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form of the Commons House of Parliament, and enclosed a contribution |
of 11.
Mr. O'CONNELL read a Report from the Committee appointed to in-
quire into the affair of the Rev. Mr. O'Hogan. The case was thus:-
Two Catholic tradesman of Derry were married by that clergyman to
two Presbyterians. Mr. O'Hogan considered, that as the females were
not of the Church of England, he was acting legally in marrying them
by the Catholic form. A Northern Bench of Magistrates, however,
thought proper, after the parties had lived together as married people
for six weeks, to attempt to reduce the wives to the condition of prosti-
tutes, and the husbands to that of mere keepers. (Hear!) These
Magistrates, named Beresford, Bruce, M'Causland, Lyle, and Conolly
Gage, recommended the parties to give evidence against the priest,
which to their honour they refused. (Cheers.) They were then seized
and conducted to prison by a party of dragoons; the women were
separated from their husbands; and the Rev. Mr. O'Hogan fled to France
to escape the ignominious death which the Londonderry Journal had
xultingly anticipated for him! The same Magistrates further committed
the arrested parties to prison for three years, for refusing to give evidence!
The Committee considered this committal decidedly illegal, and recom-
mended the trial of the question by an action for false imprisonment.-
On the motion of Mr. O'Connell, it was unanimously resolved, that the
Committee should be directed to bring the action suggested.

profligate people; and though the young creature had been educated as a lady, and was much more of one than most of the other females in the town, no genteel family paid her the least attention. She was considered the wife of a man whom nobody respected—and notwithstanding the whole town was interested in her appearance, pity was the predominant feeling whenever she appeared.

Deserted comparatively by one sex, she naturally enough threw herself into the society of the other; and certainly, in Plymouth, her good humour, fascinating manner, long silken hair, and white hat and feather, made prodigious havoc among the young bloods of the town. Her husband was too apathetic to care who flirted about with his wife, provided he was released from the trouble, and left her too often, after the first burst of passion was cooled. Thus, without being vicious, her natural gaiety deadened all sense of discretion-and, from being shamefully slighted by the world without a cause, she became indignant and indifferent to its opinion. Her old husband, finding that she was not visited, began to neglect her himself, instead, as he ought to have done, of paying her double attention, and seeking to soothe and console an ill-used woman, whose feelings had never been injured till she sacrificed her youth and her prospects to him.

The produce of this ill-sorted union was Maria Foote, who was daily brought up amid scenes little calculated to strengthen the sense of propriety, domestic love, or domestic happiness.

From that weariness of mind, which in moments of quiet constantly presses the heart of a slighted woman, a desire for relief, which was denied her in the society of her own sex to the degree she deserved, urged the Mother to take refuge nightly in the theatre.-Daily and hourly seeing, hearing, and talking of little else but the theatre, as might have been expected, a wish to become an actress got possession of her mind. She went on her husband's stage just as her innocent child was becoming open to impressions; and thus Maria Foote, the present subto undervalue those modest proprieties and delicacies of female characject of public sympathy, was initiated, with the most innocent feelings, and soften the most abandoned woman. ter, which add an irresistible charm to the most beautiful, as they grace

When Maria was 12 years of age, her Mother was so far lost to all delicacy of mind, and her Father so utterly insensible to all the duties of a father, that he suffered this only daughter to act Juliet to the Romeo of his wife!

The town was disgusted-thoroughly disgusted-and whatever claims he had before to the notice of some private friends, to whom his manners as a gentleman ever made him welcome, they were now considered forfeited for ever. From this moment, a sort of reckless indifference seemed to

Another Report from the Law Committee recommending a prosecution against the Courier, for a libellous attack on the Catholic priesthood, and particularly on Maynooth College; such prosecution to be accompanied by an offer, that neither the Editor, nor any other individual connected with the Press should be affected by it, if the Author of the paragraph be given up. Mr. O'Connell read and commented on the article in quesfion. It represented the College as a most pernicious seminary, whence no one advantage had ever arisen, but where rebellious principles flourished. It asserted, that in 1798 Dr. Hussey, the President, was so active in promoting the rebellion, that he was obliged to fly the country. Now what-said Mr. O'Connell-was the fact? Dr. Hussey quitted the College in 1797, was appointed to a government situation through the influence of his friend Edmund Burke, and died the only Catholic Bishop that was a pensioner of the government! The Courier also asserted, that 17 students were expelled by the Visitors for treasonable designs, some of whom were afterwards killed in the rebel army. Now the fact was, there was no Visitation at the time pointed out. There was indeed a visitation at the Protestant University-at Trinity College; and a number of Students were expelled. It being apprehended that a portion of the mania had extended to Maynooth, the President, Dr. Flood, announced his intention to institute an inquiry. Some students left the College, and the inquiry was not followed up. Of those who retired, one possess the Gentleman acknowledged to Dr. Flood, that before he came to the Col-whole family. Nothing came amiss, so that money was the conselege, he had been a member of the society of United Irishmen he had quence; and under the impression of making it, Foote, who was brought become so on the same day that Lord Castlereagh was sworn in, and in his up a gentleman, and whose wife had been educated as a lady, took a society; he regretted that he had ever done so, and thought it better to public inn, lost his wife's fortune, became the dupe of Villains, and was retire; he did accordingly retire, with a few others, but no visitation was held. Who ever reproached Trinity College with the expulsion of Maria was at this time a most fascinating girl, and having succeeded the Students?The Courier proceeded to sneer at the poverty and dirty in an experiment on a London audience, obtained an engagement at condition of Maynooth, and to talk of the students sweeping the cobwebs Covent-garden theatre. from the walls. Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Shiel commented very forcibly on this base and contemptible language, and denied its truth. The Minister Percival had reduced the sum for the support of Maynooth College from 14,000l. to 8,000l. a year, and now this government hireling made its poverty a reproach. Let however the learning, talents, and virtues of the men educated there be compared with those of the students of Trinity College, and see which would suffer in the comparison. In conclusion, the question as to prosecuting the Courier was referred back to the Committee.

