Poultry Market, "500 guineas. Rembrandt, "A Portrait of Admiral Van Tromp," 460 guineas. Adrian Van Ostade, The Adoration of the Shepherds," 450 guineas. Ruysdael, "A Landscape, with Waterfall," 170 guineas. Rubens, The Virgin and Infant, with St. John, St.Joseph, and St. Elizabeth," 200 guineas.

66

P. Wouvermans,

"Cavaliers preparing to start from a Stable," 350 guineas. Claude, "A Grand Landscape, with Figures -Evening," 550 guineas. Greuze, "Ariadne," 530 guineas; bought for the Marquis of Hertford. "A Woody Scene in Guelderland, with Horsemen," 350 guineas. Murillo, "The Repose of the Holy Family," 780 guineas; bought for the Marquis of Hertford. The collection, containing 59 pictures, produced above 10,000l.

10. A MAN KILLED BY AN ELEPHANT. Wombwell's celebrated menagerie had arrived at Coventry for the purpose of exhibition at the fair to be held there, when a most lamentable occurrence happened. The keeper of the elephant had been dismissed, and Mr. Wombwell, jun., the nephew of the proprietor, took upon himself the care of the animal. About mid-day he went to feed him, when the elephant, being out of temper, it is supposed in consequence of a short delay in receiving his food, became furious, and ran his tusks into several parts of Mr. Wombwell's body, after which he beat him dreadfully with his trunk. Assistance was immediately rendered, and Mr. Wombwell was removed from the caravan apparently in a lifeless state. The injuries he received subsequently proved fatal.

19. THE LAW OF MARRIAGE.Ward v. Dey.-A case involving an important question in the law

The

It

of marriage was heard before Sir H. J. Fust, in the Prerogative Court. It was a business of proving in solemn form of law the will of Mrs. Dey, formerly of Demerara, but latterly of Lambeth. parties were the executors named in the will, and Mr. Dey, asserting himself to be the lawful husband of the deceased. It was pleaded on behalf of the executors, that in November, 1837, the deceased, being then just turned 14 years of age, was prevailed on by Mr. William Dey, a journeyman cooper, and a native of Demerara, to leave her mother, at whose house she resided, and embark on board. a ship then lying in the river, which put to sea, and after a few days' sail reached the island of St. Lucia, immediately after which the parties. were (but unlawfully) married. was further pleaded that, by the laws for the regulation of marriages at St. Lucia, no marriage in general could be contracted so as to be good in law without due publication of bans upon three several feast days, at competent intervals, unless dispensed with for some urgent and lawful cause, and at the request of the principal and nearest relations of the contracting parties-who in that case should have been married in the presence of four witnesses-nor without the consent of the mother of the woman, if under the age of 25 years, and illegitimate Those requisites, it was alleged on the part of the executors, had not been complied with. In contradiction to the plea, it was alleged on behalf of Mr. Dey that, by the laws and ordinances of the island in force at the time of the marriage in question, a marriage between persons professing the Protestant religion, had in pursuance of a licence from the governor, by

a minister in holy orders of the church of England, in the presence of two witnesses, was to all intents and purposes a good marriage, with out publication of bans, or the consent, or any of the formalities stated to be necessary by the executors. If the marriage were held invalid, the will would take effect, as the will of a feme sole; if good, Mrs. Dey, being a married woman, had no capacity to make a will.

Witnesses were examined as to the laws of the colony, and Sir H. J. Fust was of opinion that the marriage was good and valid according to the lex loci, and was therefore good and valid everywhere to all intents and purposes.

20. RAISING THE BRITANNIA BRIDGE.-Many thousand persons, among whom were some of the highest rank, and engineers of great eminence, assembled on the banks of the Menai Straits, for the purpose of witnessing the floating and raising the first tube of this stupendous structure, a master-piece of engineering enterprise and skill. The masonry work attracted great attention. The abutments, on either side of the straits, are huge piles of masonry. That on the Anglesey side is 143 feet high, and 173 long. The wing walls of both terminate in immense pedestals, on each of which is a colossal lion couchant, of Egyptian design, each 25 feet long, and 12 feet high, though crouched. Each weighs 30 tons.

The towers for supporting the tube are of proportionate magnitude. The great Britannia Tower in the centre of the straits is 62 by 52 feet at its base; its total height from the bottom, 230 feet; it contains 148,625 cubic feet of limestone, and 144,625 of sand-stone; it weighs 20,000 tons; and there

are 387 tons of cast iron built into it in the shape of beams and girders. Its province is to sustain the four ends of the four long iron tubes which will span the straits from shore to shore. The total quantity of stone contained in the bridge is 1,500,000 cubic feet. The side towers stand at a clear distance of 460 feet from the great central tower, and are each 62 feet by 52 feet at the base, and 190 feet high; and again, the abutments stand at a distance from the side towers of 230 feet, giving the entire bridge a total length of 1849 feet. All these towers are at present surrounded by scaffolding equally astonishing.

