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MONTHLY REGISTER.

SCOTTISH CHRONICLE.

April 1.-Mr J. Sheet of Staffordshire, who died very lately, was said to be the only remaining soldier of those employed under General Wolfe at the siege of Quebec. But there is at present living in the burgh of Linlithgow, one of those heroes who was an eye witness to that General's receiving his mortal wound. The health, strength, and activity of this veteran is such, that he still joins in public and social amusements. At a recent meeting of a Masonic body he was present, accompanied by a son and grandson of his own, upon which occasion he sung the "Death of Wolfe" with much feeling and energy. His name is William Wilson. Although employed in the field of Quebec, he properly belonged to some of the ships of war, and, owing to that circumstance, it seems he never had any pension from Go

vernment.

On Tuesday, the 17th March, William Napier Milliken, Esq. of Milliken, was served heir male general of Archibald, third Lord Napier of Merchieston, Bart. of Nova Scotia, great grandson of the inventor of logarithms.

On Tuesday, in consequence of presentations by the Crown, the Senate of the University of Glasgow admitted Dr Thomas Thomson, Professor of Chemistry, and Dr Robert Graham, Professor of Botany.

Daring Robbery.-Friday night, about nine o'clock, Peter Muir, Whitburn carrier, was attacked by three fellows about a mile beyond Toll-cross, near Glasgow, and robbed of about £200. Two of them seized him and threw him on the ground, where they held him, while the third mounted his cart, and took from a basket a great coat, in which the money was deposited. The villains did not take his watch.

As Mr Walter Armstrong, jun. a respectable merchant in New Castletown, Roxburghshire, was returning from Bellingham fair, on the evening of the 18th ult. he unfortunately lost his life near Falstone, in attempting to ford the river Tyne, which was much swollen by the melting of snow near its source. Strict search has been made for the body, but hitherto without success. Mr Armstrong has left a widow and two children to lament his untimely end. The melancholy event has also occasioned universal regret among an extensive circle of friends. April 2.-The Climate.-As the seed-time this year has been much later than ordinary, it may be satisfactory to know, from the following statement, that the earlinesss or late

ness of the Spring, neither hastens nor re-
tards the harvest :
Seed-time commenced on
the north banks of the
Clyde at Carnwath, at
the following dates, for
21 years:-

1796, March 1st,
1797, February 27th,
1798, March 29th,
1799, March 13th,
1800, March 21st,
1801, March 9th,
1802, March 17th,
1803, March 22d,
1804, March 12th,
1805, March 19th,
1806, March 24th,
1807, March 26th,
1808, March 7th,
1809, March 9th,
1810, March 27th,
1811, March 18th,
1812, April 3d.
1813, March 18th,
1814, March 28th,
1815, March 21st,
1816, March 26th,
1817, March 18th,

Harvest commenced for each of these years on the same farm as follows:

September 12th. September 16th. August 16th. September 26th. September 1st. August 24th, September 16th. August 31st. September 11th.

September 5th.

September 6th.

September 7th.

August 22d.

September 13th.

September 12th.

September 10th.

September 25th.

September 4th.

September 6th.

September 12th.

September 14th. September 22d.

3-On Friday se'nnight, about 12 o'clock at night, John Brodie, a young man from Dunkeld, accompanied by a woman of the name of Margaret Robertson, from the parish of Auchtergavin, came to the house of Allan Jamieson, St John's Street, Perth, for the purpose of being married, and remained there for the night, Jamieson having told them that he would get a clergyman to marry them next day for 30s. A clergyman was accordingly procured, in the person of John M'Diarmid, a corporal on the Staff of the Perthshire Militia, who, being dressed in black clothes, went through the ceremony in due form, from the Common Prayer Book, and received 5s. for his services from the bride. After the ceremony, the party regaled themselves plentifully at the bride's expense; and having spent all the money she had brought with her, amounting to 30s. they stripped her of her pelisse, to pay for 16s. worth of more spirits, and then kicked and turned her out of doors. By the vigilance of the sitting Magistrates, Jamieson and M'Diarmid were committed to jail on Monday, and Brodie on Tuesday, to answer for this disgraceful outrage.

6.-Clydesdale Road. At a respectable meeting which took place at Hamilton on the 4th instant, for the purpose of promoting

this important undertaking, the subscription was raised to upwards of £10,000; and such measures have been adopted as must ere long ensure the command of funds adequate to the completion of a road, which bids fair to be one of the most useful and beautiful in the united empire, while it promises ulterior communications and improvements of great national importance. Operations will, we are informed, forthwith commence, and contracts be advertised for making and repairing the most needful parts of the projected line.

