fins should be received in future or not; or, his Lordship added, he would endeavour to prevail on the parish to wave their opposition in the present instance, on the patentee giving a promise to bring no more coffins of the same kind till the question was settled in Doctors' Commons. The patentee informed the Bishop, that it was impossible to put the body in any other coffin, as the one in which it was deposited could not be opened; and that he could not undertake, even if this coffin were received, not to bring any more, as he had just placed two other bodies in iron coffins in that parish. The husband then cited the Rector of St Andrew's into the Commons, to answer to certain interrogatories to be administered to him. The clergyman has entered his appearance, and the case will be decided in the course of the ensuing term.

25. ARRIVAL OF THE PERSIAN AMBASSADOR AND THE FAIR CIR. CASSIAN.- About three this afternoon, his Majesty's schooner Pioneer arrived in Dover roads, and very shortly after the boat belonging to the Customs put off from her under a salute. She had on board the Persian Ambassador and suite, who, on landing, were greeted with another salute from the guns at the heights. As the schooner had been seen for some time before her arrival, there was an amazing concourse of people assembled on the beach; and the novel nature of the arrival of ten or a dozen persons habited in silks and turbans, with daggers and long beards, in no small degree attracted the attention of the inhabitants, whose curiosity had been raised to the highest pitch by the different accounts of the beauty of the fair Circassian; and had not a coach been provided at the water's edge, we much doubt if his Excellency and

suite would have reached the inn without considerable difficulty. The crowd followed to Wright's Hotel nearly as fast as the carriage, it being reported by some that the fair female was in a mask, under the habit of a male attendant, whilst others stated that she would not be landed till the middle of the night. In about half an hour, however, after the arrival of the first boat, a second boat came into the harbour, and landed the Circassian beauty. She was attended from the schooner by Lieutenant Graham, of the preventive service, and two black eunuchs. She was scarcely seen; for the instant she landed she was put into a coach, which conveyed her to the inn. She had on a hood, which covered the upper part of her head, and a large silk shawl screened the lower part of her face, across the nose, from observation; therefore her eyes, which are truly beautiful, and part of her forehead, were the only parts of her beauties that could be seen. She is of the middle stature, and appeared very interesting. Her look was languid from illness, arising from a rough passage. She was conducted to a bed-room on reaching the inn, but no one was allowed to attend her but the eunuchs.

NEWSTEAD ABBEY.-This stately and venerable pile, (recently purchased by Major Wildman for the sum of L.100,000), has been for nearly three centuries the abode of the ancient and noble house of Byron. It was granted at the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII. to Sir John Byron, one of the favourites of that monarch, and son of the brave Sir John who perished on the field of Bosworth. In the vault, under the magnificent chapel at Newstead, repose the mortal remains of several generations of this illustrious and "time-honoured race," whose descendant, gifted with the most

splendid talents which can adorn any name, is now a self-exiled wanderer on a foreign shore, and thus voluntarily despoils himself and his posterity of the patrimony so dearly and so nobly purchased by the valour and virtue of his ancestors. Previous to the Noble Lord's departure from England, his extensive estates in Lancashire and Cheshire were brought to the hammer and sold. Horeston, in Derbyshire, now alone remains of all the vast possessions of this illustrious and once numerous family. It was conferred by William the Conqueror upon Hugues de Biron, one of the valiant adventurers who enlisted under his banner. It formerly boasted a strongly fortified castle, where Sir John de Biron, (better known in the old chronicles by the name of "John of Horeston,") maintained his court in a degree of feudal splendour not much inferior to that of his sovereign. Of the old castle, however, not a vestige now remains. The present young nobleman is not the first of his family who has attained literary celebrity. His aunt Isabella, Countess of Carlisle, possessed a fine taste for poetry, and was the authoress of "The Fairy's Answer," in reply to Mrs Greville's Ode to Indifference. Lord Byron is godson to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and grandson to the late Honourable Admiral Byron, with whose simple and affecting "Narrative" almost every body is acquainted. Should his Lordship die without male issue, the title and estate of Horeston, which are unalienable, will descend to his

cousin, George Anson Byron, a captain in the royal navy.

28. A shock of an earthquake has been felt in the neighbourhood of Rome, and has done considerable mischief. The famous cupola, called Il Castello, is now a heap of ruins; and the Church of the Minor Friars, of the order of St Francis, of which it formed a part, rendered incapable of serving any longer as a place of worship. It is reported that the shock was felt along the whole coast of the Mediterranean, and that considerable damage has been done in many places. Fortunately no lives have been lost.

