comfort, and contributing their mite to the subscription for the benefit of the sufferers in the late destructive fire, which consumed nearly the whole village. An imprudent young man, who joined the company, amused himself by making the boat roll from side to side, and terrified some of the ladies so much as to make them quit their positions, and lay hold of one another. The consequence was, that the boat was upset, and the whole company were immersed in the water, and only one of the whole was saved. This lamentable event has covered the town with mourning.

ASIA.

Extract of a letter from Dr. Carey of Serampore, (dated Oct. 23d) to Dr. Ryland, of Bristol."I have for some time back had much at heart the formation of an Agricultural Society in India. Some months ago, I had a conversation with lady Hastings on the subject, who encouraged me to make an attempt, in consequence of which I published a prospectus, and circulated it throughout India. The result is, that on the 14th of Sept. an Agricultural and Horticultural Society was formed, which consists of about fifty members. By desire of the Society, I wrote to lord Hastings, requesting him to become its patron, to which he acceded. Several of the most opulent natives have joined it, and I hope it will ultimately be of great benefit to the country.

CHINA.

On the 4th of August, an earthquake took place in Ho-nan province, which threw down 20,000 houses and cottages. Many persons were crushed to death. The

government Gazette reckons them: above 400; but they always underrate these calamities. Upwards of 500 were bruised and hurt.

The emperor Kea-King died suddenly on the 2d of Sept. 1820, in the sixty first year of his age. Whether he died a natural or violent death, is not certainly known. Reports are various and contradictory. His second son, the eldest living, has ascended the throne under the title Taou-kwang, 'Reason's Glory,' by which he would have it understood that his reign will be a glorious age of reason in China.

AMERICA.

The United States have recently afforded the most unequivocal proof of their fixed determination to extinguish the slave trade, by a legislative enactment which stamps it with the brand of piracy, and which subjects every citizen of the United States, sailing under any flag, as well as every foreigner sailing under the American flag, who shall be engaged in carrying it on, to capital punishment. A conduct so noble and energetic demands the gratitude of every friend to justice and humanity.

SOUTH AMERICA.

The revolutionary spirit has found its way to the Brazils. The province of Bahia, at the instigation of the military, has declared in favour of such a representative government as should be finally agreed upon by the Cortes in the mother country. Pernambuco immediately followed in the same course; since which the captaincy of Rio Janeiro has declared its adherence to the new Constitution. After some hesitation, the king yielded to the universal feeling which seemed to pervade his

Brazilian

Brazilian dominions, and formally sanctioned the new order of things. All this has been accomplished without violent tumults or bloodshed.

JUNE.

GREAT BRITAIN. 1.-Mr.Kent, from Glasgow, exhibited on Friday his machine for walking upon water, in one of the new wet docks at Leith. The novelty of the circumstance drew together a considerable crowd to witness the uncommon scene. The apparatus consisted of a triangle of about ten feet, formed of rods of iron, to each angle of which was affixed a case of block tin filled with air, and completely water tight. These little boats or cases seemed to be about two-feet and a half long, by about one foot and a half broad, and served to buoy up the machine and its superincumbent weight. These cases, are filled with little hollow balls, attached by a chain, and capable of floating the machine, should any accident happen to the outer case. From the centre of the little boats rose other rods, bent upwards, so as to meet in the middle, at a convenient height, and forming at this junction a small seat or saddle, like that of the common velocipede. Like that machine, likewise, it has a cushion for the breast, and ropes or reins to guide the case at the apex of the triangle; and upon the whole the motion is produced in nearly the same manner. When in the seat, Mr. Kent's feet descended to within a few inches of the water; and to his shoes were buckled the paddles, made of block tin likewise; and having a joint yielding in one direction, so as not to give a counter-motion to the machine when moving the

1821.

leg forward for a new stroke. His heels rested in stirrups attached to the saddle, and the motion was performed by the alternate action of the feet. Mr. Kent started about half-past two o'clock; and after various evolutions, crossing and re-crossing the dock several times, and firing a fowling-piece, which, with a fishing-rod, was buckled to the rod in front of the saddle, he proved, to the satisfaction of the numerous spectators, the complete safety of his machine, and the practicabilty of using it even for a considerable distance. ་ Edinburgh Courant.