7.-On Tuesday, Mary Hutcheson, aged 24 years, a native of Tyron, charged with fraud, was committed to Glasgow Jail. The folly on the one hand, and the duplicity on the other, which are developed in this case, are sufficiently singular. The prisoner acknowledges that about four years ago she began to tell fortunes by reading cups. She was in the habit of giving information to people who had lost property by theft or otherways. Her art only enabled her to give a description of the persons of the thieves, not being able to tell their names. A servant girl, it seems, began about a year ago to call on this woman for the purpose of getting her destinies unfolded. In reading the cups she told the simpleton that she was to receive some money, concealed in a corner of her master's room; and in order to show her where to look for it, she went to the house along with the girl, and laid down some money in the place where the promised sum was to be got. So complete was the ascendency which she had over this young woman, that in the course of three weeks she got from her sums to the amount of £27, assuring her that when the money promised was found it would be increased twenty fold. For the purpose of so increasing, it was pretended to be deposited, the ceremony of doing which was not a little imposing. It was laid down in presence of the girl; and Mary, after telling her to retire, read several passages of scripture, and prayed. She has also defrauded a man, who employed her fortune-telling powers, of several pounds. To a blind person she promised to give sight, received a considerable sum as the reward of her promise; and to a person affected with deafness she was to restore hearing. These are understood to be only a few of her tricks. She maintains that the servant's money will be returned when the time of its rising comes.

8.-On Tuesday, the Sheriff-substitute sitting in the Police-office, sentenced James Maclauchlan, Adam Macdonald, Alexander Macmillan, John Mackenzie, and Grace Macmillan, to be confined in Bridewell sixty days each, for various acts of theft. This is another gang of the juvenile depredators with which this town and neighbourhood has been so much infested. The oldest does not exceed thirteen, and the girl is not ten years of age, but all of them have been repeatedly in Bridewell for theft.

Maclauchlan, who seems to be the leader of this set of young thieves, is perfectly callous and regardless. Their practice was to go about the environs of the city to see where clothes were left in areas and greens, and then come back in the evenings and carry them off. The things stolen were generally carried to the house of one Johnston, in the Calton, where they were left, but neither sold nor pawned, a trifling sum being given for each article, and sometimes a little bread and cheese. Johnston and his wife are in custody for this offence.

The first anniversary of the Edinburgh Society of Highlanders, was celebrated on Thursday last, in the British Hotel, Prince's Street. The meeting was numerous and respectable. The members and visitants appeared in the full Highland dress of their respective clans. The evening passed away in the utmost harmony. The laudable purposes that drew the members together as a society, glowed in every bosom, and broke forth in every sentiment ;-these purposes are to keep alive the language, dress, and customs of their ancestors, their funds being principally devoted to benevolent objects. Many loyal and patriotic toasts were given, and songs sung, in the Gaelic language, appropriate to the occasion; and the company broke up at a late hour, singularly gratified with such an opportunity of recalling feelings connected with "Tir na'm beaun, na'w gleaun, agus, na'n gaisga ch."

On Tuesday forenoon, a meeting of the members of the Trades House, Glasgow, in consequence of a requisition to the Convener, took the question of Burgh Reform into consideration. After considerable discussion, it was agreed to postpone the farther consideration of the question till the Lord Advocate should bring forward his bill relating to this subject in Parliament. At this meeting the Convener exhibited an abstract which he had taken from the Chamberlain's books of the city's funds, which appeared to be in a very flourishing and prosperous condition.

Af

Commission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Thursday the Commission of the General Assembly, convoked by a circular letter from several members, met here in the Assembly Aisle. ter the meeting had been opened in the usual form, by the Rev. Dr Gibb, moderator, and the authority by which it was called had been read, Dr David Ritchie shortly stated the urgent necessity of having the proposed legislative measure of the increase of churches extended to Scotland.

Dr Nicol then read a printed report of the speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the subject, and from this inferred, that it was only necessary to draw up a strong case of the very destitute state of many parts of Scotland of religious instruction, to obtain the concurrence of Government for the requisite extension of the bill to this part of the island.

