fortifications constructed under the personal inspection of General Kleber, will, we fear, render our operations tedious. It would have been idle to expect that the British troops could have been in a healthy state after their severe sufferings from the climate, the change in their mode of living, and the fatigues of long marches and almost uninterrupted service. The detachments dispatched from Gibraltar, Malta, and Minorca, had arrived at Aboukir, and the corps of Swiss emigrants, embarked in the Adriatic, was daily expected when the official accounts were sent away; but the reinforcements from Great-Britain and Ireland had not reached Egypt at that period. The total amount of our force at present in Egypt is calculated at eighteen thousand effective men. this flourishing colony is lost to the republic, and the army of the East is no more, no satisfactory cause can be assigned for the determination of Menou to hold out in Alexandria to the last extremity. He must be hopeless of all succour from France; but he may be desirous of effacing, by an obstinate defence, the shame which he incurred in the battle of the 21st of March.

As

The election of the Archduke Anthony to the principality and bishopric of Munster, in direct opposition to the threats of Prussia, and the remonstrances of France, has, we think, been the subject of more serious discussion than it merited. The Emperor, in countenancing the measure, has evidently wished to give to his brother a claim for compensation whenever the plan of indemnities may be carried into effect; but after so many humiliations and disgraces, he cannot run the risk of supporting the nomination by force of arms. Austria is too weak, too dispirited, to brave the united power of France and Prussia.

DOMESTIC OCCURRENCES, &c.

BIRMINGHAM, SEPTEMBER 2.

LAST night, between eight and nine o'clock, an accident occasioned one of the most melancholy and shocking catastrophes that we have for a long time heard of. The upper floor of an old house on Snow-hill, in this town, occupied by a poor man of the name of Pardoe, suddenly fell and drove all the floors below into the cellar, burying in its ruins the wife, five children, and a youth about sixteen years of age. People were immediately employed in making an entrance into the cellar from the street, by taking up the pavement, and in about an hour and a half got out the woman and youngest child, both very dangerously bruised; the young man was also taken out alive; but the four other children, one boy and three girls, were all crushed to death, and their bodies exhi bited the most mutilated and mangled spectacles imaginable. When the accident was known, 'every assistance was immediately given; the volunteers and constables kept good order and the street clear, and the best surgical assistance was at hand to help the sufferers as soon as they were liberated.

DD 2

On

On Monday morning, Sept. 7, at six o'clock, a smart shock of an earthquake was distinctly felt at Edinburgh, Leith, and the neighbourhood. It continued two or three seconds. It was preceded by a rumbling, rushing, hollow noise from the ground. It had a tremulous, undulating motion, something resembling the motion of the waves of the sea. Beds, tables, chairs, &c. shook violently in some houses, and the shaking resembled the rocking of a cradle. Some persons who felt it had a very disagreeable sensation, attended with a head ach. We have heard of no damage being done. The morning was gloomy, warm, and calm; the barometer high, and the thermometer about 50.

COMRIE, (near Crieff,) SEPT. 9:-" Upon Sabbath and Monday last, we were greatly alarmed with several very severe shocks of an earthquake, accompanied with a loud subterranean noise. The first shock happened at hear one o'clock P. M. and about the conclusion of our morning service. The congregation were thrown into great consternation. It was followed by another slight shock and several hollow sounds. We had another about break of day on Monday, but the one that happened at a quarter after six that same morning was very great and alarming beyond expression. The earth, the great mountains around this village, and the houses, trembled like a balance for about the space of a minute. Slates fell from some houses, and many loose bodies tumbled down with great precipitation. Pieces of stone dykes fell, and one bank of earth slid from its place. If the shock had had a little more force, it is probable several frail houses would have been thrown down; but, in the kindness of Providence, no farther harm has been done than what is above stated. The noise was very loud and alarming, and resembled the sound of bodies crashed upon each other. It seemed to a congregation that were in the fields on Loch Tay side, like distant thunder, but in our church it had no such resemblance. It is reported that the shock was felt as far south as Sterling, and as far south-east as Kincardine, on the banks of the Forth. At any rate, the one that happened on Monday morning must have been felt to a much greater extent than the one on Sabbath; and if we judge from analogy, it would be sensibly felt for upwards of a hundred miles in circumference, for the one on Sabbath was felt all over Breadalbane, a great way east of Strathern, and probably far to the south and west of this village, which is reckoned to be the focus of the shock. These earthquakes have visited this place, with more or less violence, since August 1789, and generally happen at the full moon, or at the change: before, or at the time they happen, the air is hazy, and the clouds seem charged with the electrical fluid. The wind commonly blows from the north, and during the shock makes an awful pause, and then blows with greater violence than before. For several nights before the late earthquakes, the sky was almost as clear as if we had moonlight. The Aurora Borealis was very vivid, and the electric fluid seemed to be waving be tween every cloud all over the horizon."

