The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-16 00:00:00

THE SUNT, LONDON, THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE 16, 1842.1

LITERATURE.

FATHER CONNELL. 3 Vcb.
Newby London 1842.

The chief interest of this story centres in Father
Connell—an Irish Catholic priest, whose character
Mr. Banim has unfolded with great minuteness and
particularity, as though it were an especial favourite
with -him. The worthy Father is represented as
being all that a Christian pastor should he—meek,
generous. lofty-minded, tolerant, courageous in the
discharge of his duty, and ever ready to whisper the
words of encouragement in the ears of those who have
erred, but who have repented of their errors. It was
difficult to pourtray such an exemplary character as
this, and not throw an air of insipidity over it, arising
out of its very perfection ; but Mr. Banim has suc-
ceeded in overcoming this difficulty, and produced a
portrait full of spirit and interest. The introductory
chapters, however, where the old man is first brought
on the scene of action, are somewhat tame and formal;
the descriptions of his every-day costume, of his
chapel, of his private dwelling, and of his Twelfth
night's merry-making therein, have the preciseness of
an auctioneer's catalogue; and it is not till we
become better acquainted with him, and his exalted
worth developes itself, not by set descriptions, but by
action, as in the drama, that he wins our admiration,
and slides into our heart. In the earlier scenes we
find him playing the part of friend and guardian to a
fatherless boy, Edmund Fennell, for whom he obtains
the means of earning a decent livelihood, and whom he
marries at a fitting age to Helen Mac Neary, an
affectionate, comely young girl, the petted daughter
of a rough, but kind-hearted Protestant farmer. Un-
fortunately, the elder Mac Neary disapproves the
match, and on learning that his opposition is fruitless,
the parties having already been secretly united, he
turns his child out of doors at midnight, in a paroxysm
of rage, and forbids her ever again to enter his
house. Driven thus an exile from her home, the
hapless girl wanders away towards the parsonage of
Father Connell, in the hopes of finding her husband
there, who is about to start for Dublin on business of
moment; but on her road she accidentally encounters
a party of ruffians who have just perpetrated a
murderous assault on a young beggar-woman, who,
disgusted with her calling, has left her mendicant
associates, and sought the protection of the good
priest's roof. The bride is discovered and carried off
by these ruffians ; and a few hours after, her husband,
passing near the spot where the supposed murder has
been committed, is taken up on suspicion, and com-
mitted for trial at the assizes. Perjured evidence
having been adduced against him by the very parties
who were theximelves the criminals, he is found guilty,
and sentenced to*be hanged. Meanwhile his friends
—Father Connell, in particular—are active in his
behalf; the beggar-girl who was supposed to have
been slain, is found to be still living, having been
found weltering in blood by her own mother, and
conveyed, while .in an insensible state, to a place of
safety ; and Edmund Fennel is, in consequence, libe-
rated, and almost immediately afterwards, his young
bride is restored to him, and her father being at
length reconciled to the match, they are left at the
close of the narrative, in a state of very ecstatic con-
nubial felicity, with but one drawback on their hap-
piness—namely, the death of Father Connell, who has
expired at Dublin, on his way to seek an interview
with the -Lord Lieutenant, on behalf of his young
friend, Edmund Fennell. The story, in places, is told
with uncommon vigour ; the description of the sup-
posed murder on the heath ; of old ?dac Neary's angry
parting with his daughter; and of the last interview
between the ruffians previous to the perpetration of
the crime, is replete with sombre interest as pro-
found as that which pervades every volume of the
author's master-piece « The Nowlans." We quote a
passage which, we think, will fully warrant our
assertion. While wandering at .midnight from her
enraged father's house, Helen Mac. Neary. meets with
this tragical adventure.:--
The next morning as the thought of the long, long
night came upon her, she once more started up, and tot-
tered in the direction of the river. The noise of the
falling water grew more distinct. The clouds had now
almost entirely passed' away frOm the moon, which,
quietly mounting higher and higher in the heavens,
flung her almost perfect light over the open country ;
and gaining a little courage, from this seemingly good
omen, Helen, with increased pain and suffering, slowly
proceeded on her course. She passed two fields, crossing
their dividing fences with the utmost difficulty. She
reached the summit of a third boundary ; the noise of
the weir came with certainty upon her ear, and she
was sure that she saw the moonbeams glittering and
dancing upon the white foamy water which the barrier
caused. She praised God again, and scrambled, and
sometimes crawled forward, on hands and knees. One
field only remained between her and the river-side, and
that was a rapid descent.
Suddenly men's voices, in angry discussion, fixed her
attention, and the sound seemed to arise between her
and the very point she had to attain. This was terrible ;
instinctively, she looked round for a hiding-place.
Above where she stood, was a little hollow on the hill-
side, partially screened by briars, and bushes. To it
she crept, and down into it, again lacerating herself
with thorns and broken branches ; and crouching
among the bushes, listened with all her power of
hearing, to the very voices that filled her with horror.
She had lost, without attending to the loss, hor bundle,
her bonnet, and even her cloak.
The loud talking ceased, and there was but one man's
voice now heard, but this one was fearfully harsh and
abrupt. Then female tones, in prayer and expostulation,
mingled with it ; then, female screams, shrill, long, and
piercing, rang through the night air ; and then, Helen
heard the noise of a heavy blow, and the long shrieks
suddenly stopped, subsiding into a low, melancholy cry,
followed by deep, deep means ; and a second blow, ac-
companied by a hissing sound, of the human breath, such
as workmen utter, when they labour with the hatchet.
Perfect silence ensued, for a short time, only interrupted
by- the whispering.of the night breeze through the grass,
and through the bushes, and by the gentle fall of-water,
near at baud.

