ASIA.

Statement by the Chinese Emperor Kia King, of the Rebellion in his Provinces, and Attempt to surprise his Family and Palace. "IMPERIAL NOTICE,

"An attempt at Revolution has been made; for which I blame myself. 1, whose virtues are of an inferior class, received with much veneration the Empire from I my Imperial father eighteen years ago. have not dared to indulge myself in sloth. When I ascended the throne, the sect of the Pulten threw into rebellion four provinces, and the people suffered what I cannot bear to express. I ordered my Generals to go against them, and after eight years' conflict, reduced them to subjection. I hoped that henceforward I should have enjoyed perpetual pleasure and peace, with my children the people. Unexpectedly on the 6th of the 8th Moon +, the sect of Tun-lu [i. e. Celestian reason-illuminate], a banditti of vagabonds, created disturbances, and caused much injury from the district of Chang-yuen, in the province of Pa che lie, to the district of Isaw, in Shang-tung. I hastened to order Wan, the Viceroy of Pekin, to send forth an army to exterminate them. This affair was yet at the distance of 1000 Le' [a Le' is 1-5th of an English mile,] but suddenly on the 5th of the 9th moon [18 years, rebellion arose under my own arm‡, the misery had arisen in my own house §, a banditti of 70 persons and more, of the sect of Teen-le, violated the prohibited Gate, and entered withinside. They wounded the Guards, and entered the inner palace.

"Four rebels [robbers] were seized and bound; three others ascended the wall with a flag, my Imperial second son seized a musquet and shot two of the rebels, my nephew killed the third.

After this they retired, and the palace was restored to tranquillity. For this I am indebted to the energies of my Imperial second son. The Prince and the Chief Officers of the Lung tzung Gate led forth the troops, and after two days' and one night's utmost exertion, completely routed the rebels. The family Ta-tzing has continued to_rule the Empire 170 years. My grandfather and Imperial father in the most affectionate manner loved the people as children; I am unable to express their virtues and benevolence. Though I cannot pretend to have equalled their good government and love of the people, yet I have not oppressed nor ill-used my people; this sudden change I am unable to account

All

"When I think of it I cannot bear to mention it. I would examine myself, restrain and rectify my heart to correspond to the gracious conduct of Heaven aboye me, to do away with the resentments of my people who are placed below me. my Ministry who would be honestly faithful to the Dynasty of Ta-tzing must exert themselves for the benefit of the country, and do their utmost to make amends for my defects, so as to reform the manners of the people.

"Those who can be contented to be mean may hang their caps § against the wall, and go home and end their days, and not sit as inactive or dead bodies in their places to secure their incomes, and thereby increase my crimes.-The tears fall as my pencil writes.-I dispatch this to inform the whole Empire.-Received on the 12th of the 10th Moon."

+++ Of the conspiracy alluded to, the following account has been received from Canton-Whilst the Emperor of China was on a visit to Tartary, he left his nine sons in charge of Pekin. Three cousins, assisted by twelve of the Imperial servants and 70 Ladrones, attempted to force the palace, which they effected. They put thirty soldiers to death; but the second son cut one of the Ladrones down, and shot another, upon which the rest ran away. The outside gates were immediately shut and those within the palace were made prisoners. The ringleaders, consisting of the three cousins, 10 officers, and 12 Imperial servants, had their bellies opened while alive, and were afterwards cut to pieces. Sixty others of the conspirators

had their heads cut off."

IRELAND.

Dec. 25. The Roman Catholic Chapel at Bandon, near Cork, was unusually crowded with persons at early service, on Christmas Day. On a sudden, one of the forms in the gallery having been thrown down, an alarm was given that the gallery was falling. The greatest consternation and confusion ensued: numbers were seen leaping from the gallery into the aile, and from the windows into the street, in consequence of which many broke their limbs, and were otherwise injured. In the subsequent pressure to get out of the house, six persons were unfortunately killed; others thrown down, trodden on, and severely hurt. The Chapel sustained injury by the breaking of windows, doors, railings, &c.

Jan. 15. In St. Werburgh's church, Dublin, the Right Hon. Lord Kingsland renounced the doctrines of the Church of Rome, and embraced the Reformed Christian Religion.

