junks at Hong Kong. The effect of our shots was soon visible, one junk being blown up, three sunk, and several others shattered and deserted by their crews. The remainder retired in great confusion to the anchorage above the battery.

4. Serious Chartist riots at Newport, Monmouthshire. According to a preconcerted arrangement numerous disaffected "hill men," thefly under the leadership of John Frost and Zephaniah Williams, commenced their march on Saturday night (2d), armed with guns, pistols, swords, crowbars, and pickaxes. Sacking the villages through which they passed, and compelling the adult male population to join them, they reached Tredegar Park about four o'clock this morning, 20,000 strong; there they waited two hours for another division from Pontypool and its neighbourhood, under the leadership of William Jones. This junction being effected, they formed into two divisions, and entered Newport, one marching down Snow-hill, the other through Charles-street, and both joining in the centre of the principal street. The magistrates, having private information as to the intention of the rioters, were at this time assembled in the Westgate Arms Inn, supported by a party of the 45th Foot, under the command of Lieut. Gray. Led by John Frost, the mob directed its course to the Westgate Inn, and at once proceeded to demolish the house and fire upon the soldiers within. Before a soldier was allowed to act, the magistrates attempted to restore peace by remonstrating with the deluded men. Finding this ineffectual, however, the Mayor (Mr. T. Phillips) gave the soldiers an order to load. "While the men were loading I heard several shots fired in the passage of the house, and the windows of the room containing the soldiers were beaten against on the outside. I was wounded in the arm and hip in the act of opening the windowshatter before the soldiers fired.' Lieut. Gray said: "I directed the men to spare their ammusition. We began with twenty-two rounds, aad fired about three upon the average. believe the mob fired deliberately upon us after we had unmasked ourselves by opening the window. I stood before them in my uniform, and the soldiers in a line behind me. We kad nine dead bodies." The rioters broke

under the steady fire of the soldiers, and retired to the outskirts of the town, carrying their wounded, and some of their dead, with

them.

Frost was apprehended next day, and on his person were found three pistols, a flask powder, and a large quantity of balls and percussion caps. Apart from the sanguinary character of this attack, another circumstance, investing it with special significance, was the comparative respectability and seriousness of the people concerned in it. They were mostly wa-paid, able-bodied workmen, and one was a master gardener who paid wages to others.

7.-Preliminary compulsory postage minute ssued by the Treasury.

7. The Duke of Sussex, presently a guest of the Earl of Durham, visits Newcastle, and is enthusiastically received. Sunderland and Durham were also visited.

8. Twelve lives sacrificed at Radstock Wells-way Pit, Somersetshire, by some malicious person cutting the rope which let the men down to the workings. The cage fell a distance of 756 feet.

9.-The Queen commands Lord Normanby to express to Mr. T. Phillips, the Mayor of Newport, her high approval of the conduct of himself and other magistrates, on the occasion of the recent outbreak there, and in token of which she afterwards conferred upon him the honour of knighthood.

At the Lord Mayor's dinner, Lord Melbourne, in returning thanks for "her Majesty's Ministers, was received with noisy signs of disapprobation. The tumult latterly became so outrageous and undignified, that the Lord Mayor was compelled to interfere, by declaring that the company were not paying that respect to himself and the Sheriffs which they had a right to expect. The disturbance was thought to be only partially due to political feeling, the chief incentive being the interference of the Ministry with City privileges.

12. Stockdale raises a new action against Messrs. Hansard, printers to the House of Commons, concluding for 50,000l. damages. Messrs. Hansard were instructed not to respond. The case was heard by the Under-Sheriff and a jury in Red Lion-square, who awarded 600/. damages.

Fire in Widegate-alley, Bishopsgate, in which eight lives were lost.

13.-General Willshire captures the important fortress of Khelat, after a severe encounter with Mehrab Khan, who, it was alleged, had instigated the tribes in the Bolan Pass to attack our troops.

14. The magistrates of Newport and Pontypool occupied almost daily in examining witnesses and committing prisoners concerned in the recent outbreak. Zephaniah Williams was captured off Cardiff on board a small vessel, on the eve of sailing for Oporto.

15.-Colone! Pasley, R.E., reports the discontinuance, for the present, of efforts to raise the wreck of the Royal George at Spithead. During the recent experiments, 12,940 lbs. of powder had been spent in blasting, and about 100 tons of wreck were raised.