The chief centre of attraction, however, was the interior and exterior of the novel gigantic tubes; the one floated on the pontoons, and the others, as they lay upon the platforms, presenting the appearance of stupendous iron tunnels. The length of the great tube, now transported to its resting place, is exactly 470 feet, being 12 feet longer than the clear span between the towers, the additional length being intended to afford a temporary bearing of 6 feet at each end, after they are raised into their places. Their greatest height is in the centre, 30 feet, and diminishing towards the end to 22 feet. Each tube consists of sides, top, and bottom, all formed of long, narrow wrought-iron plates, varying in length from 12 feet downward, and placed in the direction of the strain. The rivets, of which there are 2,000,000, each tube containing 327,000, are more than an inch in diameter. The total weight of wrought iron in the tube now floated is 1600 tons.

The preparations being all complete, the pilots, to the number of

200 or 300, took their stand on the pontoons to ply the gigantic tackle; as many more stood ready for action at the capstans: the cables, six inches in thickness and a league long, were attached to the steamers that were to have the towing of the tremendous freight. The signal was given by the display of a flag on the Anglesey side, and a shrill strain from the trumpet of Captain Claxton from the top of the tube, to the pilots, to take the tide and pipe all hands for the exploit. This was responded to by a loud burst of enthusiasm from the seamen, whose efforts, united to those of the steam tugs, told upon the screws and tackle, and upon the hitherto motionless monster, which then glided very slowly, and amid thunders of unceasing cheers and salutations, without injury or jar, and with a majesty that could only be compared to that of a mountain moving on the waters, to the site of its final resting-place.

An accident which happened to one of the capstans delayed the completion of the operation until the following day, when the giant tube gently floated to the piers, where it was instantly seized and secured by immense vices. Some days after, the operation of raising it to its resting-places on the piers was commenced. This was accomplished by means of hydraulic presses of immense power, placed on the top of each pier, to the movable parts of which the tube was attached by strong chain tack ling. These presses being worked simultaneously, the immense fabric was slowly raised from its bed on the waters, and held suspended in the air. Each lift raised it through the space of six feet, where it was instantly secured by masonry built under it in the grooves through VOL. XCI.

which it passed. This operation was performed without accident to the tube, although by the bursting of one of the cylinders of a press, by which a workman was killed, a short delay was occasioned. The wonderful undertaking was, however, perfectly accomplished. Another similar tube (there are eight, but four are of less dimensions) was floated and raised by similar means later in the year; and it is believed that all will be placed in their positions and connected together into two parallel tunnels, nearly 2000 feet in length, the rails laid down, and the entire bridge opened for the passage of trains, in March, 1850.

NOTTIDGE v. RIPLEY AND ANOTHER. A very singular trial occupied the Court of Exchequer for three days. The action was brought by Miss Louisa Nottidge, a maiden lady some forty years of age, against her brother-in-law, Mr. Ripley, a London merchant, and her brother, the Reverend E. Pepys Nottidge, to recover damages, for confining her from November, 1846, to May, 1848, in the private lunatic asylum kept by Dr. Stillwell, at Hillingdon, near London. Miss Nottidge is one of four sisters, ladies of for tune, who have embraced the religious opinions of a sect which, about 1845, branched from the religionists called Lampeters. Their peculiar tenet is, that " the day of grace and prayer is past, and the time of judgment arrived:" they carry out their belief by perpetual praises to God, using prayer no more; by a community of property; and by living in a state of constant joyousness and mutual love, in a single residence, which they entitle Agapemone, "The Abode of Love," at Charlinch, near Taunton. The plaintiff, with three

F

of her sisters, adopted these opinions in 1846, on the teaching of Mr. Prince, a clergyman of the Church of England; and about the same time three of the sisters married, on the same day, Mr. Price, another clergyman of the Church of England, Mr. Cobb, and Mr. Thomas, a third clergyman, all disciples of Mr. Prince: together with the plaintiff, who remained single, the ladies left their house at Brighton, where they resided with their mother, and took up their residence in the Agapemone. The mother of the Misses Not tidge, a widow lady now nearly eighty years of age, was deeply afflicted at the ascendancy obtained over her daughters, and at the steps they took of leaving her roof and joining the Agapemone; she had fears, grounded on information which she thought trustworthy, that her daughters were drawn into a "life of the greatest sin and iniquity." Calling in the advice of her son and son-in-law, she had the plaintiff taken by force from the residence at Charlinch and brought to London; and after conversing tenderly with her, to no purpose, she took the advice of two medical gentlemen on her state of mind. These gentlemen, Dr. Norton and Dr. Rowland, certified that Miss Nottidge was insane she believed Mr. Prince to be God Almighty incarnate, and herself immortal. She was accordingly sent to Dr. Stillwell's asylum, and her place of confinement was concealed. In January, 1848, she escaped; communicated with her relations and friends at Charlinch, and was on her way to rejoin them; but she was overtaken on the route, and carried back by force to Hillingdon. In May, 1848, after correspondence of her leading

