66

15. The foundation-stone of the Scott monument, at Edinburgh, laid with masonic honours by Sir James Forrest, Grand Master, and provost of the city. The inscription on a plate inserted in the stone recorded that the admirable writings of Sir Walter Scott were allowed to have given more delight, and suggested better feeling, to a larger class of readers in every rank of society, than those of any other author, with the exception of Shakspeare alone, and were therefore thought likely to be remembered long after this act of gratitude on the part of the first generation of his admirers should be forgotten." Addresses

were delivered by the Grand Master and Sir William Rae.

17.-The King of the French visits Boulogne to thank and reward the inhabitants of that town for their loyalty on the late attempt of Louis Napoleon to disturb the peace of the country. A heavy sea preventing him from landing at the port, he proceeded after some delay to Calais, and then by land to meet the Boulonnais.

19.

The steamer Ontario, afterwards named the Lord Sydenham, navigated down the rapids between Prescott and Montreal.

24.-A man named Moore executed at Waterford, for the murder of Edward Casheen at Lismore. On the scaffold he was permitted to make a declaration of innocence, and ask the prayers of the spectators. While the people were kneeling a priest in attendance came to the front of the drop, and declared his belief in the truth of the statement made by the criminal.

25.-Festivities at Antwerp, on the occasion of unveiling the model of a statue to be erected to the painter Rubens, a native of the city.

27.-Attempted murder of William Mackreth, in a bedroom of the Angel Inn, Ludlow. There was a severe wound in the throat, but not sufficient to cause death. It was generally believed the criminal in this instance had made a mistake, the intended victim being one Ludlow, a Birmingham cattle-dealer.

Died at Donare, county of Kildare, Mrs. Martha Rorke, reported to be 133 years of age.

28.-Presentation of the freedom of the City of London to Prince Albert. "I shall always," said the Prince in reply, "remember with pride and satisfaction the day on which I became your fellow-citizen, and it is especially gratifying to me as marking your loyalty and affection to the Queen." A banquet took place afterwards, at which, however, the Prince was not present.

Lord John Russell writes from Drumlanrig Castle, where he was on a visit to the Duke of Buccleuch, expressing his inability to attend a banquet designed to be given in his honour in Edinburgh.

29.-Rev. Hugh Stowell tried at I iverpool, for a libel on a Catholic clergyman in Manchester, who had, he declared, subjected one of his people to the indignity of walking on his hands and knees two hours a day for nine days, as a penance for sin. Verdict for the plaintiff, damages 40s. This judgment was reversed after a re-hearing before Lord Chief Justice in the Court of Queen's Bench, Nov. 27, 1841. The plaintiff was also condemned in costs.

30.-Collision on the river Lea between two small boats. They were both upset, and ten out of thirteen passengers drowned.

31.-Bath and Bristol Railway opened.

September 3.-Came on at Tulle the trial of Madame Laffarge, charged with murdering her husband, by administering poison to him at various times in cake and fowl. On the 9th, chemists reported that no arsenic could be found in the remains; but on the 14th, Orfila and others stated that the poison was found in every part of the body submitted to them. The jury found her guilty with extenuating circumstances, and she was sentenced to hard labour for life, with exposure in the pillory.

5.-Mehemet Ali refuses the terms of the Convention of July 15.

Envoy Macnaghten writes from Cabul to Lord Auckland: "We have just heard that the whole country between this and the Oxus is up in favour of Dost Mahomed Khan. Our troops have retired upon Bameean, and if the enemy attack them in that position, I should have little fear of the result. The Kohistan is also ready to rise." A week later, he reported that one entire company of Captain Hopkins' corps, with its arms and accoutrements, had gone over to the Dost.

7. The bombardment of Beyrout commenced by the allied fleet.

10.-Riots in Paris, caused by disorderly assemblies of workmen called together to put down the system of "middle-men, which had greatly aggravated the recent reduction in wages.

11.-Prince Albert introduced and sworn of her Majesty's Privy Council.

12. The French Moniteur publishes an ordinance for the fortification of Paris.

Duel on Wimbledon Common between Lord Cardigan and Lieut. Tuckett, in consequence of the Earl obtaining information that Lieut. Tuckett was the author of certain letters in the newspapers reflecting, as his lordship supposed, on his character as an officer and a gentleman. The first shot was ineffectual on both sides. Mr. Tuckett received his adversary's second ball in the back part of the lower ribs. The ball was extracted, and no fatal result followed. The miller of Wimbledon, with his wife and son, witnessed the duel from his mill, and being a constable, took the parties

into custody. They had exchanged shots about twelve yards from each other.

