that the overflowing of the river may, in the course of improvement, be directed in such a manner as to fertilize a very extensive country, and New South Wales may, at no very distant period, rival the exuberance of ancient Egypt. Most of the land, if well cultivated, will produce from eighty to one hundred bushels of Indian corn per acre, and thirty bushels of wheat, in addition to that, as a second crop in the same year, is reckoned but a moderate produce. The other parts of the country, which are cleared, are not equal to the ground upon Hawkesbury River, for the production of corn, but are all excellent for pasture. The climate is exceedingly favourable for fruit trees, and in a short time fruit will be more abundant than the consumption of the inhabitants can require. Peaches are exceedingly plentiful, and an attempt has been made to distil cyder from them, but I am informed that it is not very palatable. A few hops are also growing in the lieutenant governor's garden, which, as it is supposed, will thrive very well. The public buildings consist of a church nearly complete, situated at Paramatta, about sixteen miles from Sydney; another which is building at Sydney; the buildings for the governor and lieutenant governor, the latter of whom commands the troops; barracks for the officers and soldiers; hospitals, store-houses, gaols, &c. &c. These, together with nine-tenths of the private buildings, are but one story high. Within a few years past there has been an extensive building erected for the education of orphans, and a fund appropriated for its support. The increase of the stock is surprising, particularly sheep, which produce twice a year. The imports are principally European goods.---Tea, sugar, butter, spirits, and wine, are much in demand. At present the exports are not great, but in all probability they will soon be very considerable, particularly whale and elephant oil, the trade in which, to Bass Straits, is carried on at present with some spirit. The harbour of Port Jackson is large and commodious, and capable of containing any number of shipping, and sheltered from all winds.

THE YOUNG ROSCIUS.-While performing the part of Hamlet, at the Sheffield theatre, and Mr. Henry that of Horatio, the latter gentleman stepped upon a trap, near the back part of the stage, which had been incautiously left unsecured, and he instantly fell through a space of more than twelve feet. A large hook caught the slieve of his dress, which in some measure broke his fall, but lacerated his arm shockingly. He was taken up with very little symptoms of life. Medical assistance being on the spot, he was immediately bled, and carried home to his apartments, where, though dreadfully bruised, we are happy to state that he is now in a fair way of recovery. Mr. M'Cready, the manager, reprobated,. in the strongest terms, the negligence of those through whose carelessness the accident occurred, and ordered that every tender attention should be procured for the unfortunate sufferer. The conduct and feelings of Roscrus, on this occasion, were such as to do him the highest honour. He was the first to make his way beneath the stage, calling loudly for lights, exclaiming, in the utmost agony, while the full eye bore testimony of the feelings of his heart, "My God! my God! he is killed." He added the utmost of his little strength in assisting to carry him to the green-room, and as soon as propriety would admit, visited him at his lodgings, and his attention afterwards was unremitting. The nobility and gentry of Buxton sent Mr. Stanton to offer RoscIUS fifty guineas if he would perform there one night; but he declined the offer.

The Journal de Paris contains the following deplorable picture of the state of society in France, and most strikingly illustrates the evils arising from the facility of divorce permitted by the first National Assembly, which deserves all the censure that can be passed upon it; for the extravagance and wickedness of this one assembly may justly be accused of all the wars which have desolated Europe for the last fourteen years.

"Marriages increase in proportion as divorces decrease, which may convince our speculative philosophers and metaphysicians, that their calculations concerning the happiness of civil society are as erroneous in this case as in many others. Their maxims (unfortunately for France, converted into laws by the National Convention, the most immoral, cruel, and ignorant, of all her National Assemblies) of permitting full liberty for every one to divorce, even for a momentary disagreement of temper, have made more prostitutes and bastards in France, during the last ten years, than the depravity of the ten preceding centuries. Among the wretches perishing in our streets by want or disease, who offer their faded charms to drunkards or libertines, of twelve, eight are divorced women; and of orphans begging by our doors, crowding our hospitals, prisons, or scaffolds, ninety of an hundred are children neglected by divorced parents, and therefore owe their misery and guilt to the former infamous laws of divorce."

Very often in the same house, in the Palais Royal, on the first floor is a gaming-table, at which the visitor may lose his fortune; on the second a reception for women, in which he may destroy his health; in the entresol, or little room between the two floors, a pawnbroker's shop, in which, for usurious interest, he may supply himself with the means of losing both the one and the other; and on the ground-floor is a gun-smith's, who sells the pistols with which, when beset on all sides, and arrived at the end of his career, he may put an end to his troubles!