Jan. 17. A Catholic Meeting was held at the house of Lord Fingall, in Dublin, to consider whether the Petition should be qualified or unqualified Emancipation; and on a division, the Petition for unqualified was carried by a majority in the proportion of three to one. Lord Fingall was in the minority: the probable secession of his Lordship is alluded to.

Jan. 22. A fire broke out last week in the mansion of Mr. Ormsby, near BirdHill, county of Tipperary; which not only destroyed the premises, with the furniture and every valuable article, but his faithful steward, in endeavouring to save some papers of consequence, perished in the flames.

No place in the empire has suffered so much from the late storm as Adare, the beautiful seat of the Hon. W. Quin, in the county of Limerick. It has lost about 700 trees, of which above 500 were fullgrown timber, of great size, and ornamental to the grounds, torn up by the roots.

At the late Cork Assizes, a baker named Donovan, brought an action against the Rev. Mr. O'Brien, vicar-general to Dr. Coppinger, the titular bishop of Cork, and Roman Catholic parish priest of Clonakilty. It appeared on the trial, that a subscription had been set on foot by the priest, for the purpose of building a Roman Catholic chapel. Donovan was ordered to pay, as his affixed quota, 16s. 3d. and afterwards 9s. both of which sums he paid, but observed, that he was very poor, and that he could not afford it. On a third demand being made by the priest, of 15s. Donovan refused to comply with it. The priest in consequence formally excommunicated him, and denounced the people as cursed and contaminated who should deal or hold any communication with him.

This threat was so effectual, that no one of the country people would sell a sod of turf to Donovan to heat his oven, and he could not even sell in his own name such flour or stock as lay on his hands. Reduced almost to despair, the baker went in a white sheet to the chapel, as a voluntary penance, and asked pardon of God and the priest for his disobedience; and was there by the priest desired to at tend him to his house, where he demanded two guineas, which Donovan assured bim he could not possibly make up. The excommunication was therefore continued against him, and he was consequently obliged to shut up his house. The above facts were proved by two unwilling witnesses, and the Jury found a verdict for the Plaintiff, with 507. damages.

COUNTRY NEWS.

Dec. 17. At Moughtre, near Newtown, Montgomeryshire, by the sudden slipping of a quantity of earth, loosened by heavy rains that had recently fallen, the walls of a poor man's cottage, built under a steep bank, were beaten in, and himself, wife, and five small children, overwhelmed by a torrent of mud: two of the children were suffocated! one of them, an infant at the breast of his mother, who suffered the indescribable agony of feeling its last strug gles without the possibility of affording is the least relief; she herself was forced upon the fire, by which her legs were se verely burnt, and her husband was driven outside the cottage, and there fixed in the surrounding ruin, a distressed spectator of the sufferings of his family, without being able to stir to their assistance. The neighbours were unable to remove the suf ferers from their perilous situation in less than two hours.

Manchester, Dec. 20. The torrents of rain on the 11th and 12th, made the river swell to a great height, and cut off communication, by the common route, from Broughton, Strangeways, &c. The rain was almost incessant the remainder of the week; and on the 16th, the most burricane,like gale of wind experienced here since the year 1802, made the slates fly from the house-tops, and the pots were hurled from the tops of the chimneys, whilst the beautiful steeple of St. Mary's Church" rocked horribly sublime," bending in obedience to the blast, to the admiration of thousands of gazers, obliged to be reminded every minute that its motion proved the accuracy of its perpendicular. A part of the stone-work over the East gate of Cheetham's College was blown down. Several newly-erected houses were unroofed by the wind, which found a way into them by the unclosed windows. The hot-house of Mr. Bridgeford, nurseryman, & tees wood, was destroyed. The priva gar

dens

dens in the neighbourhood were made common by the fury of the blast; and several small cottages suffered severely. At Kersalmoor, Mrs. Boardman, an elderly person, widow of a landlord of the Hare and Hounds public-house, adjoining the racecourse, was killed by the fall of one of them. Many trees were broken or blown down in the neighbourhood.

