i

r r i s i I i r

arms; or THE EAST.

Benton, May 29.-Mont Liban, the Druses, the Maronites, and the Naplousians are in a state

of insurrection. A convoy, which was destined for Alep, has fallen into the power ofthe .insur- gents. Some soldiers have been killed in de- fending it. This convoy was'conveymg ammu- nition. The Governor of Beyrout is having all the forts armed, and the garrison is kept within doors.- An attack is feared. All the roads are intercepted in the interior. The insurrection was brought on thus :—Ibrahim Pacha demanded ofthe Emir Beehir that the mountaineers should be disarmed. 'l‘tielatter refused to comply, as well as the Druses; they stated that the Govern- ment ought to have confidence in them, since it was to ‘them that it owed the repression of the insurrection of Haoran. They affirmed that they were only to be disarmed in order that fresh levies might be made amongst them; and they stoutly declared that they would rise up with all the adjoining population rather than give up their arms. This had actually taken place. Yester- day evening, at nine o’clock, the Governor of \ Beyrout had a meeting of every person of dis- tinction ; news had been received that a descent ofthe mountaineers was going to take place for/ the purpose of disarming the troops which formed the boundary line required on account of the plague, which was raging at Damascus, and the resolution was immediately taken to suppress the same and send back the troops that composed it to the town, inasmuch as being very few in num- ber there was too much risk to run. Last night and this morning we saw them enter. The plague has, therefore, no obstacle to encounter. At Seida, Soliman Pacha had a meeting of all his people last night, and the result ofthe deliber- ation was to send all the troops to be encamped round Seida. Convoys of powder have been stopped and seized by the mountaineers, and some persons (eight) have been assaSsinated in offering resistance. The affair took place near a village calleb Elsfftttldet. At another place two Egyptian oflicers were taken, but one of them managed to escape, being still near Seida.

CURIOUS ADVENTunns or A PnnTENnEo LORD. The Liverpool Albion gives some curious par- ticulars respecting a mast impudent polygamist and impostor, named Robert Taylor. The of- fender is a mere youth, between nineteen and twenty years of age, but his numerous matrimo- nial adventures and devices to obtain money, mark him as a person of singular cunning and dexterity. His plan seems to have been in all cases to practise first on the cupidity of his own sex, by holding out a pecuniary reward to any one who would procure him a suitable alliance. and then, by representing himselfto be of aris- tocratic birth and heir to extensive possessions, to dazzie and: win over the victim‘and her friends. (To aid The views he represented himself as a son

- Lord Kennedy, of Ashby Hall, Leicestershire.

was .furnished with numerous documents ed to corroborate his misrepresentations. hese, which he carried in a tin case, were found on his person when he was apprehended. Amongst them was a parchment, on which was written in a fine clerk hand, what purported to be“ Thelast will and testament of Lord Ken- nedy,” doc. By this document Taylor appeared to be the heir to £1,015,000, three per cent. Con- 3015, besides immense wealth in coal mines, salt factories, woollen factories, quarries, machinery, houses, plate, jewellery, and even ships. “ John Nicholson, Thomas Johnson, and Mrs. Robin- son” appeared to have been constituted “ guar- dians of the said Robert Taylor.” The docu- ments bore date the 22d ofSeptember, 1829, and exhibited the signatures, first, ofthe supposed testator, " Kennedy,” and then of the attesting witnesses, “ Samuel Robinson, clerk to James Lee, and John Turner,” and “ William Cowley, barrister.” The bequest was in these words :— “ I give and bequeath to Robert Taylor, son of Elizabeth Taylor, single woman, £1,015,000 Three~ per Cent. Consols. and no more.” He had also an indenture, certifying the correctness ofthe will, and describing his person by certain marks on_ his right arni,&,c. He had sundry other papers ingeniously enough contrived for the purpose of aiding his deception, but, as he is a youth of coarse and vulgar manners; the success which attended his impostures can only be ac- counted for by the blind avarice of his dupes. Up to the present time six of his marriages in several parts of the north of England have come to the knowledge of the police, and there is rea- son to believe that the number is much larger. It is supposed that he married one or two young women in Lancasliire. Like many who have pursued a career of base and unprincipled decep- tion, this scoundrel affected great sanctity, and connected himself atdifferent times with both the Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists. Indeed, one of his principal dupes was a Mr. Fryer, a

