Star.
London, England, 1825-11-14 00:00:00

M. ZEA, THE LATE SPANISH MINISTER.

M. Ze.) was s man of obscure birth : his fatl:er being
a ship•broker, of the lowest class, at Malaga, where he
himself was once eatablished as a merchaiit,.and failed.l
Accident took him to Russia, and accident again
placed him in contact a ith the Emperor's Government,
at t! e time his countrymen were manfully resisting the
Tote of Napoleon. llis local knowledge rendered him
useful at St. Petersburg!), and froth the Spanish Go-
♦ernment he received the appoi itment of Consul
General; in which character, in 1817, he claimed and
obtained a small indemnity for the rotten ships sold to
Spain, throu.A the agency of M. Ugarte.
, This was the principal circumstance that brought
him into public notice, and he ever afterwards enjoyed
the favour of the Emperor Alexander. This, in fact,
Was his stepping stone into the Spanish Ministry.

The Gravesend fishermen ha* returned to their
ssual employment, at the old wages, 16s. per week, and
ls, 6d. per day victualling money.
The late Mr. SCOTT, of Chelmsford, whose rerna;ns
were interred on Thursday, resided in the same house
for seventy years; he breathed his last on the same
bedstead upon which his mother gave him birth ; and
such were his domesec habits, that he never left his
house for three months together during the wh .le period
d seventy years.
Thursday, t:vo men, employed in Mr. Martin's distil-
lery, at Sligo, while in the act of clearing the backs,
were so overpowered by the influence of the gars, that
thcy died in a few minutes.
A singular circnrnsrance attended the funeral of Miss
Sarah Rolls, at ltishani, Bei ks, on Wednesday last. All
the bearers were fadierles,, and the average height it
the eleven foi!owers exceeded six feet.

Ann) 'g the many proofs of the prevalence of Gaelic
roots in existing names in both ends of the island, it may
be 'pea:lone.% that there ate ten rivers named Aron in
Ii itain ; and Avon is simply the Gaelic wcrd for' river.'
Tne 19th ult. two men entered the house of Mr.
Minks, of Arley, Warwickshire, when the family were
in bed, and one of them seizing a gun they found below,
and the oiler a knife, rushed up stairs and forced them-
selves into Mr. Rinks' bed-room, and demanded his
money. Mr. Rinks jumped out of bed, and a scuffle
ensued, but they succeeded in overpowering Mr. Rinks,
and to.)k away about twenty pounds in notes and gold.
MEN or STRAW.—A modern traveller in Italy re-
lat. s the following whimsical account of a ruse de
,guerre practie3 by a highway robber:—" My com-
panions in the diligence were all on the qui vive, (or the
carriage had been stopped and robbeu two evenings
before, by a single footpad. This fellow had practised
a most ingenious and dating stratagem to. effect his
purpose. lie raianufactured ten figures of straw, who,
in the duskiness of the night. appeased armed with
fusees and sabres; he drew up in the road in battle ar-
ray, and having taken his post a little in advance of his
corps, he ordered the diligence to stop, threatening, if
the least resistance was offerei, to call up his compa-
nions, and put all the passengers to-death. In this
manner lie laid the whole party under contribution.
amongst whom were two Spanish merchants with their
seitkoku, whose purses were heavily laden, and who
*etc well armed.