Star. — 1822-10-31 (London, England)

CALEDONIAN CANAL.  ISVERNESS, OCT. 24.—After a labour of nearly twenty years, snd an expenditure of about £900,000 on this great national unEh-taking, the country will feel a great degree of satisfaction in hearing of the completion of it. At ten o'clock yesterday morning the Lochness steam yacht, accompanied by two smacks, depart,d from the locks of Muirtown on the first voyage through the canal, amidst the loud and enthusiastic cheerineof a great concourse of people, and the firing of cannon. The morning was peculiarly favourable, although rather calm. There was scarcely a breath of wind to disperse the smoke, which ascended unbroken after the firing of the guns. The banks of the canal were crowded with spectators, a great number of whom accompanied the party front the Muirtown Locks to the Bridge of Bught. The band of the Inverness-shire militia went on board at Dochgarrach Lock, and immediately played the national air of" Goo save the King." As a minute examination of the most remarkable features of the canal will be gone into, it is not expected that the party will arrive at Fort William before this evening: and it is their intention to return to this town to-morrow night. They will be met at rack Oich by the Comet steam boat. The Lochness steam boat passed through Loch Dochfour at ten minutes before one o'clock, on her tirst voyage through the C.de. douian Canal, the band playing, and a salute fired in passing Dochfour, which was answered by Mr. BAILLID'S people on shore by loud cheering, and a salutefrom a number of small arms.  The supply of fresh herrings at Billingsgate, this morning, was greater than it has been this season. They were sold at 2s. per hundred. Tuesday afternoon, as the Duke of Beaufort steam packet was proceeding down the river Avon, it was met by a small boat, in which were four men and a female, when, by some mismanagement, the boat coming directly under the bow of the steam vessel, was instantly crushed to atoms, and one of the men was drowned ; the remainder were picked up by a boat that chanced to be passing. Some of the masts in the King's dock-yards arel three feet in diameter, and 40 yards in length. These long firs are such conductors of sound, that a watch placed against one end may be heard to beat very distinctly by an ear applied to the other end. Letters have been received from Madras, stating that considerable alarm had been excited there by the discovery of a plot, which had for its object the massacre of all the Faringus (Europeans), that the flag of the PROPHET might wave undisturbed from Delhi to Cape Cormorin. A Subidar of the 66th Regiment, and of the Bth Cavalry, it appears, found inflammatory papers, and immediately conveyed them to the Commanding Officers. Various motives are assigned for these blood-thirsty intentions. They are partly, attributed to religious infatuation ; but it seems that hard measures had been tesorted to for raking the revenue, which had caused great dissatisfaction among the natives.  The most dreadful charges of infanticide have been establihhed against a midwife at Zuuguy, in France. This wretch used to admit females in a state of pregnancy to her house, and for a certain reward undertook to carry the children to the Hospital, but invariably murdered them. The police, upon getting iilfOrMation of the circumstance, repaired to the scene blood, and in her garden found buried the bodies of several murdered innocents. She has been sent to prison to take her trial for the crime. Yesterday morning, about seven o'clock, the parish officers of St. Mary, Islington, received information that a man was found in a field near Canonbury House, supposed to have been murdered. On arriving at the spot they found the man quite dead, and presenting a shocking spectacle. He appeared to have been taken out of the river by some person and left in the field; his pockets were turned inside out. He appears to have been in the water some time. He was dressed in a black coat and waistcoat, blue trowsers, black stockings, and shoes, and is about thirty years of age, and six feet high. He is lying at Islington Church to be owned.