Oh, that was a pause of thrilling horror to Helen 1 for,
.above all her previous suffering, fear, and confusion, the
conviction that she had overheard the doing of a murder,
curdled her pure heart's blood, and made her very soul
cower within her „ .

hasty footsteps entered the little hollow, anl paused
within a few feet of where she lay concealed.
" This is the place that the ould distil bid us wait for
him," said a hoarse, deep voice, but in cautious tones.
" It is," answered another person—and the two words
were spoken with a shudder.
" That was a black act," continued the first voice.

" Oh, it was a bloody deed ! Oh, the thought of this
night will never lave my mind, never, never ! I would'nt
wish for all the world's coin, if 'twas laid before me this
moment, that I didn't stop the hand of that hell-bird !
Oh, she was a darlin', poor young crature ! Why
didn't we save her, Paul ?"

" That oath 1 that frightful oath 1"
" I'd break fifty oaths if I had the power of savin' her
over agen, or if I could bring buck the life to my poor
beautiful ary—l would—l would," and the man whom
his confreres called Molocth, or the wicked, suddenly
stopped speaking, fer his throat filled up to suffocation,
and a throe of very agony was labouring in his black
bosom.

SIR HENRY CAVENDISH'S DEBATES.
. Part V. Longman, London, 1842.
The Parliamentary debates reported in this Part
are all of the session of 1770 ; and the first thing that
will strke the reader on perusing them, is the ex-
traordinary zeal and activity displayed by Burke.
Not a question of the slightest moment arises, but
he figures among the prominent speakers. His tongue..
seems never still for an instant, and his observations
—judging from the Ministerial replies—are evidently
those which most rivet the attention of the House.
Charles Fox, as yet but in his dawn, appears, com-
paratively speaking, but seldom on the to is ; and
when he does get upon his legs, it is but for a short
time, and his eloquence is by no means of that com-
manding character which it afterwards assumed. We
know, from the statements of his contemporaries,
that at this period Burke was the recognised leader
of the Opposition in the House of Commons, and we
here find him on every question figuring as the
great hero of the day; and never was a post
so hardly won, and so gallantly maintained,
in the face of a thousand difficulties ! Those
who live in the present times, when the barriers that
separate the aristocracy from the commonalty are
considerably weakened, and in some respects broken
down ; who are in the daily habit of seeing upstart
wealth assume that position in society, which or old
was occupied exclusively by the patrician classes ; anti
who find distinguished literary and scientific men
moving, as by right, and on terms of equality, in the
highe3t circles, can have no idea of the difficulties
that in the last century beset the path of the ambi-
tious adventurer who, like Burke, had nothing but
his talents to rely on for success. The English aris-
tocracy was then the haughtiest, most jealous, and
most bigoted in Europe, and the Rockingham, or old
Whig section of it, was decidedly the worst in these
respects. And it was among this inveterately preju-
diced portion of the nobility that Burke's lot in early
life was thrown. Had he possessed manner, address,
the graces of polished drawing-room conversation, or
a weighty purse--such as the Peel family have always
possessed—to back his pretensions, his course, though
still a troublous and difficult one, would have been
far smoother than it was ; but he possessed none of
these requisites ; he was an abrupt, uncourtly
scholar ; lie was embarrassed by an obnoxious,
brogue ; he had not the slightest power of small-
talk ; and, what wai still more to his disadvantage,
he had scarcely a sixpence in the world that he could
ea 1 his own. Yet in the face of these multiplied and
almost insuperable difficulties, he won his way, step
:y step, to the loftiest eminence, showing—as he has
himself told us with a generous pride, in his match-
less Letter to the Duke of Bedford—" his ticket at
every toll-bar," and trusting to nothing but his own
gigantic intellect and indomitable perseverance. To-
wards the close of his career, he became decidedly the
most influential politician in Europe, for though he
held .no official post, yet it was his writings and
speeches that most of all tended to precipitate the
=lies of the Allies on Revolutionary France, and
his example that strengthened the hands of the Minis-