18.-Brigadier Dennie achieves a decisive victory near Bameean over the united forces of Dost Mahomed and the Walee of Khooloom. The retreating forces were followed for some distance along the valley, and many slain. Ten days afterwards Dr. Lord succeeded in completing a treaty in terms of which the Walee detached himself from Dost Mahomed, and bound himself to afford neither harbour nor assistance to the Ameer or his family. The country south of Syghan was formally added to Shah Soojah's dominions.

19. The Globe and other newspapers publish the details of a mess squabble between Lord Cardigan and Capt. J. W. Reynolds. Capt. Jones delivered the following message to Capt. Reynolds, after a mess dinner, at which the latter had called for a bottle of Moselle, placed, as usual, on the table in a black bottle. The Colonel has desired me, as president of the mess committee, to tell you that you were wrong in having a black bottle placed on the table at a great dinner like last night, as the mess should be conducted like a gentleman's table, and not like a tavern or pot-house."

20.-Died, aged 83, Dr. Francia, Dictator of Paraguay, the "El Supremo" of his slavish people.

22.-Died at Ham House, Surrey, in her 96th year, Louisa Talmash, sixth Countess of Dysart.

Died, at Clarence House, St. James's, the Princess Augusta, sixth child and second daughter of George III. and Queen Charlotte, born in 1768.

25.- Died, at Courcelles, near Orleans, aged 75, Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Ta

rentum.

27.—Fire in Plymouth Dockyard, and total destruction of the Talavera, 74-gun ship, and the Imogene frigate, then in dock. The Minden was also much charred and burnt, and the Adelaide Gallery destroyed, with all its interesting memorials of old ships, except the Royal George's capstan.

Sidon taken by the allied forces under Commodore Napier.

28.-Commenced before the Court of Peers of France, the trial of Prince Louis Napoleon, and other persons concerned in the landing at Boulogne. They were defended by M. Berryer, but the address of this eloquent advocate did not avail much, as the Peers found the Prince guilty, and sentenced him to perpetual imprisonment in the frontier fortress of Ham. The others were sentenced to imprisonment for various terms of years.

30.-Foundation-stone laid of the Nelson Monument in Trafalgar-square; the block with which the ceremony was performed being a piece of Dartmoor granite, weighing four

teen tons. The proceedings were conducted in a private manner, owing to the absence from town of most of the gentlemen composing the committee.

30.-Addressing the newly-elected members of the Dublin Corporation, the Lord Lieutenant (Ebrington) took occasion to declare, on behalf of himself and her Majesty's Government, that they considered the maintenance of the Union between the two countries to be essential to the permanent security of the empire. "Entertaining these opinions, I feel it my duty to discountenance and discourage, by all legal and constitutional means, the agi tation of this question. I shall withhold all the Government favour and patronage which Administrations are considered entitled to confer on their supporters, from those who take part in this agitation, who will thereby lose the goodwill of the Government."

October 2.-Attempt of an incendiary to fire the dockyard at Sheerness. Smoke having been observed issuing from the Camperdown, 120 guns, search was made, when part of the vessel was discovered to be on fire, but as it had just commenced it was got under before much damage was done. On further inspection, trains of oakum, pounded resin, and other inflammable materials were found laid throughout the ship in various directions.

The arrival of the news concerning Beyrout this afternoon, taken in connexion with the fires in the royal dockyards, caused a panic in the Exchange, during which Consols fell from 87% to 86: 100,000l. were offered at the latter price. An uneasy feeling regarding the relation in which France stood to the Four Contracting Powers also helped to keep the market in a fluctuating state at this time.

5.-Concluded at Brighton the court-martial on Captain J. W. Reynolds, arising out of charges preferred against him by his commanding officer, the Earl of Cardigan, for writing an improper and intemperate letter. "I beg to tell your lordship," he wrote, "that you are in no wise justified in speaking of me at all at a public party, given by your lordship, and more particularly in such a manner as to make it appear that my conduct has been such as to exclude me from your lordship's house." Capt. Reynolds, to the astonishment of many, was dismissed the service, and the evidence of some of his witnesses severely censured.

Conclusion of the poll, rendered necessary by a combination to exclude Alderman Harmer, of the Dispatch, from the office of Mayor, to which he succeeded by rotation. Pirie, 2,741; Johnson, 2,713; Harmer, 2,294

7.-The King of Holland abdicates in favour of his son (the Prince of Orange), Willian 11.