1801.].

AND IMPERIAL REGISTER.

EDINBURGH, SEPT. 9. Last week, the workmen began again to build on the east front of the New College of Edinburgh. The foundation was laid in 1789, upon a large scale, agreeable to an elegant plan of the late Mr. Adam, architect. The building continued to advance for several years, until the fund was exhausted. The north-west corner was completely finished, and the north-east corner roofed in.

PREMATURE MARRIAGE.-On Friday the 11th September, two children were actually married at Annan: the boy was not quite thirteen, and the girl nearly of the same age!-The ceremony was performed in Brewer's-Lane, in the presence of a great concourse of people assembled on the occasion.

DUEL. In consequence of a public dispute between Mr. Dutton, author of The Dramatic Censors, and Mr. J. T. Allingham, author of several esteemed farces, a meeting took place on Friday morning, Sept. 18, at twelve o'clock, on Stockwell-green. After some conversation between the seconds, relative to a point of etiquette, the right of the first fire was determined (by an appeal to chance), in favour of Mr. Allingham. Mr. A. accordingly fired; this was returned by Mr. D. The seconds interfered, and the dispute was amicably settled.

Saturday, the 26th, at the Court of Requests, a person of the name of Benson, residing in the neighbourhood of Baldwin's Gardens, summoned a man named Walker, for the sum of 30s. which he stated had become due under the following circumstances: -Walker pretended to Benson he had the secret of making gold; and that, if he could only get materials, he could produce as much as he pleased. He told the plaintiff if he would go shares with him, and provide the money to purchase the ingredients, he would not only give him a just division of the profits he made, but learn him to perform the secret as well as himself. Flattered by the proposal, which promised to establish their mutual fortunes, he readily consented to advance what little cash he could spare, perfectly persuaded it would return ten-fold to his coffers.The money of the plaintiff was laid out in the purchase of antimony powder, sulphur, quicksilver, and a variety of other articles, by the combination of which, the golden promises of the defendant were to be fulfilled; but the result was, his hopes were completely disappointed, and his own thirty shillings evaporated into "thin air." Vexed at his disappointment, he demanded restitution of his cash; but the defendant, instead of complying, endeavoured to persuade him to a second attempt, assuring him that it would inevitably prove more successful. The plaintiff, before he consented, had the good luck to consult a friend who had somewhat more brains than himself, and who convinced him the scheme was altogether visionary, and that he had already thrown away money enough. He considered that his friend, the defendant, had drawn him into it, in order to pick his pocket, and advised him to summon him to the Court of Conscience, and he did so, and the important cause came on to be

heard.

heard.- -The defendant pleaded he was equally a sufferer with the plaintiff, having subscribed his own money; but that so far from despairing of success, he was determined to have recourse to a second attempt. He insisted the plaintiff had no right to recover the money he voluntarily embarked.The Commissioners who formed the Court, were of opinion the explorers of the philosopher's stone were a couple of fools, who had no right to complain of each other: they were advised to go home, and mind their business, by which they would be more certain of arriving at wealth, than by a search after what was not to be attained.— The complaint was accordingly dismissed, and each party ordered to pay his own costs.

