The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7. ISP6.

THE NEW REGISTRATION OF

BIRTHS.

The following is a copy of a circular letter which has been issued to
the clerks of the Boards of Guardians throughout the country :
" Poor Law Commission Office, Somerset House,
August 27, 1836.
" SlR—The Commissioners of Poor Laws for England and Wales re-
quest you to call the immediate attention of the Guardians to the im-
portant public trusts with which the Legislature has invested them by
the provisions of the Act of the 6th and 7th William IV., cap. 86, for
the establishment of a registration of births, deaths, and marriages in
England ; and also of the Act of the 6th and 7th William IV., cap. 85,
fa* the regulation of marriages in England, which Acts received the
Royal Assent on the 17th instant.
" The Commissioners have (Erected that a copy of each of these Acts
shall be herewith transmitted for the information of the Board.
" On reference to the 7th section of the Act for the establishment
of a registration of births, deaths, and marriages, it will be perceived
that the duty which first devolves upon the Guardians is to divide the
union into such districts as they may deem the most convenient, and
as the Registrar-General may approve, to be registrars' districts' for
the registration GP the births, deaths, and marriages which may take
place within them.
" It will be perceived—(l) That the division into districts must be
made—(2) The districts named, and—(3) A statement of such proposed
division forwarded to The Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, and
Marriages,' for his approval, on or before the Ist day of October next,
" The other duties (in relation to the last-named Act) with which the
Guardians are invested are less pressing as to the time of their perform-
ance; but the Commissioners now advert to them because the conside-
ration of the appointments of the local registrars may, to some extent,
influence the determination of the proper districts for registration.
" In case you, as the clerk to the board,should not yourself think fit to
undertake the office of superintendent registrar of the district, or should
not be deemed to possess the qualifications which the Registrar General
may, by any general order, declare to be necessary, or in case your ap-
pointment should not be approved by the Poor Law Commissioners, it
will then be the duty of the Guardians to appoint some other person who

possesses the requisite qualifications to be the superintendent registrar.
" It will next be the duty of the Guardians to appoint persons to be
registrars for each of the registrar's districts into which the union shall
have been divided.

" Each person appointed as a local registrar must possess such qualifi-
cations as the Registrar General may by any general rule declare to be
necessary. If the person appointed as registrar by the Guardians be an
officer of the union, his appointment will be subject to the approval of
the Poor Law Commissioners.

" The duties of the registration of the births, deaths, and marriages
(which it is expected on the average may be about twenty-nine births,
nineteen deaths, and seven marriages, in every thousand of the popula-
tion), will not in general suffice to occupy more than a small portion of
the time of any person within a district of convenient distance from the
local registrar, or from the superintendent registrar, and the probable
emoluments would be inadequate to obtain the exclusive services of a
person properly qualified; as the duties may also, in general, be conve-
niently performed by the paid officers of the union, from the tenor of the
Act it is suggested that it was the intention of the Legislature that the
several offices should be performed by the paid officers of the union,
where no obstacles to that arrangement exist.
" The Commissioners trust that when the time arrives for nuking
these appointments, the Guardians will appoint those officers whose
ordinary duties are the most consistent with the duties of regis-
tration. It appears by the schedule (B) appended to the afire.
said Act, that the Legislature has declared that in the registration
of deaths, the cause of death shall be recorded; it is evidently impor.
tent that this record should be made with care and exactness; and for
this purpose the Commissioners consider that the public would
derive advantage from the duties of the office of registrar being per-
formed by a medical officer of the union, when those duties are not in-
consistent with his engagements, and he may be disposed to perform
them.

" These officers will be the better qualified to perform these duties,
amongst other reasons, from having been accustomed, in pursance of
the orders of the Commissioners to keep a register of the sickness and
mortality amongst the classes in receipt of parochial relief, in which re-
gister it has been prescribed that the known or supposed cause of the
disease and death shall be recorded.

