the licence, if it was a matter of grace and favour. On the following day, the master of the faculties refused the licence. The bans were afterwards published in the ordinary way; and although they were forbidden, the marriage of his royal highness to Miss Penelope Smyth, no cause against it being shown, was celebrated at St. George's, Hanoversquare. This was the fourth celebration-the first having been at Rome, by Cardinal Weld; the second at Madrid; and the third at Gretna-green. -EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM FORLI. "We have received, by letters from Rome, of the 6th inst., the following details:-Two of the sons of Lucien Bonaparte, prince of Canino, carried away by the impetuosity of youth, killed a gamekeeper at Canino, in a hasty quarrel that arose between them. The government immediately sent a detachment of carbineers to arrest the young princes, who resolutely resisted by force of arms, supported by other young men who joined them. On presenting the warrant of arrest, the lieutenant who commanded the party, was killed by a pistol-shot from one of the princes. A general contest ensued, in which several were wounded, and among them, it is said, a non-commissioned officer and two carbineers, very seriously. In the end, the armed force gained the upper hand, and secured one of the princes; but the other succeeded in effecting his escape. The brother, who was secured, was instantly sent to Rome under an escort, and arrived a few minutes after this deplorable event had been made known to the government and to the elder brother, the prince of Musignano, who was quietly pursuing at Rome his favourite study of natural history." -French Paper. DESTRUCTION OF THE PORTRAIT OF SIR JOHN SOANE IN THE COMMITTEE-ROOM OF THE LITERARY-FUND SOCIETY.-The members of the Literary-fund Society have been thrown into a state of considerable excitement by an incident which lately occurred at their committee-room. A portrait of sir John Soane, the architect, and a member of the society, was lately presented to the Fund by Maclise, the Artist. Sir John, who has grown somewhat older since he was painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and, accustomed to flattery, thought it some disparagement to him that he should be depicted with all the changes time had worked upon his brow, requested the society to return the portrait, and offered to present them with one by sir Thomas Lawrence, making their compliance the terms of his future favour to the Fund, to which he had been a munificent benefactor. The considerate portion of the society thought it better to humour the veteran architect and remove the picture; especially as Maclise made no objection. But some persons, deeming sir John's proceeding too dictatorial,-Radicalism and Opposition creep in everywhere,-stoutly resisted the proposal; and it was to be mooted at a general meeting of subscribers: when, lo! Mr. Jerdan, editor of the Literary Gazette, and member of the council of the Fund, put an end to all contention by entering the committee-room and cutting the caricature of sir John (as the latter considered it) in pieces with pen-knife ! his 15. THE GREAT ANNULAR ECLIPSE. At five minutes past one, the first obscuration of the sun, in the form of a segment of a circle, was visible in London. At about two o'clock the moon had encroached to the extent of several digits on the diameter of the great luminary. At this period, when viewed through a telescope of about 80 degrees magnifying power, the apertures or black spots in the body of the sun seemed to be within a digit and a-half of the nearest point of the circular edge of the moon. The planet, then in a compound orbicular path, describing an ellipsis between south, north, and west, continued to intercept the rays of the sun until twenty minutes past 3, when the eclipse reached its extent, leaving an annular segment of the sun from south to east, which was equal in depth to about one-fourth of the entire solar diameter. The darkness, probably owing to the extraordinary clearness of the atmosphere, was not so great as had been anticipated, and consequently, to ordinary telescopes, the stars, that had been marked out in the diagrams as visible, were not to be seen. The moon had passed at about a quarter to 4, and the sun re-illumined the horizon with increased effulgence. The effects of the eclipse were much more striking to the north of Alnwick. 