reacher in the last named connection, who,

nylor having promised a reward often pounds to any one who would procure him a young and religious wife, offered him the choice of his two sisters-in—law. Taylor chose the younger, a girJ about 18 years of age, and was married to her. This preacher not only failed to receive the 'ex- pected reward, but was swindled out of £12 which he lent to the roguish adventurer ! This, however, proved the last of his exploits; for, having made several fruitless attempts to run away from hrs wife, as he had done from the others, he was at length compelled to take her with him, and on his way through the county of Durham he was apprehended.

The budget of papers found in the prisoner’s possession contained a multitude of curiosities beside those above alluded to. It appeared from one of them, an indenture of apprenticeship (he seems to have treasured all written documents most carefully),ihat he had at the age ofthirteen been apprenticed to a sweep and collier in Staff. ordshire till he would be twenty-one years old.

The indenture described him as a poor child from F'atfield, in the county of Durham. There Were several licenses and documents relating to his marriages. One of these was a memorandum of an agreement between Robert Taylor and Mary Wilson, ofNewcastle-on-Tyne, to marry in three months from October 16, 1839; Taylor io forfeit £20,000 if he married any other woman, and Mary Arm to forfeit one-third per annum ofher yearly salary ifshe proved faitliless. Annexed to this was a tnemorandum of a loan of £4 from Mary Ann’s father, with an engagement, on the part of Taylor, to pay £1 per annum interest. Matty of the papers related to the prisoner’s connection with the Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, and with the Teetotallers, of which latter society he appearsrto have been a staunch adherent. The most curious paper was “ a memorandum of agreement between Robert Taylor, Esq. son of the late Lord Kennedy, of Ashley Hall, in the parish ofAshby-de-la-Zoucli, and those he may engage as servants.” It bears what purports to be the prisoner’s signature, and from it he appears to have engaged an establish- ment of stewards, butlers, footmen, grooms, coachmen, gamekeepers, helpers, doc at salaries of from £2010£60 per annum, sufficient for half a dozen Princes. The stipulation ofthe agree- menf is, that the Servants, butlers included, are to observe the Teetotal pledge.

This imposter was tried at the Liverpool Ses- sions, a day or two ago, on two cases, and found guilty in both. The first charge was, for marry-

‘ing Mary Ann Davidson, the sister-in-law of Mr.

Fryer, the Methodist Preacher. The next iii- dictment was for having in October last, married Mary Ann Wilson, daughter of G. \Vilson, a tobaccouist of Newcastle. The prisoner was sentenced, for the first case of bigainy, to be im- prisoned one year to hard labour,- and for the second, to be imprisoned eighteen months to hard labour, making altogether two years and a half.

Prisoner—Gentlemen, when I come out again, will any of my wives have a claim uponme ’t— (Laughter.) ‘

The Court declined to answer the question.

The prisoner is a shabby, repulsive looking individual, and very illiterate.

THE REGENCY BiLL.—This is not, what a Ministerial journal of last week described it—a measure to provide the country with an acting Sovereign during the Queen’s lying-in; but to appoint a Regent in the event of a ruotherless infant becoming heir to the Throne. The Chan- cellor’s speech, on presenting the bill to the House of Lords, contains no reference to the “temporary suspension of the duties and cares of sovereignty, which the accouchement of her Majesty will necessarily impose on her ;” but, on the contrary, enforces the necessity of providing for ‘the full exercise ofthe power of the Crown during the long minority which might ensue on the Queen‘s death. Lord Cottenham justified the all but unlimited regal authority which the bill would confer on the Regent, by the coiisti- tutional argument, that, although restricted pow- ers might suffice in cases where the Sovereign’s infancy would soon terminate, or where only a brief absence had to be provided for, it was ne- cessary to the balance of the three estates of the realm that the Crown should not be show of any essential portion of its dignity and powers fer a period oflong duration. On this principle, the Regent would only be restrained from assenting to bills for altering the succession to the Throne, or interfering with the rights antl privileges of the Established Churches of England and Scot- land. In all other respects his authority would be the same as the Sovereign’s.—Londan Spec- tutor.