16.-Service of plate, valued at 1,250 guineas, presented to Mr. Robert Stephenson, engineer, by the contractors of the London and Birmingham Railway, at a public dinner in the "Albion

tavern.

Died, at London, John Lander, African traveller, aged 32.

18.-Sudden illness of the Duke of Wellington, at Walmer Castle.

"

Special meeting of the Privy Council at Buckingham Palace, to hear the Queen intimate her intention of allying herself in marriage with Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg. "Precisely at 2," the Queen records in her Journal, "I went in. The room was full, but I hardly knew who was there. Lord Melbourne I saw looking kindly at me with tears in his eyes, but he was not near me. I then read my short declaration. I felt my hands shook, but I did not make one mistake. I felt more happy and thankful when it was over. Lord Lansdowne then rose, and, in the name of the Privy Council, asked that this most gracious and most welcome communication might be printed.' I then left the room-the whole thing not lasting above two or three minutes. The Duke of Cambridge came into the small library where I was standing, and wished me joy.' The Royal declaration was in these words: "I have caused you to be summoned at the present time in order that I may acquaint you with my resolution in a matter which deeply concerns the welfare of my people and the happiness of my future life. It is my intention to ally myself in marriage with the Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg and Gotha. Deeply impressed with the solemnity of the engagement which I am about to contract, I have not come to this decision without mature consideration, nor without feeling a strong assurance that, with the blessing of Almighty God, it will at once secure my domestic felicity and serve the interests of my country. I have thought fit to make this resolution known to you at the earliest period, in order that you may be fully apprised of a matter so highly important to me and my kingdom, and which I persuade myself will be most acceptable to all my loving subjects." Eighty-three members of Privy Council were present on this interesting

occasion.

24.-Abd-el-Kader proclaims war against the French in Algeria, and suddenly attacks their outposts. The immediate cause was said to be the recent expedition of the Duke of Orleans and Marshal Valée to the Iron Gates, through a portion of territory claimed by the Emir, but to which his title was doubtful.

29.-Lieut. Basil Gray, who commanded the military at Newport, gazetted to an unattached captaincy without purchase.

December 2.-In his address to the Congress, President Van Buren discusses at some

Died at her residence in Picardy-place, Edinburgh, Miss Innes of Stow, sister to the late Gilbert Innes, banker, whom she succeeded in a fortune estimated at not less than one million sterling.

3.-Inquest on the bodies of the ten rioters killed in the attack on the Westgate Arms Inn, Newport. Verdict, "That deceased came to their deaths through an act of justifiable homicide, by some persons unknown."

5.-A uniform postage-rate of fourpence per half-ounce on extra-metropolitan letters introduced, as preparatory to a penny rate. In the metropolitan district, the number posted rose from 39,000 to 60,000.

as

At Bandon, O'Connell to-day was more than usually full of exuberant "loyalty :”—“We must be we are loyal to our young and lovely Queen. God bless her! (Tumultuous cheering.) We must be-we are attached to the Throne, and to the lovely being by whom it is filled. She is going to be married! (Tremendous cheers from over thirty thousand persons congregated in the great area, and waving of handkerchiefs by hundreds of elegantly-dressed ladies, who crowded the hotel and other buildings.) I wish she may have many children as my grandmother had -two-and-twenty! (Immense cheering and laughter.) God bless the Queen! I am a father, and a grandfather; and, in the face of Heaven, I pray with as much honesty and fervency for Queen Victoria, as I do for any one of my own progeny. The moment I heard of the daring and audacious menaces of the Tories towards the Sovereign, I promulgated, through the press, my feelings of detestation and my determination on the matter. Oh! if I be not greatly mistaken, I'd get, in one day, 500,000 brave Irishmen to defend the life, the honour, and the person of the beloved young lady by whom England's Throne is now filled. (Exulting and protracted cheers.) Let every man in the vast and multitudinous assembly stretched out before me, who is loyal to the Queen, and would defend her to the last, lift up his right hand. (The entire assembly responded to the appeal.) There are hearts in those hands. I tell you, that if necessity required, there would be swords in them! (Great cheering.)

6.-The Emperor of China issues an edict

putting an end to British trade. Last servant of East India Company leaves.

9.-The President, Atlantic iron steamship, launched at Limehouse.