The French national almanack for the next year is called "Almanac pour An XIII. de la Republic Francaise, l'An premier de l'Empire." Almanack for the year XIII. of the French Republic, the first year of the Empire. This is the third change of the national calendar since the revolution. In 1789, it was the first year of French Liberty; in 1792, the first year of the Republic; in 1804, the first year of the Empire, which has swallowed up both liberty and the republic.

and now,

The building the Martello Towers, for the protection of the coast from Bray to Dublin, proceeds with unexampled dispatch; they are, in general, about forty feet in diameter, precisely circular, and built of hewn granite, closely joined. Some are already thirty feet high, and exhibit proofs of the most admirable maOne has been just begun at Williamstown, near the Black rock. Those from Dalkey to Bray are nearly finished.

sonry,

DREADFUL FIRE,---About a quarter past three o'clock on Wednesday morning, Oct. 3, the most alarming fire we have noticed for many years, broke out at the house of Mrs. Storr, hatter, No. 12, Union Street, Westminster, within a door of New Palace Yard. It commenced in the second floor, occupied by an elderly lady, of the name of Freeman, who had resided in the house for some years. The fire was first descovered by Mrs. Owen, the wife of Mr. Owen, who keeps the Golden Fleece public house, nearly opposite, who, being awake,

smelled the fire, and also heard the crackling from the flames. She awoke her husband, and both ran to the window, when they saw the old lady come out of the back room, where she lay, to the front one, and at the time both rooms appeared in a blaze. She came to the front windows as fast as she could, and her shift was on fire on her back. Being about seventy years of age, and infirm, she had not power to raise the window. Mr. Owen immediately gave the alarm of fire, which was answered by the watchman's springing his rattle. The houses were old, and mostly built of timber, which caused the fire to rage with the greatest force. At this awful moment Mrs. Freeman was seen to drop in the midst of the flames, which then began to pour out at the windows, and likewise, at the same time, two young women were observed on the parapet, amidst volumes of fire and smoke, uttering the most piercing shrieks. No other way of escape being left, Ann Toby, a girl of about sixteen, apprentice of Mrs. Storr, jumped off, her fall being partly broken by one of the watchmen, who strove to catch her in his arms, whilst some others were providing a feather-bed for the girls to leap into. Elizabeth Mills, the servant, likewise leaped off, and was caught in a blanket, which prevented her being dashed to pieces; however, one had both her thighs broken, and her face and every part much bruised and cut; the other had her arm broke, and every part of her much bruised; they were both taken to the Westminster Infirmary, where Mr. Humbury, the surgeon, dressed their wounds, which were so severe, that faint hopes are entertained of either recovering. The fire burning rapidly, communicated to Mr. Godfrey's, upholsterer and cabinet-maker, the corner of Union-Street and New Palace Yard. By this time, alarm from the springing of rattles and cry of fire had awoke the whole neighborhood, who ran to assist the sufferers, and the opposite houses were open to receive the rescued property. Little could be saved from Mrs. Storr's premises, which were uninsured; Mr. Godfrey's was a double house, and contained a vast deal of valuable property, the most part of which was saved, as the fire did not communicate to Mr. Godfrey's before the entire of Mrs. Storr's house was on fire. The drums beat to arms at this time, and the volunteers assembled very fast, previous to whose arrival there were great depredations committed by those who seemed most active to rescue the property from the flames. Several engines arrived between four and five o'clock, which were entirely useless for upwards of an hour, for want of water. By this time Mrs. Storr's house was entirely burnt down, and the greater part of Mr. Godfrey's; Mr. Windsor's, a shoemaker, on the other side, was burnt as far as the second floor; and had the wind been high, the whole of the street must have been destroyed. The fire is imagined to have been occasioned by Mrs. Freeman's leaving a candle burning in her room, which she was addicted to, and that the curtains must have taken fire. About ten o'clock in the forenoon of Thursday the remains of Mrs. Freeman were found in the ruins, nearly consumed to a cinder, and were afterwards taken in a shell to the workhouse, for the coroner's inquest.

CORONER'S INQUEST.---On the 5th an inquest was held before Mr. Gill, Coroner for Middlesex, on the body of Elizabeth Toby, who expired in Westminster infirmary, on Thursday evening, at five o'clock. Mr. John Storr stated, that the deceased was an apprentice to his mother, whom she had been

with since she was fifteen, she being seventeen at her death. He had alarmed all the house, excepting the two young women, who, for the moment, escaped his memory. The watchman, who was near the spot, deposed, that as he was springing his rattle, the deceased fell within a yard of him, as he supposed from the third floor window, He raised her head on his knee, and in less than half a minute Elizabeth Mills fell so close to him, as to graze his lanthorn. He got assistance and conveyed them to the workhouse. On being asked if the fall of Mills was not broken by some means, he replied no, he was the nearest to her when she fell. Charles F. Cox, house surgeon at the infirmary, stated, that on his first examining her, he perceived her very much bruised, both her thighs were broken, and the abdomen was swelled. Her skull was not supposed to be fractured, but it ultimately turned out that it was fractured very extensively, and she had also a contusion on the groin. She remained very sensible until a short time before her death, which followed a violent vomiting. He had no doubt but her death was occasioned in consequence of the injuries she had received on her head.---Accidental death. Elizabeth Mills is in a state of convalescence, and no limbs are broken. What is very remarkable, the deceased jumped out of the window without alarming Elizabeth Mills, who slept with

her.

