The Wheeling repository — Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.], 1807-05-14 00:00:00, page 3

Historic At. Akrcoott. j
When the Allies who were command
ed by Prince Ferdinand, invested Min
den (in March 1758), the besiegers
erected their batteries at a small distance
from a water-mill, which stood between
them and the town ; the upper part of
which was wood, and the lower part
stone. On the day when the bombard
ment began, the family fled ; but, in their
haste and confusion, a child about four
years old was left, in a small house, by
the mill. When the battle was over
some of the English soldiers went to
examine the premises. The upper part
of the mill was full of holes, like unto a
cullender, and the lower part, with the
house, was very much damaged: but that
which most astonished them was the
child, which they found in the house,
quite unhurt. Its clothes were nearly
ull shot away, and its skirts, almost up
to its loins, cut off as clean as if they had
been cut with a razor ; but not a bail
had entered any part of the child’s body,
nor cut the flesh, nor even grazed the
akin—A striking proof that every ball
that flies is subject to the controul of a
wise and gracious providence, without
whose permission not even a sparrow
tails to the ground.
[Gentleman's Mag.]
That person is properly my lord and
master, who hath it in his power to gra
tify my wishes, or to inflict my fears :
to give me what I desire to have, or to
take from rue what I am loath to part
with. The on/// suai/, then, to preserve
one’s liberty, is to restrain one’s own
passions, and to have ne ither desire nor
aversion for any thing in the power or
others; for he that does not so, is sure
to lie a slave as long as he lives.
[ Epic tetus.]
INTELLIGENCE.
Schffdam, January 20.
It is our melancholy task again to ad
vert to the dismal c .t istrophi which oc
curred at Leyden, on Monday, the 12di
instant, and to confess that no pen can
exaggerate the horrors of that mournful
scene. We are credibly informed by an
eye uitn ,, that scarcely a single house
or building has escaped without da
mage; md that on the K penbu.g,
where the deplorable event occurred,
the houses, to a large extent, arc level
.1* d with the ground. At the awful mo
ment, m\ny families were sitting at din- I
ner with their friends, and thus precipit
ated into eternity;fathers, mothers, chil
dren, servants, all were rapidly hurried
. to one promiscuous grave. Husbands j
have lost their consorts and their off
spring, and wives their husbands and
their sires. Of the number of the dead,
various conjectures have been formed ;
many respectable persons have been dug
out and others are known to lie still in
the ruins. Among the dead are several
of the most respectable families in the
city, and many strangers then on visits.
Property to a large amount has been lost,
great part of which is irrecoverable ; and
many of the necessaries of life spoiled
by the showers of broken glass, which
filled the shops and apartments.
The King, on learning the accident, in
stantly repaired thither in person, alter
having ordered the guards and fire en
gines to follow', lie remained the
whole night in the streets, not without
shedding tears of commiseration, and
assisting in person to recover and release
those who lay buried in the ruins, and
encouraged others by rewards to exert
themselves in the glorious work of hu
manity. Pro\isions, money, artificers,
' i • « • t . r
every thing, has since been sent irom tne
Hague and others cities, to comfort and
relieve the wretched sufferers.—A few
have had wonderful escapes ; while o
thers, on the point of being rescued,
while blessing Providence for their pre
servation, while promising rewards for
their deliverers, were crushed to death
by the sudden falling of beams imper
ceptibly resting on or withheld by ob
stacles which had been removed. Close
to the vessel which blew up lay a yacht,
onboard of which were from 15 to 20
persons, not a vestige of whom was to
be found.—The cause of this dreadful
catastrophe no one can either ascertain
or conjecture. The quantity of powder
on board is estimated at about 40,0001b
weight, which was fatally and unac
countably confided to the care of two
voting men, brothers,and a servant man.
Two Professors of the University
are stated to have been killed, and se
veral other persons in that celebrated
seminary. It 1 >eing fortunately vaca
tion, great numbers of the students were
absent; and those who were present are
said to have escaped.
The King, with thatpeculiar goodness
which characterizes him, repaired for
the second time to Leyden on Friday
last i visited the wounded and maimed,
ascended the ruins, mixed with the la
bourers there, and encouraged them to
presevere in their unwearied diligence. -
On receiving the thanks of the magir
trates and clergy, he returned them the
most amicable answer, asked after indi
vidual losses, and left them with these
words : “ The dead I connot rstore to
you, that is above human power/but
all that I can, will I do for your city.”
His Majesty made an offer of the Palace
in the wood to such respectable persons
as had been deprived of their habitations,
or which were rendered uninhabitable ;
an offer which has been accepted with
gratitude.
H is Majesty has empowered the ma
gistrates of this unfortunate city to make
a general collection throughout the
whole kingdom ; and ordered that 100
000 gilclers, out of the treasury, be left,
at the disposal of the minister of the
home department, for relieving the most
pressing necessities of the poor, and
those who have lost their all.
Several persons have been taken out
alive from under the ruins ; but some
| expired almost immediately afterwards.
_( ^ rp M t nnmKpfc: c.t i n l ip IrnriPrl tViP
rubbish forming such vast heaps that a
considerable time will be required to
clear them.
After the explosion, which was awful
in the extreme, several fires broke out
by the scattering of the lighted turf and
coal in the hearths; and this calamity
unfortunately drew off, for a while, the
attention of the citize ns from their suf
fering fellow creatures, pining and la
menting beneath the ruins of their habit
ations, but shortly before the seat of
hilarity and social intercourse.
A Jewish school suffered considera
bly ; sixteen children in it are said to
have lost their lives. A charity school
near it metthe same fate. Dead bodies
of children near the spot are discovered
from time to time. Fifty children at a
hoarding school narrowly escaped by the
collision of two walls which supported
thebeams and roof ; two, however, were
crushed to death: and a third died short
ly afterwards in its father’s arms. Those
who were saved rushed into the court
yard, where they were shortly after
wards joined by their eager hut trem
bling parents, and there ensued a scene
of tenderness, which may be imagined,
but cannot be described. —
Huntingdon, April 30.
Two young Girls, one 9, the other 1A