an explosion of hydrogen gas took place, which killed fifty two of them, dreadfully burnt two others, one of whom is since dead, and only one miraculously escaped unhurt. The explosion shook the ground like an earthquake, and made the furniture dance in the surrounding houses. The body of one boy was blown high out of the shaft, and fell again to the bottom. By this lamentable event twenty-six widows and between eighty and ninety children, have been deprived of their support. Forty of the sufferers were under forty years of age. It is a most remarkable circumstance that one of them told his wife, before setting out to work on the fatal morning, that he had dreamt the pit was blown up, and she affectionately entreated him not to go, but he said it was but a dream, and waved her advice. The man who escaped, in the course of an hour, bravely ventured down again to the mine, to assist in bringing up his unfortunate companions. An inquest was on Wednesday held on the bodies, by S. Reed, esq., and the verdict was, that "the sufferers accidentally came by their deaths, by an explosion of hydrogen gas in the workings of the colliery." On Thursday afternoon they were decently buried in Wall's End church-yard, at the expense of the owners of the colliery, who presented each family with a guinea for present use, and will afford them houses, fuel, &c. as long as they may need them; but we have little doubt that the benevolence of the public will on this, as on other occasions of a similar nature, step forward to alleviate, as far as pecuniary benevolence can alleviate, the

anguish of this unhappy and long train of mourners.

A respectable farmer named Widdicombe, residing at Winslow, near Yealmton, was unfortunately killed at Ivy-bridge, by being thrown from his horse, a few days ago, at the moment the Regulator coach was passing, by which accident his head was so crushed by one of the wheels, as to cause his death.

The following is a printed card, which is framed and glazed, and preserved in the bar of the Black Swan inn at York: it will show the great improvement which has been made in travelling in this country. The light coaches now travel between London and York in twenty-seven or twenty-eight hours:-"York four days' stagecoach, begins on Friday, the 18th of April, 1703. All that are desirous to pass from London to York, or from York to London, or any other place on that road, let them repair to the Black Swan in Holbourne, in London, and to the Black Swan in Coney-street, in York, at both which places they may be received in a stage coach every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, which performs the whole journey in four days (if God permit.)"

There is at present at a place called Caw, in the county of Londonderry, a sycamore tree, which contains a well of excellent fresh spring water. At the height of five feet the trunk is about eighteen inches in diameter; at seven feet it seems to have separated into two branches of equal thickness, one of which has shot up to a very considerable height, twenty or twenty-five feet perhaps; from that part of the trunk from which

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a corresponding branch is supposed once to have grown, issues a stream of excellent water, perfectly cool and clear, which never fails, even in the hottest weather or longest drought: the tree seems perfectly healthy, and in luxuriant leaf.-Irish paper.

In the garden of Mr. Hoare, miller, at Great Missenden, there is now a damson tree in full bloom, a circumstance of rare occurrence.

There is now standing in a garden belonging to Mrs. Dennett, High-street, Portsmouth,a Burman tree, which is now in full bloom, being the second time this season. A fellow was lately charged at the Police-office, Edinburgh, with various acts of swindling. The success of his schemes was not less remarkable than the ingenuity with which they were planned. After duping a carter's wife of 15s., and robbing a house at Costerphine of a gold watch and other articles, he gained the affections of a young woman, a widow, who kept a shop at Portobello. By his persuasion she agreed to give up her house, and follow him, with her daughter, a child about five years of age, to a lodging in the Grass-market, where the necessary measures were immediately taken for the performance of the marriage ceremony. But the affair must be done genteelly, and it was customary on such occasions to get new garments; his lameness prevented him from calling on friends; but he would write a note--an order to a friend in the Potter-row, for a small sum -twenty-five pounds, and his intended wife would have nothing to do but to present it. She went, but not finding such a person as