A subscription of Twenty Pounds was unanimously voted to the English Society for the Promotion of Religious Liberty, at the head of which (said Mr. O'Connell) stood a man, whose name will be honoured and loved by the Irish people, whilst gratitude lingers in the Irish heart-he meant Mr. John Smith (Continued cheers).

A Committee was appointed to consider the means of promoting the sale of Mr. Cobbett's works. Mr. O'Connell declared he would at his own expense protect from piracy the literary property of that very able and useful writer.

MARIA FOOTE.

"If half thy outward graces had been placed

"About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!"-SHAKSPEARE. If there was ever a creature who merited the sympathy of the world,

it is Maria Foote !

If there was ever a wife who deserved its commiseration, it is her Mother!

A short Narrative of the causes which have led to the condition of the one, and the unhappiness of the other, may not be without its beneficial effect on fathers, mothers, and daughters.

About 28 years ago, an actor came to Plymouth by the name of Freeman-(his real name being Foote:)-he was of a respectable family from Salisbury; his brother being at that time a clergyman there. When on a visit to his brother, he met the sister of his brother's wife, a young creature about 17, just from a boarding-school; and, to the disgrace of all parties, they persuaded this interesting boarding-school girl to marry a man 25 years older than herself. He returned to Plymouth with his wife, a sweet, innocent girl. In country towns, actors are considered

ruined.

To those who know nothing of a theatre, it may be new to tell them, that an interesting girl is in the jaws of ruin who enters it as an actress, unless watched and protected by her family and friends with the scrutiny of Argus, without his disposition to fall asleep. Constantly exposed to the gaze of men,-inflaming a hundred heads and agitating a thousand hearts, if she be as Maria was, fascinating and amiable, surrounded by old wretches as dressers, who are the constant conveyers of letters, and sonnets, and notes, and flattery,-dazzled by the thunders of public applause, and softened by the incense of a thousand sighs, breathed audibly from the front of the pit or the stage-boxes,-associating in the greenroom with licensed married strumpets, because she must not be affected! or supping on the stage, after the curtain is dropped, with titled infamy or gray-headed lechery let the reader fancy an innocent girl, from a country town, plunged at once into this furnace of depravity-let him fancy her Father sanctioning her by his indifference or helping her by his example, and then let him say, if she be ultimately seduced and abandoned, whether it ought not to be a wonder she was innocent so long! In spite of an education that never cherished the best feelings of a child, Maria has yet a sounder understanding than her parents; and it is the conviction of the Writer, that she will by its exercise regain at last her station in society. It is manifest, from her letters, that she begins to perceive the folly of wishing to appear vicious without actual vice-of being familiar with title however the wearer disgraces it-she begins to perceive that selfishness, ingratitude, hypocrisy; indifference to the opinion of the best part of society, and base desertion of old friends when the most has been made of them,-a love of dash and splendour, in preference to virtue and quiet,-are not, after all, the surest, or the more certain, or the most favourable methods of obtaining the respect of oneself or of society, and generally inflict on the practisers a double portion of disgrace and suffering.

For her Seducer's heartless treatment of her during her distressing pregnancy, no punishment can ever be a sufficient infliction. A most passionate, ardent, endeared lover, certainly, to stay from his beloved nine months out of every year during the five she was his!-that is, 45 months out of 60-thus spending, out of 60 months, 15 in her arms. Noble creature! Romeo was a log to such a lover!

And pray what did he expect during her long solitudes and agonizing

suspicions? Young and fascinating, nightly exposed to public gaze, and daily liable to individual insults in consequence of her being suspected to be a secret mistress of his, what could he expect but that occasionally she would be so shockingly indelicate as to see a male friend, eccasionally relieve the irksomeness of her situation by going to the opera-occasionally she would be so infamous as to smile and forget the desertion of the world in private, a desertion brought on by his base, diabolical seduction, and anomalous treatment. Maria was a human creature; she was young, engaging, and a public favourite. Everybody is not gifted like the Colonel. No doubt, he was fasting and praying, as an example to Maria. No doubt, this separation from his beloved was the true mortification of the lusts of this wicked world. No doubt, Berkeley Castle was a scene of moral restraint, or matchless chastity, of angelic hymning! No doubt-never having in the whole course of bis beautiful life had his conscience tortured by the remembered seduction of an innocent-never having had any other creature, young, and trasting, and pregnant, and sorrowful, disgraced and panged by his deserting her at the time she needed all his love, and all his tenderness, and all his watching! No doubt, the innocence of his former life was so shocked at the consequence of Maria's wicked conduct, in overturning his unparalleled self-command-his purity of mind was so refined and so acute, that one must excuse him. Only, superhuman as he was, and has ever been, in virtue and truth, a little more charity, the occasional companion of morality and goodness, might have mingled in his perfection, without injuring to any great extent the crystal beauty of his fame! Really, people of such heavenly spirit should-indeed they should make some allowance for the flesh and frailty of us more mortal clay.

With respect to what, it is said, "weighs heavily against Maria,"ber calling Hayne" dearest Hayne," it is easily accounted for. Hayne's generosity, contrasted with the parsimony of Saint Berkeley, his desire at once to marry her, in contrast again with the Saint's procrastination, might have gone so thoroughly to her wounded spirit, that she might really feel him as "dearest," especially as she was going to live with him for ever.