brethren in the Agapemone with the Lunatic Commissioners, and after much conference of those officers on her case, she was liberated on the ground of declining health; some of the Commissioners, however, dissenting from the liberating judgment, and none thinking that she was less a lunatic than at first; but the majority thinking her able to manage her her own affairs. Some dramatic interest was given to the trial by the personal examination of divers members of the fraternity who live in the Agapemone.

The Lord Chief Baron instructed the jury that they must find a verdict for the plaintiff on the first plea of Not Guilty, and that the plea of justification was not made out. The defendants were not in any way justified in having adopted the course they had taken, unless the jury should think that the plaintiff was of unsound mind and dangerous to herself and others. His own idea of toleration was, that all those who entertained with sincerity any peculiar doctrine, however absurd that doctrine might appear to others to be, ought to be allowed to enjoy that opinion without interference, so long as the principles and the acts they adopted were not forced offensively, or contrary to law, upon the public notice, or against the public morals. If such persons sincerely entertained these doctrines, then they were, in his opinion, as much entitled to be treated with respect as any other religious sect.

The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff, damages 501.; adding that they did not think the defendants were actuated by unworthy motives.

27. DREADFUL CATASTROPHE AT SEA-DESTRUCTION OF THE Charles

Bartlett. A fearful calamity occurred to the emigrant ship Charles Bartlett, which was run down by the steam-ship Europa, in lat. 50° 49' N., long. 29° W., during a dense fog, by which catastrophe, of 163 passengers and a crew of 14, 136 persons perished.

Captain William Bartlett, commander of the lost ship, gives the following account of the fearful disaster.

"Had fine weather, with light easterly winds, up to the 19th. From that time to the 27th had S.W. and W. winds, and foggy weather. At noon it cleared up a little; all well on board, and every thing looking prosperous. Soon after noon a dense fog set in, wind W. by S., ship heading to the N.W.; close hauled, all sail set. At three o'clock ordered a good look-out from the top gallant forecastle; also directed the man at the wheel to look sharp to windward. At 3 30 P.M., being on the weather side of the poop-deck, heard a rumbling to windward like distant thunder; turned my ear to windward and my eye to the horizon. The man at the wheel noticing that I was lis tening, looked to windward, and cried out Sail, ho!' I at once saw what I supposed was a ship about one point forward of our beam, about 400 yards distant. I ordered the helm up, thinking if she did not discover us that we should have time to clear her before she could come into contact. All hands shouted at the same time to alarm the ship; and I ordered the bell to be rung, and called to the ship to port her helm,' as I saw that was the only chance of escape. There were nearly one hundred passengers on deck at the time. All was of no use, for in one minute from the

time we saw the ship she was upon us, going at the rate of twelve knots, striking us abreast of the after main shrouds. The crash and the terrible scene that ensued I am not adequate to describe. I was knocked to leeward with the man at the wheel. I recovered myself in a moment, shouting for every person to cling to the steamer as their only hope; I caught hold of a broken chain on the bow, and hauled myself up, shouting at the same time to the crew and passengers to follow. I had barely time to get on the steamer's bow; and while getting up, I noticed that her bow was into the ship within a foot of the after hatch, and that she was stove clear to the lee side, and that full twenty feet of her side was stove in. There must have been nearly fifty persons killed by the collision. Every exertion was made by Captain Lott, his officers and crew, and the passengers on board the steamer. The boats were lowered as soon as possible. Unfortunately, only about ten were saved by the boats; the balance, making thirty-three (more or less), saved themselves by hanging to the bow. The steamer lay by the wreck as long as there was any hope of saving any lives. I will notice that all due exertion was used by Captain Lott, and officers and crew of the Europa, as well as all the passengers."

It was also reported by a committee of the cabin passengers of the Europa, that

It appears from the evidence tendered, that the officers and look-outs were at their posts; and the committee are satisfied that all proper vigilance and activity were used, in this sudden emergency, on the part of the steamer. The undersigned having weighed all