According to advices received from Cadiz, Gen. Moreau was received there with the most marked attention. The greatest honours were shewn him wherever he appeared. Don Solano, the Governor of Cadiz, treats him with particular esteem and cordiality, having served under him in the French army, as a volunteer. Madame Moreau has not yet been delivered, and their departure for America will not take place till after she has lain in.

The captain of a Swedish vessel now in the River, who sailed from Gottenburgh, on the fifth, states, that, on his leaving that harbour, the English Packet, with His Royal Highness Monsieur, brother to his most Christian Majesty the King of France, was in sight. Louis XVIII. had not then arrived at Calmar, his intended residence; but was daily expected, and great preparations were made for his Majesty's reception. Five hundred men of the provincial regiment of Calmar were under orders to do duty as life guards of the King of France.

According to an Ukase of the Emperor of Russia, relating to the censorship of the press, every work tending to propagate ignorance, fanaticisin, licentiousness, and bad morals, shall be proscribed. No dramatic work can be represented, even on the Imperial theatre, without having been approved by either of the two committees. Foreign journals are submitted to the inspection of a secret committee. Advertisements and hand bills belong to the civil police. The following paragraph has been inserted, by the special order of his Majesty the Emperor : "The censors will abstain from every partiality contrary to the interests of the author, who submits to them his work, and in every equivocal case, they will incline to indulgence rather than severity." Every engraving, contrary to morality, shall be suppressed.

The widow of the unfortunate Touissant, who has lately been permitted to go to America from France, is stated, in an account said to be written by herself, to have been twice pút upon the rack, during her residence in France, for the

purpose of extorting confessions from her, relative to the conduct of the Governor of Jamaica, of which she was completely ignorant. It further says, that she and her son were permitted to depart from France, in consequence of the promise of the young man to form a party in St. Domingo against Dessalines ; and concludes with stating that the unhappy widow" has lost, from the tortures, the use of her left arm ; and has no less then forty-four wounds on different parts of her body. Pieces of flesh have been torn from her breast, as with hot irons, together with six nails off her toes."

The interior of both houses of parliament are undergoing certain alterations and improvements. In the house of commons, the large brass chandelier, which descends from the roof, in the centre of the house, is to be removed and replaced by another, not so bulky, but which will answer the purpose equally well. The chandelier is taken away, because the large ball at its base hung so low, as to interrupt Mr. Speaker in seeing the clock in front of the strangers' gallery.— Painters are busy in touching up the lobbies and passages leading to the house. In the house of lords there are now three fire places. Last sessions there were only two, one near the bar, and the other in the middle of the house between the throne and the bar. A new fire-place has been struck out on the right of the throne, and of course on the same side with the others. The mantle piece of the centre fire-place (the largest of the three) is elegantly executed in white marble, the other two are in red marble, corresponding with the colour of the benches. The large chandelier, which hung over the bar, is to be removed, and there will be four large chandeliers, hanging over the body of the house. The brass serpent girandoles, which are fastened to the tapestry, are to be removed, and deposited in the old house of lords.

BURTON PYNSENT ESTATE. The distinguished estate of Burton Pynsent, in Somersetshire, has been brought to the hammer, at Garraway's coffee-house, and sold, in different lots, 'for £.43,155. It will, surely, he needless to mention this property as the legacy of Sir Wm. Pyusent to the late Earl of Chatham, in testimony of his regard for the character and services of that statesman. Lady Chatham enjoyed it during her life, and it has now passed away to a new class of proprietors: an example of the extreme folly, as well as injustice of those, who deprive their heirs of their natural rights, from the fruitless vanity of rewarding public virtue with private property.

KENSINGTON PALACE.---This pleasant and convenient royal residence, among other improvements, is to be enlarged by an additional wing. Report states, that it is to be the abode of the Princess of Wales, and that all these repairs and preparations are for the reception of this royal tenant. The Lord Chamberlain has given up his apartment in the palace to the Hon. Capt. Paget, son to the Earl of Uxbridge.

Margery Wood has been fully committed for the wilful murder of her infant, to Shepton Mallet Bridewell. She is a most deplorable looking object, and about forty-five years of age. Her confession is ample, circumstantial, and most pitiable; and the agonies of her mind since perpetrating the horrid deed must have been truly acute and deplorable. She carried the little innocent naked, covered only with her apron, through the streets of Bath, for a month after her delivery; and at last took the diabolical resolution of cutting its throat and throw