Maria has ever been the victim of her affections-her affection for, and confidence in Saint Berkeley, her affection for her worthy Parent; and the vacuum her heart felt at the Saint's treachery would naturally make her feel directly the want of an object to lean upon. However 'severely people may censure her for this, a knowledge of the female heart may account for it all.

To those who are acquainted with the conduct of the old Gentleman for the last 30 years in Devonshire, the history of the pulmonary complaint, the Manton gun, the six weeks at Tixall, the meanness, the heartless ingratitude to Hayne, were exceedingly entertaining. There is scarcely a friend living, or a family dead, that he has not treated with the dirtiest selfishness, whatever were his obligations-spunging till he was insulted, lying till he was discovered, puffing till he was the butt of the town. The people of Plymouth can relate a thousand instances of this description. Berkeley's shrewdness soon saw that he should have no authority if such parents were not kept at a distance, and he was right but if he loved this girl, why did he not at once marry her and take her from them? The influence of a husband would soon have corrected all her insensibility to appearances when pernicious examples were removed. To conclude: there is great excuse and palliation for the conduct of this sweet woman. Brought up in such habits, it is now perhaps in her sorrow that she first perceives their folly.

:

If the ladies of Plymouth had noticed her mother as they ought, and as they were bound to do, she would have set her daughter a better example, and the father would perhaps have set a better one to his wife; but undeservedly insulted by neglect, they all became reckless of appearances; and from this has sprung all the evils with which they have been lately

overwhelmed.

Had they followed the advice of true friends years ago, Maria would now have been happy, honoured, and a blessing to them all and to herself. She has had a nauseous draught, and has drunk it to the dregs; but if it is considered soundly, it will cleanse her from all her follies, and bring out at last the real qualities of her heart and her understanding Maria is yet in the prime of life; and if society see her conducting herself with prudence and circumspection, she may regain their good opinion, as she has their sympathy and sorrow, and may yet grace the band of a man of fortune or talent, for in reality she is at the core worthy

of either.

Her present condition should be a warning to all those whose first passion on entering life is admiration-admiration-admiration! at any expence. Had this young creature been properly directed, had she not been pushed into the arms of men of fortune for the sake of a conquest and a settlement, thus at once destroying the effect of her charms, and rendering every lover suspicious and on his guard,-how different would have been her situation! But she is more to be sympathized with than censured; for where is the being who could resist from infancy such examples as she has had before her, or the detestable inculcation that "money is preferable to

honour ?"

On the whole. no one can wonder at Berkeley's desire to withdraw latterly; but had he married Maria at first, which as a man of honour he ought to have done, she would have been a blessing to him, and he would have been sufficiently influenced by her to have made them both happyas this sweet insulted woman has ever deserved, and still deserves, to be.

CORRESPONDENCE.

I.

London-Fladong's Hotel, Dec. 28, 1824.

SIR, The Morning Herald of Saturday contains two letters from you to Miss Foote, mentioning my name and conduct in terms which I do not purpose here to discuss, but to which you will see it is impossible for me I to submit without a satisfactory explanation. For that purpose Mr. Spooner has accompanied me from London, in whom I have placed myƆ honour on this occasion. I am, Sir, your very obedient servant,

Colonel Berkeley, &c. &c. Berkeley Castle.
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Berkeley Castle, Dee. 29, 1824. SIR, I cannot have the least hesitation in assuring you, that in the mention of your name in a correspondence lately published, unauthorised by me, that it was not my intention to make any insinuation prejudicial! to your character; and that as I never had the pleasure of your acquaintance, I beg you to believe, that in the exercise of my authority over my. children I totally disclaim any wish of giving personal offence to you. I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient humble servant, To H. Clagett, Esq. W. FITZHARDINGE BERKELEY.H

BOROUGHMONGERING-NAVAL PROMOTIONS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE EXAMINER.

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the Navy, which he handled so admirably in the last, he may perhaps SIR, If Mr. Hume resumes next session the subject of Promotions in place the following anecdote among his illustrations of the blessed effects of advancing naval officers for the sake of their Borough-interest, instead of their professional deserts:—

About 16 years ago, I was at Portsmouth, and was walking in company, with a young man named -, a Baronet, (now an old Post Captain) who was just then appointed to the command of the sloop of war, when he asked me "what rate his ship was!!" I told him all sloops, were sixth-rates, and cautioned him against betraying to others an i igno rance so egregious.

Mr. Hume may, if he pleases, state this fact in Parliament; and should, John Wilson Croker, Esquire, have the face to express a disbelief of it, I will verify it by publishing the name of the party, together with my own.

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Is it very surprising that the Americans captured so many British ships thus officered! Yours, Batson's, Cornhill. A FRIEND TO JUSTICE."

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

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"Hanover, Dec. 18. "GEORGE IV. &c.-It having come to our knowledge that some doubts are entertained respecting the interpretation and application of the first paragraph of the 16th Article of the Act of the German Confederation of the 8th of June, 1815, which is to the following effect :

"The difference of the Christian Religious Communities cannot lead to any difference in the enjoyment of civil and political rights in the countries composing the German Confederation-we are induced to issue the following Declaration and Ordinance:

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"1. The several professors of the Christian faith enjoy a perfect. equality of civil and political rights in the kingdom; and, in conformity, with the said Article, the notion of a predominant, and of a merely tolerated, Church is entirely abolished.

"2. All Christian religious communities have a right to the unobstructed and free exercise of their religions worship; and every Clergyman can require the surplice fees, &c. only from the parishioners of his own persuasion. Consequently,

"3. Those inhabitants who belong to a different Christian persuasion! from that of the parish, are to pay the fees, &c. only to the clergyman of their persuasion to whose Parish they are positively annexed. Fees can.. be required by a Clergyman of a different persuasion when he has been required to perform an official duty, and has really performed it.