" Where the medical officers may decline accepting the office of regis-
trar, it appears to the Commissioners that the class of officers next best
qualified to perform the business of registration are the collectors of the
peor.rates appointed by the Board of Guardians.
" The Commissioners are of opinion that where paid collectors are
appointed, or may be appointed, to collect the rates for the union, those
officers will, as compared with the relieving officers, possess superior
qualifications for the performance of the duties of the office of registrar,
inasmuch as the business ofcollection, with occasional and comparatively
rare exceptions, requires them to visit every house in the union, and in
the occasion of such visits gives them opportunitiel ofmaking inquiries
with relation to the business of registration. The duties of the collec-
tors are isl other respects regular, and it is also their duty to make en.
tries, as collectors, with exactness and regularity, which are the quail&
cations of a registrar,

" Where any medical officers are willing to accept the office of re-
gistrar, and an appointment is made from the officers of another class,
the Commissioners request that the reasons for the preference may be
stated to them, in order to judge of their adequacy, as grounds for the
approval of the appointment. So also where the paid collector of the
rates of the union is willing to accept the appointment (the medical
officers being unwilling), but a preference is given to an officer of another
class, it is requested that the grounds of the preference should be fully
stated.

" Where paid officers of the unions are appointed as registrats, it is
desirable that registrars' districts should as far as possible be made coin-
cident with the district of the officer appointed ; that being usually a
district traversable from one extremity to another in the daily perfor-
mance of the duties of the office. Each district must, however, be
made coincident with known boundaries, such as those of parishes,
townships, or hamlets.

" The Commissioners have merely indicated such arrangements as it
appeared to them would be found most conformatle to the business of the
union, and to the attainment of the objects of the Legislature, as re-
gards the business of registration.

" You will obtain by reference to the Act itself, the requisite infor-
mation as to the particular duties of the officers, and as to other material
points, which do not come within the province of the Commissioners.
" Signed, by order of the Board,
EDWIN CHADWICK, Secretary.
" To the Clerk of the Board of Guardians."

The following is a copy of a letter from the Secretary to the Poor_
Law Commissioners, in answer to an inquiry as to the formation of
temporary districts for registration :

" Poor. Law Commission Office, Somerset House, 1836.

" In reply to your letter of inquiry with relation to the appointment
of local registrar, the Poor-Law Commissioners for England and Wales
direct me to state that wherever there is any immediate prospect of
any parishes which are not placed under the control of a Board instituted
under the Poor-Law Amendment Act, being in the course of the pre_
sent year included in an Union, it will not be conducive to the objects of
the Legislature to form temporary districts for registration, or appoint
officers, or mate other arrangements which must be superseded when
the parishes are placed under the control of Boards of Guardians,

" The Commissioners will not, therefore, exercise their power of ap-
pointing local registrars until, from the progress made by their Assts.
tant Commissioners, it should appear that the public business would be
more impeded by the delay in the formation of Unions, than by the
change of the arrangements when the temporary districts and the tem-
porary officers shall be snperse,ded by the paid officers of the new Unions.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
" Your very obedient servant,
"EDWIN CHADWICK, Secretary.
" The Commissioners are unable to inform you as to the time at which
any proceedings will probably be taken with relation to the district for
which you propose yourself as a local registrar."

In the night of the 24th ult., a tremendous storm
raged at Auch, in the Gers. The gusts of wind were so vio-
lent, that several houses were blown down, and upwards of
forty of the inhabitants crushed to death in the ruins. The
whole country round is rendered desolate. The vineyards are
totally destroyed.

