4th.- -MURDER.--On Tuesday last, the 2d current, Captain Charles Monro, late of the 42d regiment, and Robert Ferguson, ship carpenter, both residing at Inverbreaky Ferry, parish of Resolis, Scotland, having met at a neighbouring work-shop, a trifling dispute arose between them. Af. ter a little altercation, Ferguson pulled a large knife out of his pocket, and plunged it into Captain Munro's side. Dr M'Donald at Cromarty, who was immediately called, dressed the wound with the greatest skill and tenderness, and afforded every possible assistance, but all to no purpose; the wound was mortal, and next evening, about 28 hours after receiving the cruel stab, the Captain died.Upon perpetrating the atrocious deed, the base assassin attempted to elude the violated laws of his country, by absconding. In consequence, however, of the exertions of Capt. Mackenzie of Newhall, whose activity on this occasion merits the highest praise, the miscreant was taken on the same evening, and lodged early next morning in the jail of Tain. Capt. Munro has left an indigent widow and a numerous helpless family to deplore his premature and cruel death.

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5th. ATTEMPT AT ASSASSINATION.-Mr Burrows, a hay salesman, residing at Appleton, was suddenly attacked in his chaise, near his residence, by Thomas Bowler, a neighbouring farmer, who discharged a blunderbuss at him, and lodged the contents (slugs) in his neck and body. The following testimony of a blacksmith at Appleton gives the whole case. The assassin, who is a man seventy years of age, called at the smith's shop, on horseback, at five o'clock on Saturday morning, accompanied by his grandson, and produced a blunderbuss, which he asked leave

to make the lock secure to go off, as he wanted to shoot a mad dog. After he had done something to the lock, he left the piece in the shop, having described it as being loaded, and walked by the side of the canal, whilst his grandson led his horse about the road. The canal path commanded a view of Burrows' residence, and after walking there nearly two hours, he returned to the smith's shop, when Burrows was approaching it, and ha- . ving taken up the blunderbuss, he met him and presented it, when Burrows called out," For God's sake don't shoot me," and inclined his head upon his legs. The assassin, however, pulled the trigger, and Burrows fell, when the former mounted his horse, and rode off. The situation of the wounded man is very precarious; four slugs have been extracted from his neck and head, but there are others in the body, one of which is supposed to have lodged near the blade-bone. There are some favourable symptoms, and some hopes are entertained that his life will be saved. Mr Wood, a coal-merchant, pursued the assassin as far as Bushy Heath, near Wat ford, and police-officers have scoured the country. The cause of the diabolical act is said to have arisen from some family jealousies. The parties had a litigation about a month since, when high words arose, but they had since been apparent good friends.Bowler has since been apprehended, tried, and executed.

6th.-GREENOCK.-Yesterday, in pursuance of his sentence, at the last Circuit Court of Justiciary, held at Glasgow, Moses M'Donald was executed here, for the robbery of the shop of Mr James Jelly, grocer, Laigh Street, in December last. At ten minutes past three o'clock, he took farewell of the magistrates and

clergy, and ascended the scaffold with a firm step, by a stage erected out from the church railing; the executioner then put the rope round his neck, drew a white cap over his face, withdrew, and, at a quarter past three, he gave the signal by dropping a handkerchief; the drop fell, when, dreadful to relate, the rope broke, and he fell to the ground; his sister, who was near, instantly assisted him in rising (his arms being tied), when he got up, and walked steadily, without the least attempt to escape, to the church door; he was then taken into the church, and became faint; the back of his head being bruised by the fall-another rope was procured, the drop was supported underneath by a plank, he again mounted the scaffold with a firm and quick pace, the executioner put the rope round his neck, tied the other end on a hook above, and drew the cap over his face. He then went below, and, on the signal being given, knocked the prop away, when the drop fell, and he was launched into eternity at twenty minutes before four o'clock. He made three or four feeble convulsive throes, and was apparently dead in three minutes. M'Donald was a stout man, about thirty-five years of age, a native of Ireland, but has resided here for a number of years; he wrought as a jobber about the quays, and furnished ships with ballast.