A singular circumstance occurred lately at King Harry Passage, Cornwall. A smuggler, with two ankers of brandy on the horse under him, was discovered by an exciseman, also on horseback, on the road leading to the Passage. The smuggler immediately rode off at full speed, pursued by the officer, who pressed so close upon him, that after rushing down the steep hill to the Passage, with the greatest rapidity, he plunged his horse into the water, and attempted to gain the opposite shore. The horse had not swam half way over, before, exhausted with fatigue and the load on his back, he was on the point of sinking, when the intrepid rider slid from his back, and with his knife cut the slings of the ankers, and swam alongside his horse, exerting himself to keep his head above water, but all to no purpose; the horse was drowned, and the man with difficulty reached the shore. The less-mettlesome exciseman had halted on the shore, where he surveyed the ineffectual struggle, and, afterwards, with the help of the ferrymen, got possession of the ankers.

A very singular and daring theft was lately committed at Glasgow. A young man of decent appearance, called at a gentleman's lodgings, near St. Andrew's-square, betwixt one and two o'clock in the afternoon, and informed the lady of the house that her lodger (naming him) sent him for his music-book and flute, and had desired him to take something out of his trunk. He was accordingly shewn into the gentleman's lodgings, the lady conceiving him to be an acquaintance, when he took from the gentleman's trunk which was in his bed-room unlocked, a pocket-book, containing a sum of money in gold, a five-shilling note, and several letters and accounts, and carried off the same, as also the music-book and flute. The empty pocket-book was dropped at the door of an acquaintance of the gentleman's, with a proper address, so that he must have known him well.

As Mr. Runciman, of Birchmore-house, near Woburn, Bedfordshire, was putting a gun into a bag, he shook it to get it in, and his man having been entrusted with it to shoot a dog, he had imprudently left it cocked, it went off, when the muzzle was close to his left foot, which was mangled in a most shocking manner. In this dreadful state he had the fortitude to ride to Woburn on horseback, to a surgeon, when he was obliged to undergo an ampu

amputation of the great toe and adjoining one. fair way of doing well.

He is now in a

The East Suffolk regiment of Militia lately arrived at Ipswich, after an absence of nine years, and were most welcomely greeted on their entrance into the town. Upon having the bread delivered to them by the baker who contracts for the troops in garrison on the Thursday, it proved so very indifferent, that at the evening parade complaint was made thereof, and the baker appearing to answer the same, he was very roughly handled, and underwent the discipline of tossing in a blanket in the Barrack-yard, to the no small amusement of the military, and a number of other persons. The baker having exculpated himself by throwing the blame on the miller, for the badness of his flour, the latter is threatened with the like summary punishment,

CLERICAL IMPOSTOR.

The parish of St. Martin's in the Fields has been thrown into the greatest consternation by the discovery that a young man, acting as clergyman of the parish, and deputy of the curate, during his indisposition, is a gross impostor, never having been in orders, or connected with the holy profession. He has married a great many couples, whose marriages are consequently void, and the parties have again an opportunity to choose, after trying each other's tempers.

This impostor has actually officiated a month for the curate of St. Martin's church. He is the son of an eminent currier in Crooked-lane. He had ingenuity enough to introduce himself to Mr. Fell the curate, as a countryman of his (Yorkshire) saying, he was nephew to Lord Eldon, and had been in orders near twelve months, having been ordained by the Bishop of Peterborough. Mr. Fell, struck with the rank of his visitor, paid him every mark of respect, expressed how much he felt honoured by the preference shewn to him, and accepted the proffered assistance the more readily, being at the time in ill health. Every thing was settled, and the pretended nephew of Lord Eldon entered into his clerical duty the next day, by performing the marriage ceremony over nineteen couple, administering the sacrament to four persons, christening several, and burying twelve. In a conversation the next day with his clerk, he said, that he was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge, where he had taken his degree of Bachelor of Arts about a month since. On the Saturday following, he went to a mercer's shop in Holywellstreet, in the Strand, and ordered a set of canonicals, to be made by four o'clock in the afternoon; in the interim, he borrowed a set, told the shopkeeper his name was Smith, and that he was chaplain to Lord Eldon.

The mercer took the trouble to call at Lord Eldon's to make the enquiry, when the steward informed him, no person of the name of Smith was engaged by his lordship in that capacity. In consequence of this information, the mercer called on his way

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