the one mentioned, she came back, and found that the bridegroom had decamped, after breaking open a trunk and carrying away all her clothes, with some articles of jewellery. Such was the tale this deluded female told, whose modesty and propriety of demeanour rendered her an object of considerable interest. On the fellow himself being called in to give an account of the property, nothing could be more striking than the contrast in their behaviour. The full round features of an Italian were disfigured by dirt, and distorted by the leer of impudence. He readily gave information of the way in which he had disposed of the unfortunate woman's property. The next amour in which our hero engaged may be considered his chef d'œuvre, as here he triumphed, not only over the cau. tiousness of age, but the shrewdness and tenacity of the Highland character. Having got himself conveyed, as a man in extreme bodily distress, to the house of an honest porter, in a few minutes he succeeded in establishing himself there as a family lodger. moment that he had thus domesticated himself, he despatched the porter to Leith, to look after some smuggled spirits, which he said were deposited there on his account; adding, for the purpose of removing all apprehension, that he had used the precaution of bribing the police-officers, who would either walk off upon the approach of the porter, or wink at him as he passed. In the absence of the porter he proceeded to practice upon the simplicity of his wife, an old woman of at least sixty years of age, who scarcely understood a word of English. The defender,

The

defender, according to the old woman's story, after sounding the depth of her affection for the absent Duncan, expressed his wonder how she could think of wasting her days in the society of such a homespun mortal. He next touched upon the worldly circumstances of the worthy couple, and drew from his hostess an admission that they had a bank receipt for 301. snugly deposited in the cupboard. Having by this time made an impression on the heart of the old woman, he easily persuaded her to allow him a sight of the document, which, after scanning over, he declared the right of drawing the money expired that very day, and proposed that, lame as he was, he would go with her to the bank and uplift the money. The old woman, in a state of great trepidation, assented. Away they hobbled up the streets, and the defender, by personating the porter, found no difficulty in exchanging the receipt for pounds sterling. Strange and almost incredible as it may seem, this arch deceiver had so plied his unsuspecting dupe with flattery, that, before they left the bank, her affections acknowledged another master than honest Duncan. In place of going home, they went to a publichouse, where a plan of elopement was finally agreed upon! To show his gallantry, he treated the enamoured matron, out of her own money, with a silk gown, purchased from a broker, and himself with a resplendent suit of clothes. Her heart expanded at this generosity, and she gave herself up to dreams of ecstatic happiness, freely indulging in the most copious libations. Her alarmed, astonished, and stunned husband

found her at ten o'clock in the evening dead drunk! But the swain had made good his own elopement, carrying with him his new apparel and the reversion of the money. A number of similar charges, but of minor importance, were brought against the defender, which greatly increased the astonishment at the extensive havock he had made upon the hearts and small properties of unfortunate females. A precognition of all the circumstances had been conducted before the sheriff, preparatory, it is understood, to a justiciary trial.

The Earl Falconberg, of Grims by, one of the whale-ships in the late Greenland fishery, was cut through by the ice, under which the vessel soon disappeared, and the Leviathan, of Hull, was literally penetrated by the ice on each side, until it cut through, and carried away the mainmast. The loss of the fine ship Dexterity, of Leith, was attended with aggravating circumstances: for having got twenty-two fish, a violent gale of wind came on while the greater part of the crew was absent in the boats, and the ship was driven on a reef of rocks and bilged; so that on the return of her boats and seamen with six fish, sufficient to fill the vessel, it was found their ship was lost, and with great reluctance, but of hard necessity, it was abandoned. As the whaleship Achilles was taking Dundee harbour, on Thursday forenoon, the 11th instant, she was, by the carelessness of the pilot, it is said, run against the powder magazine. The eastern turret of the magazine was laid in ruins by the shock, and the bowsprit of the ship was also broken. The Achilles brought

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home three boats' crews, belonging to the Dexterity, of Leith.

As the Hon. Norman Hilton was lately returning from his seat in Devonshire, the horse upon which he rode (formerly a charger belonging to an officer in the guards) suddenly dropped down and expired. Mr. Hilton's leg received a severe contusion; but, notwithstanding the pain which he felt, he succeeded in procuring assistance; and upon opening the body of his horse there was found the half of a bayonet in the viscera. The poor horse is supposed to have met with this extraordinary wound at the battle of Waterloo.