try, by breaking, up the unity of the Whig party. We
do not say this by way of eulogium, for Burke's conduct
from 1791, down to the close of his public life, was
anything but commendable, or in accordance with
the principles which he had till then maintained ; but
we instance it, merely as a proof of the astonishing
ascendancy he had gained over men's minds. And
that ascendancy which he exercised when living, he
still continues to exercise, through the medium of his
works. Though the man himself has long since
passed from among us, yet the better portions of him
—his wisdom, his philosophy, his imagination, and
his eloquence—still survive to delight, to instruct, and
to elevate our minds. In the Part before us, his
speeches are reported in a most meagre and unsatis-
fitetory manner ; but scanty as are the records, they
nevertheless enable us to form a tolerably correct idea
of the powers of the speaker. From the structure of
the skeleton, we can judge of the strength and sta-
ture of the man.

STANDARD NOVELS, No. 88.
Bentley, London, 1842.
In this number of the Standard Novels, we have a
republication of the late Theodore Hook's clever tale
of " All in the Wrong," complete in one volume. The
work is embellished with two engravings, each illus-
trative of some remarkable incident in the story.

LOCKING IN ON RAILROADS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE.

Sir,—Since the letter upon railroads, which you
were good enough to insert in your paper, I have had
some conversation with two gentlemen officially con •
nected with the Great Western. Though nothing
could be more courteous than their manner, nor more
intelligible than their arguments, I remain unshaken
as to the necessity of keeping the doors open.
There is, in the first place, the effect of imagination,
the idea that all escape is impossible, that (let what will
happen) you must sit quiet in first class No. 2, whe-
ther they are pounding you into a jam, or burning you
into a cinder, or crumbling ycu into a human pow-
der. These excellent Directors, versant in wood and
metal, seem to require that the imagination should be
) sent by some other conveyance, and that_ only loads
of impassioned, unintellectual flesh and blood
should be darted along on the Western rail ; whereas,
the female homy is a screaming, parturient, interjec-
tional, hysterical animal, whose delicacy and timidity
monopolists even (much as it may surprise them)
ntust be taught to consult. The female, in all proba-
bility, never would jump-out ; but she thinks she may
jump out when she pleases, and this is intensely
comfortable.

There arc two sorts of dangers which hang over
railroads. The one retail dangers, where individuals
only are concerned ; the other, wholesale dangers,
where the whole train, or a considerable part of it, is
put in jeopardy. For the first danger there is a re-
medy in the prudence of individuals ; for the second
there is none. No man need be drunk, nor need he
jump out when the carriage is in motion; but in the
present state of science it is impossible to guard
effectually against the fracture of the axletree or the
explosion of the engine ; and if the safety of the one
party cannot be,consulted but by the danger of the
other, if the foolish cannot be restrained but by the
unjust incarceration of the wise, the prior considera-
tion is due to those who have not the remedy for the
evil in their own hands.

