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were obliged to force their way through the kitchen window: they succeeded, however, in relieving the unfortunate sufferers from their perilous situation. One of the children was under the rubbish nearly half an hour; but, when extricated, and a little recovered from her fright, did not appear to have received any material injury. The Hindostan East-Indiaman sailed a few days ago from Gravesend, and as the weather has been so extremely tempestuous, considerable apprehensions were enter tained for her safety. During the whole of yesterday, it was the prevailing opinion that she had put back to the Hope; but last, night an express reached the India-house with an account of her loss. We are concerned to state that three midshipmen, Mr. Hatchett, Mr. Hammond, and Mr. Kent, were drowned. Mr. Clerk, a cadet, and about twenty of the seamen, were drowned, killed, or frozen to death. Soon after she got on the bank, she filled with water with the flood; and as the sea made breaks over her, the remaining part of the crew who were saved were obliged to sit on the tops. Boats put off from the shore, and rescued them from their perilous situation; they were about 120 in number. At three o'clock on Wednesday some of the masts and part of the hull were to be seen above water; and it was the opinion of well-informed professional people, that if immediate exertions were made, part of the goods and specie might be saved, The bullion on board was private property, and amounted, we understand, to about 45,000 ounces., 14. We this morning received Paris journals to the 11th inclusive. The intelligence they bring from St. Domingo is of the most interesting

nature. The report we had received, through the channel of the American papers, of the death of general Leclerc, is confirmed, and every description of the distracted situation of the colony appears now: to be perfectly consistent with the official account which has been transmitted to the French govern, ment. Leclerc was taken ill about the end of October, and after languishing in great agony for the in-, tervening days, he expired on the 1st of November. Before his death, he made several arrangements for the government of the colony; the, most important of which was the appointment of Rochambeau to be his successor. His body was em balmed, and sent to France in the Swiftsure, which brought these dispatches to Europe. The loss of the general in chief, it is stated in the official accounts, has excited the deepest regret in the island: but this we are to consider as the mere language of men wishing to recommend themselves to the first consul by testimonies of grief for the death of a favourite relation. The army, if the miserable remnant of French troops deserves this name, will have no cause to regret the loss of the talents of Leclerc, supplied as they will be by those far superior powers which Rochambeau is known to possess. The soldiers will fight under his command with the confidence which his great military reputation has secured, and the colonists will anticipate much more likelihood of success in effecting the subjugation of the negroes, from that mixture of conciliation and firmness which is the peculiar attribute of true courage. It was the policy of Leclerc to consider the blacks as a set of monsters who had forfeited every claim to the common offices

:

-of

1803.

of humanity; who were to be re-
duced to subjection not by mildness
and moderation, but by fire and by
sword. Much, however, as might
have been expected from the exer-
tions of Rochambeau at a former
period, he succeeds to the command
at a most inauspicious moment.
By the report of Boyer, the general
of brigade, it is clear, that during
the whole of the summer months
the French troops were able to
attempt nothing against the blacks,
who, on the contrary, were in a
state of continual insurrection, and
even spreading their ravages in all
quarters. The excessive heats ren-
dered it impossible to make any
movements; and the brigands, se-
cure in those mornes which are in-
accessible to European troops,
desolated with impunitý all the
cultivated districts.

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The hospitals were filled with
the sick; and our readers cannot
have a livelier picture of the ravages
of disease than that which the offi-
cial report itself exhibits. Boyer
the fever has made the most
deplorable ravages; the oldest men
have never witnessed a more ma-
lignant season." It was nearly the
end of October before the French
army attempted to make a regular
At
attack on the rebel troops.
this time Leclerc had projected a
more systematic plan of operations,
but death prevented him from car-
rying his designs into effect. The
intelligence of his death gave the
rebels new courage, and they car-
ried on their devastations with
To check their
greater boldness.
inroads, a general engagement be-
came inevitable, and the French
general boasts that the blacks were
everywhere repulsed and pursued.
But what was the consequence of
this success? The blacks retired
again to their fastnesses, to wait

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new opportunities of renewing
their ravages. It is impossible for
the French general, with all his
anxiety to describe the situation of
affairs as favourably as possible,
to conceal its almost hopeless state.
The army is reduced to almost
nothing by the sword and disease
all the rebel chiefs, who had for
merly submitted, have revolted, and
joined the insurgents; and the
French, with all their exertions,
can, at best, only retain their foot-
ing in the island till the arrival of
new reinforcements from Europe.
Rochambeau had not joined the
army at the Cape when these ac-
counts were dispatched.