WELSH ~Brsnoes.—A vacancy having occur— red in the diocese of St. David’s, by the demise of Dr. Jenkinson, the late Bishop, the natives of Wales are stirring, both in the Principality and elsewhere, with the view of urging on her Ma- jesty’s Government the necessity of elevating to the vacant see a clergyman fully conversant with the Welsh language, and not unacquainted with the predilections and habits of the natives. With the exception of a small part of Pembroke- ,shire, the diocese of St. David’s extends over a great extent of country in which the Welsh lan- gjiage is vernacular, and most of the livings of it are in the gift of the Bishop. It is, therefore, a matter of the highest importance, both to the Church and to the inhabitants, that an efficient Bishop be appointed, It has been the custom for the last 130 years to sacrifice the spiritual in- terests of the Principality to political partizan- ship, and to force upon the Welsh people an English supporter of the existing ministry, utter- ly regardless ofthe injustice thereby inflicted on the national religion—Morning Herald.

[The Reverend Cannop Thirwall is the new Bishop]

Urrcn CANADA CLERGY SOCiE'i'v.—Wed- nesday, the annual general meeting of the sub- scribers and friends of this institution took place at the Hanover-square rooms; the Marquis of Cholmondeley occupied the chair, supported by the Earl ofGalloway, the Right Hon, Lord Beri- ley, W. E. Gladstone, Esq, M. P., Sir Walter Farquhar, Bart, the Hon. Captain Maude, the Hon. W. Kinnaird, the Rev. H. Beamish, the Rev. S. Ramsay, doc, 6w. The noble chair- man having briefly opened the meeting, the Rev. S. Ramsay, the secretary of the society, read the report. which showed that vast benefits were ac- cruing to not only the white but the Indian po- pulation _of Upper Canada, by the exertions of the misstonaries sent out by the society. They still, however, required further aid, as in some of the districts one missionary had to extend his labours over a surface of two thousand square miles. The society had received the most im- portant aid in their labours from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and it was deemed by the committee that a mord efficient plan of co-operation might be establish- ed by the incorporation of the society with the

above mentioned, under the title of “ ThngP‘ per Canada Committee of the 80381;}?! Trig; pagating the Gospel ln Foreign ar . um of report proceeded to show the 8"?“ “m0 d P spiritual destitution which still extsled, In". “,8 ged the most strenuous exertions in the society support. , ATTEMPT A'r SELF CRUCIFIXION IN Conn.— The medical officers at the dispensary in Cork were lately presented with one of the most extraordinary cases that had ever come before them. Upon a car, brought to the door ofthe insti~ tution, was laid a stout hale man about 30 years of age; he was tied down, and it was with difliculty the persons in charge could restrain him. .Upon being brought into the consulting room it was found that his feet and hands had been perforated, apparently with large nails. It appeared from the statement of those by whom he was brought to thé dispensary that his name is Bartholomew Donovan; that lie is a labouring man, has resided several years at Carrignavar, had frequently be- trayed symptomsof insanity. and was found in an outbouse contiguous to his own dwelling bleed- ing profusely at the feet and hands, haying in each a large nail, with a view, he stated, of “cru- cifving ” himself! His wounds being dressed, the unhappy creature was sent to the Lunatic Asylum.

SINGULAR ClRCUMSTANCE.—On Sunday last, no less than six sermons were preached by six different clergymen, at six different places of worship, in these towns, from the same text :— “ Remember Lot’s \the l"—Cornwall Guzrtln.