But the truth is—and so (after a hundred mono-
polising experiments on public patience) the railroad
Directors will find it—there can he no other depend-
ence for the safety of the public than the care which
every human being is inclined to take of his own life
and limbs. Everything beyond this is the mere lazy
tyranny of monopoly, which makes no distinction be-
tween human beings and brown paper parcels. If
riding were a monopoly, as travelling in carriages is
now become, there are many gentlemen whom I see
riding in the Park upon such false principles, that I
am sure the cantering and galloping Directors would
strap them, in the ardour of their affection, to the
saddle, padlock them to the stirrups, or compel them
to ride behind a policeman of the stable ; and nothing
but a motion from O'Brien, or an order from Glad-
stone, could release them.

Let the Company stick up all sorts of cautions and
notices, within their carriages and without; but after
that, no doors locked. If one door is allowed to be
locked, the other will soon be so too : there is no
other security to the public than absolute prohibition
of the practice. The Directors and agents of the Great
Western are indivi,!'atally excellent men; but the mo-
ment men meet in public boards they cease to be col..
lectively excellent. The friend of morality becomes
less, as the individual contributors increase in num-
ber. I do not accuse such respectable men of any
wilful violation of truth, but the memoirs which they
are about to present will be, without the scrupulous
cross-examination of a Committee of the House of
Commons, mere waste paper.

But the most absurd of all legislative enactments is
this bemiplegian law—an Act of Parliament to pro-
tect one side of the body and not the other. If the wheel
come off on the right, the open door is uppermost,
and every one is saved. If from any sudden avalanche
on the road the carriage is prostrated to the left, the
locked door is uppermost, all escape is impossible, and
the railroad martyrdom begins.
Leave me to escape in the best way I can, as the
fire-officers very kindly permit me to do. I know
very well the danger of getting out on the off-side ;
but escape is the affair of a moment ; suppose a train
to have passed at that moment, I know lam safe
from any other trains for twenty minutes or half an
hour ; and if Ido get out on the off-side Ido not re-
main in the valley of death between the two trains,
but am over to the opposite bank in an instant—only
half roasted, or merely browned, certainly not done
enough for the Great Western Directors.

On Saturday morning, last the wheel of the public
carriage in which a friend of mine was travelling be-
gan to smoke, but was pacified by several buckets of
water, and proceeded. After five more miles the
whole carriage was full of smoke, -the train was with
difficulty stopped, and the flagrant vehicle removed.
The axle was nearly in two, and in another mile
would have been severed.

Railroad travelling is a delightful improvement
of human life. Man is become a bird; he can fly
longer and quicker than a Solan goose. The mama
rushes 60 miles in two hours to the aching finger of
her conjugating and declining grammar boy. The
early Scotchman scratches himself in the morning
mists of the north, and has his porridge in Piccadilly
before the setting sun. The Puseyite priest, after a
rush of 100 miles, appears with his little volume of
nonsense at the breakfast of his bookseller. Every-
thing is near, every thing is immediate—time, dis-
tance, and delay are abolished. But, though charm-
ing and fascinating as all this is, we must not shut
our eyes to the price we shall have to pay for it.
There will be every three or four years some dreadful
massacre—whole trains will be hurled down a preci-
pice, and 200 or 300 persons will be killed on the
spot. There will he every now and then a great com-
bustion of human bodies, as there has been at Pari§;
then all the newspapers up in arms—a thousand regu-
lations, forgotten as soon as the Directors dare—lotid
screams of the velocity whistle—monopoly locks and
bolts, as before.