About five weeks ago a weaver, residing in Green..
street, Arbroath, named Robert Mill, interred his wife in the
churchyard of Arbirlot, after a very short illness. It was im-
mediately whispered that the husband had acted foully, and
that a public inquiry should be instituted to satisfy the relatives
of the deceased. The rumour acquired strength from various
circumstances ; and on Monday week the public authorities
having become acquainted with the current suspicion of mur-
der, caused Mill to be apprehended, and the body to be disin.
terred, when the stomach and viscera were extracted by sur-
geons, in order to be tested by a chemical process. The ex-
citement of the populace was extreme during the whole of the
time occupied by the examination of the medical gentlemen,
which lasted till midnight on Tuesday. Mill's deposition was
to be taken on Wednesday morning ; but, ere it dawned, he
had gone to give his evidence at another tribunal 1 The jailor,
on going to his apartment, at 7 o'clock, found him suspended
to the iron stauncheons of the window, and Dr. Cochran, upon
being called, declared him to have been dead several hours
before. From the exceeding smallness of the cord, the in-
dent in the neck was fully an inch in depth, and it was rather
a surprise that the cord did not break. There was no cover-
ing on the body hitt the shirt, which shows that he had formed
the fearful resolution while in bed, and had instantly put it in
force. The result of the examination of the contents of the
stomach of the wife has not yet transpired. The public are
naturally construing Mill's suicide as an index of guilt, but
now, as a matter of course, no accurate judgment can be pro.
flounced.

We learn from the Gentleman's Magazine, that in
the year 1765, a petition of the peruke-makers was presented
to his then Majesty George 111., setting forth the distresses
of themselves, and an incredible number of others dependent
upon them, from the almost universal decline of the trade, oc-
casioned by the then mode of men in all fashions wearing their
own hair; and by the French hair-dressers continually pouring
in upon this nation, by whose artifices, and the facility with
which the British public are inclined to prefer French skill
and taste in every article of dress, they were deprived of a
great part of that pittance which the change of fashion still
left it in their power to obtain. To this petition the King re-
turnea a kind and gracious answer, assuring them that " he
would at all times use his best endeavours to promote their
wishes." In ridicule of this sally of the barbers, a mock peti-
tion was set on foot from the Company of " body carpenters,"
as they were styled, imploring his Majesty to wear a wooden
leg himself, and to enjoin the same honourable badge upon all
his Court.

It is stated that within seven miles of Kiddermin-
ster there bad not, for twelve weeks, a drop of rain fallen in
the neighbourhood. In some parts of Gloucestershire leaves
were plucked from the trees, with which the cattle %vac fod-
dered, owing to the scarcity of grass.
A SUITABLE SIGN.—The following very appro•
priately connected sign may be seen at Dewsbury Agent
for the sale of Morrison's llygeiau pills." Just above is
Brown, joiner and coffin maker."—Doncaster Ga-
zette. _

It is worthy of remark that on the Oxford circuit
there was no trial for murder; whereas; on the previous cir-
cuit there were no less than 12 trials for murder. On this
circuit there was an unusual number of persons tried for high-
way robbery and housebreaking, committed with great per-
sonal violence ; and three of the former, who were natives of
the sister kingdom, were executed at Shrewsbury.
HERRING FISIIING.—This occupation, of so much
importance to Berwick, Spittal, and its neighbourhood, has
latterly proved very successful. The shoals of herrings off the
coast have been great. Several boats deeply laden have lately
entered the river, and the average has been no less than from
25 to 50 crans per boat. The herrings arc also of a superior
quality.

A CORONER'S INQUEST.

(From the new a::d most amusing Novel " Bilberry
Thurland.")