8th.-PLYMOUTH-This morning at three o'clock a dreadful fire broke out at three places at once, in the Rope-house of the Royal Dock-yard at this port, which raged with great fury for several hours, and entirely consumed some of the machinery and the roof of that noble building; but by the exertion of the different regiments in garrison, and dock-yard men, it was at length got under, with the

aid of the ponderous fire-engines of the dock-yard. As the wind blew hard at E. and the fire broke out on the weather side, in three places, and where neither fire or candle, or light of any sort, is ever used, there is no doubt of its having been perpetrated by some incendiary, or incendiaries, and had it not been discovered providentially when it was, the vital interests of this country might have been nearly destroyed, as the opposite storehouses contained 1000 barrels of tar and 1000 tons of hemp, &c and very large piles of heavy timber. The windows of those storehouses were scorched, but by the timely and strenuous exertions of the troops and all ranks of people, the intended mischief was prevented. Various conjectures are afloat as to the cause of this conflagration, but at present all is conjecture and surmise.

POLICE.-BOW-STREET.-Yesterday, between 11 and 12 o'clock, as two females, genteelly dressed, were passing the end of the Mall, opposite the Queen's Palace, they were rudely accosted by a man, with a large open clasp-knife, in a position as if he intended to cut them down; they screamed out, ran away, and escaped from him into Pimlico. After they had escaped, he went up to a man who had the appearance of a porter, and in a more direct manner attempted to stab him, but he also avoided the attack, and escaped. A gentleman who had observed his outrageous conduct, watched him into the White Horse public-house in Pimlico, went in search of a police-officer, and found Nicholls in the Park, who went there, took him into custody, got him quietly across the Park to the office, where he underwent an examination; when it appeared that a soldier on duty at the Queen's Guard had taken the

knife from him. Neither of the females nor the man he had attacked attended; but the gentleman who had observed his conduct fully proved the above statement. He said his name was Erasmus Hooper, he had been an officer in the navy, and had been extremely ill-treated; as he should have been Post-Captain, instead of which he had been tried upon false charges by a court-martial, and had been broke. On searching him, papers were found which fully proved him to be the man he had represented himself to be. Application was made at a navy agent's in the Adelphi, whom he referred to, who acknowledged having been his agent, and said the prisoner had been there yesterday, when his conduct was such that there was no doubt he was deranged. He was therefore ordered to be detained.

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when it was made known to the present governor (General Oakes), and measures are now taking to give this superb edifice its pristine splendour. 10th.-EAST-INDIA-HOUSE.--Yesterday, a general court was held at the East India House on special affairs. After the usual forms,

The chairman (Sir Hugh Inglis) acquainted the court, that it had been called for the purpose of submitting to them a petition to parliament for pecuniary aid. The court would recollect that the late petition presented to the House of Commons for relief, included also an application for the renewal of the company's charter; but as the charter could not be obtained this session, it became absolutely necessary to present a petition applying solely for the pecuniary relief.

The chairman also observed, that the mode of relief would entirely depend upon the disposition of his majesty's ministers; it had been the intention of Mr Perceval, whose loss every friend to the country must deplore, to have included the sum wanted (2,500,0001.) in the approaching loan, the company paying the interest; however, thus much he could say, that it was not the intention of administration to raise the money on bonds. The question on the petition was then put, and passed unanimously. The court then adjourned.

MANSION-HOUSE FETE.One of the grandest entertainments ever witnessed in the city of London, except the Prince's magnificent fete, last year, and royal banquets, was given on Wednesday at the Mansion-house. The party invited to meet their royal highnesses the princes, consisted of all the ambassadors and foreign ministers at our court, the great officers of state, and such of the nobility and

distinguished members of all political parties as his lordship was acquainted with.

The Lady Mayoress, at night, opened the remainder of this splendid mansion with a ball and supper, at which all the gentlemen appeared in court dresses.

The Lady Mayoress wore a splendid dress of white crape richly em broidered with real silver; her headdress consisted of diamonds and a very large plume of white ostrich feathers. -The whole was truly magnificent, as were the Lord Mayor's, being a rich embroidered coat, and full suit to correspond.

The following illustrious and distinguished persons sat down to the dinner in the Egyptian-hall, about seven o'clock:-Their Royal High. nesses the Dukes of York, Kent, Cumberland, Cambridge, and Gloucester; Monsieur de France, and the Duke de Berri; the Spanish, Portugueze, and Turkish Ambassadors; the American Minister and Count Munster; and a great number of his majesty's ministers, and ladies and gentlemen of the first distinction, amounting to upwards of one thousand. There was a profusion of Burgundy, Champaigne, and the choicest wines.