Dr Irvine of Little Dunkeld, in a short but most interesting speech, stated, that it was consistent with his personal knowledge, that there were parishes in the Highlands of 60 miles long by 40 broad, with only one place of worship, and that he had met with persons of 60 and 70 years of age, who had only once, in the course of their lives, heard a sermon. That the ignorance of the people in many places was consequently extreme. They were, therefore, the ready dupes of the Missionaries of any superstitious or fanatical creed with which they happened to come in contact. That there had very recently arisen in the Highlands of Perthshire a new sect, denominated Freemen, who professed open hostilities to all existing denominations of Christians. In other parts the Catholics were gaining ground in a most alarming degree; and though the Missionaries sent out by the Church of Scotland were very useful, yet their influence was necessarily of a far inferior description to that of established clergymen; and the want of accommodation was such, that he himself, when employed in that service, had usually preached under a tree, or a rock, in a cave, or a barn.

James Grant, Esq. writer to the signet, mentioned some striking instances of the success of the Catholic Missionaries for the want of established churches.-Among others, he instanced one particular district, of very considerable extent and population, where, at the close of the 17th century, there was not a single Catholic; but being destitute of the ministry of a regular protestant clergyman, a catholic priest from Ireland had landed in it, and in the course of half a century, the whole population, with scarcely an exception, were re-converted back to the Catholic superstition.

Dr Nicoll then moved, that the house should appoint a committee to draw up a strong case to be transmitted to Government, and to take into consideration what would be the best means for supplying the deficiency of churches.

Dr Anderson stated, upon the authority of a correspondent in the Highlands, that the most imminent evil was the spread of the Catholic religion; and, therefore he was of opinion, that the mere erection of churches is not sufficient, but that new parishes should be formed, and proper provision made for the officiating clergy.

Dr Inglis read a memorial, pointing out, in a very forcible manner, the extreme importance of increasing the number of churches in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands and manufacturing districts. He mentioned, as extraordinary instances of the disproportion between the population and the established religious accommodation, the parish of St Cuthbert's at Edinburgh, and that of the Barony at Glasgow, each of them containing fully forty thousand inhabitants, with only one established church.

It was at last agreed, that a committee

should be appointed to draw up a memorial, to be submitted to the consideration of the commission, of which committee Dr Inglis was to be a member, and his sketch to be adopted as the basis of the memorial to government.

9.-On Saturday last, as a merchant in Sanquhar was coming to Dumfries on business, he was attacked by three stout looking Irishmen, who knocked him down, and dragged him a considerable way into a wood near Closeburn, where, after striking and kicking him in a barbarous manner, they searched his pockets in the expectation of finding a sum of money which he was going to pay away in Dumfries; but were disappointed, as he had it concealed in a private pocket next to his shirt. It is thought the villains were alarmed by the noise of some people who were working in the wood, for they ran off abruptly, after giving the merchant a few more kicks, which rendered him insensible for a considerable length of time, and it was with much difficulty that he could find his way out of the wood.

A man, charged with murder, has been committed to Dumbarton jail. The following are said to be the particulars of the case: -That on Friday, the deceased, called Borrowman, having approached the spot in the muir of Dumbarton where some men were engaged in smuggling, they at first gave him whisky, which he drank in large quantities. They then stripped him naked, and, having rubbed his body with whisky, they set him on fire, and tortured him in the manner of the American Indians. He survived only 24 hours. Two men, who are not yet apprehended, are said to be implicated. The deceased has left a wife and six children. It is reported that he became obnoxious to the smugglers, as they suspected him of being a spy.

11. In the neighbourhood of Perth, and in Strathearn, the oat-seed is just commencing. In the higher districts, the ground has been covered with snow for the greater part of the month, and spring ploughing is far in arrears. It may be stated as something new in the annals of meteorology, that ground could not be ploughed, for snow, so late as the 28th of March, within a mile of the Carse of Gowrie. An unbroken sheet of snow covered the Grampian Hills throughout the greater part of the month, destructive to the hopes of the Highland shepherd, whose flocks must be perishing for want of food at the approach of the lambing season.

13.-Scotch Burghs. In the House of Commons, on Friday, the Lord Advocate rose for the purpose of moving for leave to bring in a Bill to regulate the funds of the Royal Scotch Burghs. Hitherto the magistrates of those burghs had given in their accounts to the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, without any check on their proceedings; he should therefore propose, that these accounts should be produced to the bur

gesses before they were brought before the Court of Exchequer; but as this might not be entirely effectual in preventing abuses, a power was to be given to five burgesses, to make representations on the subject to the Court of Exchequer. He then moved for leave to bring in a Bill to regulate the mode of accounting for the common good and revenue of the royal burghs, and comptrolling their expenditure..