3. As Mr. Stothard, jun. was pursuing his professional avoca tions, in copying a window of the church of Bere, in Devonshire, the step of the ladder on which he stood unfortunately gave way, and he was precipitated to the ground; though only from a height of about ten feet, his skull was fractured, and he died upon the spot."

Α

5. Soon after midnight, a part of the southern gable wall of the theatre in Shrewsbury, gave way, and falling on the roof of an adjoining house, forced part of it, together with a portion of the floors of the three rooms, and all that intervened,down to the kitchen-floor, rather below the level of the street. poor labouring man, named Edward Davies, with his wife and two children (one a boy about seven years old, the other an infant at the breast,) slept together in a bed in the garret, immediately under the dislocated mass, which fell upon and forced them, together with a quantity of large stones, timber, the bed, &c. down to the kitchen, where they were buried in the accumulated heap of fallen materials, the ponderous and destruc(E)

tive

tive nature of which was increased by a large portion of the floor of the garret (which was formed of a kind of plaster resembling that of a malthouse floor) falling also with them. Four other children of the same poor man lay in a bed in another part of the room, and providentially were unhurt. In the next room underneath, the chief tenant of the house, Mr. John Jones, milkman, with his wife, and a young woman their neice, occupied two beds, which happily were situated out of the direction taken by the falling mass; the young woman, however, received some serious, though we hope not dangerous, cuts and contusions. Mr. Jones and his wife, on being roused by the breaking of the floors, &c, got out of bed, and with difficulty escaped. Mr. Jones at first clung to a rafter, and his wife clasped him round the body: finally, they fell down upon the rubbish, and received no material injury. In the lower room slept a lodger named Hunt, and his wife, and their bed being also out of the line taken by the ruins, they providentially were not hurt.

Several of the neighbours, on hearing the crash, left their beds to assist the sufferers, and surgical aid was also procured directly. As soon as the parties who were unhurt or but slightly injured, as above mentioned, had been got out of the premises, the thoughts of the persons present were turned to the relief of the poor individuals who lay buried under the heap of ruins." Considerable apprehension was at first entertained lest more of the wall should follow the part which had already come down; but as the poor infant was shortly afterwards heard

Ac

to cry, every eonsideration gave way to the praiseworthy hope and endeavour to extricate at least some of the sufferers alive. cordingly, the timber, stones, &c. were removed as promptly as a due precaution to prevent additional injury accruing to the unfortunate persons beneath would permit: this of course occupied a considerable time; and near two hours had elapsed before they could be taken out. Edward Davies was found bruised and otherwise injured in a most shocking manner, and although he had not been instantly killed, was a corpse before taken from the ruins. The body of his wife, Elizabeth Davies, was dreadfully injured, and as her remains were quite cold when taken up, it is presumed she must have died at the instant of the fall. T. Davies, their son, opened his eyes when taken from the rubbish, but died immediately. The infant was miraculously preserved, having fallen with its unfortunate relatives through three stories of the house: and at the same time being overwhelmed by the whole heap of materials, it was found nearly unhurt, clinging to, and almost under, its hapless mother, with scarcely a single scratch, two spars having met over it, and protected it from the falling rubbish: it was taken, together with one of the other children, under the humane care of Mr. Howell, shoemaker, who resides opposite. The remaining three children that escaped were taken into the house of Mr. Watton, printer, who also lives opposite, and by whom Davies had for several years been employed as a newsman on the route to Welshpool, Llanfyllin, &c. and

we

we trust the active exertions of the humane will not be wanting in behalf of these five helpless orphans, who, from all the circumstances of the case, have an especial claim upon the kindly and benevolent feelings of the generous and the affluent. The industrious and persevering tenant of the house(Mr. Jones,) we are sorry to say, will sustain considerable loss by the injury and destruction of his furniture, &c.

The edifice, of which the wall now in part fallen is a portion, is a very ancient structure of red stone, and was formerly called Charlton hall, having been long known as the residence and embattled mansion of that branch of the honorable and distinguished Shropshire family of Charlton who were lords of Powis; of which once extensive mansion the only vestige now remaining is the part occupied as a theatre, and which was together with the other parts of the edifice, probably erected early in the fourteenth century; for we learn that, in the year 1308, John de Charlton, lord of Powis; obtained a license from king Edward II. to embattle his house in this town, and the identity of that house with the edifice now under notice is evinced by two deeds in the exchequer of the corporation of Shrewsbury. From the family of Charlton this structure passed successively to the Grays, earls of Tankerville and lords of Powis, to the Leightons of Stretton, and finally, to the Waring family, being now the property of the representatives of the late John Scott Waring, esq.