The locking plea of Directors is philanthropy, and
I admit that to guard men from the commission of
moral evil is as philanthrophical as to prevent physical
suffering. There is, I allow, a strong propensity in
mankind to travel on railroads without paying, and
to lock mankind in till they have completed their
share of the contract is benevolent, because it guards
the species from degrading and immoral conduct, but
to burn or crush a whole train, merely to prevent a
few immoral insides from not paying, is, I hope, a
little more than Ripon or Gladstone will bear.
We have been, up to this point, very careless of our
railway regulations. The first person of rank who is
killed will put everything in order, and produce a code
of the most careful rules. I hope it will not be one
of the bench of Bishops ; but should it be so des-
tined, let the burnt Bishop—the unwilling Latimer—
remember that, however painful gradual concoction
by fire may be, his death will produce unspeakable
benefit to the public. Even Sodor and Man will
be better than nothing. From that moment the bad
effects of the monopoly are destroyed ; no more fatal
deference to the Directors; no despotic incarceration;
no barbarous inattention to the anatomy and physio-
logy of the human body ; no commitment to loco-
motive prisons without warrant. 'We shall then find
it possible " Voyager libre sans mourir."
SYDNEY SMITH.

SCARCITY IN IRELAND.—For some time It has
been a common thing to ship wheat from Liverpool to Ireland,
but it is only very i ecently that any great quantity of meal
and the other coarser descriptions of food have been so shipped.
Within the last three weeks, however, many thousand loads
have been sent there from Liverpool, a most distressing and
alarming scarcity of the articles of food consumed by the bulk
of the population, especially of meal and potatoes, existing in
Ireland, especially in the south and west. This novel demand
has already greatly raised the price of all the coarser descrip-
tions of food its Lancashire, and must have added much •to the
sufferings of the poor, many of whom, after having forgotten
the taste of good wheaten bread, will now find it difficult
enough to obtain either potatoes or oatmeal.—Liverpool Times.
DISTRESS AT NEWCASTLE.—It appears from the
Tyne Mercury, that a meeting was held at the Newcastle
Guildhall on Monday, to take into consideration the state of
the numerous unemployed workmen in the adjoining districts.
From the Report then read, it appeared tiii at although not one-;
third of the district had been visited, the enumerators had al,
ready taken clown the names of 1,156 unemployed workmen,
who had 2,705 women and children depending upon them—:
this being a total of 3,864 individuals. Rating the unvisited
districts at a fair ratio, it was calculated that tit. total numbe.
of unemployed, without any; means of subsistence, was 11,592.
Subscriptiers were about to be resorted to.
ILtvnr, JUNE 1 1 .—The agent of a Liverpool
Steam-packet Company has been here inquiring into the port,
and harbour dues for steam-vessels. The Liverpool Company
is about to put on two vessels to run between Southampton
and this port, in opposition to the South Western and South of
England Companies, The consequence of the opposition
ill he, that the fares will be reduced considerably. The Li-
verpo..l Company will also run a vessel between Southampton
and the Channel Islands.

AMERICAN PAPERS.

A:DREADFUL ArrAIR.—A schoolmistress in Lynn,
named Beckwith, we learn from a gentleman belong-
ing.to that town, tied a son of Mr. Meads up by the
heels on Saturday, and whipped him, striking him
several times on his head. When the School was out,
the lad, who was about eight years old, went home
and told his parents that he had been punished, and
that his head ached ; but there being nothing in his
appearance to excite alarm, little notice was taken of
whathe said, and he went to bed; upon going into
his room on Sunday morning, he was found lifeless
upon his pillow.—Boston Post.

A SHOCKING MURDER.--We learn from the Sparta
(Tenn.) Gazette, that on Wednesday night, the 11th
inst., as Mrs. Mary Hunter (relict of the late Joseph
Hunter) was sitting by her fireside, a few miles
from Sparta, in company with two other ladies, she
was shot with a rifle ball through the head by some
person unknown, out of doors, and expired in a few
minutes. The perpetrator of this horrid deed fired
in the dark through a window, and has thus far es-
caped detection.

