HOME NEWS

Wellington Independent, Volume I, Issue 15, 21 May 1845, Page 3

HOME NEWS

The poet Campbell's pension of £184 a year has been bestowed, we hear, upon Mr. Patrick Ffaser Tytler. The pension is payable out of the Scotch Excise, and is in this way, as well as in another way, particularly well merited by the historian of Scotland.

The Augsburg Gazette states, on the authority of a letter from Alexandria of the 6th ult. that the Pacha of Egypt has annouuced his Intention of making a railroad on his own account to Suez, The writer of the letter states that the distance is 84 English miles, and that the estimated expense is only £3,000 sterling per mile.

State Punishments. — The late Sir Francis Burdett was condemned to sis months imprisonment and a fine of two thousand pounds, for writing a letter to his constituents upon the Manchester massacre, as it was called. Henry Hunt, for agitating in the cause of Radical reform, was imprisoned for two years and a half. Sir C. Worseley, for a like offence, one year and a half. And Cobbett, for writing an article on flogging by German soldiers, passed two years in Newgate, and paid a fine of £1,000, besides being bound in sureties for seven years in the sum of £5,000. The notorious Carlisle was subjected to three years imprisonment, and fines amounting to £1,500, for publishing his blasphemous writings. And Leigh Hunt had two years' imprisonment, and a fine of £1,000 for a libel on the Prince Regent.

From a parliamentary return procured by Mr. Ewart, it appears that in the six years ending 1836, 493 persons were committed for arson, of whom 119 were convicted, and 58 executed. During the six years ending 1843, after the amelioration of the law, the committals were 344, the convictions 117, and the executions none.

Warsaw.—A letter from Warsaw says, " A singular discovery has made it possible to prosecute with more activity the works of the fine hanging bridge ov,;r the Vistula, to join Warsaw and Prague. On demolishing an ancient Roman Catholic Chapel, to clear the approaches to the bridge on the Warsaw side, there were found in the foundation two barrels filled with fine gold, of the value of three millions of francs, which will be employed in the completion of this remarkable work."

A great number of cases have lately been lauded at the Custo.n-house, having been brought from Cronstadt. They all contain presents from the Emperor of Russia, of great value, for her Majesty, his Royal Highness Prince Albert, Sir Robert Peel, the Duke of Devonshire, the Duke of Buccleuch, &c. Her Majesty has received some superb machite vases of great value, perhaps to the extent of £10,000.

. The following members of the University of Oxford have turned to the Church of Rome during the last three years: Rev. R. W. Sibthorp, Fellow of Magdalen College ; Rev. Bernard Smith, late Fellow of Magdalen College ; Johnson Grant, Esq., St. Join's College ; T. H. King, Esq., Exeter College; G. Tickell, Esq., late Fellow of University Coilege; Edward Douglas, Esq., 8.A., Christ Church ; Scott Murray, Esq., 8.A., Christ Church, M.P., for Bucks ; Rev. w! G. Penny, student of Christ Church ; Rev. G. Talbott, M.A. St. Mary's Hall; Rev. Daniel Parsons, M.A., Oriel College ; Rev. S. Seager, M.A., Worcester College; T. Leigh, Esq., late of Brasenose College; Peter Renouf, Esq., Pembroke College ; W. Lockhart, Esq., Exeter College. We fiud on the list of sheriff-nominees for the present year, Sir Moses Montefiore first on that for Kent, and Bannmenzer Amschel de Rothschild upon that for Buckinghamshire. Eclipses in 1845.—There will be two eclipses of the sun and two of the moon. May 6, a partial eclipse of the sun, visible. May 21, a total eclipse of the moon, invisible.—o,ctobeT 30, a partial eclipse of the