INDIAN ARMY. - A return of all the military forces, regular and irregular, serving in India at the date of the last dispatches, distinguishing the numbers of the King's forces from those of the Company, and the Europeans from the Natives:

was 929 men.

MAY.

3. MUNGO PARK.-The death of this enterprising traveller is now placed beyond any doubt. Many accounts of it have been received, and although varying as to the circumstances attending it, yet all agreeing that it has taken place. One statement was given to Mr Bowdich, while on his mission to the King of the Ashantees, in 1817, by a Moor, who said that he was an eye-witness; and the same gentleman procured an Arabic manuscript declaratory of Mr Park's death. This manuscript has been deposited with the African Association, formed for the purpose of extending researches in that part of the world. Two translations have been made of this curious document; one by Mr Salamé, an Egyptian, who accompanied Viscount Exmouth in his attack on Algiers, as interpreter; and the other by Mr Jackson, formerly consul at one of the Barbary courts. The following is Mr Salamé's translation, from which, how ever, the one by Mr Jackson only differs in a trifling degree.

The

words in italics have been inserted by Mr Salamé, in order to render the reading more perfect, and are not in the original.

A Literal Translation of a Declaration written in a corrupted Arabic, from the town of Yaud, in the interior of Africa.

"In the name of God, the merciful and the munificent. This declaration is issued from the town called Yaud, in the country of Kossa. We (the writer) do witness the following case (statement.) We never saw, nor heard of the sea (river) called Koodd; but we sat to hear (under

VOL. XII. PART II.

stood) the voice (report) of some persons, saying, We saw a ship, equal to her we never saw before; and the King of Yaud had sent plenty of every kind of food, with cows and sheep; there were two men, one woman, two male slaves, and two maids in the ship; the two white men were derived from the race (sect) of Nassri (Christ, or Christianity). The King of Yaud asked them to come out to him (to land); but they refused coming out (landing); and they went to the King of the country of Bassa, who is greater than the King of Yaud; and while they were sitting in the ship, and gaining a position (rounding) over the Cape of Koodd, and were in society with the people of the King of Bassa, the ship reached (struck) ahead of mountain, which took (destroyed) her away, and the men and women of Bassa all together, with every kind of arms (goods), and the ship could find no way to avoid the mountain; and the man who was in the ship killed his wife, and threw all his property into the sea (river), and then they threw them. selves also, from fear. Afterwards they took one out of the water till the news reached the town of Kanji, the country of the King of Wawi; and the King of Wawi heard of it; he buried him in his earth (grave), and the other we have not seen; perhaps he is in the bottom of the water; and God knows best.' Authentic from the mouth of Sherif Abraham."-In addition to the foregoing, another corroboration has been obtained. Lieut.-Col. Fitzclarence, when on his voyage down the Mediterranean on board the Tagus frigate, Capt. Dundas, with dispatches from the Marquis of Hastings, learnt from the Governor to the two sons of the Emperor of Morocco, who had been on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and were then returning home, that

U

he (Hadjee Talub) had been to Timbuctoo in 1807, and had heard of two white men, who came from the sea, having been near that place the year before, and that they sold beads, and had no money to purchase grain. This person added, that they went down the Nile to the eastward, and that general report stated that they died of the climate. There can be little doubt but the two white men here alluded to were Mr Park and his companion Lieut. Martyn, who were at Sansanding in November 1805, and could, in the following year, have been near Timbuctoo. Sansanding is the place from whence the last dispatches were dated by Mr Park; and Amadi Fatouma, who was his guide afterwards, was sent to learn his fate, and returned with an account of Mr Park being drowned. The statement of this person was, however, of such a nature as to excite suspicions of its correctness: and hopes were entertained that Mr. Park had not met with such an untimely fate. Fourteen years have now almost elapsed since the date of his last dispatches; a circumstance which is of itself sufficient to demonstrate, that he is to be added to the catalogue of those who have perished in their attempts to explore the interior of Africa.

4. COURT OF ASSIZES, PARIS. IN

VESTIGATION OF AN ATTEMPT TO AS

SASSINATE THE DUKE OF WELLING

Accusation against MarieAndré Cantillon, a jeweller, born at Paris, and residing at NO. 16, Rue de Dauphiné; also, against Joseph Stanislas Marinet, aged 49, without any occupation, born at Hortagne, department of Ain, and residing at NO. 313, Rue St Honoré.