4. On the other hand, all dues to churches and schools, which proceed from houses, farms, and other landed property in a parish, withreligious belief, are still to be paid to those entitled to them by every out regard to the personal qualities of the Professor, in respect to his possessor, even if he belongs to a Christian party different from that of the parish. "5. (Contains regulations for the entries in the church books.") FROM THE LONDON GAZETTES. Tuesday, December 28.

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Saturday, January 1.

BANKRUPTS.

J and J. Gerrish, Frome-Selwood, Somerset, clothiers. Solicitor, Mr. Hartley, New Bridge-street, Blackfriars.

R. H. Unsworth, Pedlar's-Acre, Lambeth, Surrey, coal-merchant, Solicitor,
Mr. Wigley, Clement's-Inn.

C. Roffe, Postford-Mill, Guildford, paper-manufacturer. Solicitors, Messrs.
Walker and Co. Basinghall-street.
H. M. Fyffe, Holborn, grocer. Solicitor, Mr. C. Barber, Chancery-lane.
G. Benson, Bowling-Green-Place, Kennington, builder. Solicitor, Mr.
W. J. Norton, Old Broad-street.

J. Shawcross, Manchester, innholder. Solicitors, Messrs. Appleby and
Co. Gray's-inn-square.

E. Rishton, Preston, Lancaster, money-scrivener. Solicitor, Mr. R. W. Hopkins, Preston.

J. F. Bennallack, Truro, Cornwall, scrivener. Solicitors, Messrs. Sherwood and Co. Southwark.

Slave population. These papers do not contain the answer of the Assembly, but the Kingston Gazette furnishes an admirable brief specimen of West Indian logic and social ratiocination, on the tenor of a state communication, which has the audacity to allude to the gradual improvement and religious instruction of Negroes. According to these reasoners, Government has no right over the Negroes, because they are private property; as if private property was not under the eternal modification of Governments in all countries. No rational politician can seek a hasty and inconsiderate abolition of Negro Slavery, but neither can a just or consistent one shrink from an avowal, that all property in the persons of mankind is founded on fraud, atrocity, and violence, and ought to be ultimately got rid of. As much gradation and consideration in the manner as need be, but the intention should never be concealed in the language of the consistent friends to human freedom, whatever may be deemed expedient in more equivocal quarters. The episcopal appointment for Jamaica makes us smile; for if the Lord Bishop do his duty, he will soon be more abused than the Missionaries; and if he do not, an additional church sinecure is es

Ann Bryan, Richmond, haberdasher. Solicitor, Mr. J. J. Tanner, New
Basinghall-street.
M. Arnsby, Walworth-road, baker. Solicitor, Mr. J. Robinson, Half-tablished, that is all. The Colonists have often had to pay the

Moon-street..

R. Cooper, Queen-street, Westminster, coal-merchant. Solicitor, Mr.
Mahony, Quality-court.
C. Arcangelo, Gloucester-terrace, Bethnal-green, feather-merchant.
Solicitors, Messrs. Lane and Co. Lawrence-Pountney-place.

THE FUNDS.-Consols have exhibited very little fluctuation during the week, nor is there much variation in the European Stocks generally. The Mexican and South American Securities, on the contrary, have risen considerably, owing to an opinion of the increasing prosperity of these new States, and a consequent conviction that they will soon be formally recognised, at least by our own Cabinet. The Mining Shares are also materially affected by this impulse, the whole of them having considerably advanced.

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THE European news of the week requires little either of comment or detail; but colonially, we have heard both from the East and West Indies this week. In respect to the former, the chief point of information is made up of an official dispatch, detailing further military operations against the Burmese in advance of Rangoon, all of which have terminated favourably. The Burmese appear to be at once brave and numerous, but so insufficiently armed, that out of an army of 14,000, scarcely a fourth were supplied with musquetry. Such being the case, it is not surprising that their stockades are forced one after another, with little loss, and that although wary and skilful in their flight, they are universally obliged to give way. The British have lost but seventy or eighty men in these various encounters, while the killed of the Burmese are estimated at a thousand. Parthian tactics on their part may engage us for a long time, but if, as usual, he is obliged to pay at last, His Majesty, the owner of the White Elephant, will gain little by the delay. A singular Court Martial has taken place in India on a Lieut. FENWICK, who, incidentally employed in the service of a Native Rajah, took it into his head to hang one of his prisoners of war. He is found guilty, but recommended to mercy on the ground of extraordinary circumstances and inexperience. Curious British subjects these and other colonies of ours create and modify-although after all little more has been done in this instance than what certain animals, called 'Squires, do with poachers and others at home. It is satisfactory however to understand, that authoritity in India has apparently done its duty in this affair.

Jamaica papers to the 15th Nov. have arrived, from which we learn the opening of the House of Assembly by a Speech from the Governor. After alluding to the misconception on the part of the Negroes, which led to such unhappy results, and congratulating the Assembly on the peaceable deportment of the great body of Slaves, his Excellency adverts to instructions received from Government at home, containing propositions for the improvement of the Slave population, and announces the appointment of a Bishop, who is to control the Clergy of the Island, and report on the religious state of the

spoiled children of patronage for doing nothing, and would rather pay a Bishop for that than for making Christians of the Negroes, even if he fully adopt the doctrine of the Right Rev. Prelate who has recently discovered that Christianity and Kidnapping is perfectly congenial. A party of Whites in Jamaica in pursuit of the runaway Negroes have been surprised by the latter, and two of the leaders, persons employed on plantations, killed. On the other hand, a mountain plantation of the runaways has been destroyed, and two of their number slain. A pleasant species of interlude, which has attended slavery from the beginning! In robbery, spoliation, and lawlessness, it is founded, and must always exhibit more or less of its origin.

