The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-12-30 00:00:00

CALAIS, DECi..MBIR

In the course of my travels in Germany many parts of
the country pre,entral a most fright ul picture from the late
inundations. During the journey from Ileswig to Ham-
burgh I saw some hundred miles laid under water ; the'
road in nv, rul places covered with it ; which obliged me ;
to tale circuitous routes through the fields. I often thought
I should have been carried down many currents, carriage
anti baggage, such was their rapidity. The scene around
was awful—houses nearly covered with water—in short,
the whcle appeared one vast sea or extensive lake. In
Hamburgli the water rose to so great a height as to cover
many of the streets, where boats were sailing, for tho
relief of the soarers in the shops and apartments under
ground, which are numerous in that city. Many parts of
the country about Weiner), Munster, Aix-la-Chapelle,
&c., are also overflowed. When I arrived at Brussels I
saw Mr. Stratford Canning. He and Sir C. Begot and
Lord Strangford had interviews. Sir Charles has unfor-
tunately lost hooks, prints, &c. to the amount of 2,0001.,
in a vessel iu which they v:cre sent to England from Peters-
' burgh.

The tax on dogs has givfn offence to many, who are
•bgntalical in their opinion of its injustice. One thousand
dogs, to my knowledge, were Hied after the law had
passed, and that, too, in a single village.
From Glum to the French frontier I found many parts
laid under water, which cite 'ldea to the very edge of the
road, on each side, and exhibited a woful picture, from Bur- '
rounding so many houses. OC•er parts in the direction of
thi • place (Calais) are test covered. Since last Sunday it
has blown the most tretittnilous gales at south-west ever
reeol'ected by the oldest inhabitant, with a heavy sea.
eaurday the temrsst was most frightful, when a ship ran
upon the send near the Pier-lead, where she now lies, with
her sails torn and flying like strings. Only one vess;:l has
arrived since last week, which was frost England, with
100,000/. of specie, from s London ermine, which has been
sent en front this place to Holland. During the hurricane
the thermometer of Fahrenheit remained pretty stationary,
it was two flays at S'. This morning, nine o'clock, it was
at S 7, and the wind changed to N.E.
'The inns here have profited by the storm, as they are
filled with persons who come daily from Paris, from the
Netherlands, and other parts, to embark.
Considerable improvements have been made here, by
makir.; footpaths in the streets and paving them, and
agreeable walks are now forming all round the ramparts.
There is an English congregation here, of which the Rev.
Sir. Liptrap is clergyman, whose young daughter officiates
as clerk. There are three services on Sunday—half-past
ten, half-past twelve, and six in the evening.

PLYMOUTH, Dec. addition to the preservation
of the officers and crew of his Majesty's ship Partridge, all
the stores, even the ballast, were saved. The vessel is left
high on the beach, and it is expected that she may be got
cif the next spring, for which purpose some of the crew
are left there; the remainder, with the officers, were con-
veyed from the island of Vlieland to Amsterdam, and from
thence by the canal to Rotterdam, where they arrive on
the 14th instant ; a vessel was engaged by the British Con-
sul to receive them on baard on the 16th, and land them at
Sheerness, so that they will soon be here, a vessel being
ordered for that purpose.
A FOICIED Tint.—There prevailed bete during Wed-
nesday afternoon a strong gale of wind from the N.W.
which in the evening chopped (rs sailors say) almost due
north, and brought such a mighty sea into the neigh-
bouring chan:iel, that our coast was visited with the
highest tide that has been experienced for several years.
—We regret to add that this tide occasioned a most
serious loin to two farm rs of Fislitoft. Messrs. Bailey and
Tete, whom it bereaved of no less than twenty-three sheep
that happened to be grazing on Fishtoft Marsb.—Boston
Gculte.

During a severe gale on Monday se'nnight, the wind-
mill belonging to Mr. Osborne, of Sible Iledingham, was
blown down. The man in the mill had a most providen-
tial escape. He was at the time upon one of the upper
floors, wben observing the danger to which he was expos. d,
at the instant before the mill tell he slid down by the sack
rope into the round-house. The mill was crushed to
atoms the nott tuomeut, but the miller escaped.—Bstry
Post.

