indecorously worded, that it was rejected by a majority of 123 to 22. The House then proceeded to finish the Army Estimates, in the discussion on which, a very remarkable fact was brought to light by Sir H. Hardinge, relative to an erroneous statement formerly, and repeatedly, made by Mr Hume, on the subject of new commissions, the number of which that Gentleman had stated as high as 2553 in five years, while they were actually no more than 663 in that period; thus making an over-statement of 1890 in the number, and £1,800,000 in the amount of the saving that he said might be effected, taking the interest at 12 per cent. Mr Hume said he had discovered his mistake two months ago, and had mentioned it to his friend Mr Bennet, who advised him to take an early opportunity of correcting it in the House.

25. Lord J. Russel brought forward the case of Capt. Romeo, an Italian Gentleman, who claims remuneration for services rendered to the British Army in Sicily in 1808, for which he was subsequently expatriated, and otherwise illtreated, by the Sicilian Government. An annuity of £.50 had been granted to him, which, at his own request, had been commuted for £.300; the present object appears to be the re-granting of the annuity, and the restoration of the £.300, for the re-payment of which Mr Forbes pledged himself. The petition was ordered to be printed.-The Ordnance Estimates occupied the House till 12 o'clock. On the grant of £.36,843 for the Ordnance offices at the Tower and Pall Mall, Mr Hume moved a reduction of £.10,000, which was negatived by a considerable majority.

27. Mr Home Drummond presented a petition from Mr Dunlop of Glasgow, praying that the English market might

be thrown open to the Scots distillers. Mr Wortley thought the measure would afford much relief to the barley-growers in Scotland. The petition was referred to the Agricultural Committee.

April 1.-The necessity of repealing the Salt Tax was again urged this evening a measure on which the Agricultural Members appear to be unanimous. Mr Calcraft gave notice, that if Ministers did not propose some extensive and effectual measure of relief, he should even in this Session move for its repeal.Some discussion took place relative to the present state of the Agricultural interest, which deserves to be particularly noticed. Mr Stuart Wortley, in presenting a petition from certain Owners and Occupiers of Land in Linlithgow, praying that a million of money might be expended in relieving their existing distresses, specially called the attention of the House to one paragraph in it, which was rather of a remarkable character. The paragraph in question considered the utmost reduction of taxation to be totally inadequate to afford the Agriculturists any relief; and, on the contrary, deprecated such a step as injurious to the best interests of the country. The Hon. Member declared himself much disposed to the same opinion as the petitioners had thus expressed, and availed himself of the opportunity to arraign the conduct of the Bank of England, in not lowering the rate of its discounts, as had been generally expected, and thereby assisting the Agricultural classes in raising money to alleviate their distress, at a reduced rate of interest. The Chancellor of the Exchequer intimated, that it was the intention of Government to allow the transfer of mortgages by indorsation, thereby saving additional stamps. The same evening, the report of the Agricultural Committee was laid upon the table of the House. This document was ordered to be printed immediately, and the Marquis of Londonderry gave notice, that, on the 22d of this month, he would move for a Committee of the whole House, to take the Report into its consideration, with a view to the adoption of some measure which he should then propose for the relief of the Agricultural interests.-Mr Robinson submitted his promised motion to the House relative to the trade of the West-India Colonies, and obtained leave to bring in a Bill for opening a direct communication between certain ports in our West Indian-Colonies, and the Continents of Europe and America. Several Members connected with commerce expressed their approbation of the mea

sure.

FEBRUARY.

BRITISH CHRONICLE.

Members of Parliament, it was lately decided in the Court of King's Bench, cannot be bail, because their persons are protected from arrest by their parliamentary privilege.

HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY, Feb. 11. -Joseph M'Farlan and Margaret Brown, or Palmer, were put to the bar, accused of two acts of theft, from the shops of Mr Spittal and Mr Mawson, merchants, South Bridge, in August last. The pannels pleaded Not Guilty. After the examination of witnesses, the jury found the pannels Guilty of both the charges libelled. M'Farlan was sentenced to 14 years transportation; but sentence was delayed as to the other prisoner, in consequence of ill health.

18.-John Douglas and Mathew Adie, found quilty on the 13th July, last year, of robbery on the high-way, were brought up for judgment. Sentence in this case was delayed, on account of an objection taken to the regularity of the verdict, (see page 84, vol. ix. new series,) on which their Lordships delivered their opinions on the 4th instant, repelling the objection. The prisoners now received sentence of transportation for seven years. William Muir, found guilty of shop-breaking in Leith, was sentenced to transportation for life; and his brother, John Muir, for robbing the till of a merchant's shop in Kirkcaldy, for 14 years. The latter culprit was only 10 years of age.