AN EXACT MODEL OF MANY GREAT MEN'S ORATIONS.
Should the reader feel not in a mood for relishing moving
scenes and affecting discourses, we hereby forewarn him not
to proceed further in the perusal of this chapter than the
present sentence. The death of Bilberry's companion was
sufficiently touching ; but we may venture to assert that
the inquest upon his body, and the solemn deliberations of
the jurymen, will be found beyond comparison to excite pity
and terror to a much more fearful degree. So much un-
tutored sapience, so deep a gravity, as were then shown,
and so many tender hearts as were there assembled together
on such a tragical occasion, surely cannot fail to excite piti-
ful emotions in the breast of whoever shall peruse this story.
And yet we know there are in the world a kind of pumpkin-
headed witlings who love to snake an exhibition of their
philosophy by laughing over a corpse, and turning to mirth
the collected sagacity and feelings of a whole parish or hun-
dred. If the reader be one of this kidney, we pronounce
him a goose beforehand, and recommend him to lay our
book down, that he may violate no man's pathetics by an
unseasonable merriment. For, though it be admitted that
some people do clothe their grief in a very odd garment,
yet should he once open his mouth to laughs before the ver-
dict is finally given, he may, without further consideration
or inquiry, set himself down as a cinder with not a single
tear in his tanks.
Throughout the preceding evening the parish constable
had been so busily employed in summoning together the
brain-pith and marrow of the place, that by half after ten
on this melancholy morning there was scarcely a sage head
within his jurisdiction that was not in attendance. Noah's
Ark was the sign adopted by the benevolent village publican
who the evening before had given Bilberry half a pint of ale,
and whose house was now selected for the holding of the
inquest. Many of the sapient parishioners had objected to
sitting over the body under such a sign, because it was so
directly, and as it were in the teeth of Providence, opposed
to a case of drowning ; while others of equal philosophic
light took the matter in the opposite scale, and pronounced
that no sign ever hung by man could be more appropriate
to the case in hand, it having a certain connexion with the
Great Deluge. And these last logicians were they that
carried the day, though their victory is not rashly to be
taken as evidence of the better cause ; inasmuch as, when
the case is fairly and impartially examined, it will be found
that the most prevailing argument for holding the inquest
there was, because there stood within ten miles round no,
other house at which it could be held.

The body having been .previously removed from the
curate's house to the inn, there was plenty of time, before
the arrival of the coroner and jury, for all tender-hearted
people to gratify that certain strong curiosity which cannot
but be felt on these unfortunate occasions, to inspect the
corpse of the deceased. Very early in the morning most of
the hangers-on and idlers of the village had assembled about
the doors of Noah's Ark,—as curious a company of strange
animals as ever entered the door-way of that more ancient
vessel from which it took its name,—and by their numbers
plainly pointed out that the place was about to become the
scene of something extraordinary. In short, during several
hours prior to the sitting of the inquest, it was a complete
rendezvous for both the curious and the careless ; and might
rather have been mistaken for the entrance to a penny show,
than judged for what it was in reality. Numberless were
the gossips who passed in to take a glance of the body, and
came out to prophesy to one another by what means, if they
had been tried, his life would in all probability have been
restored.

The good landlady herself, who by the great projection of
her stomach might have been taken for a near relation to

the famous Mrs. Burton, was all morning in a state of un-
common agitation in consequence of the recent melancholy
event ; rising from her breakfast half a score times, and
working. up and down stairs from the bar to the room in
which the corpse was laid, and back again, like a perpetual
motion ; lamenting all the while that such little things as
him should be so suddenly cut off before they bad arrived
at the age of manhood.
The bar-maid, a pretty creature,—the kitchen-maid, an-
other pretty creature, with red fore-arms like two mangel-
wurzel roots,—and the out-of-door-work wench, a sweet
specimen of full-grown female mortality, had never any one
of them seen a dead body in their lives ; but knowing that
they themselves must eventually come to the same condition,
they expressed an earnest and serious desire to behold the
body, that they might be the more forcibly reminded of their
own latter ends : therefore, with permission of their mis-
tress, each one of them, severally and respectively, took a
very alarming look at the poor creature on the table. In
like manner also, until the assembling of the jurors, was a
great body of the virtuosos, curiosos, and antiquarians of the
village wonderfully gratified.