8.-Replying to one of Lord Paimerston's notes on the Eastern question, M. Thiers urges that the "Prince Vassal" having succeeded in establishing a firm rule in two provinces, ought

now to be considered an essential and necessary part of the Ottoman Empire. "In this conviction, France, equally disinterested in the Oriental question with the Four Powers who have signed the protocol of September 17th, believes herself to be under the necessity of declaring that the deposition of the Viceroy, if put in force, will be, in her estimation, a blow given to the general equilibrium. The question with respect to the limits which ought to be established in Syria in order to divide the possessions of the Sultan from those of the Viceroy of Egypt, might with safety be left to the chances of the war now actually in progress, but France cannot prevail upon herself to abandon to such a chance the existence of Mehemet Ali as Prince Vassal of the empire. Whatever territorial limits may ultimately separate the two Powers by the fortune of war, their continued double existence is necessary to Europe, and France cannot consent to admit the suppression either of the one or of the other. Disposed as she is to enter upon and take part in every acceptable arrangement which shall have for its basis the double guarantee of the existence of the Sultan and that of the Viceroy of Egypt, she confines herself at present to the declaration on her part that she cannot consent to the carrying into execution the act of deposition pronounced at Constantinople."

9.-The Rev. Philip Wynter, D.D., President of St. John's College, Oxford, created ViceChancellor of the University.

10.-Engagement near Beyrout, between the allied troops and Ibrahim Pasha, in which the latter is completely defeated, and forced to retreat to the mountains. Beyrout is evacuated the same night, and made the headquarters of General Smith.

12.-The Queen Mother resigns the Spanish Regency, and retires to France.

14.-Proceedings in the Wandsworth Police Court concerning the duel fought by the Earl of Cardigan and Lieut. Tuckett on Sept. 12. Both were committed for trial on the charge of felony.

15. A musket-shot fired at the King of the French this evening, when his Majesty was passing along the Quay of the Tuileries, on his return to St. Cloud, but no one hurt. Darmes, who fired the shot, was instantly arrested, and avowed the crime.

20.-Lord Palmerston writes to Earl Granville at Paris: "Say to M. Thiers, that nothing can be more unjust than to assert that England has wished not to allow France any share in the settlement of the Turkish question. But as long as France insists that the question shall be settled only in her own way, against the opinion of all the other Powers, and in opposition to the engagements which the Four Powers have contracted with the Sultan, it is surely France that excludes herself from the settlement, and not the other Powers that exclude her."

20. The Thiers' Ministry announce their resignation in consequence of objections entertained by the King to certain passages of a warlike nature which had been inserted in the Royal Speech prepared for delivery to the Chambers. M. Guizot and Marshal Soult thereupon undertook the formation of a ministry.

22.-Died at Holland House, aged 67, the Right Hon. Henry Richard Vassall, Lord Holland, celebrated in the political and social life of the past half-century.

24. Sir John Macdonald, Adjutant-General, reads, by order of the Commander-in-chief, a memorandum to the officers the 11th Hussars at Brighton barracks. Speaking of the commanding officer, Lord Cardigan, he says: "He must recollect that it is expected from him not only to exercise the military command over the regiment, but to give an example of moderation, temper, and discretion. Such a course of conduct would lead to far less frequent reference to his lordship from the 11th Hussars than had been the case in the last few months."

25.-John Henty, carpenter, tried by courtmartial at Sheerness, for (among other counts) making a false report to his superior officer, on the extent and circumstances of the fire in the Camperdown. The Court found the charge established, but, in consideration of the prisoner's previous good character, sentenced him to be only severely reprimanded.

Accident at Faringdon, Great Western Railway, caused by the driver of a goods train neglecting to lessen his speed as he approached the station. The driver and guard were killed, and four passengers, in a truck, severely injured.

27.-Distressing case of hydrophobia at Kirkcaldy, in a boy, aged six, and a girl, aged two, who had been bitten by a rabid dog at Carronbrae, about seven weeks previously.

Died at Duddingstone Manse, near Edinburgh, the Rev. John Thomson, celebrated as a landscape painter.

Meetings held in various towns throughout the kingdom this month to discourage the war feeling now thought to be existing between Great Britain and France.