ASSASSINATION.—Mr. Petrich, the sculptor, was
assassinated at his room in Washington, on Sunday
evening, by'two men with blackened faces. No cause
has been ascertained, nor are the culprits known.
Mr. Petrich has been in the employ of the Govern-
ment for many years.—New York Paper.
REPORTED MURDER OF JOE SMITH, THE MOR-
MON PROPHET.—The St. Louis Republican of the
19th inst., has the fohowing:—The Mormon Pro-
phet, Joseph Smith; is reported to have been killed in
a recent affray in the vicinity of Nauvoo. We are
without particulars.
STEAM-BOAT DISASTER.—LIVESL OST.— We have to
report the sad intelligence that the steamer Douglas,
Capt. Riley, met with a disaStrous accident in the Cana-
dian Roach, near the mouth of the Ohio, on the nightof
the 16th inst. A letter from Mr. Montgomery, the
clerk, which is before us now, says :—" About twelve
o'clock the steam pipe burst from the cylinder, raking
through the cabin floor and discharged its whole con.-
tents in the cabin, carrying with it death and destruc-
tion." Dr. Hoffmann, lady and child severely scalded
—child not expected to live. 'The Doctor's sister and
child also severely scalded ; Mrs. Brown their servant,
dangerously, not expected to recover; Mrs. Johnson
and her two children ; my wife (Mrs. Montgomery)
and three children; Nickey (his child) since dead;
W. Foster and Mr. Marshall scalded severely and two
others slightly. The three stewards were killed on
the spot, and the cabin boy severely scalded. Neither
Captain Riley, nor any other of the officers were
hurt." The Douglas was not injured, and is.expected
here on Tuesday. No blame is attached to any of
the officers.

MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT.—We learn that an Irish-
man was killed on Monday afternoon, by jumping
from behind one of the railroad cars, while the train
was approaching the depot in this city. It is supposed
that he got on to the car at one of the stopping places,
The cars were going at tolerable speed, and the man
struck his head violently upon the ground, and was
almost instantly killed.—Lowell Courier.
DEATH OF THE VENERABLE HENRY SOUTIIARD.
—The fathers have nearly all left us. One only here
and there remains to tell the story of our birth ; and
we are called to-day to record the departure of one of
the few who have been preserved to illustrate the vir-
tues of the heroic age of our country to the present
generation. The venerable Henry Southard—the
father of the present distinguished President of the
United States Senate—died at his residence in Bas-
kenridge (Somerset Co.), in this State, on Sunday
morning, the 2d inst., at the advanced age o,f 95 years,
He had enjoyed good health, and the full possession of
his mental faculties up to within a few days of his
death, which occurred after only four or five days'
illness, induced by fatigue from walking.—Newark
Daily Advertiser.
MUTINY.—We learn from Colonel Hatch, that a
mutiny occurred at New Bedford on Monday, on
board the whaling bark Jasper, Captain ;Joseph
Bennett, jun. It will be recollected that this vessel
put back a few days since in consequence of the
small-pox having broken out onboard. As she was
about to proceed to sea, nine of the crew refused to
weigh anchor, alleging as a reason that they wished
to go ashore first. The names of the mutineers are
as follows :—John Oaff, John Marsh, James D.
Wright, Henry Staunton, Edwin Barnes, Jose An-
tone, George I3urder, Benjamin Howard, and Henry
Shipner. They were taken ashore by Deputy Mar-
shal Gordon, and committed to prison. They will
probably be brought to this city for examination be-
fore Judge Sprague.— Transcript.
CASE or KIDNAPPING.—A coloured woman, by the
name of Mary Lowding, living at the United States
Hotel, was yesterday :decoyed by a stranger, to gei
with him to Baltimore, where he said he would give
her a good situation and good wages. He put her in
a store-room during the day, and between eleven and
twelve o'clock last night he was seen in the neigh-
bourhood of Twelfth and Spruce-streets, in a carriage
with the woman. Her screams attracted a crowd,
among whom were some of her former acquaintances,
who gave chase, and pursued as far as Gray's Ferry,
but could not overtake the parties. Her husband
was ignorant of any arrangement with his wife, al-
though similar motives of removal were held out to
him to go to Baltimore. The poor fellow is in great
distress at this infamous abduction of his wife.—
Philadelphia
Journal.
COL. MONROE EDWARDS.—The Philadelphia cor-
respondent of the New- York Journal of ommerce
writes as follows :—" The trial of Col. Monroe Ed-
wards, which is expected to come on in your city
next week, excites considerable interest here. Ills
bearing, during his arrest and examination, was of
that cool and collected character, as to impress some
with the idea that he was either an innocent man or
a most accomplished scoundrel. His trunk, which
since his arrest has been lying at the Bank of North
America, was yesterday examined by a specially
commissioned agent from your city, and found to
contain sixty thousand dollars in gold and Treasury
notes."