25.-Daniel Ross, a young boy, pleaded Guilty of robbing various gentlemen's lobbies of great-coats, &c., and was sentenced to seven years transportation.

MARCH.

1.-Old Bailey.-Pamplew, one of Carlile's shopmen, was indicted at the instance of the Constitutional Society, for publishing a pamphlet, which, Mr Adolphus said, contained nine or ten gross libels on the King and Constitution. After the evidence, the prisoner entered into a long defence, in which he was frequently interrupted by the Common Sergeant, for his irregularity in reflecting on the Agents of the Society, on the Members of the Royal Family, and the laws, in condemning Carlile, whose conduct he attempted to justify. At half past twelve the Jury retired, and, at one o'clock on Saturday morning, returned a verdict of Guilty; and the Common Sergeant sentenced him to two years imprisonment in Giltspur Street Compter, and, at the expiration of that term, to enter into his own recognizance for £.500 for his good

behaviour during the term of his natural life.

4-John Barclay, another of Carlile's shopmen, was found Guilty, and sentenced to six months imprisonment in the House of Correction; and, on the 5th, another, William Holmes, was sentenced to two years imprisonment. A third, whose name was unknown, was arraign. ed, and pleaded Not Guilty, but persisting in his refusal to enter his name, he was sent back to jail.

6. Phenomenon.-A very extraordinary phenomenon was caused to-day in the river Thames, by a gale of wind. As it blew from the S. W., and with extreme violence, the entrance of the tide was interrupted for several hours. About one was the time of flood, by the table, but at ten in the morning, the tide was still ebbing with great rapidity at London Bridge. In consequence of this, the water in the river sunk so low as to render it fordable in several places. Many persons were seen walking across, and as the bed of the river was exposed in large tracks, valuable articles, which had lain there for a long period, were picked up. This was the case as far out as Gravesend. The water has not been known so low for many years by several feet. Ships were seen aground in all parts of the river below London Bridge. About twelve o'clock the tide began to return, and with a rapidity proportioned to the check it had experienced, the wind having acted as a temporary dam to its progress. Such was the force of the current, that barges and small craft in great numbers were driven against each other, and sunk, or otherways much injured. The time of high water did not take place till after three o'clock.

Steam Carriages !—A patent has been recently secured by Mr Griffith, of Bromp ton, a gentleman not unknown in the literary world, by his travels in Asia Minor, and other works. Mr Griffith, in connection with a professor of Mechanics on the Continent, has at length solved the long-considered problem of propelling, by steam, carriages capable of transporting merchandise, and also passengers, upon common roads, without the aid of horses. The actual construction of such a carriage is now proceeding at the manufactory of Messrs Bramah. The power to be applied in this machine is equal to that of six horses, and the carriage altogether will be 28 feet in length, running upon velocity of from three to seven miles per hour, varied at pleasure. The vast im

portance, in a political and social sense, of the introduction of such machines, on all our great roads, must be evident. The saving in carriage of goods will be 50 per cent. ; and for passengers, inside fares will be taken at the outside prices. The universal importance of this great triumph of the mechanical arts, has led Mr Griffith to take out patents in Austria and France: one carriage has actually been launched at Vienna, and operates with success. By availing himself of various improvements, in the transfer, regulation, and economy of force, all the usual objections are removed, such as the ascent of hills, securing a supply of fuel and water; and, in fine, the danger of explosion is prevented, not only by the safety valve, but by the distribution of the steam into tubes, so as to render any possible explosion wholly unimportant. Every carriage will be provided with a director of the fore wheels sitting in front, and with a director of the steam apparatus sitting in the rear, and the body of the vehicle will be situated between the fore-wheels and the machinery.

19.-Seamen's Wages.A very important decision, as it regards, seamen and owners of vessels, was made this day in the Court of Admiralty, London. The case arose out of the loss of the Juliana East Indiaman, wrecked on her home passage, a short time since, on the Kentish Knock. The suit commenced in a claim for wages, made by one of the two seamen who were saved. The claim of wages, which was made for intermediate freights earned by the vessel, was resist ed by the owners, on the ground of articles executed between them, which stipulated that the sailors should not demand wages, or be entitled to any part thereof, until after the ship arrived in the port of London: and having been lost, it was contended the wages were forfeited. Lord Stowell, in giving judg ment, said, that these articles were, entered into, for most part, by men who, from their situation and habits, were totally ignorant of their consequences; the law, therefore, must protect their interests from fraud. The Learned Judge entered at great length into the question, and concluded by saying, that he would permit the seamen to maintain their demand, notwithstanding these instruments of stipulation to the contrary: and with respect to the next of kin, of the rest of the crew who perished, being equally entitled to come upon the owners for wages, he should not be alarmed at the arguments of counsel, with respect to letting in their claim likewise. The Court, therefore, decided, that such bonds or ar