The Paris Papers of Thursday, and the Etoile of yesterday's date, have reached town. The indemnity for the emigrants is to be the subject of two projects of laws, which are speedily to be produced.

The intelligence from Greece through the last Paris Papers, is confirmatory of the previous news of the defeat of the Egyptian fleet. The Austrian Observer allows, that instead of making any attempt on the Morea, the Egyptian fleet will pass the winter at Macri, on the coast of Asia Minor, over against Rhodes. The Austrian Observer of the 20th December, denies that the Turks have abandoned Zeitouni.

Last night's Gazette contains an account of the capture of a large piratical schooner, the Diablito, of 6 guns and 50 men, by the boats of the Icarus, under Lieut. Croker, in a creek to the westward of the Havannab. By this capture, nine Americans were released, who had been treated most inhumanely by the pirates, and were to have been put to death on the following day.

LORD AMHERST IN INDIA.-The letters from India are full of complaints of Lord Amherst's government, and of the Government at home for sending out a man who had shown no sort of fitness for the station to which he was appointed. The refusal of his Lordship to knock his head against the Emperor of China's floor, was not even a proof that he might pire. It is time to ask whose job was the sending Lord Amherst to India? not run it against a post, much less that he was fit to govern a great emGlobe and Traveller.

Accounts from St. Thomas's state, that Commodore Porter, in the John Adams, and two sloops, had proceeded to Porto Rico, and effected a landing with 200 men, to demand satisfaction from the Spanish Governor for an insult to the American flag, and the imprisonment of one of the Captains of a trading vessel. No opposition was made; the Commodore, after making a great show, received an ample apology. It is again stated in these papers that a French fleet of 17 sail of men-of-war had been Domingo. From the latter there are accounts to the 15th November, seen off Martinique the end of October, and had proceeded to St. which afford no intelligence respecting this large fleet. There is a Proclamation from Hanover, in the name of GEORGE the Fourth, which it does one's heart good to read. What the Intolerants will do with it, we cannot imagine. The Courier gives it without one word of comment, which is at least discreet. Our most gracious Sovereign, it seems, has two consciences, one for his Hanoverian, the other for his British and Irish subjects; and, contrasting his domestic with his badkeeping" with the latter. How the King's Chief Doubter must have foreign conscience, as the connoisseurs say, the former appears in very shaken his awful horsehair on perusing this truly Liberal Document!

The subscription for the distressed Exiles is going on very well. Never was money better bestowed. or more needed.

CLIMATE OF VAN DIEMAN'S LAND." Nothing can be finer to an Englishman; it is now almost the depth of winter, the shortest day being in June, and my windows are open on one side of me, and the fire, that was necessary at and before breakfast, is burning out."-Private Letter.

KING'S BENCH.-The London Sittings were adjourned to Monday; but it was yesterday morning announced, in a Notice from Lord Chief Justice Abbott, that such Sittings for London will be further adjourned to Friand, in about a week afterwards, proceed to Special Juries. The last day, the 7th instant. His Lordship will commence with Common Juries; day for making Special Juries will be Monday. The cause" Cox, Esq. v. Kean," still remains on the Paper; but it is intended for trial by a Special Jury.

OMISSIONS IN THE JOHN BULL. John Bull (says the Times) is so much in the habit of garbling the communications which are made to him, that we shall think it right in future to restore his partial omissions. The following are a few of the surprising effects of Prince Hohenlohe's prayers, which were suppressed by him on Sunday last:The Marquis of Hertford, after a severe mental struggle, took the box at hazard, and lost 5001, to the Earl of Thanet.

The success of His Highness's exertions on Mr. Croker was incredible: he was civil to two meritorious untitled officers of the navy, and actually invited them to subscribe to the account (by himself) of his operations whilst commanding the Spy brig, in Clarke's Passage, and to the collection of his "Fugitive Pieces" in John Bull, now acknowledged for the first time.

Mr. Theodore Hook, upon a re-perusal of one of (or the eighth) commandments, made up the Mauritius deficiency.

THE REV. ALEXANDER FLETCHER. This precious teacher of righteousness (says the Times), who, it seems, is followed to his Grub-street Chapel by hosts of congenial disciples, will, perhaps, derive fresh credit from the disclosure contained in the following letter. We dare not trust ourselves to speak of this man as he deserves :

[From the Edinburgh Evening Courant, Dec. 25.]

MISS DICK'S LETTER TO MR. FLETCHER.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE COURANT,

SIR,-In one of your late Numbers you quoted from the Appeal to Public Opinion, lately published by Mr. Fletcher, a letter alleged to have been addressed by Miss Dick to him in 1813. As that letter (if supposed to have been in reality written by Miss Dick) may hurt her in the estimation of the public, I beg, through the medium of your paper, on the best authority, and in the most unqualified manner, to state, that such a letter was never written by Miss Dick! It is either the composition of Mr. Fletcher himself, or of the sister who has the merit of the other parts of that correspondence, and who pretends to be able to quote the terms of Miss Dick's letter to her brother, at the same time that she very consistently states that it was not sent to her, neither did she ever read any of her letters.

In the Appeal, Mr. Fletcher tells us, that the two letters by his sister were written by his authority." In a letter to Dr. Dick, however, dated December 18, 1813, which I have seen, he declares, in opposition to this statement, that these letters" were sent without my instigation or approbation."