sun, invisible. November 13, a partial eclipse of the moon, visible. Fiscal Wisdom.—lt is estimated, that from twenty to twenty-five millions of pounds of tobacco are annually smuggled into tha United Kingdom — a larger quantity'than finds its w<ty into the market in the legitLmate course of trade ! So much for high duties. Mr. Joseph Plaskett, yeoman, of Fenters, near Lorton, has a cow in his possession which for five successive years has calved on the 11th of November. The rental of the New Royal Exchange, London, is estimated at £14,000 per annum. The King of the French has presented a gift of a doll to the daughter of the Sultan of Egypt, worth £4,166 sterling. Berwick Castle.—That venerable and interesting monument of antiquity, the ancient castle of Berwick, is to be levelled with the ground, in order to allow space for the terminus of the railway forming between that town and Edinburgh. The Artesian well at Southamton (1,300 feet deep) has been completely successful. The water rises to within forty feet of the surface, and by the aid of" powerful steam engines no less than 55,000 gallons a day are poured into the town. The Odd Fellows.—Some statistical details were laid before the Grand Metropolitan Lodge at its late meeting. On the Ist April last there were in England and Wales 3,840 Lodges, and 325,000 members. The subscriptions for this year amounted to £352,583; the expenditure to £300,000. The total amount of property belonging to the Order was estimated at £700,000. The chief item of expenditure consists of the charge for mpdical aid afforded to the sick and indigent of the Order. Scarcely a packet now arrives from the West Indies which does not bring information of some improved process in the cultivation or the manufacture' of sugar. The pressure of necessity has roused the planters from their slumbers, and a method has been discovered of extracting a much larger quantity of sugar from the canes (it is said onefifth, or twenty per cent, more,) than ever was considered possible before.

Tuesday's Gazette contains an Order in Council permitting the importation of sugar from Venezuela.

Private P. Lockhart, 3rd Light Dragoons, has been sentenced fay court-martial, at Maidstone, to twelve months' imprisonment for desertion and sale of kit.

Miss Burdett Couttsis about to lead to the hymeneal alter a young Surgeon.

Lighting the Metropous.—The following curious statistics, prepared by one oB the principal gas companies, will give some idea of the means at present employed for lighting London and its suburbs:—There are 18 public gas works, conducted by 12 companies ; their capital amounts to upwards of £2,800,000, employed in pipes, tanks, &c. The revenue derivable therefrom is estimated at £450,000 per annum. There are about 180,000 tons of coals used annually; there are 1,460,000,000 cubic feet of gas. made; 134,300 private lights, 30,400 public lights; 380 lamplighters, 176 gasometers, several of them double, and capable of storing 5,500,000 feet; and about 2,500 persons are employed in various ways.

Singular Rencontre.—The Journal de Rouen notices the following singular rencoatre. Two days ago, at the moment whea aa equestrian statue in bronze of the Dake of Wellington, brought from Paris in the Luxor, was about to be" landed on the quay to be shipped to England, the Tancdrville arrived with the statue of Napoleou, destined by the King to be erected at Ajaccio. They were consigned to two different houses, between whom a dispute arose as to the precedence in their being landed, during which the effigies of the two great captains stood face to face on the decks of their respective vessels. The commandant of the port decided that Napoleon, should be the first landed, and the Duke the first to be embarked.

A Man of Weight in the County.—■ Hitherto Mr. Bright, o£ Maldon, has stood without a rival in the annals of Essex in the way of fat and rotundity, but now one has sprung up in the goodly person of Mr. Mansfield, of Debden, who threatens very nearly to approach his throne. Mr. H. Moss, of Thaxted, has just completed a coat for him, of course of broad cloth, nearly 100 hundred inches round, and in which six men were comfortably buttoned up at ouce, and they not tailors either. Mr. Mansfield, we are told, is about to be exhibited in London as a set-off to General Tom Thumb, who could certainly find comfortable rest and shelter in one of his coat pockets. He weighed on Tuesday last exactly 33 stone, 14 lbs. to the stone. We know not if Mr. M. ever rides on horseback, but if he does he must have an excellent mare to manage such a corporation, —Cheltnsford Chronicle.