ticles, in law, could not be maintained against the seamen's claim of wages. 21. Watson's Fund.We observe the requisite Parliamentary notice is now given by the Keepers and Commissioners of the Signet, of an application for leave to bring in a bill for altering the destination of this extensive fund, and applying it to charitable uses in this city. This fund, it will be recollected, was some years ago brought under public notice by an active citizen: it originated from the residue of the effects of a Mr John Watson, W. S. who died in November 1762. These effects were vested in trustees, to apply them to such charitable uses in Edinburgh as they should think proper. The trustees declared by a deed, that a Foundling Hospital should be instituted, being the alleged intention of the testator, and that at their demise the charity should come under the management of the Keepers, &c. of the Signet. These official gentlemen assumed the charge in consequence in 1781, and such was the effect of their management, that a sum, at that time small, had, six years ago, accumulated to £.60,000, and now, we believe, amounts to something more than £.80,000, a sum which, properly applied, as we have no doubt it will now be, must prove of incalculable benefit to the city.

22.-Five per Cent. Stock.The books for entering the dissentients to the proposed transfer of the Navy Five per Cents. were closed on Saturday at the Bank. The capital of the stock which is claimed in money by the residents in Great Britain (the great bulk of the holders) is £.2,600,000. Thus may the measure be said to have completely answered; for the foreign holders, or those who may be abroad, can scarcely be expected to double the sum. On Monday, Mr Hase, from the Bank of England, by order of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Liverpool, communicated to the Stock Exchange, that all the holders of the Navy Five per Cents. who required their money, would be paid on the 5th of April, with the quarter's interest. The amount of stock held by dissentients being so small, Government are enabled to pay it without having recourse to any loan, which has accordingly tended to raise the Funds.

30.-Fatal Duel.-It is with deep concern we state, that a meeting took place near Auchtertool, in Fife, on Tuesday morning the 26th instant, about eleven o'clock, between Sir Alexander Boswell, Bart. of Auchinleck, attended by the Hon. John Douglas, brother to the Marquis of Queensberry, and James Stuart, Esq. younger of Dunearn, attended by

the Earl of Rosslyn, which proved fatal to Sir Alexander. It is said the parties were bound over to keep the peace, by the Sheriff of Edinburgh, on Monday night, in consequence of which they set off for Fife early on Tuesday morning, attended by their seconds and two surgeons. They met near Auchtertool about eleven o'clock, and stood at twelve paces distance. The Earl of Rosslyn gave the word, and the parties fired, when Sir Alexander received Mr Stuart's ball in the right shoulder, which broke the clavicle of the bone, and injured the spine. Sir Alexander immediately fell, and was carried to Balmuto House, the seat of his relative, Lord Balmuto, where every assistance was rendered by Dr Wood and Mr Liston, and afterwards by Dr John Thomson, who was sent for by express to Edinburgh; but the unfortunate Baronet died on Wednesday afternoon, at three o'clock. The quarrel which gave rise to this fatal and lamented rencontre originated from certain articles inserted in a Glasgow newspaper called the Sentinel, in which Mr Stuart conceived himself to be unjustly attacked. An action was raised by Mr Stuart against Messrs Borthwick and Alexander, proprietors of that paper. Borthwick was lying in Glasgow jail for a small debt, when his agent, it appears, expressed to Mr Stuart his great desire to have the action settled, and asked if he (Mr Stuart) was willing to do so? Mr Stuart replied, that it would depend on the communications which Borthwick would make to him. Borthwick being afterwards liberated from prison by the payment of his debt, brought Mr Stuart the papers and MSS. which led him to fix on Sir Alexander Boswell as the author

of the articles which had offended him. Mr Stuart left the field after the duel, and was in Edinburgh at one o'clock of the same day, but left it again immediately for the south.

The foregoing is the substance of what has appeared in the Journals of the day; no statement has as yet appeared from the friends of either party.

· APRIL.

IRELAND. By the intelligence from this country, is is painfully evident, that the furious and tumultuary spirit of the peasantry, notwithstanding the rigid enforcement of the Insurrection-act in the

disturbed counties, remains unsubdued. The following extract from the Charge of the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland to the

Grand Jury of Kilkenny, gives a frightful picture of the state of society in that quar

ter:

"At present, the south of Ireland is such, and is so overwhelmed with cala

mity, as would scarcely be credited by any other part of the world. When last in Limerick, I saw, as you must have seen, the statements in the public papers as to the state of that county, and the proceedings of the infatuated people; but I assure you these accounts were a very feeble representation of the state of things. The peasantry of that district were completely in arms-they were literally in possession of the county. Society was dissolved, and the repetition of outrages, in consequence, was daily-murder, robbery, the violation of women, human torture-in short, every crime that dis graces human nature was there to be found. In the counties of Tipperary and Waterford, from whence I have just come, the quantity of arms that are in possession of the common people could hardly be believed. There was scarce a conviction in either county but arose out of the fact of the person's having arms; every crime being perpetrated by the pea santry fully armed."