I might with great ease convict Mr. Fletcher of falsehood and prevarication on almost every page of his production; but this I conceive to be superfluous. The above two instances, with the facts already before the public, will serve to show the degree of credit due to his assertions. I am, &c. Edinburgh, Dec. 24, 1824.

NEWSPAPER CHAT.

P. D.

WITCHCRAFT.-CLERICAL PLIANCY.-It may not be generally known, that Sir Henry Cromwell, as Lord of the Manor of Warboys, after the conviction of the Witches of Warboys, in 1593, left their property, which was forfeited to him, to the Corporation of Huntingdon, on condition that they should give forty shillings every year to a Doctor or Bachelor in Divinity of Queen's College, Cambridge, to preach a sermon at All-Saint's Church, in Huntingdon, on the annunciation of the blessed Virgin, against the sin of witchcraft, and to teach the people how they should discover and frustrate the machinations of witches and dealers with evil spirits. This sermon continues to be preached.—It is doubtless felt to be a little awkward sometimes, to preach against an exploded opinion; but thank heaven! there are always clergymen enough in the Church as by law established, who are not too proud to earn forty shillings in a professional way, though it should be rather ridiculous.

CLEANSING THE STOMACH.-On Friday week, in Dr. Anderson's Institution at Glasgow, a young man, who was rummaging over private drawers, carelessly swallowed some chemical poison, so potent, that he instantly became nearly speechless. Emetics produced no effect; a tube was introduced into the stomach however (according to the mode lately recommended) to which a syringe was attached, and the contents were thoroughly pumped out. The stomach was then cleansed with warm water about six times, and the young man was so far restored that he walked home without assistance. It is said, that this mechanical process may be often used with advantage, in place of emetics, to relieve the stomach of morbid matter caused by indigestion or disease of any kind.

As unfit as I am for Heaven, I had rather hear the last trumpet than a citation from the Court of Chancery. If ever you have seen Michael Angelo's Last Judgment, you have there, in the figure of the Devil-who is pulling and lugging at a poor sinner-the true representation of a Chancery lawyer who has catched hold of your purse.-Bishop Warburton.

ORIGIN OF GROG-Old Admiral Vernon first introduced rum and cloak in foul weather, which gained him the appellation of Old Grog; water as a beverage on board a ship; the veteran used to wear a grogram from himself the sailors transferred this name to the liquor, and it may be a question, to which of the grogs they were most attached.-Economist. LARGE AND SMALL HORSES.-Animals draw by their weight, and not by the force of their muscles. The hind feet form the fulcrum of the lever, by which their weight acts against the load, and the power exerted is always proportioned to the length of the lever, the weight remaining the same. Large animals, therefore, and other animals, draw more than small ones, even though they have less muscular force, and are unable to carry such a heavy burden. The force of the muscles tends only to make the horse carry continually forward his centre of gravity, or, in other words, the weight of the animal produces the draught, and the play and force of its muscles serve to continue it.-Mechanic's Magazine. CARABOO The extraordinary young woman, who, about two years ago, excited considerable attention at Bristol, by representing herself as the Princess Caraboo, daughter of a great Eastern Prince, has lately returned to Witheridge, her native place, on a visit to her mother. It is understood, that since she figured at Bristol, she went to America with two ladies of that country. When she left home, about seven years ago, NEW BURIAL GROUND-Many of our readers have visited the cele- she was a servant in a farmer's house; she now appears a well-educated brated Burial-ground of the Pere La Chaise, near Paris. It is a spot just woman, perfectly genteel in her manners and dress, and extremely fond without the walls, where the ashes of Jew and Christian, Catholic and of books, but very reserved in her communications respecting herself. Protestant, repose in charitable vicinity. The ground is laid out with taste An Old Officer that had a strong idea of MILITARY PROMOTION.and elegance, diversified in position, beautified with shrubs and flowers, and It was his custom to make his children read a chapter in the Bible every appropriately adorned with monuments, some interesting from their his Sunday afternoon. Upon mention being made of Nebuzaradan, captain torical recollections, some touching from the simplicity and tenderness of of the guard, coming to Jerusalem (2 Kings, xxv. 8.) he stopped the their inscriptions, but all neat, decent, and appropriate to the solemnity reader, and cried out in a tone of voice that showed how much he was inof the scene. Struck with the contrast which our City Church-yards pre-terested in the matter, "Good God! is that man still a captain? Why he seat to the burial ground of the Pere La Chaise, some individuals have prowas a captain when I was a little boy. Promotion in his regiment must jeeted a scheme for a receptacle of the dead on a large scale in the vicinity have been very slow." of London. They propose to give it the name of the Necropolis, or "City of the Dead ;" and mean that it shall be laid out in a style which for solemnity, taste, and magnificence, may surpass any thing yet undertaken. To what expense do not our opulent individuals often go to erect in their demesnes some monumental record of a friend, perhaps even of a faithful dog, on the banks of a limpid rivulet, near a grotto overhung with weeping willows or shaded by the mournful cypress! And would they not much rather adorn a spot of consecrated ground, which might always be kept neat and clean, well watched and guarded against violent intrusion, and resorted to by those only whose sentiments were in unison with the melanebaly sanctity of the place? The taste for gardening and for every thing rural is proverbially prevalent among the English; and those who may chance to visit a country church-yard "under the shade of melan choly boughs," looking forth upon the richness and beauty of an extensive andscape, can scarcely fail to breathe a wish that they themselves may repose hereafter amid such still and tranquil scenery. Many sites may doubtless be found within three or four miles of town, which, if properly aid out on the plan here suggested, would far exceed, in point of interest, any existing cemetery; and would, in moral effect, be productive of most beneficial consequences.-It is a mistake to suppose that church-yards are the only proper places for Christian burial. On the contrary, the origin of heir use in England for that purpose is not of earlier date than the year 750; and agreeably to the old Roman Law of the Twelve Tables, the place of inhumation was ordered to be not within the City, but without its walls-New Times.