10. Special Commission opened at Monmouth, for the trial of the rioters in South Wales. Three hundred and fifteen special jurors were summoned, and twenty-four gentlemen of station sworn on the grand jury; thirty-eight prisoners awaited trial. The jury found a true bill for high treason against John Frost and thirteen others. The court adjourned to the 31st instant.

11. The Court of Directors of the East India Company unanimously pass votes of thanks to Lord Auckland, "for the sagacity and promptitude with which he had planned the expedition against Affghanistan, and the "real and vigour which he had displayed in preparing the troops for the field; to Sir John Keane, for his "great and eminent services, and for the invincible intrepidity and spirit manifested by him in the command of the army serving in Affghanistan ;" to the general, field, and other officers, commissioned and non-commissioned, and privates, European and native, for their "gallant and meritorious conduct, zeal, discipline, and bravery," during the expedition. At the Quarterly Court Sir Charles Forbes objected to the vote, and quoted the opinion of the Duke of Wellington, that they should wait till they saw the troops safely out of Affghanistan.

The Commission of the General Assembly pronounce another decision, which again brings it into collision with the civil courts. In 1837, a presentation of the Rev. Mr. Edwards to the living of Marnoch had been sustained by the Presbytery of Strathbogie. In 1838, the General Assembly determined to enforce the Veto law, and "remitted to the Presbytery to reject Mr. Edwards; but, 1839, the General Assembly again expressly ejoined the Presbytery not to take any steps wwards admitting Mr. Edwards. The Presbytery, however, preferring to obey the decison of the Court of Session and of the House of Lords, as given in the Auchterarder case, admitted Mr. Edwards to the living at Marsoch, by a majority of 7 to 4. Mr. Candlish, ater stating the facts at length, now submitted a motion to the Assembly to suspend the seven nisters forming the majority from xercise of any of their functions," and to ahorize the "remanent and unsuspended' members to "repone" any of their suspended brethren, who should "compear personally and rubscribe an assurance that they will submit hemselves to the judicataries of the Church in this and in all other matters, but not otherwise;" and, in the meanwhile, to procure a supply of stated ministerial services for the parishes under the care of the suspended clergymea The motion was supported by the Lord Provost of Glasgow; Dr. Brown, of Aberdeen; Dr. Burns, of Paisley; and Dr. Chalmers.-Dr.

"the

Lee denied that there was any law authorizing the Assembly to suspend the ministers.-Dr. Bryce said the Presbytery of Strathbogie had only obeyed the law of the land; and he moved an amendment-that the Commission approve of the conduct of the Presbytery, and refer the matter to the next General Assembly.-Dr. Muir proposed another amendment, expressing disapproval of the conduct of the Presbytery, appointing a Committee to confer with the Presbytery, and postponing all proceedings to the meeting of the General Assembly. It was decided, by a vote of 15 to 9, that the question should be taken on Dr. Muir's motion and Mr. Candlish's; when there appeared: For Dr. Muir's, 14; for Mr. Candlish's, 121. The announcement of numbers was received with loud cheers and clapping of hands by persons in the body and galleries of the Tolbooth Church, where the Commission sat. Protests against the decision were presented on behalf of the Strathbogie Presbytery, and by six members of the Assembly; also by the agent of the Presbytery: the latter declaring that each and all of the parties accessory to the vote just recorded should be held liable for the damage inflicted on the suspended ministers, by proceedings "arbitrary, illegal, oppressive, and in evident contempt of the law of the land."

17. At a meeting of the Court of Aldermen, one of the Sheriffs intimates that a writ had been served upon him while sitting on the Bench, intimating they would be held liable if they executed the process against Hansard.

20.-Indian promotions gazetted: Lord Auckland to be Earl; Sir John Keane, Baron of Ghuznee; and Macnaghten and Pottinger, Baronets. Several others were created Knights and C. B.'s.

- The Home Secretary writes to the Mayor of Birmingham acquitting the magistrates of any wilful neglect of duty during the riots of July.

22.-Strathbogie case. The Court of Session having granted an interdict on the application of the Rev. J. Cruickshank, and the six other ministers, members of the Strathbogie Presbytery, suspended by the Commission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scot land, the ministers who were appointed in conformity with the Assembly's order were thereby formally prohibited from entering the churches, churchyards, or school-houses, or in any manner interfering with the legal rights of the suspended ministers. In defiance, however, of this injunction, an exciting attempt was made this day (Sunday) to execute the sentence of suspension pronounced by the Commission of the General Assembly against two members of the Strathbogie presbytery, the ministers of Mortlach and Keith.