Lord A. Hamilton approved of the Bill, so far as it went. The burghs had, for more than thirty years, been asking the boon, but it had been perseveringly and invariably denied, till many of them were reduced to bankruptcy. But the bill did not do away with the self-election of the magistrates, which had led to the dissipation of their funds. The corruption of those burghs had gone on from year to year, till it was admitted by judges that various statutes had fallen into desuetude.

The Lord Advocate said, the Bill was sufficiently wide to cure all the grievances complained of, as to the mismanagement of the funds; but it certainly was not intended, like some of the measures proposed by the Noble Lord, as a mere stalking-horse for parliamentary reform.

After some conversation between the Learned Lord and Sir J. Newport, on the principle of the Scotch law, according to which statutes might go into desuetude, the motion was agreed to. The Bill was immediately brought in, read a first time, and ordered to be read a second time this day three weeks.

14.-Among the many benevolent institutions which have adorned the British character within the last twenty years, there is not one which so entirely meets the approbation of the philosophical mind, or one so absolutely free from objections to the political economist, as that of saving banks. The very purest eleemosynary charities offer a bonus, more or less, to idleness, and sap to a certain degree that spirit of independ ence, which becomes no order of the people so well as the inferior and labouring class; and make a breach in that principle of selfreliance, which is the firmest support of the social system, and which, once broken in upon, soon becomes a total ruin. Of the saving banks, all we need say in commendation is, that their effects are the very opposite of these; that they cherish industry, teach prudence, give security and increase to the fruits of honourable exertion, encourage moral habits, and reward a youth of labour with an old age of comfort.

The operations of the Monkland Canal having rendered it necessary to remove the old Martyr's stone at the west end of the Canal Basin, the proprietors have very handsomely erected a new one, with the same inscription.

16.-Sunday, a house in Northumberland Street, Edinburgh, during Divine Service, was entered by a person of decent

appearance, who, ringing the bell, and not finding it answered immediately, took from his pocket a bunch of keys, and very deliberately opened the door and went in; but some of the family coming home in the mean time, he made a very precipitate retreat, without waiting to answer interrogatories, or being able to carry any thing off.

17. Lately, as a lame man was carried about from door to door, in the High Street, Glasgow, in a hand-barrow, begging, he arrived at the door of a Scottish cloth-shop, when the boys began to teaze him. He laid about him stoutly with a cudgel, till the alarm was given that the police were coming, upon which he started nimbly up from his carriage, which he shouldered, and ran off with it so quickly, that he could not be overtaken. We are credibly informed, that scarcely an hour elapsed before he was again at his trade in the Bridgegate.

18.-Circuit Court, Stirling.-This day the Circuit Court of Justiciary was opened here by the Right Hon. Lord Pitmilly.

Peter Robertson, portioner of Corntown, in the parish of Logie, and county of Stirling, was put to the bar, accused of murder, in so far as he, upon the 9th day of March 1818, did, within his dwelling house at Corntown, wickedly and feloniously bereave of life and did murder Elizabeth Robertson, his daughter, by inflicting a severe blow upon her head with a pair of tongs, whereby the said Elizabeth Robertson was mortally wounded; did languish until the morning of the 10th day of the said month of March, when she expired.

The

This was a most distressing case. pannel having quarrelled with Margaret Malcolm, his servant, for having allowed one of his children to go to a dancing-school ball against his express orders, in the heat of passion he seized upon a pair of tongs, seemingly for the purpose of throwing at the said Margaret Malcolm; but (as rather appeared from the evidence) which he threw from him as a foolish expression of rage, when they struck the forehead of his little favourite daughter, of eight years of age, and fractured her skull.

Mr Maconochie, Advocate-Depute, charged the Jury very ably on the part of the Crown; and Mr Jeffrey, in a most ingenious speech on the part of the pannel; and Lord Pitmilly having summed up the evidence, the Jury found the pannel guilty of culpable homicide.

Lord Pitmilly, after a suitable admonition, sentenced the pannel to six months imprisonment in the jail of Stirling.

23.-A new fever hospital has been established at Queensberry House, in the Canongate, by the Managers of the Infirmary, at a great expense, as the present hospital could not admit all the patients who applied. Into this new hospital a great number of patients have also been admitted.