When the combined brains of the country side were
brought to a point, and the coroner for that division of the
county had taken his official seat, Bilberry was summoned
as a principal witness. When he entered the room, two or
three purblind jurors mistook him fbr one of the curate's
scarecrows ; since, as he now learned for the first time,
that gentleman was in the habit of dressing sticks in his old
clothes, just as he had dressed witness, and erecting them,
like so many clerical students, along the borders of his onion-
beds and pea-rows. This degrading mistake being rectified,
Bilberry was called upon to state what he knew touching
the accident by which the poor youth, over whom this in-
quest was held, had lost his life. In answer to which our
hero had the surprising satisfaction of telling over again, for
the third time, the same astonishing tale to nearly the same
audience ; since least three-fourths of the jurymen were
present the previous evening when he first told it over the
landlord's ale, while the remaining few strangers had doubt-
less heard it repeated by every mouth they had met on the
high-roads)since. The majority having thus some small
previous insight into the facts of the case, he was not
troubled with many questions and was soon dismissed.

Next were called in the men who had fished the body out
of the mill-dam, whilst half the population of the village,
either as aiders and abettors or spectators, waited outside
to attest, if needful, the truth- of their statement that it was
taken out, one of the selected jurymen having previously
propagated his belief that the law required much evidence
on that particular ; so that every charitable soul, wishing
to forward the ends of justice, thus generously left his pri-
vate business at a stand•still in order that he might attend
to the business of the public, which would have gone on
equally well without him. These men having deposed to
the taking out, and, by dint of much speaking, at length
satisfactorily answered the interrogations of the learned jury
as to whether the head or the heels came first,—if the beat-
ing of the heart could be perceived,—and whether the boy
spoke after being taken out or not, were dismissed likewise.
Then four huge fellows, whose bare words could hardly be
taken, deposed on oath that they drained him, and found
the body like a bottle of liquor. Various other sequent and
less consequential matters having also been attested to,
the jurymen felt satisfied with the perfect fulness and
truth of what had been adduced, and proceeded to take a
view of the body. Then the coroner addressed the jurors
in the following eloquent speech, which we give exactly as
delivered by the official orator himself :
" Gentlemen," said he, " on rising to address you on this
heart-rending, awful, and most tremendous occasion, .I am
quite conscious that it is an absolute impossibility for any Jan- -
guage, either English, Greek, or Hebrew, to do justice to the
most amazing excitement of my own feelings. Feeling as I do,
Gentlemen,—and feeling as you also must do, 1 think your
own feelings will better explain to you how I feel than—
than—in fact, Gentlemen, to sum it all up in a few words,
I feel myself to be of the most wretched description.
" Having this poor boy here before us lying dead, and at
full length, like a spring-onion pulled at an unexpected mo-
ment from its parent earth,—viewing, as we all do, this
corpse before our eyes, stiff in death, and returned to it's
mother dust,—perceiving, as even the most ignorant of us
must perceive, that death in like manner will in all proba-
bility one day or other make us no more than the equals of
this ; what emotions, what sublime and terrific sensations,
must fill our minds! For my own part, Gentlemen, I must
saY,—and 1 speak it with all pomposity,—l feel very grand ;
and at the same time that I express that sentiment, I shall
beg also to be permitted to hope that I may be allowed to
express another. And what is this other ? It is one, Gen-
tlemen, in which I confidently trust to find you all unani-
tnously acqueeze with me. In plain language then, and to
come at once to the business of this morning, I trust, Gentle-
men, it will be universally admitted that you have now heard
all the evidence which has been delivered in your hearing.
• That is a position which, let me trust, I may assume with
confidence ; for I hope no doubt remains upon any of your
minds of your not having heard what has been advanced by
this respectable body of witnesses. However, it still, not-
withstanding, yet remains with me, as coroner for this north-
ern division•of our native county—a county which I may
say, without flattery or egotistical insinuations, contains with-
in its own limits some portion of the first intellect of the
known world,---!'a county, Gentlemen, in which the best hogs
are bred, and which abounds in that pride and ornament of
the human race, lovely and delicious women ; a county
celebrated in the annals of our island as the scene of
some of our most determined and obstinate elosagenients
with those northern barbarous invaders the much-boasted
Romans ; though, if I am to express my own opi-
nion upon the character of that foreign people, of whom
some of the most learned of us have read the history
of the notorious Doctor Goldsmith, a clever man in his
way, but who met With but small encouragement, which
I am sorry to say is too often the fate of genius ; for
—would you believe it, gentlemen ?—I have read in some
of my books that Mr. Goldsmith lived once in Green-
Arbour-court, which I am happy to be able to inform you,
from my own ocular inspection, as I have been in London,
is a nasty, dark, contemptible alley against that huge pri-
son the Old Bailey.—The Old Bailey, did I say ?—yes,