16-18. The Court of Assizes at Riom, in the department of the Puy de Dome, on the 16th inst., and the three following days, was occupied with the trial of M. de Vandegre, accused of having assassinated his own son, in the commune of Terjat. The witnesses for the prosecution deposed, that the son of the deceased had paid his addresses to a young servant girl, named Marie Bourdu; and the mother of the girl stated, that he had been obliged to take refuge in their house from the fury of his parents, who threatened to murder him for trying to form a marriage against their inclinations. On the evening of the 29th of October last, the young man having gone out of their house for a short time, a report of fire-arms was heard, and the young man was found killed. Other witnesses declared that a tall man, like the prisoner, had for some nights been prowling round the house with a gun, and the brother of the intended bride of the deceased saw a tall man making his escape across the fields, after the murder had been committed. A Juge de Paix deposed to the prisoner being much troubled on his examination; and a notary declared that when he had gone to the house of the prisoner, before the murder of the deceased, to announce in a legal form that his son intended to marry, both father and mother used threatening language against the son. Other witnesses deposed that the son had been very violent against his parents at times. Two servants of the prisoner swore that he was at home the whole of the day on which the murder was committed, but one of these witnesses was placed under arrest for gross prevarication in delivering evidence. The rector of the commune declared that the prisoner had come to him to beg him to cause the publication of the bans of marriage to be forbidden in the parish where the girl lived. He replied that his power did not extend so far; upon which the prisoner declared, that sooner than let his son contract this marriage, which he considered to be degrading, since he himself was the son of a Chevalier de St. Louis, and belonged to a noble family, he would kill him. After the murder the prisoner came to the witness to pay for a mass to be said, in order that the murderer of his son might be discovered. The witness, however, upbraided him with being the murderer himself, on account of the threats he had previously uttered, and the prisoner seemed much affected. The prisoner denied all the facts. A statement was made by several witnesses for the defence, that the woman, who laid out the corpse of the deceased, while doing so, had heard the girl Bourdu say to her mother-"Oh, mother, what a thing you have done!" The woman herself denied having said A verdict of acquittal was pronounced, much to the discontent of the district. So. you that all was going on as successfully as the most sanguine could possibly desire. We found the Arabs well disposed, and quite ready to form dépôts for us of wood, charcoal, bitumen, and lignite coal, all met in abundance, and tried with complete success. In addition to these marked advantages, the survey has been carried 509 miles down the Great River, which seemed in all respects favourable; in short, all was continued prosperity up to the afternoon of the 21st inst., when it pleased God to send the calamitous event of which it is now my duty to give a feeble sketch. A little after 1 P. M., on that melancholy day, the flat boats being a little ahead, and the Tigris leading the Euphrates, a storm appeared, bringing with it, high in the air, clouds of sand from the west-north-west quarter. At this moment we were passing over the rocks of Is Geria (deeply covered), and immediately after we made a signal for the Euphrates to choose a berth, and make fast, which was done more as a matter of precaution, on account of the difficulty of seeing our way through the sand, than from apprehension that the squall would be so terrific. The Tigris was immediately directed towards the bank, against which she struck without injury, but with so much violence as to recoil a distance of about eight yards, leaving two men bank, who had jumped out to make fast. The wind then suddenly veered round, drove her bow off, and thus rendered it quite impossible to secure the vessel to the bank, along which she was blown rapidly by the heavy gusts, her head falling off into the stream as she passed close by the Eu on the phrates, which vessel had been backed opportunely to avoid the concussion. The engines were working at full power, and every endeavour made to turn the vessel's bow to the bank. One anchor was let go, but the heel of the vessel made it impossible to get the other out, and she was then nearly broadside to the wind, with the engines almost powerless, and the waves, rising to four or five feet, forcing their way in at the windows. Lieutenant Cockburn, the Messrs. Staunton, and some of the men made ineffectual attempts to keep out the water, for the fate of the vessel was already decided; and the fore part of the deck being under water, lieutenant Lynch came to report that the Tigris was sinking, and the word was immediately passed for all to save themselves. At this very instant a momentary gleam of light faintly showed the bank at the apparent distance of eight or ten yards; and as there appeared every probability that the stern would touch it before she went down, lieutenant Lynch encouraged the people to remain steady until they reached the land. All were on deck at this critical moment, some clinging to the ropes of the awning, the paddle-boards, and funnel; but the majority were