The old College of Physicians, in Warwick-lane, is to be pulled down, and a street made from Newgate street to Ludgate-bill. The new College, at Charing-cross, begins to assume a handsome appearance.

SECTS.-VOLTAIRE, in the Philosophical Dictionary, remarks, where there is only one Church there is despotism, where there are only two there is contention, but where there are thirty there is peace and good-will.

AN AUSTRIAN UNIVERSITY.-The Hesperus, a German paper, contains the following statement:-" In the University of Vienna there was lately a Professor of Philosophy named Rembold, who, in his public lectures, had the horrible audacity to accuse Our Blessed Saviour of suicide! The Austrian Government could do no less than remove him from his Professorship; aud in his place was appointed a M. Madelenez. On the day on which this latter was to deliver his first lecture, a crowd of young students, attached to Rembold, assembled with a determination of preventing the lecture from taking place. Madelenez did not appear; but in his stead came the Ecclesiastic State-Counsellor Porondra, who attempted, but in vain, to read a discourse. The riotous youths drowned his voice in continual hisses, clamour, and shouts of Rembold for ever! For two days this disturbance was repeated; on the third, M. Porondra succeeded in delivering his lecture: but it was only by having taken the precaution to shut the doors of the lecture-room, and to exclude the most disorderly of the students. The Austrian Government has proceeded to most rigorous measures against the young rioters; having seized the ringleaders, and sentenced then to serve in the army for life."

NEW PROJECTS.-RAIL-ROADS-The rage for speculation seems rather to increase than to diminish, and will perhaps go on in an accelerated ratio, until it receives some severe check by one or two grand schemes failing. Not but that many of the new undertakings are decidedly useful and reasonable, but it is difficult to imagine how so many at once can succeed. There is a marked difference as to security and advantage, between the foreign and the home speculations. Mining is at the best a very hazardous matter; and the rapidity with which companies are formed and filled up, to work mines in distant countries, the very geography of which is unknown to the majority of the subscribers, argues a feverish excess of the speculative temper. Besides several mining enterprizes in Mexico, distinct associations have just been made to work mines in Colombia, in Brazil, and in Buenos Ayres. Looking to the Antipodes, we find an Australian Agricultural Association, the chief object of which is to promote the growth in New South Wales of the finest kind of wool, for British manufacturing purposes. Turning towards Europe, we notice the Continental Gas Company, who are willing to undertake to enlighten the principal cities and towns from Cadiz to Archangel-Austria of course excepted, as his imperial Majesty is too knowing to be blind to the connection between Carbonari and coal-gas. At home, the new undertakings are of immense scope and importance. The Ship Canal which is to connect the English and Bristol Channels through Somersetshire, is a work of unequivocal value to the West of England, and promises brilliant success to the projectors. The Thames Tunnel and the new Docks for the Port of London, are not perhaps of such obvious value. The Scotch Union Banking Company is likely to be both serviceable and lucrative, judging from the prodigious success of the existing Scotch Bauks, and knowing the secure and admirable system on which banking is conducted in Scotland. The same may be said of the Irish Provincial Banking Company, founded on the Scotch principle, with this additionally in its favour-that its field of operations is of vast extent and previously unoccupied. Of all the new speculations however, none have started up in such sudden abundance as projects for the making of Rail-roads. Six weeks ago, the very nature of rail-roads was unknown to the public at large, their use even on a small scale being confined to a few mining and manufacturing places. The discovery however of the moveable steam-engine having rendered their application easy for much more extensive purposes, their utility began to be shown by men of science; and the public were so quick to perceive it, that seven or eight rail-ways, in different parts of the Island, were immediately planned, and associations are now forming to furnish the funds required. The facility which this new application of science will give to internal commerce, is prodigious. Not only will goods be conveyed from one part of the country to another at a rate four or five times as rapid as they could be transported by canals, but the speed of travellers, great as it now is in mail-coaches, may be more than doubled. The Scotsman, which has the merit of having, in a series of ingenious papers, greatly instructed the public on a subject so entirely new, gives the following idea of a steam-coach to carry passengers at the rate of 20 miles an hour on a railway :-" A gallery 7 feet high, 8 wide, and 100 feet in length, formed into ten separate galleries ten feet long each, connected with each other by joints working horizontally, to allow the train to bend where the road turned. A narrow covered footway, suspended on the outside over the wheels on one side, would serve as a common means of communication for the whole. On the other side might be outside seats, to be used in fine weather. The top, surrounded with a rail, might also be a sitting place or promenade, like the deck of a track boat. Two of the ten rooms might be set apart for cooking, stores, and various accommodations; the other eight would lodge 100 passengers, whose weight, with that of their luggage, might be 12 tons. The coach itself might be 12 tons more; and that of the locomotive machine, 8 tons, added to these, would make the whole 32 tons."

Now we humbly submit, that not reading a book at all, and not reading it with attention, are very different things indeed, and that such asserted fact by no means justifies the Belfast Editor in his most unqualified assertion.-But this is the way in which Theologians generally deal with their opponents. An avowed enemy of Hume says (but affords no sort of proof) that the philosopher owned he had not read the New Testament with attention:-upon this is at once built the sweeping assertion, that he had not read the book at all!-We see no reason to believe that Hume ever made such au acknowledgment: it seems to us far more likely, that an intolerant and superstitious man, like Johnson, should have made an unwarrantable assertion, in his Christian batred of all doubters, than that a man of Hume's inquiring mind should have neglected to examine with considerable attention a book said to have been written by the inspiration of God-But mark the "charity" of a fierce religionist. Hume quitted the world calmly.-Ob but he had a vanity in being thought easy!"Had his bodily sufferings induced him to betray any weakness, then our ears would have been stunned with pious warnings and exclamations respecting the terrors of a dying sceptic!