A horse, which had been bitten by a rabid dog, at
St. Louis, on the 16th, ran through the streets, foam-
ing at the mouth, and afterwards falling down, in
great agony died.
THE. NAVY YARD.—We understand that a. very
large number of workmen have recently been dis-
charg,ed from work at the Navy Yord at Brooklyn,
N. Y. The Secretary of the Navy has felt com-
pelled to do this, from the evident disposition of Con-
gress to cut down the Navy appropriations. The
persons discharged, and those dependent on them, are
put to great inconvenience by this sudden change of
policy • and, in some instances, there 'is severe dis-
tress.—Journal of Commerce.

DEATH OF RICHARD ALSOP.—The Philadelphia
papers of Monday mention the death of Richard
Alsop, of that city, a gentleman extensively connected
with the financial and other commercial interests of
that city.
EARTHQUAKE AT PONCE.—Capt. York, of schooner
Independence, states, that on the 7th the shock of an
earthquake was felt at Ponce. The houses rocked,
and so great was the motion of the earth, that casks
of sugar and molasses rolled about, making sad
havoc. The inhabitants, in great terror, rushed into
the streets, invoking their patron saints to save them
from destruction. The shock was felt at 3 P.M., and I
lasted about three minutes.

RESCUE OF A SLAVE.—A Mrs. Burke, from New
Orleans, arrived in this city last April, with a female
slave. A few days since a writ of habeas corpus was
granted by Judge Oakley, to show by what right the
slave was held as property, and the girl was conveyed
to Court yesterday morning, when, after a partial
hearing, the case was adjourned until to-day. On
her return from Court, the cab in which she was
placed was stopped by a large number of blacks and
whites, and the girl carried off—whither, no one can
havete beenarrested and
l
A number
of the
committed.persons engaged in the rescue
DESTRUCTIVE FIRE IN No_RWICII.
—We learn that
an extensive fire occurred at Grenville, a manufactur-
ing village near Norwich, on Thursday forenoon, in
the extensive cotton factory of Mr. Greene. The loss
is estimated at 100,000 dols.—insured for 75,000 dots.
TAKE WARNING.—The Philadelphia Evening Jour-
nal says that Captain A. Davis, of the ship Swatara,
from Liverpool, has been arrested on a charge of hav-
ing brought over more passengers than the law allows,
according to the tonnage of his ship. He was held to
hail in the sum of 1,200 dols. to answer the charge.
EMIGRANTS.—Three thousand eight hundred and
fifty passengers have arrived at this city from foreign
ports, during.the week ending 28th instant.
ROYAL VISITER ExpEcTED.—Extract from a letter
of an officer to his brother, in Cleveland, dated on
bvtlrd U. S. ship Vincennes, of the U. S. Exploring
Expedition :—" We have on board Vindoba, the
King of the Fejee Islands, as prisoner, who killed
and eat eleven of the crew of a Salem vessel, in
1835. I suppose he will be shown about like Black
Hawk, and then be sent home. He says I am his
best friend, and wishes to live with me when we reach
the United States. How would you like to have him
for a mess-mate ? He is a fine looking fellow, very
tall, and wears his hair half a yard ion—.
8- He would
be worth 5,000 dols., to show about the country."—
New Bedford Mercury.
ENTERPRISE.—The St. Louis Journal says thatfour
young men recently left independence for the Rocky
Mountains, to capture wild animals for a menagerie.
They expect to return next fall.
COMMERCE OF THE LAKES.—There arrived at
13uffalo on the 23d inst., nine steamers, four brigs
and twenty-one schooners, principally from Cleve-
land, Ohio, all heavily laden with flour, pork, corn,
oats, barley and lumber.
THE FIRST NEW FLOUR.—The Fayeteville
(N. C.) Observer says :—"Colonel William Han-
cock, of Munroe county, has sent us a sample of ne%%.;
flour, the first we have heard of this year. The r Leaf
Was sown on the 18th of October, 1641, cut -outhe