Upon Sunday forenoon, while the family were at church, a house in the Gallowgate,

a little above Claythorn Street, was broken into, by forcing through the lath roof of the adjoining close, and descending by a hatchway into the house, where the villains (supposed to be boys, from the size of the hole by which they entered,) broke open a chest of drawers, and took therefrom two twenty shilling notes and about one pound in silver; amongst the silyer were three South Sea shillings; also, a box containing two gold rings, one set with hair and the other with mock diamonds; a gold brooch, and a quantity of confections from the shop window. It is supposed the thieves were scared, as a number of other articles were left in a state ready to be carried off.

26.-Queensberry Leases.-This important case, which involves a great part of the immense personal property of the late Duke of Queensberry, amounting to upwards of £1,200,000, is again brought under the review of the House of Lords, by the appeal of the Duke of Buccleugh against the judgment of the Court of Session, confirming the leases granted on the Queensberry estate. The case for the appellant was opened by the Lord Advocate, followed by the Solicitor-General (Sir W. Giffard). Sir S. Romilly, who appeared as counsel for the trustees under the Duke of Queensberry's will, made a most able and eloquent speech; and next day Mr Cranstoun, one of the most eminent counsel of the Edinburgh Bar, spoke on the same side. The House was more than usually crowded with the Gentlemen of the long robe from Westminster Hall, to hear the luminous argument of that distinguished advocate. The final decision of this case is most anxiously looked for by the legatees of the late Duke. It has now been nearly twelve years in dependance.

Last Friday afternoon, a man was observed lying at the side of the Dundee road, a little to the westward of Arbroath. On approaching him, it was found that he was in a state of insensibility. Medical assistance was therefore procured; and he was convey ed to a public-house in the town to be taken care of. It is suspected that he had taken poison, as a phial containing a small quantity of laudanum was found upon him. In his pocket were several recommendatory letters to and from respectable people in Glasgow, with a few pawnbroker's receipts for a gold watch and sundry articles of wearing apparel, which he had pledged. All the money in his possession amounted only to 7d. Through the kind attention of the Magistrates in providing medical and other attendance, the unfortunate man has been again placed in a state of convalescence, and is likely soon to recover. The account which he gives of himself is, that he is a native of the United States; was an officer in the French army under Bonaparte; had been recommended to a situation in Glasgow, of which he had been disappointed; had proceeded from Glasgow to Aberdeen in quest VOL. III.

of employment, but had not been successful; and is now on his return to Edinburgh. The respectability of his personal appearance, and the manner in which his feelings are affected by the contemplation of his present condition, leave little room to doubt the truth of his statement.

27.-Dumfries.-At the Circuit Court on Friday last, a boy, or rather a child, of the name of John Wilson, was indicted for stealing a pocket-book containing £7 in notes and 4s. in silver, from the shop of Jonah Nicholson, grocer, High Street, so far back as October 1817. This, in fact, appeared to be the youngest prisoner we ever recollect to have seen in a court of justice, and when he took his place at the bar, surprise and pity were pictured in the countenance of every beholder. At first he seemed quite composed, but he had no sooner looked round on the formidable array of the bench and the bar, than he hung down his head, and began to cry very bit terly. Having confessed his crime, the jury unanimously recommended him to mercy; and after a suitable admonition from the bench, he was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment in the jail and bridewell of Dumfries, to the latter of which places he is to be transferred as soon as it is ready for his reception. The manner in in which this boy spent the money he had stolen, is another proof of the necessity of a good example on the part of parents, and evinces how readily even mere children mimic the vices of their elders. It appeared that the whole £7, 4s. was spent in the course of a few days, in taverns, or rather, as the Lord Justice Clerk justly termed them, low tippling houses, by this boy, and a few of his companions who were in the secret, and with whom he had shared the booty. His lordship here commented, with becoming zeal, on the degraded character of those publicans, who could open their doors to such juvenile customers, and exchange their poison for money, which, they must have been well aware, had been either pilfered from the boys' parents, or obtained by means still more criminal.

John Lissens, who had formerly been in the army and navy, was next brought to the bar, accused of robbing Thomas Rule, candlemaker. He pleaded Not Guilty.

Thomas Rule, sworn-is a tallow chandler, and resides near Inchbonny, near Jedburgh: left home in August last in quest of work: went to Newcastle and Leeds, and was unsuccessful: returned to Knarsburgh and Carlisle, in which last place he was employed by Joseph Monkhead for one week, and received 18s. of wages: returning to Scotland, he arrived at Longtown on the 13th September, where he got a pint of beer: proceeded on the road to Langholm, and met with the pannel at the bridge on the Langholm side of the town: pannel rose from the end of the bridge, where he was sitting, and asked witness what road he was

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