gentlemen, the Old Bailey, that sink-bole of corruption, and
all that is abominable in human nature. For surely, gentle-
men, it can be no new information to you, that all the scum
and off-scouring of society is daily poured into the prison so
• called ; though, for what reason, I believe is not satisfac-
torily known. If then, gnntletnen. as a n'itive of this comity,
and a subject of these mighty realms, whose dominion of the
seas is indisputed from the eastern to the western poles,
and from the tropic of Capuchin to the tropic of Crab,—if,
as a free-born Englishman, and a loyal subject of the King,
I may be allowed to express my private opinion of the Ro-
man nation, I shall say, in the beautiful language of one of
our 'own newspapers, it was too contemptible to he worthy
of notice. And with that I dismiss that shabby people
from my recollection. "
And now, gentlemen of tine jury, I am arrived at that
part dray present charge in which I feel myself called upon
to say a few words upon the subject of my speech. But I beg
to observe in the first place, that it is not my intention to oc-
cupy much of your very valuable time in dwelling upon that
with which you are already so well acquainted. It is needless
for me to remark that when the body now before us was
taken out of the water, all signs of life had fled. But, gen_
tlemen, I do feel it incvmbent on me to observe upon
that fact ; that though to your well-known ignorance
it might appear that therefore the vital spark itself was
fled, yet I have to inform you hose in some particular
cases a man may be drowned and alive at the same
time. For this discovery I believe the world is indebted
to the great Sin Isaac Newton, or, as he is sometimes
poetically termed, the Immortal Bard of Avon. He it was,
gentlemen, who first demonstrated that animation may be
what is philosophically termed, suspended ; as, for instance,
when a man hangs himself up on a beam. There we have
a proof positive of what that great oculist denominated sus-
pended animation. In the same manner, a body like this
on the table may appear to your weak eyes to be dead,
when at the same time the vital spark is yet alive. Hence
it is, that on occasions of this kind the body is blown into;
either by bellows or mouth, for the purpose of setting that
spark again in a blaze of life and glory. The present case,
it appears, was not a case of this kind ; though the Reverend
Mr. Jagger, our invincible curate, did try every remedy to
no purpose. The boy, it appears, voluntarily went into the
water ; therefore it is not a case of murder. There does
not appear to have been any assault and battery committed
by which an accident might have occurred : the whole cir-
cumstances are clear, and lucid, and translucent. In the
last place, then, I hope you will consider amongst yourselves
what verdict the case may to you seem to require ; and
with that hope I throw myself with confidence on your
integrity and good sense.
" Firmly relying, gentlemen, on the proper discharge of
your duties before this neighbourhood, the country, and the
world, I leave the matter in your hands, fully convinced
that you will speedily come to such a decision as shall seem
in all its bearings of a character worthy to emanate from
the suns of your superior wisdom."
The coroner sat down amidst a buzz of admiration and
applause.
The jurymen declared they saw the merits of the case
exactly as had been described in the excellent speech of
their coroner ; notwithstanding which, there was an obstacle
remaining to the giving in of their verdict,—they could not
agree in their opinions ; almost every man having one
peculiar to himself, and which he esteemed as too highly