Some disturbances have lately taken place in the town of Douglas and Peel, Isle of Man. The corn dealers having conspired, and put an unnecessary advance on the price of that indispensable article, the lower classes collected and demolished the houses of several bakers and flour-venders. A good deal of property was carried off by the mob, and wines and spirits were set flowing in the streets. As there were no military in the island, the gentlemen in the different towns, being joined by the half-pay officers, associated under the command of major Nicholl, late of the 97th regiment, and having obtained arms and ammunition from the king's store, they succeeded in restoring order, after wounding two or three of the rioters, and securing the ringleaders. Troops have been ordered from England; the corn dealers have lowered their prices, and the exportation of grain from the island is inhibited for three months. On Friday se'nnight, at twelve o'clock at night, the

Manx cavalry and half-pay soldiers were still on duty, and all was quiet.

One or two of the counties of Ireland are in a deplorable state. Several outrages have been committed in Limerick, and towards the borders of Kerry. The plan of aggression by the rioters seems to have been to make a series of attempts on the insulated countryhouses of gentlemen and farmers, who were supposed to have firearms in their possession, that, by getting hold of the arms, they might furnish themselves with the means of fresh plunder, and of putting down all resistance except by a regular force. On one occasiou it appears that these disturbers of the peace, composed of two hostile bodies, took the field in broad day, before the gentry of the district assembled at Newcastle races, and openly fired on each other; dispersing only after an attack made upon both by a detachment of dragoons under colonel Douglas.

Ruffians have barbarously murdered a gentleman of the name of Going, between two and three o'clock in the day, as he was riding to dinner. Mr. Going had been chief of the county police a short time before his murder, and in that capacity had, we presume, rendered himself obnoxious to the lawless wretches of the neighbourhood.

Other individuals have been since assassinated. These disturbances have led to the summoning of a privy council at Dublin, to deliberate on the most proper measures to be adopted.

The following is the substance of a report published by the Royal Dublin Society, respecting the

Moving Bog of Kilmaleady, in King's County. The bog of Kilmaleady contains about 590 acres: in many parts it is forty feet in depth; and it is considered to be the wettest bog in the county. It is bounded on all sides, except the south, by steep ridges of high land; but the southern face is open to a moory valley, through the centre of which flows a stream, which serves as a discharge for the waters from the bog and surrounding country. The bog of Kilmaleady, like all other deep and wet bogs, is composed, for the first eight or ten feet from the surface downward, of a reddish brown spongy mass, formed of the still undecomposed fibres of the bog moss (sphagnum palustre) which by capillary attraction absorbs water in great quantity. Beneath this fibrous mass, the bog gradually becomes pulpy, till, at length, towards the bottom, it assumes the appearance, and, when examined, the consistence of a black mud, rather heavier than water. The surface of the bog of Kilmaleady, was elevated upwards of twenty feet above the level of the valley, from which it rose at a steep angle.

Its external face, owing to the uncommon dryness of the season, being much firmer than usual, the inhabitants of the vicinity were enabled to sink their turf-holes, and cut turf, at a depth of at least ten feet beneath the surface of the valley, and, in fact, until they reached the blue clay which forms the substratum of the bog. Thus many of the turfbanks reached the unusual height of thirty feet perpendicular; when at length, on the 19th day of June, the lower pulpy and muddy part of the bog, which possesses

little cohesion, being unable to resist the great pressure of water from behind, gave way, and being once set in motion, floated the upper part of the bog, and continued to move with astonishing velocity along the valley to the southward, forcing before it not only the clumps of turf on the edge of the bog, but even patches of the moory meadows, to the depth of several feet, the grassy surface of which heaved and turned over almost like the waves of the ocean. In a very short space of time the whole valley, for the breadth of almost a quarter of a mile between the bogedge and the base of the hill of Lisanisky, was covered with bog to a depth of from eight to ten feet, and appeared every where studded with green patches of moory meadow. After this the bog skirted a hill, and made its way over every impediment, till it was skilfully checked by opening the course of the stream where it was choked up, and thus lowering the head of water which floated the bog.

FRANCE.

A private letter from Mons, in ́ the Journal de Paris, states, that a man had been committed to the prison of Charleroi, who had had the barbarity to keep one of his daughters confined for seven years in a sort of subterranean cellar of his habitation, where she was allowed nothing but bread and water, and was unable to communicate with any individual; air was only admitted to her dungeon by an opening half a foot in width; the father had confined her in this cruel manner because she had been seduced by a

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