After all that we have heard (says the Dublin Evening Post,) this is a picture for which we were not prepared; but the high character of the Chief Justice must silence any doubt as to its fidelity.

6.-Late Duel.-Among the indictments issued from the Crown Office, Edinburgh, against individuals to stand their trials at the approaching Circuit Court to be held in this city, is one against William M. Borthwick, who was some time in the Sentinel Office, "for theft, by breaking open lockfast places in the Sentinel Newspaper Office, Glasgow," and which, it is understood, led to the late fatal duckGlasgow Courier.

Mr Borthwick, of the Glasgow Sentinel, was apprehended at Dundee on Thursday, and carried to Edinburgh nex morning, by Mr Patrick Mackay, messenger at arms, on a Justiciary warrant, charging him with having abstracted several letters and other manscripts from the: printing-office of that paper. The legality of Mr Borthwick's conduct, we un derstand, is involved in a question still pending, as to whether, at the time of his taking the papers, he was or was not a proprietor? His statement is, that be was so: That he had agreed, no doubt, to sell his interest in the concern to his partner Alexander; but that the latter not having fulfilled the conditions of the bargain, Borthwick had obtained a judg- i ment of the Magistrates of Glasgow, reinstating him in the possession; that he had accordingly resumed possession, be fore witnesses; but was immediately thrown into prison on an old caption for debt; that he was liberated by his agent

on the evening of Sunday the 10th March; that about seven o'clock next morning, he went to the office, and took from one of the desks, which was open, and from another, of which he still retained the key, the manuscripts in question; that he conceived himself entitled to do this; and that he had a strong inducement to it, namely, to save himself from the consequences of prosecutions brought against him through the acts of his partner. A young man, who had been a compositor in the Sentinel office, and who, it is said, was employed by Borthwick to carry the papers to the Tontine, has also been committed on a Justiciary warrant as his master's accomplice.-Dundee Advertiser, April 4.

Discovery in Mechanics.-Patents have been obtained by Mr John Ruthven, of this city, for a "New Method of procuring Mechanical Power," which promises to be of considerable importance from its simplicity and general application. As it has no analogy to any of the mechanical powers hitherto known, we can hardly convey an idea of it to our readers; but so far as we can form an opinion, it appears to be a power that accumulates in a ratio to the resistance, and on that account will be valuable for compressing or elevating, and may supersede the screw for those purposes; as the immense loss of power, arising from the box in which the screw turns, renders the desired force from it in a great degree abortive.

APPOINTMENTS, PROMOTIONS, &c.

I. CIVIL.

March 4.-Dr. Francis Nicol, Principal of the United College, elected Rector of the University of St Andrews.

II. ECCLESIASTICAL.

Feb. 27.-The United Associate Congregation of Dalreach gave an unanimous call to the Rev. Mr Clark, formerly a preacher under the General Associate Synod, now a member of the United Synod of Ireland.

-The Congregation of Dalreoch, in connection with the United Associate Synod of the Secession Church, gave an unanimous call to the Rev. Mr Clerk, late a preacher of the General Associate Synod.

March 6.-Mr James Renwick, preacher of the gospel, ordained to the office of the ministry and pastoral charge of the Associate Congregation of Muirton, Kirkcardineshire.

7-The Rev. James Anderson ordained and admitted Acssistant and Successor to the Rev. Wm. Anderson, Minister of St Fergus.

The Presbytery of Hamilton ordained Mr J. Black, preacher of the gospel, to be Minister of the church and parish of Bertram, Shotts, vacant by the translation of the Rev. Mr Proudfoot to Strath

aven.

14-The Rev. David Carment, late of Glasgow, was admitted Assistant and Successor to the Minis ter of Rosskeen.

Mr Hugh Young was ordained to the pas toral charge of the Reformed Presbyterian Congregation of Lauriston, near Falkirk.

The Rev. Alexander Clark ordained and admitted to the third charge in the parish of Inver

less.

-Mr D. Dow, preacher of the gospel, to be Assistant and Successor to the Rev. Dr. Dow, his father, Minister of the parish of Irongray.

-The Rev. Dr Lee of St Andrews was admitted first Minister of the Canongate Church, in the room of the Rev. Dr Stewart, deceased.

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The Rev. Alexander Clark, ordained and admitted one of the Ministers of Inverness. 28-The Congregation of the United Secession Church in Queen Ann's Street, Dumfermline, gave 36 a harmonious call to Mr James Whyte to be their Minister. This is now the eleventh call made out for Mr Whyte.

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