close to the tiller, and all behaving with the most exemplary obedience, until the vessel went down all at once, and probably within half a minute after we had seen the bank for an instant. "Lieutenant Lynch, who was at my elbow, dived out underneath the starboard ridge rope, at the moment when there was about four feet water on the deck, and I had the good fortune to get clear in the same way through the lar VOL. LXXVIII, board side, and also to take a direction which brought me to the land, without having seen anything whatever to guide me through a darkness worse than that of night. When it cleared a little, I found around me Lieutenant Lynch and Mr. Eden (both greatly exhausted), Mr. Thompson, the Messrs. Staunton, and several of the men. The hurricane was already abating rapidly, and as the distance from the vessel to the shore was very short, we indulged the hope that the rest of our brave companions had reached the bank lower down. For an instant I saw the keel of the Tigris uppermost, near the stern. She went down bow foremost, and having struck the bottom in that position, she probably turned round on the bow as a pivot, and thus showed part of her keel for an instant at the other extremity; but her paddlebeams, floats, and parts of the sides were already broken up and actually floated ashore, so speedy and terrific had been the work of destruction. From the moment of striking the bank until the Tigris went down, it scarcely exceeded eight minutes; whilst the operation of sinking itself did not consume more than three; indeed the gale was so very violent, that I doubt whether the most powerful vessel, such as a frigate, could have resisted it, unless she were already secured to the bank; and for this there was, in our case, little or no time, as it was barely possible, in the position of our consort, to make fast and save the vessel. out two anchors in the very nick of time; and by the united means of two hawsers, and the engines working at full power, the vessel maintained her position at the bank until the storm abated, as the enclosed letter from captain Estcourt will explain more fully: and as it required all the powers of a fifty-horse power engine, in the case of the Euphrates, to keep her hawsers from snapping, I infer that the twenty-one horse of the Tigris would not have been sufficient to enable her to keep the position at the bank, even if the officers had succeeded in securing her along side of it. "Lieutenant Lynch and Mr. Eden continued cool and collected until the last moment, nor were any efforts wanting, that skill or presence of mind could suggest, to save the vessel in the first instance, and the lives in the second, when the former had failed; nor could any thing be more exemplary than their conduct, and that of all on board; scarcely a word was spoken, not a murmur was heard, and death was met with that exemplary degree of intrepidity and resignation which have been displayed by every individual throughout the arduous and trying service in which we have been engaged since January, 1835. 66 Having already given a faithful account of the short but eventful period of about twelve minutes occupied by the beginning, the progress, and termination, of the hurricane, I will conclude this painful part of my task, by referring you to the inclosed return of the names of the valuable men who have been lost to his Majesty and their country for ever. Very different was the result when a similar, but less violent gale, sent my little vessel to the bottom of this river in 1831; for I had not then the misery of deploring the loss of a single life, and my little schooner was afloat and continuing the descent in less than twelve hours; whereas, all our efforts as yet have failed even to find the remains of the vessel. Not a ripple, or the slightest trace of the unfor tunate Tigris, marks the spot where she went down; but our search has not yet terminated, and if she should be found without having been dashed to pieces, I shall take measures to recover her with the assistance of the divingbell, and other means; especially as there are many valuable instruments on board, in addition to the hull and machinery, and particularly as the Arabs here are well disposed. "I am happy to say, that the survivors of the expedition remain as much unshaken as ever in their confidence regarding the final success of this undertaking, as well as the manifest advantages, facilities, and cheapness of this line of communication. The hurricane has been, it is true, a most trying and calamitous event; but I believe it is regarded by all, even at this early day, as having no more to do with the navigation of the Euphrates, in other respects, than the loss of a packet in the Irish Channel, which might retard, but could not put an end to, the intercourse between England and Ireland. "We are therefore continuing our descent and survey to Bussora, hoping, not only to bring up the mail from India within the specified time, but also, if it pleases |