About one o'clock on the morning of the 11th of February 1818, the Duke of Wellington was return

ing in his carriage to his hotel in the Rue Champs Elysées. The carriage was driven by his coachman, Daniel Guiver; and Louis Denneux, his footman, was behind. At the moment when the carriage approached the hotel, the explosion of fire arms was heard, and the light was seen by the Duke, his coachman, and footman. The sentinels were at the door of the hotel when the report was heard. The Duke at first thought that the firing proceeded accidentally from the muskets of the sentinels; but when, on getting out of his carriage, the footman asked him, with great anxiety, if he was wounded, he could no longer doubt but that the firing of the pistol proceeded from malice, and was aimed at his carriage.

The Commissary of Police being informed of what passed, proceeded next day, at eleven o'clock, to the hotel of the Duke of Wellington, where he collected the following facts :-The coachman, Guiver, declared, that having turned from the Rue St Honoré into that of the Champs Elysées, and while in the front of the inn which faces the hotel of Abrantes, he perceived a man following the carriage, sometimes going quicker and sometimes slower; and that as Guiver was about to enter the hotel, he saw the same man pointing a pistol at the carriage, heard the explosion, and saw the fire. He added, that the man was only three or four paces from the carriage, but that the horses being frightened, he was obliged to direct all his attention to them, and was by that means prevented from seeing which way the man fled; but that he could perceive, so far as the darkness of the night would permit, that the person was dressed like a citizen, with dark-coloured clothes and a round hat, but that he could not re

collect his height or his figure, or whether he had mustachios.

Denneux, the footman, stated, that as the carriage was entering the gate of the hotel, he saw the man suddenly raising his right hand on his left arm, and pointing the pistol at the carriage, which immediately went off, and that by the light of the fire he was able to observe the man, who appeared to be about five feet six inches high, and about thirty-six or thirty-eight years of age, that he was thin and brown, had mustachios, and wore a round hat. The rapid movement of the carriage, and a seat placed behind it, prevented this witness from immediately going in pursuit of the man, who ran away towards the Rue St Honoré; but he cried out to the guards, "Stop! stop!" but they were prevented from pursuing the man, in consequence of the carriage having just entered the gateway of the hotel.

Two persons, named Thomas Carter and William Morris, belonging to the Duke's household, were at an inn in the Rue de la Madelaine. When they heard the carriage returning, they left the inn in order to go to the hotel, and while proceeding along the Rue des Champ Elysées, on the left-hand side, they saw the flash, and heard the report of firearms; and immediately after saw a man running precipitately along the Rue Madelaine. Thomas Carter said to his companion, "I'll lay a wager that that man fired at the Duke's carriage;" but as they heard nobody call out, and being besides strangers, and fearing lest they should do any thing contrary to the usages of the country, they did not at the moment attempt to stop the man; but meeting with three soldiers, who were pursuing the assassin, William Morris joined them, and the assassin, who was a hundred paces in advance,

was soon out of sight. Morris supposed the man to be about five feet three inches high, with a dark coat and metal buttons, and a stick in his hand.

Next day, the Juge d'Instruction attended at the hotel of the Duke to take his deposition. The outside as well as the inside of the carriage was examined; but no trace of a ball could be discovered; and it was supposed the ball had passed through the two windows of the carriage, the glasses of which were down, and struck against the wall of the hotel de Clisson, which was opposite to that of the Duke; but no distinct mark of a ball could be discovered there.

It appeared from the examination taken after the 11th of February, that a report was spread at Cambray of the Duke of Wellington having been assassinated; and it was certain that the attempt was the result of a plot which had been formed a long time before. Colonel Burgh, Aidede-Camp to the Duke, stated, that being at Cambray on the 15th of January 1818, he received a letter with the post-mark of Paris on it, and having no other signature than the letters F. G.; that in this letter it was announced that attempts were making against the life of the Duke of Wellington, and that a proposal had been made to the writer to enter into the plot, which he refused to comply with. Colonel Burgh immediately sent this letter to the Duke, who was then at the chateau de St Martin, near Cambray. The Duke disregarded this communication, and the letter was burnt or lost. On the 11th of February following, in the evening, an Italian named Ghirardi, who had formerly been servant to Colonel Burgh, and was then in the service of D. Los Rios, brother to the Spanish Ambassador, came to