23. The republic of Hayti accedes to the conventions of November 30th, 1831, and

The

Died, aged 53, William Hilton, R. A. 31.-Trial of John Frost, for high treason, at Monmouth, before Chief Justice Tindal, Baron Parke, and Mr. Justice Williams. Attorney-General prosecuted, and Sir Frederick Pollock and Mr. Kelly defended Frost. At the commencement of the proceedings an objection was taken that the list of witnesses had not been delivered to the prisoner, in conformity with the statute. The Chief Justice reserved this objection for consideration by the judges at Westminster. Evidence was adduced showing the prisoner's complicity in various arrangements made for the outbreak, as well as his active participation in the excesses of the rising at Newport. James Hodge, one of the men whom Frost had compelled to march into Newport with him, said: "When we arrived at the Welsh Oak, the prisoner said the guns should take the front, the bludgeons next, and then the people without arms. On his giving these orders, I went up to him, to ask in the name of God what he was going to do. He said he was going to attack Newport, and take it, and blow up the bridge to prevent the Welsh mail from proceeding to Birmingham. There would be three delegates, he said, to wait for the coach there, an hour and a half after the time; and if the mail did not arrive, the attack was to commence at Birmingham, and from thence to the north of England; and that was to be a signal for the whole nation." The trial lasted till the 8th of January, when the jury brought in a verdict of guilty, with a recommendation to mercy. Williams was tried on the 9th, and Jones on the 13th January, when similar verdicts were returned. Upon this, five of the ringleaders withdrew their former pleas and pleaded guilty, on the understanding that their sentence should be commuted to transportation for life. On

the 16th, Chief Justice Tindal passed sentence of death on Frost, Williams, and Jones. On the 28th January the judges informed the Secretary of State for the Home Department, that a majority of their body, in the proportion of nine to six, were of opinion that the delivery of the list of witnesses was not a good delivery in point of law. In consequence of this difference of opinion, the sentence of death was remitted, and the three prisoners transported for life.

1840.

January 6.-Inquest held on the body of Mary Davis, the wife of a farmer, near Newport, who had committed suicide in consequence of threatening language used by a Chartist who called at her house for signatures to his petition. She was bewildered about the Chartists, she said, a few minutes before she died, and wanted to go out of the way. Verdict, "Temporary insanity."

Died at Bath, in her eighty-eighth year, Madame D'Arblay (Miss Burney), a distinguished authoress of the latter part of last century.

7. In a debate on the address in the French Chamber of Deputies, M. de Lamartine said: "France ought not to legitimize and make hereditary the dynasty of Mehemet Ali. To do so would be to proclaim war for a century against England in the East. That Power would never consent to recognise the existence of a Power which would hold the keys of the Arabian Gulf, and impede her intercourse with India. The system of policy with regard to the East ought to be to partition the lifeless and decaying empire of the Sultan. It was already crumbling to pieces, and every stone that fell from it would cause a shock, and struggle, and disturbance in Europe."

8.-Four lives lost on the ice in St. James's Park.

10.-Commencement of Rowland Hill's system of Penny Postage. The number of letters despatched from London was about four times the average quantity, and no less than seven-eighths were prepaid.

13.-Anti-Corn-Law banquet at Manchester, held in a pavilion erected for the purpose in Peter-street. A great gathering of operatives was held in the same place the following evening.

15. The Chinese Commissioner Lin publishes a letter to the Queen of England, "for the purpose of giving her clear and distinct information." Passing in review the various attempts of the Emperor to repress the opium trade, he concludes by an abstract of the new law about to be put in force. "Any foreigner bringing opium to the Celestial Land with design to sell the same, the principals shall most assuredly be decapitated and the acces

sories strangled, and all property found on board the ship confiscated. The space of a year and a half is granted within which if any bringing opium by mistake shall voluntarily deliver the same, he shall be absolved from all consequences of his crime."