OLD BAILEY.

George Forster was indicted for the wilful murder of his wife, on the 5th day of December, by pushing her into the canal at Paddington, in the water of which she was drowned and suffocated. A second indictment charged him. The former with the murder of his infant child, by the same means. indictment alone constituted the subject of investigation.

Mr. Knowles addressed the jury on the part of the prosecution, and stated, that the crime with which the prisoner stood charged, was one no less heinous than frequently difficult of proof. It was a crime generally committed in secrecy, and with every precaution to preclude the testimony of an eye witness. It was, therefore, by a regular series of circumstantial evidence the guilt of the murderer was brought to light. Such evidence was frequently as good as, or indeed better than, positive proof; for it was extremely difficult to fabricate a train of circumstances by several witnesses, though nothing was more easy than for two or three persons

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to get by heart a story of a direct fact, applying immediately to the party accused. The case which the jury were called upon to determine, was one in which they would, from the consideration of a variety of circumstances, have to say, whether it was possible they could have existed, consistently with the innocence of the prisoner at the bar. The learned counsel proceeded to detail the evidence, which we shall describe in the language of the witnesses, in support of the prosecution.

Jane Hubbard said, she lived in Old Boswell court, Carey-street; the mother of the deceased lodged with her, and had taken her daughter out of the workhouse some time before. The deceased was at her house on Saturday, the 4th of December, and quitted it in the afternoon-she used to go to sleep with her husband on a Saturday. The deceased had had four children: one had died, two were in the workhouse, and the fourth had been destroyed with its mother. The witness never saw the deceased after she quitted her house to go to her husband.

Joseph Bradford said, the prisoner lodged with him. On the 5th of December his wife and child were with him-they all breakfasted together they left the house about ten o'clock-the witness saw the prisoner again in the evening

his wife and child were not with him the prisoner made no inquiry after his wife and child-the witness was surprised, on the following Sunday, that she had not come to see the prisoner as heretofore. The prisoner was by business a harnessmaker, and he worked as usual.

Mrs. Margaret Bradford, the wife of the preceding witness, stated, that she saw the prisoner's

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wife on Saturday, the 4th of December; she stayed all night with her husband; they left the house about ten the next morning; they were not on good terms together; the witness saw the body of the child, and knew it well; she had no doubt it was the same child she had seen at her house; the deceased had been out of the workhouse about a month.

Eleanor Winter said, she lived at the Spotted Dog, near the Paddington canal; she saw the prisoner there on the 5th of December with a woman and a child; they came about eleven, and stayed till near one, when they left their house. The Spotted Dog was on the towing side of the river, and the Mitre public house on the other. The prisoner's wife seemed in low spirits; she said she had been there three times to meet a man who owed her husband money, and that she would not come there any more. Witness afterwards saw her body at the Mitre.

John Gough, waiter at the Mitre, recollected the prisoner and his wife and child coming to their house about two o'clock. They stayed till half past four, having in the mean time drunk some rum, and had some porter and bread and cheese. They left the house together about half past four o'clock; neither of them had proposed to have a bed when they went away; they turned to the left to go to London; he saw them at the distance of about 100 yards. On his cross examination, he was positive they had left the Mitre at half past four.

Hannah Patience, the mistress of the Mitre, stated, that she helped them to a quartern of rum just before they went away. This witness corroborated the last respecting

neither

1803.]

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neither of them applying for a bed.
She denied having asked 2s. 6d.
The woman wrapped
for a bed.
up the child, and said it was the
last time she would ever come
there. She did not appear de-
sponding.

Sarah Daniel, servant to a Mr. Fillington, merely spoke to some trifling facts, confirming the testimony of the former witnesses.

was not seven.

Charles Whield said, he worked with the prisoner at Mr. Bushnel's; he met him on Sunday the 5th of December, a little after six o'clock, at his lodgings; he was certain it He said nothing of his wife and child. The witness recommended him to live happily with his wife, as he did. The prisoner did not tell him where he had been, nor did the witness ask him. He did not appear as if he had been at all hurried.

John Atkins, a bargeman, said
he found the body of the child
under the bow of his boat. He
dragged for the woman, and found
hér entangled in a bush; there was
at some distance a fence formed of
some bushes.