valuable to be surrendered merely for the sake of pleasing
his neighbours. One was for a verdict, that the deceased
died by the visitation of God ; another, for temporary in-
sanity ; a third, for cramp in the stomach ; while a fourth
long-headed fellow, more deep than all the rest, would
neither agree with his friends, nor deliver an opinion of his
own beyond this,—that, bring in whatever verdict they
might, a deodand of six shillings-the value of the boy--
ought to be laid on the river. This notion was set aside
by the coroner himself, who burst into a loud laugh, and
inquired of the philosopher who promulgated it, from whence
he would get his money.
They argued two hours in the endeavour to reconcile one
another to the adoption of cne general opinion, but at the
expiration of that time they were farther off an agreement
than at first ; having only talked up their individual bi-
gotry and perverse stupidity, instead of producing mutual
conviction : the burden of each one's song being, that he
had as good a right to his opinions as others had to theirs ;
they on the contrary replying, that they also had the same
right to their opinions as he had to his. And thus, between
their mutual rights, all went wrong together.
Seeing no prospect of a conclusion, the coroner at
length put in : but it was only like stirring up the fire.
They flared and flamed ten times fiercer than ever ; began
to denominate each other the most stupid and bigoted fel-
lo xs that ever ate cabbage and bacon ; and finally would
have fallen to a general and indiscri*iinate basting of one
another's hides, had not the coroner interposed with some
very severe remarks upon their conduct, and called upon
them to remember—what in all probability they had no
perception of before—that they were men and Christians ;
concluding his harangue by informing them that they had
better settle their verdict at first, one way or another, for
they could not leave the room until they did. True or
untrue, no one present was able to doubt his word ; and
as this alarming statement carried great weight in empty
stomachs,—for many were now pining for their beans and
beer,—the scale began to turn a little. The village
baker, who bad been all the morning the most noisy
and strenuous oppositionist in the room, taking- out his
watch at this moment, found it was high time his pies and
bread were drawn. " Gentlemen," said he, " if Ido not
go directly, I shall have my oven spoiled ; so, for God's
sake, bring in some sort of a verdict—l'll agree to any-
thing you like. They are burning now, I know they are.
I could almost fancy I smell them. Do let us agree to
something."
This short but pathetic appeal was not lost upon them :
they all expressed their readiness to prevent so dreadful a
sacrifice, or else it is not to be conjectured by what happy
circumstance their discordant opinions would ever have been
reconciled. Five minutes more had scarcely elapsed before
they gave in the following verdict :—" Mr. Coroner—We
sec it is out of the question getting us all of a mind, so me
and two or three chaps hereabout have agreed amongst
ourselves to say as how we think this young fool went
into the welter of his own accord ; and as that argues that
he drowned hisself of his own voluntary motions, we are
determined to bring it in as ar vardick that he was guilty
of a fellow d'ye see." The coroner told them that would
not do ; they must all be of one mind, and consider whe-
ther accidental death was not the most proper verdict.
" Well, stir," replied the foreman, "onythink as you think
well : we'll say onythink. Put it down as we are all of a
mind that it is natteral death from natteral causes." The
coroner complied with this, and the investigation ended.