Tun Rev. MR. WrLLiAMs,&c.—-—H.M.S. Fa- vourite, on her departure from this port, intends to pay a visit to the Eastern Isles, particularly those of Ereinangoe and Tupia; on the former was the unfortunate missionary, Mr Williams, and another gentleman, most wantonly and tre'iclierously murdered by the natives. These murderers will meet with a due meed ofpnnish- ment, as a warning for them to behave them- selves. with riiore respect and forbearance to En- ropeans who may hereafter visit that island; at the same time, it is the intention of Captain Cro- ker to procure the remains, or any portion thereof, of the two unfortunate gentlemen, to bring to Sydney for interment in consecrated ground. On the latter named island (Tupia) it is expect- et that some part, if not the whole of the twelve men belonging tothe whaler Achilles maybe rescued from the natives, who seized them while they were ashore trading, as in all probability the Favourite will call to ascertain what was their fate and, ifliving, to ransom them from their bondage—Sydney Granite and Commercial Journal of St]: February.

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF VAN DrE- MEN’s LANn.—Van Dienien’s Land is an island of the South Pacific, lying between the 4Ist and 44th deg. of South latitude, and 144th and 148th ,deg. ofeast longitude. It is not quite so large 'as Ireland. It was discovered by a Dutch navi- gator named Tasman, in 1642, and by him ob- tained its present inharmonions appellation, in compliment of Van Diemen, the then Governor of the Dutch East Indies. For a length oftime it was erroneously conjectured to form a portion of the main land ofnew Holland. Indeed, even yet there are many, otherwise well-informed per- sons, who conceive Hobart Town and Sydney (although 800 miles apart) to be towns of one colony, and perfectly contiguous to each other. Bass, a surgeon of the Navy, was the first to dis- cover the narrow strait that separates the island from the Continent, which strait has ever since borne the discoverer’s name. Upon the original formation of a British penal settlement, at the spot which has obtained so much Old Bailey celebrity as Botany Bay, the embryo colonists struggled with difliculty and privation through many a tedi- ous year. Crops failed—sheep and cattle were driven or strayed away—provisions grew scarce —supplies were rare—and few or no trading ves- sels hastened to their relief; in a word, starvation frequently stared them in the face. Norfolk Island was crilonised in the hope that it might become a granary for the infant-mother settle— ment. The attempt, to a certain extent, pros- pered; however, it afterwards was deemed pru- dent to extend the plan, and in a different direc- tion. \Vitli this view, Colonel David Collins, of the Royal Marines, was .despatched to form an establishment on the south coast ofNew Holland. The spot selected by that officer was the present rapidly increasing dependency of Port Philip— so called in honour ofthe Governor. After a short stay, Colonel Collins, apprehending a scarcity of water, struck his tents, rE-embai'ked his staff, and made sail for the Derwent (the principal river of Van Diemen’s Land): arrived there, he first broke giound on the 9th of Au- gust, 1803, at a spot called Restdown ; hut sub- sequently changed his position, and established his camp five or six miles lower down, and on the opposite bank ofthe river, at Sullivan’s Cove, the. present magnificent port of Hobart Town, which was founded on the 19th of February, 1804—a little more than thirty-six years back— C'olonial Magazine. '

INrEnvmw BETWEEN GEORGE THE Tmnn AND JosnPn LANCAs'vER.—On entering the Royal presence, the King said, “ Lancaster. I have sent for you to give me an account of your system of education, which, I hear. has met with apposmon. One master teach five hundred chil- dren at the same time l How do you keepthem mordel', Lancaster '1” Lancaster replied, " Please thy Majesty, by the same principle thy M ajesty’s artny Is kept in order—by the word ofcommand.” His Majesty replied, " Good, good ; it does not require an aged general to give the command— onc of younger years can do it." Lancaster ob- served, that, in his schools, the teaching branch was performed by youths who acted as voting monitors. The King assented, and said, " Good." Lancaster then described his system ; and he informed me, that they all paid' great attention, and were highly delighted, and as soon as he had