It is a singular historical fact, that an ancestor of the late Mr Spencer Perceval also fell by the hands of an assassin :-In the year 1657, Robert Perceval, second son of the Right Hon. Sir P. Perceval, Knt. dreamed, "that he saw his own spectre, bloody and ghastly, and was so shocked at the sight, that he swooned away." Soon after communicating the particulars to his uncle, Sir Robert Smithwell, he was found in the Strand murdered.

11th PERTH.-The old parlia

ment-house of this place, which was lately purchased by Mr Duncan, druggist, has just been taken down to make room for a new house, which the proprietor means to build upon its site. Saturday last the workmen, who were employed in digging a vault for the intended structure, discovered a large quantity of silver coins, about 18 inches below the surface of the street. These had probably been deposited in a box, but no vestiges of it, except a single hinge, could be discovered. The coins themselves were in a state of oxydation, and many of them adhering together in a lump. The whole weighed 5lbs. 14oz. They seem to be chiefly English and Scots pennies of the 13th century. Mr Duncan has been very liberal in distributing specimens of this collection among his friends, and has presented a few of the best to the Literary and Antiquarian Society. Among the latter is a coin of John Baliol.

12th.-COURT of King's Bench. Gilbert v. Sykes, Bart.-This was an action, by which the plaintiff, who is a clergymen, sought to recover from the defendant, Sir Mark Sykes, Bart. 26001, odds, being the balance of the sum due to him by the defendant, on a wager on the life of Buonaparte, by which, in consideration of the sum of 1051. the defendant engaged to pay to the plaintiff one guinea per day, during the life time of Napoleon Buonaparte. The wager was entered into at the table of the defendant after dinner, when the conversation turning on the uncertain tenure of Buonaparte's life, shortly after the peace of Amiens, the defendant offered to give one guinea per day, during the life of that person, to any one who would give him 100 guineas down. The plaintiff immediately call

ed out "done;" when the defendant, by his looks, which expressed displeasure at being so suddenly caught, and the rest of the company, by their cries of "no, no, no wager," shewed their disapprobation of the conduct of the plaintiff. The plaintiff, how. ever, on the next lawful day sent to the defendant the 1051. which he accept ed, and went on for nearly three years making the weekly payments. The action was tried before Mr Baron Thompson, at the last assizes for the county of York, and the jury found for the defandant, thereby declaring the wager void.

Mr Park having obtained a rule to shew cause why a new trial should be granted,

Mr Topping, Mr Scarlett, and Mr Hurlock, argued in support of the verdict, and Mr Park, Mr Richardson, and Mr Brougham, against it.

The court this day gave their judgement; finding the wager in question to be contrary to law, contrary to morality, and contrary to Christianity, contemplating as it did, assassination. The verdict, of course, was affirmed, and the rule for a new trial was discharged.

The new Cabinet nominations areThe Earl of Liverpool, First Lord of the Treasury, Premier.-Right Hon. N. Vansittart, Chancellor of the Exchequer-Lord Chancellor, Lord Eldon-President of the Council, Earl of Harrowby-Foreign Secretary of State, Lord CastlereaghHome ditto, Lord Sidmouth-War ditto, Earl Bathurst-Admiralty, Lord Melville-Privy Seal, Earl of Westmoreland-Board of Controul, Lord Buckinghamshire-Ordnance, Lord Mulgrave.

SALE OF THE DUKE OF ROXBURGH'S LIBRARY.-Tuesday was quite an epoch in bookselling; for

at no time, and in no country, did books bring the prices at which they were knocked down, by Mr Evans, at Roxburgh-house. To enumerate all the rarities sold on that day would exceed the limits that we can spare for the article; but we shall extract from the catalogue the titles of a few of the lots, and add the prices at which they sold.

ROMANCES.

"No. 6292. Il Decameroni di Boc

caccio, fol. M. C. Edit. Prim. Venet. Valdarfer. 1471.”

Of the extreme scarcity of this celebrated edition of the Decameron, it will perhaps be sufficient to say, that no other perfect copy is yet known to exist, after all the fruitless researches of more than quis of Blandford for 22601.; being the 300 years. It was bought by the Marlargest sum ever given for a single volume.

"No. 6348. The Boke of the Fayt of Armes and of Chyvalrye, fol. blue Turkey, gilt leaves, very rare. Caxton,

1479."