By the death of Captain Sir Christopher Cole,
K. C. 8., a vacancy has occurred for a Colonelcy of Marines,
which, it is said, will not be filled up.— Greenwich Gazette.
In a recent public lecture•delivered at Stocjaon, on
the evils of intoxicating liquors, the speaker gave the following
graphic description of their effects, viz., that they were
" knock-downable," but not " get-up-able." The enemies of
this cause must admire the eloquence if not the argument of
this sage._ Shields Observer.

Mr. Tyler, the land-agent and steward of the Earl
of Egrcmont, lately deceastd, has left a property to his rela-
tives exceeding in value three hundred thousand pounds. This
gentleman was another and an honourable instance of merit
and activity raising their possessor from an bumble station in
life to respectability and fortune.

A girl, named Ann Revil, only 17 years old, an ap-
prentice to a milliner in Salisbury-square, Nottingham, poi-
soned herself on Thursday morning, under rather extraordi-
nary circumstances. It appears that she had been keeping
company with Robert Webster, by whom she was in the family-
way, and that he had treated her with great coolness in conse-
quence, which preyed on her mind. ;The called early in the
f
morning at a druggist's shop, and purchased half an oul,ce,oi,
arsenic, saying it was for her mother to put on the bedstead,
and went to Webster, to whom she gave a watelapler,
poison,g
him to keep it for her sake; she then divided .
giving him half, and telling him she would take ittitta.
while
He pretended to put it to his mouth, but threw I,l7.cay.would.
very sick
she drank up the other half. She speedilyl,
Dy d without effect, and
and ill, and the stomach-pump
she died. in the course of
:le Sc was returned.—
Friday morning, and a verdict of Fein
Nottingham Journal. th© adaasy.a. ?Ain' inquest was held on
.
LORD CLIV.E
tive sight to observe who in a few years was to raise
.--It is a -curious and not tnnstruc-
the man ' talents and heroic daring., to an
himself by his commanding
all his t ' •
coua rymen in the
acknowledged pre-
his first touching the shores of
East, for several months
fahtiesrfuture glory,acknowledging '
that
that country, the scene o
in .
pre-eminence above
with a sensitive
diffidence, from the exertion of introducing himself.
Though
he knew not one family it, and shrinking,. •
affectionate, he was wayward and reserved. From this time
when Madras was taken, there are no accounts of
him, except some anecdotes, tending to prove that he was very
till3im ,17 46p
ill suited to the condition of life in which he was placed. His
impatience of controul and wayward and impracticable firmness
never forsook him. On One occasion it appears that his con.
duct to the Secretary under whom the writes were placed on
their first arrival was so inconsistent with the rules of official
discipline that the Governor, to whom it was reported, com-
manded him to ask that gentleman's pardon. With this order
he complied rather ungraciously ; but the Secretary imme-
diately after, before his irritation had time to subside, having
invited him to dinner, " No, Sir," replied Cive, " the Gover-
nor did not command me to dine with you." He is stated to
have hazarded, on more than one occasion., the loss of the ser-
vice, by acts of wildness ; and a story was long current that,
either in a fit of despair or of low spirits, to which he was sub-
ject from his earliest years, he made at this period an attempt
upon his own life. A companion coming into his room
rint
Writer's-buildings was requested to take up a
it out of the window ; he did so, and it went off. Clive, whod,
pistol. and fire
was sitting in a very gloomy mood, sprang up, and exclaimed,
" Well, I am reserved for something ! That pistol," i
to his astonished friend, " I have
head."—Malcolas Lord Clive. t%lice snapped at my Own

THE ARMY.

(CIRCULAR.)

Horse Guards, dept. 1.
Slit; I have it in command to direct your special atten-
tion to his Majesty's warrant, dated the 18th ult., which
has been transmitted to you by the Secretary at War, and
to express Lord Hill's desire that you cause the provisions
Of that document to be fully explained to the non-commis-
sionel officers and soldiers composing the regiment under
your command, impressing upon them, by every means in
yOU7 power, a due sense of the important advantages thus
held out to them as the reward of perseverance in obedience
to their military superiors, and in general good conduct.
The principal object at this letter is to enjoin command-
ing officers to take care that, so far as depends upon them,
• none of the benefits conferred by the warrant in question
shall be enjoyed by any but the well-conducted soldier :
that nothing amounting to misconduct, in the ordinary ac-
ceptation and meaning of that word, shall on any account
be overlooked ; and that every instance of misconduct shall
be distinctly registered against the individual in the regi-
mental records, as to preclude the possibility of his coming
into possession of either additional pay or pension, to which
his behaviour as a soldier, and as a member of society, shall
not have established his claim under the provision of the
warrant.

. The General Commanding-in-Chief is too well acquainted
with the high principle of the officers of the army, and has
too confident a reliance upon their love of order, discipline,
and subordination, to suffer himself to entertain the re-
motest suspicion that any of them will ever lend their in-
strumentality towards obtaining for the unworthy any of
those rewards which their King and country have provided
exclusively for the meritorious soldier.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
your obedient humble servant,
JOILINReAgIimAeCnDt. ONALD, A.G.
Officer commanding _