6. While a number of workmen were employed in widening the bridge over the Eden, near

or

Templesowerby, the centre frame-work of one of the arches, upon which they were laying the stones, suddenly gave way; a momentary warning, however, had the effect of saving eleven out of fifteen persons who were on the arch at the time; of the remaining four, two instinctively laid hold of the edge of the old fabric, and adhered so tenaciously, that, notwithstanding the general consternation, one of them was rescued from his perilous situation; the strength of the other being exhausted, he dropped into the abyss below, and was much bruised; the other two fell along with the wreck, one of them was miraculously saved from drowning, but the other was so much crushed that his life is despaired of.-Carlisle paper.

A jury in Richmond, (Virginia) not being able to agree on a verdict in a criminal case, have been kept together nearly four weeks, and are likely to remain in durance until the court adjourns.

9. As some young men were amusing themselves with the exhibition of legerdemain tricks, in a public-house in Montrose, one of them, while performing the deception of swallowing a knife; actually allowed it to slip down into his stomach, to the great consternation of this awkward imitator of Katterfelto and Boaz. It was an entire week before it passed through the intestinal canal, without giving much uneasiness: and was found to be a penknife, about three inches long, and weighed three quarters of an ounce. A shocking murder has been committed in Lincolnshire. A clergyman has been shot by one of his parishioners, while in friendly

(E 2) conversation

conversation with the assassin, and killed. We have not heard the particulars; but the murderer was not in custody when the account was sent off.-Hereford Journal.

10.-A storm of hail, thunder, lightning, and rain, occurred at Carlby, Lincolnshire, on Sunday se'nnight, so severe that the afternoon service was delayed by order of the minister: this was most fortunate, for an immense ball of electric fire, accompanied with a tremendous explosion, fell into the steeple of the church, set the rafters in flames, melted the lead, drove down part of a wall, and did other serious damage.

Same day about twelve o'clock at noon, the chimney of a house at Oldbury, inhabited by a man named William Hartill, was struck by lightning. The electric fluid thence made its way into the attic of an adjoining house, in which were a man and his wife, the former of whom it drove across the room with little or no personal injury, but the female was thrown forcibly backwards into her chair, and badly burnt in the foot and in her side. The destructive element next proceeded through the room beneath into the kitchen, where it struck Joseph Simcox, the owner of the house, who was lying upon the bench by the fireside, and killed him on the spot; it then passed through the doorway into the canal, about fifteen yards distant. There were also in the house two children, one of whom was burnt in the arm; the other received no injury. Simcox, we are sorry to learn, has left a widow and six children.-Wolverhampton Chronicle.

A most extraordinary fracas

took place at the Wicklow Hotel, Dublin, a few days ago. It would appear that a Mr. B, having formed a strong attachment to Miss R, found means to secrete himself in the bedchamber of the young lady at the above hotel. Wholly unconscious of any such circumstance, the young lady entered her chamber at the usual hour of repose, attended by her maid-servant, who, while in the act of undressing her mistress, perceived a boot under the bed, upon which, with great presence of mind, she beckoned to the lady to quit the room, and followed as quickly herself. They immediately locked up the intruder, and alarmed the house, upon which the father and brother of the young lady flew to her assistance, and upon the door being opened, a violent scuffle ensued between the parties, in the course of which shots were fired by the lover, we are happy to say without taking effect. It is added that Mr. Bhas entered into bail to a large amount for his appearance.-Irish paper.

Extract of a letter dated Limerick, June 11:-"Yesterday evening, at the early hour of eight o'clock, a horrid and barbarous occurrence took place within a mile of this city, which, for atrocity, exceeds any thing that has lately been recorded. In the early part of the spring, a daring attack was made by an armed mob, on a house on the lands of Dunnigar, near this city, where Mr. Torrence resided. He had previously received a threatening notice to quit the lands, which he disregarded. After a long and valiant resistance, aided only by his wife, who displayed a courage beyond

her