15.-Hostile correspondence between Mr. Bradshaw, M.P. for Canterbury, and Mr. Horsman, M.P. for Cockermouth, arising out of a statement made by the latter to his constitents that the former "has the tongue of a trator, but lacks the courage to become a rebel." (See October 31, 1839.) To-day, in replying to Colonel Gurwood, who acted for Mr. Bradshaw, Mr. Horsman writes that this speech "was a public insult to his Sovereignthat Sovereign a lady, and the only lady in her dominions without those natural protectors who, in a more humble rank, would have secured her from being insulted with impunity. Under these circumstances, I conceive it to be the right and the duty of every bal subject to come forward in her defence, and be as ready to guard her character as to protect her person; and as Mr. Bradshaw, on the most public occasion he could find, thought fit to assail her Majesty, in the most unmeasured terms, and for which he knew he could not be held accountable, he has little right to complain that I on another public occasion, with reference to his speech, used equally strong terms in repelling its disloyal aspersions," A "meeting" was therefore arranged, which took place at Wormwood Scrubbs. Shots were interchanged without effect. Mr. Bradshaw thereafter caused his second to express regret for the language made use of, which he felt on reflection was unjust towards

ber Majesty.

16.-Parliament opened by the Queen in person. The first paragraph in the Royal Speech made reference to the impending marhage with Prince Albert, which it was hoped ght be "conducive to the interests of my ple, as well as to my own domestic happi

Notice was then taken of the concluof the civil war in Spain, the continued pates with Persia and China, the success of arms in India, and that spirit of insubGrination at home which had in some parts ken out into violence, but had been "speedily pressed by the firmness and energy of the strates, and by the steadiness and good act of my troops." 22 In the debate on the Atress, the Duke of Wellington insisted that 2 was necessary Prince Albert should be described as a Protestant, and Lord Melbourne imately consented to the insertion of the

though he thought it at the same time necessary, and even prejudicial. Everybody Aew not only that he was a Protestant, but descended from the most Protestant family in Europe-In the Commons the Address was agreed to without a division, and after a short debate, confined mainly to the negotiations between Lord Howard de Walden and the Por

tuguese Government as to the slave trade. Before the Royal Speech was read in the Lower House, Lord John Russell carried a motion relating to a breach of privilege, in so far as the Sheriffs of Middlesex had awarded damages against Messrs. Hansard.

17.-Stockdale, the printer, committed to the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms for contempt of the House and high breach of privilege in raising a second action against Messrs. Hansard. (See Nov. 12, 1839.) Mr. Pemberton delivered an elaborate speech to prove that the House was taking a most injudicious and unprecedented course on the question of privilege. They should not only attack subordinates, but Lord Chief Justice Denman; who, if summoned, would reply as Holt did on the Bombay case, that when summoned in due course of law to explain his judgment, he would do so, but not otherwise. Lord John Russell's motion for committal was carried by 239 to 135.

20. Rev. Sydney Smith writes to the Times: "As my friend, Lord John Russell, having destroyed the Bishops, is now busy sending the Judges to gaol, I shall be obliged to you to insert the following protest against his demolition of Deans and Chapters, which, I understand, is to be brought on as soon as the Queen's Bench is safe in the Poultry Compter." The protest was embodied in nineteen objections. A petition from the reverend Canon was presented to the House of Lords during the session by the Bishop of Rochester.

Debate in the Commons on the Privilege Question. Lord John Russell's motion, that the prosecution in the case of Stockdale was 'in contempt" of the privileges of the House, was met by an amendment from Mr. F. Kelly, proposing that Messrs. Hansard be indemnified against all costs and actions sustained by them.-Sir Robert Peel supported the Ministry, contending that whatever privilege was necessary for the proper and effectual discharge of its functions the House of Commons possessed; that the particular privilege of free publication not liable to be questioned by a court of law was absolutely necessary; and that there was no security for the proper and effectual discharge of that privilege unless they were enabled by their own declared power to vindicate it. Lord John Russell's motion was carried by 205 to 90 votes.-Next day Mr. Fitzroy Kelly presented a petition from the Sheriffs of London, expressive of their sorrow at having incurred the displeasure of the House of Commons in Stockdale's case, and stating that they had acted in the belief that it was their duty to their sovereign and the Court of Queen's Bench, whose sworn servants they were. The House resolved, by a majority of 101, that they had been guilty of a breach of privilege, and should be committed to the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms.

Bill for the naturalization of Prince Albert passes through all its stages in the House of