THE LOST WIG.-While Lord Coalstoun lived in the Advocates' Close, Edinburgh, a strange accident befel him. It was at that time the custom for Advocates to dress themselves in gowns and wigs at their own houses, and walk to the Parliament House. They usually breakfasted early, and when dressed, were in the habit of leaning over their parlour windows for a few minutes before St. Giles's bell started the sounding peal of a quarter to nine, enjoying the agreeable morning air. It so happened that one morning, while Lord Coalstoun was preparing to enjoy his matutinal treat, two girls, who lived in the second flat above, were amusing themselves with a kitten, which they had swung over the window by a cord tied round its middle, and hoisted for some time up and down, till the creature was getting rather desperate with its exertions. In this crisis his Lordship had just popped his head out of the window directly below, little suspecting, good easy man, what a danger impended, like the sword of Dionysius, over his head, when down came the exasperated animal at full career, directly upon his senatorial wig! No sooner did the girls perceive what sort of landing place their kitten had found, than in terror or surprise they began to draw it up; but this measure was now too late, for along with the animal, up also came the judge's wig, fixed full in its determined talons. His Lordship's surprise, on finding his wig lifted off his head, was ten thousand times redoubled, when on looking up, he perceived it dangling its way upwards, without any means visible to him by which its motion might be accounted for. The astonishment, the dread, the almost awe of the senator below-the half mirth, half terror, of the girls above-together with the fierce and retentive energy of puss between-altogether formed a scene to which language cannot do justice, but in which George Cruikshank might perhaps embody considerable effect. It was a joke soon explained and pardoned; but assuredly the perpetrators of it did afterwards get many a lengthened injunction from their parents never again to fish over the window with such a bait, for honest men's wigs.-Scotsman.

ZINC PLATES FOR ENGRAVING.-In Germany at present artists have begun to substitute zinc plates instead of copper plates, and also instead of stone for engravings. The artist draws on the zinc as on stone, and the expense of engraving is thus saved. A large work, being a collection of monuments of architecture, from zine plates, has already appeared at Darmstadt, and is highly spoken of. The process is said to unite the economy of lithography with the clearness of copper engraving-Chemist. Universities do not conceal their vexation at the Answer which has ORTHODOX CHARITY.-We hear that the pious according to law at our recently appeared to a sceptical pamphlet-(" Letters to the Editor of the New Trial of the Witnesses," in answer to that work: by an Oxford Layman.) They are not dissatisfied with the Oxford Layman's arguments, which they of course think sound; but they take exception to his mild tone in regard to his antagonist, and to the lively illustrations introduced in parts of the reasoning upon evidence. They cannot comprehend, it seems, how a stickler for the Christian Revelation can write a book without displaying the odium theologicum; and they are vexed that a controversial discussion upon religious matters should be pleasanter reading than their own dreary lucubrations. The Oxford Layman, however, has shown that a man may be a polemic without dropping the gen tleman; and he has the good sense to perceive, that in an argument in support of a great Christian miracle, it is becoming to use a tone conso nant with the charity inculcated by the Founder of the religion he maintains.

"THE EXAMINER."-David Hume." In a late Number of the Whig, when offering some observations on the unreasonableness of the present opposition to the circulation of the Scriptures, we remarked, that it was not to be thought strange that Hume should have spoken so keenly against Christianity, when we know that he himself confessed that he had not read the New Testament.' The Examiner calls upon us for our authority for this assertion respecting the unbelieving Tory.' We are not of the class of writers, who make assertions of which they can produce no proofs, and who do not scruple to say any thing that may extricate them from the arguments of a troublesome adversary. The following passage from the well-known pen of Dr. Johnson, confirms the truth of our assertion respecting Hume. It is in perfect accordance with the observations which we were making, when we introduced the name of this sceptical CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE SOCIETY.-The fifth meeting was held on Tuesinquirer; and shows us, that the opposition which is made to the indiscri- day at the Crown and Anchor, and was very respectably attended. The minate reading of the Scriptures, too often proceeds from persons very subject of discussion was tho 2nd Chapter of Paley's Evidences, which imperfectly acquainted with their contents. Speaking of Hume's boasted, was read by the Chairman. The Secretary (the Rev. Robert Taylor) though really melancholy death-bed scene, Dr. Johnson observes: spoke at length against Paley's argument, went into learned detail respectHume owned he had never read the New Testament with attention. ing the testimony of Lardner, &c. He was however the only speaker on Here, then, was a man who had been at no pains to inquire into the truth that side: several gentlemen answered him with much eloquence and inof religion, and had constantly turned his mind the other way. It was not genuity; and upon putting the question to the vote, the validity of to be expected the prospect of death should alter his way of thinking, Paley's position was carried by a large majority. The company broke up unless God would send an angel to set him right. He had a vanity in in the best feeling, pleased by the politeness and candour with which the being thought easy."-[The above is from the Northern Whig. The discussion had been conducted, and the learning and oratorical power Editor of that paper asserted that David Hume confessed he had which it had elicited from both sides. It appears that circulars have been not read the New Testament." When asked for proof of this extra-sent by the Christian Evidence Society to the various religious Societies, ordinary statement, he tells us, on the anthority of Dr. Johnson, that inviting the members to aid the cause of Christian truth, by promoting in "Hume owned he had never read the New Testament with attention."- the arena now opened the discussion of its evidences.

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