18th of May, 1842, threshed on the 21st, ground on
the 23d, and in the market on the 23d.
SATISFACTORY DEFINITION.—A little girl asked
her sister " what was chaos, that papa read about ?"
Ihe older child replied. -" why-, it is a great pile of
nothing, and no place to put it in."
MEDFORD, MAY 21.—SHOCIUNG AFFAIR.-01IF
usually quiet town was on Thursday thrown into
great excitement by one of the mast hortible, yet
singular transactions which we have ever known. It
appears that a young man was- fishing early in the morn-
ing in the canal, when he discovered an infant lying in
the water. He immediately informed the town autho-
rities, who took it out and conveyed it to a neighbouring
shed, until they could summon the coroner, &c. In the
meantime the news had spread through the town,
and reached the ears of Mrs. T. who resides near
the canal bank. She immediately expressed a wish
to go and see it, and asked a young woman in her
employ if she would like to accompany her. She
declined, and said she would stay at home and take
care of Mrs. T.'s little boy. Mrs. T. then went out
to see the child, and the moment she was gone, this
girl (who it appears was the mother) went out of the
back door, and threw herself from an adjoining
wharf into the dock. She was seen walking on the
capstan of the wharf by a Mr. James, who kept his
eye on her, and the moment he saw her overboard
he plunged in and brought her safe on shore ; yet so
determined was she on self-destruction, that she
caught hold of a stick of timber on the bottom of
the dock, and it was some time before she could be
made to loose her hold. It appears that the girl,
up to the time of this transaction, had always borne
a good character, and last Sunday night was admitted
a member of a church in this town ; and so well had
she concealed her case, that no one, not even the
women of the house, suspected the truth. She laid
in bed on Tuesday morning, and complained of sick-
ness, and, as she states, gave birth, unassisted, be •
tween five and six o'clock that morning, to the infant,
which she strangled and secreted. She rose after
dinner, and went about her usual work, doing the
ironing, &c., for the family, and as far as the evidence
of the women of the house goes, they never suspected
anything up to the morning the child was fbund ;
but it appears almost impossible. After she was
taken out of the water she remained insensible
fur several hours, when she revived, and re-
lated the above, and stated that she made up her mind
to the dreadful alternative, rather than bear the dis-
grace she must bring upon herself by exposing her
situation.—Boston Post.
SIIOCKING MURDER.—On Saturday, the body of
Mr. West, a resident of Sandlake, Rensselaer county,
a German, was found near that place, concealed in
some brush or bushes. The deceased had been evi-
dently shot, and then bruised and mutilated in the
head with a stone. Both the stone and the gun were
found near the body, and it was ascertained that he
had been robbed of money to the amount of between
$lOO and $2OO. The murder was committed by
William Miller, also a German, on Sunday forenoon,
a week ago, and for no other cause than the money on
his person. Miller is also a resident of Sandlake, is
yet at large, and did not leave that place until Satur-
day last. The Governor has offered a reward of $4OO
for his apprehension.—Albany Argus. •
The Montreal Courier of March 28, gives the fol-
lowing account of a horrible murder and parricide
committed in Genesee Coy., Batavia, on the 17th of
that month :—A murder was yesterday committed in
Byron, which, fbr its cold-blooded atrocity, is almost
unparalleled. A young man by the name of Ben-
jamin T. White, having for several years past had a
grudge against his father, on account of not being put
in possession of a portion of his property, determined
to satiate his revengeful feelings by murdering both
his tither and step-mother. White came up to the
house as his parent was entering the door ; he took
hold of his caat collar, pulled him about so as to face '
11;in, took out a pistol from his pocket, and shot him
through, just under his shoulder.
He then threw him down, and commenced beating ,
him with the butt of his pistol. The step-mother im •
mediately ran to the assistance of her husband, and
had the presence of mind to reach down and pick up
the pistol (which had fallen in the affray) and was
rising up when she perceived the murderer drawing
another from his pocket, which he raised at her; and
only escaped her husband's fate by throwing up her
arm and diverting the aim of the pistol, which was
fired, but without effect. The young man then made
for tha woods, but was pursued by a number of citi-
zens, and arrested in three or four hours. In speaking
of the murder to one of his captors he said, "I don't
know whether I killed the old man ; but I meant to—
I took good aiin."
White is safely' (?) lodged in our miserable and
.rickety old jail.