finished, his Majesty said, “ Lancaster, I highly approve of your system, Ind IQ is my wish that every poor child in my dominion: should be taught to read the Bible ; I Will do anything on wish to promote this object.'_’ “ Please thy a. jesty,” said Lancaster, “ if the system meet. thy Majesty’s approbation, I can go through the country and lecture on the system, and have no doubt, but in a few months I shall be able to oive thy Majesty an account where ten thousand Boo: children are being educated, andsome of my youths instructing them.” His 'Majesty im- mediately replied, “ Lancaster, I Will subscribe 1001. annually; and,” addresstng the Queen, “ you shall subscribe 501., Charlotte, and the, Princesses 25!. each; and then added, “ Lnn. caster, you may have the money directly.” Lap-r caster observed, “ Please thy Majesty, that Will! be setting thy nobles a good example." Tho Royal party appeared to smile at this observer tion; lint the Queen observed to his Majesty, “ How cruel it is that enemies should be foundi who endeavour to hinder his progress in so good a work.” To which the King replied, “ Charo lotie, a good roan seeks his reward in the worldl to come.” Joseph then withdrew. It may here be stated, that every succeeding monarch of England, including her present Majesty, has fol'- lowed his example.—Carslun'5 Sketch of Joseph Lancaster’s Life. -

Sco'rcn Gums—2r). DitAGOONs.—The ser- vices of the Royal North British dragoons have been of a character calculated to call forth the

record Deriving their origin as a corps of ca-- valrv from the commotions in Scotland during the reign ofCharles 11., their first duties were of a painful .and perilous nature. Habituated to fatigue, privation, danger, and the observance of strict discipline, they became a valuable body of men to the Government. After the Revolution in 1683. their services against the Jacobites in Scotland Were of an important chgracter; and while serving under King William III. in Bel- gium, they \vere admired for their warlike apo pearance and gallant bearing in the field, and for their orderly demeanour in cantonments. During the war in the reign of Queen Anne, their splendid career under the renowned Marl- borough exalted the reputation of the corps, and procured it a celebrity which has since been preserved untarnished. In Scotland during the rebellion in 1715 and 1716 ; in various parts of the Continent from 1742 to 1748 ; in Germany, under the Marquis of Graiiby, during the seven years’ war ; in Flanders. under his Royal High- ness the Duke of York, at the commencement of the French revolutionary war, and on all other occasions, the Greys have been distinguished as a hardy, patient, obedient, and valiant body of men, inferior to no troops in Europe in the quali- ties which constitute good soldiers, and thereby verifying their motto—“ Second to none.” Their gallantry at the glorious battle of Waterloo, on the 18th of Jniie, 1815, rivalled the deeds of the renowned warriors whose achievments have been recorded by Ossian and other ancient bards of Caledonia. The Scots Greys had the proud dis- tinction of capturing the colours of the French regiment du roi at Ramillies—the white stand- ard ofthe French household troopsiat Dettingen —-and the colour and eagle of a French infantry corps at Waterloo. Their patience and forbear- ance when employed in supporting the laws, and preserving tranquillity at home, form a striking contrast to their valonr when opposed to a for- eign enemy in the field. Their reputation hav- ing become established, their title has long been associated with ideas of valour, loyalty, good conduct, and usefulness to the Crown and king- doni.—C'(mnon’s IIistorz'cal Record.

GRENADIER Guanos.—The following is the origin of Grenadiers, transcribed from Evelyn's Diary 2—“ In 1678 were brought into service a new sort ot-soldiers called grenadiers, who were dexterous in throwing granadoes, every one hav- ing a pouch full ; they had furr’d caps with cop- ed crowns, like Janizaries, which make them look very fierce, and some had long hoods hang- ing down behind. Their clothing is pybald, yellow, and red.”