Sir Richard Ford deposed, that
he had examined the prisoner seve-
ral times. Each previous exami-
nation was carefully read over to
the prisoner two or three times,
After the whole had been read
over, paragraph by paragraph, the
interlineations and corrections were
at the prisoner's express request.
It contained his confession to the
following effect: "My wife and
child came to me on Saturday the
4th of December to sleep at my
lodging the next morning, be-
tween nine and ten, I went out
with them, and we walked to the
New Cut at Paddington; we went
to the Mitre, where we had some
bread and cheese and porter; be

fore that, we stopped at the Spotted
Dog, where we had some beef-
steaks; we were going to return,
but she desired me to walk further
on to see two of our children in the
workhouse at Barnet; I left her
directly after we quitted the house,
and made the best of my way to
Whetstone, in order to go to Barnet
there, I found it so dark that I
to see my children. When I got
would not go on, but came back;
so that I did not inquire for them,
but I meant to do it; I came home
between seven and eight o'clock;
I saw no person as I was going to
Whetstone, nor did I stop any
where except at the Green Dragon
at Highgate, where I got a glass
of rum; my wife had a black
gown on; she was a little in liquor;
before we left the Mitre, I inquired
of the mistress of the inn, whether
we could have a bed, and she asked
me 2s. 6d. for one, which I thought
too much." This confession was
signed by the prisoner.

William Gardiner said he had
worked at the same shop with the
in Bow-street to see him, he ex-
prisoner; and calling at the Bear
He replied, he
pressed his sorrow at his being in
such a situation.
was as innocent as the child un-
born; and if he could get any one
to

swear he was at the Green Dragon at Highgate, at a partishould be saved. cular time, on Sunday the 5th, he

Mr. Bushnel, the prisoner's master, stated, that at his request he made inquiry at the Green Dra gon.

Elizabeth Southey proved that the prisoner had been at the Green Dragon on some Sunday, but his wife and child were then both with him.

The prisoner, in his defence, did inaccuralittle more than complain of certain

1

inaccuracies in the testimony of the waiter at the Mitre; who was called up again, and insisted upon the accuracy of what he had sworn. George Hodgson, esq. coroner for the county, stated, that he presided at the inquisition on the body; it had no marks of violence, neither was the child's arm broken, as had been untruly reported.

Sarah Gorin, with whom the prisoner and his wife had lodged, said the prisoner was a tender husband and a good father.

Elizabeth Chisall said, they had lodged with her four years; the prisoner always behaved well; they appeared to be a happy couple. Several other witnesses gave the prisoner a good character.

to determine, whether the circumstantial evidence which had been adduced left any doubt as to the guilt of the prisoner.

The jury retired a very short time, and returned a verdict of Guilty.

Mr. Shelton, the clerk of the court, said to the prisoner, What have you to say why you should not have judgment to die accord ing to law?

Prisoner" Nothing, or I cer tainly should."

The recorder then pronounced sentence of death, and the prisoner was ordered to be executed on Monday, and his body anatomised pursuant to the statute.

17. The Porte has received the The lord chief baron summed intelligence that the army in Egypt up the evidence, remarking the under the pacha of Cairo has been contradictions between the priso- completely beaten by the beys. ner's confession and the facts sworn. The intelligence from Egypt is of against him-those were, first, his the 20th of November, and has assertion, that he had requested a been received by the English ambed of the mistress of the Mitre-bassador, lord Elgin, and by the that fact had been positively dis- Porte. It is as follows: proved the next was the impossibility of his being in town between six and seven, if he had walked from Paddington to Whetstone and Barnet, and back, a distance of 16 miles-another circumstance extremely important, was the declaration of the deceased, that she had been three times with her husband at Paddington, to meet a man who owed him some money. It would have been desirable, in his defence, if he had stated who that man was, and have brought him forward. With regard to his having been at the Green Dragon at Highgate, it evidently must have been on some other Sunday, from the circumstance of his wife and child having been with him. His lordship, having commented at large upon the whole of the case, left it to the jury

The Egyptian beys had been surrounded by the Egyptian army. They had made several attacks, but they were always repulsed by the Turks. In the mean time Omar bey, in the beginning of October, had the address to divert the attention of the pacha of Cairo from him, to get his troops passed through his lines, and escape. The pacha considered him in no ways dangerous, as he understood nothing of his intentions. Omar bey, however, strongly reinforced his corps, and returned to the place where the pacha was encamped, while the other beys, who were in concert with Omar, made a vigo. rous attack.

In this moment, Omar attacked the pacha's troops in the rear; and the Turkish army, placed between two fires, was can

pletely

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