Cores e.—ln the year 1534, coffee became known to the
inhabitants of Constantinople and was publicly sold in a
coffee-house, elegantly fitted for that pm pose ; and though
it was condemned by the Mufti, in consequence of the
clamours excited against the prevailing use of it, coffee
was still drank in private houses ; and the officers of the
police allowed it to be sold, on paying a tax, and under cer-
tain restrictions. It was not long, however, before these
restrictior.s were removed, and the sale of it became more
general than it had ever been. It is reckoned that as much
is spent by private families in the article of coffee at Con-
stantinople, as in wine at Paris. Thc custom of drinking
coffee is so general, that you are as much solicited there
fur money to drink coffee, as you are here for money to
drink your health in wine or beer : and among the legal
causes of divorce, the refusal to supply a wife with coffee
is one. Coffee wasnot introduced into the western parts of
Europe, till about the middle of the 17th century : the
Venetians were the first who imported it, and the custom
of drinking it in France, (at Paris in particular) was esta-
blished in the year 1669, during the stay of the Ambassador
from Sultan Mehemet the Fourth in that city. The first
use of coffee in London was earlier than at Paris ; for in
1632, the Greek servant of a Turkey merchant opened a
house fur the sale of it in George Yard, Lombard-street.
The first mention that is made of it in the statute books is,
in the year 1660, when a duty of four-pence was laid on
every gallon of coffee made and Oil, to be paid by the
malice ; and in 1673, King Chalks issued a proclamation
to shut up the coffee-houses, because they were seminaries
of sedition.

On Tuesday last Mr. Hope, a butcher, residing at Ep-
som, having directed a lad to take out a spirited horse be-
longing to him, and walk the animal up and down in front
of his house, the boy had no sooner got out of sight of
his toasters house than he was advised by a man to mount
the horse, which he accordingly till, and the moment he
was on the middle the horse act oilat full speed on the Lon-
don-road. In his career the horse came in contact with a
chaise-cart, the shock of which, at the rapid rate the animal
was going, entered his chest, and penetrated to the depth
of above a foot, and then broke off; leaving the broken pan
of the shaft in the wound. The boy was thrown into a
ditch with the shock; and received but little injury. The
poor animal, after having met with the shocking accident,
ran upwards of SO yards, and then dropped down dead in
the road.

Tue RICENT Bsc•re FROM YORK CAIPTLKWIII.
ham Reed, the prisoner who escaped from York Castle
along with Charles Holt and John Watson, on Sunday
night, the Sth inst., and who had contrived for so long to
elude the active exertions made use of for his re-capture,
has at length been apprehended, and is now safely lodged
in his former place of confinement. The means he made
use of to secure his retreat were conceived with great inge-
nuity, and carried into effect in a manner in wind', had
there been no Mer-pied in the way, were well adapted to
ensure his final success. It appears, that immediately on
his escape from our county prison, 11.7 exchanged his prison
dross in York, and secreted himself in a cow-house, at the•
village of l)ringbousca for several days. lie then pmeeeded
to the neighbourhood of Boutfract, whence be took the
road to Snaith, Market-Weighton, and Burlington. The
disguise lie had assumed rendered his recognition elmost
impossible. Ile appeared to be boih blind and very old.
and was led on by a boy, in this manner begging his way
from town to town until he arrived at the latter place. It
having been suspected that he might travel in that direc-
tion, bills describing his person were plentifully circulated
around, but the constable of Burlington, who took him
into custody at a halging-house in that town, on Friday
night last, though he hail before narrowly scrutinize'
would have let him escape, his disguise was so coral:.-te. it
it had not been fur the infortostion of a beggar-man who
had followed him for nearly forty miles, and who gave the
information which ultimately led to his apprehension. Ile
stated, that his object was to have got to Newcastle, where
be intended to procure employment as a collier. Ile was
brought inta York Castle on Sunday even:us.—Fort
C Trout.