November 2.-The Native army of Dost Mahomed defeat a mixed British and Native force in the valley of Purwandurrah, Nijrau. "The Affghans," writes Kay, "were on the hills skirting one side of the pass; the British troops were on the opposite declivity. Dost Mahomed saw our cavalry advancing, and from that moment cast behind him all thought of retreat. At the head of a small band of horsemen, strong sturdy Affghans, but badly mounted, he prepared to meet his assailants. Beside him rode the bearer of the blue standard which marked his place in the battle. He pointed to it; reined in his horse; then snatch

ing the white lunghi from his head, stood up in his stirrups, uncovered before his followers, and called upon them in the name of God and the Prophet to drive the cursed Kaffirs from the country of the faithful. Follow me,' he cried aloud, or I am a lost man.' Slowly, but steadily, the Affghan horsemen advanced. The English officers who led our cavalry to the attack covered themselves with glory. The Native troopers fled like sheep. Emboldened by the craven conduct of the cavalry, the Affghan horsemen rode forward driving their enemy before them, and charging right up to the position of the British until almost within reach of our guns. The Affghan sabres told with cruel effect upon our mounted men. Lieutenants Broadfoot and Crispin were cut to pieces. A treacherous shot from a neighbouring bastion brought Dr. Lord to the ground, and the dagger of the assassin completed the work of death." The victory was of little use to the Ameer, who left the field direct for Cabul to surrender himself.

2. In the Arches Court, the Rev. Mr. Escott, Vicar of Gedney, put in a responsive allegation to a suit instituted against him for having refused to bury the corpse of a child baptized by a Wesleyan Methodist lay preacher. The allegation stated, that as the child had not been baptized by an ordained preacher, the baptism was null and void; that baptisms by laymen had been repudiated by the Church from the time of the conferences at Hampton Court, in 1600, to the present time; and in the eleventh article it was pleaded, that even according to the doctrines of the sect as laid down by John Wesley, their founder, preachers or teachers were not authorized to administer the Holy Sacraments. Sir Herbert Jenner Fust admitted the allegation, with the exception of the eleventh article, in which the principles of Methodism were laid down, and which would necessarily introduce into the cause matter entirely extraneous.

3.-Bombardment and capture of St. Jean d'Acre by the allied fleet, under the command of Admiral Stopford. The attack commenced about two o'clock, and became general at three. At twenty minutes past four a large magazine blew up, by which one entire regiment, on the ramparts, was sacrificed. During the night the place was evacuated. British loss, 22 killed and 42 wounded; Egyptians killed, about 2,000.

Surrender of Dost Mahomed Khan. Sir William Macnaghten writes to the Secretary of the Indian Government: "I was returning from my evening ride, and within a few yards of my own residence, when a single horseman galloped up to me, and having satisfied him that I was the envoy and minister, told me that Dost Mahomed Khan was arrived, and sought my protection. Dost Mahomed rode up to me, and alighted from his horse. After the usual salutation, I begged him to mount again, and we proceeded together to my residence, in the

compound of which I have pitched a tent for the ex-chief, and provided him with everything necessary for his comfort. He put his sword into my hand as a token of submission, but I at once returned it to him, and he seemed grateful for this mark of confidence."

3. Lyons inundated by the sudden and unlooked-for rising of the Saone. Many large bridges were carried away, and the torrent rushed with resistless force through some of the busiest and most populous streets of the city.

4.-Collision in the British Channel between the brigs Hopewell, of Cork, and the Yauden, of Gloucester. Five people on board the former drowned.

In opening the French Chambers, the King said: "The measure which the Emperor of Austria, the Queen of Great Britain, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Russia have taken in concert to regulate the relations between the Sultan and the Pasha of Egypt, has imposed serious duties upon me. I have the dignity of our country at heart, as well as its safety and its repose. In persevering in the moderate and conciliatory policy of which for ten years we have reaped the fruits, I have put France into a condition of facing any chances which the course of events in the East might bring about. The extraordinary credits which have been opened for this purpose will be immediately submitted to you: you will appreciate the motives of them. I continue to hope that the peace of Europe will not be troubled : it is necessary to the common interest of Europe, to the happiness of all nations, and to the progress of civilization. I count upon you to aid me in maintaining it, as I would count upon you if the honour of France and the rank which she occupies among the nations should command us to make new efforts." As the King's Speech was the subject of considerable interest in Britain, great efforts were made by the newspapers to obtain an early report, and the Morning Post expressed the pleasure it felt in being able to publish it first, within twenty-two hours and a half of the express leaving Paris.

10.-Exciting municipal contest in Edinburgh, caused by the state of Church parties. The non-intrusion party in the council, with some aid from the Tories, carry Sir James Forrest as Lord Provost, against Mr. Adam Black, by 17 to 14.

12.--John Thorogood relieved from Chelms ford jail, after an imprisonment of twenty