On the 16th, there was the most tremendous storm of wind and hail in the town of Derby, ever witnessed. A stone was blown from one of the Churches, and falling on a poor woman, caused her death a short time after; and a high brick wall, of upwards of 100 feet in length, was levelled with the ground, and another woman, passing at the moment, was knocked down and killed on the spot.

Dec. 30. Three children of a shepherd on a farm near Henderland, in the parish of Meggat, in the county of Peebles, going from their father's house to witness a matrimonial ceremony, in crossing an adjoining burn, were all blown in by a violent gust of wind, and carried down the current. The father, who was near the spot at the time, ran to their assistance, and brought out one, and laid it upon the bank, and then another, and followed the third a considerable way, which he also succeeded in bringing out; but on his return back with this last to the place where the others were left, he found them both without appearance of animation, and every attempt to restore them was in vain. The third is still alive, and likely to re

Cover.

Jan, 5. As Robert. Newing, one of the company of dredgers of Whitstable, on the Kent coast, was out fishing, accompanied by his son, aged 16, he accidentally fell overboard; his son immediately threw a rope out to his assistance, which he fastened to his body, and with which the lad ineffectually attempted to haul him into the boat, but not having strength to ac-. complish it, the unfortunate man, after being dragged by the boat nearly two miles, was drowned. He has left a wife and nine children.

Jan. 9. One of the workmen in the em-. ploy of Messrs. Roberts, Reynolds, and Co. oilmen at Evesham, while engaged in oiling the machinery upon their premises, his clothes got entangled round one of the wheels, by which he was drawn in, and shocking to relate, was instantly crushed to death. The unfortunate man has left a widow and three young children.

Jan. 10. Early in the morning, the Margaret of Londonderry, John M'Intyre, master, with three men and twenty passengers, was wrecked off Cullean Bay, when all perished except Norman M'Cleod, mare, and Edward Donald, seaman. The latter relates, that they left Derry on the

evening of the 7th, and their sails being shivered to pieces in a dreadful storm, the vessel struck about five o'clock, when the master, one of the hands, and some of the passengers, took to the boat, but were drowned; that he and the mate stuck in the rigging, and when day dawned, though a great number of people were collected on the shore, from the violence of the storm no assistance could be given them. There were then on the deck a man holding his wife in his arms, a woman surrounded by five children, on her way to her husband in Glasgow, another woman and child, a genteel looking woman, who told him she was a quarter-master-serjeant's wife, and had lived some time in Hamilton, and a Mrs. Carrick, the only person whose name he knew, with her child. That the tide making about eleven o'clock, they were all swept off the wreck, and though some reached the shore alive, they were all so benumbed with cold that they soon expired. Fifteen of the bodies are already come ashore, but the corpse of the master is still missing.

Jan. 17. The Brothers, Stephen Atkinson master, of South Shields, having struck on the Harbro' Sand, near Harwich, in the night, came off the next morning into deep water, and sunk immediately. In getting out the boats for the preservation of the ship's company, the long-boat was stove, and the unfortunate crew having taken to the skiff, all perished; with the exception of one man named Richard Brunswick, who, stopping the leak with his jacket, remained in the long boat. The survivor was picked up several hours after in the boat, which had floated off the ship's deck, by the brig Gypsey, of Sunderland, nearly exhausted, up to his middle in water.

By the Third Report of the Hampshire Society, in co-operation with the National Society for Educating the Infant Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, and on the plan of the Rev. Dr. Bell, it appears that 63 schools have been esta-. blished in different parts of the county since 1811, and upwards of 4000 children are receiving education in them. From the extensive and rapid progress which this system of education is making throughout the Kingdom, we may confidently anticipate a very gratifying improvement in the religious and moral character of the Country, and hope that, under Divine Providence, these blessings will not be confined to ourselves, but that we shall be the means of conveying the pure doctrines of Christianity, as exemplified in the venerable and beautiful fabrick of our Established Church, to the remotest corners of the Globe.

The Cornwall Geological Society are about to erect an elegant museum at Pen

zance

zance, for depositing their valuable collection of specimens, to which the Prince Regent, who has honoured the Society by becoming their President, has sent a donation of 100 guineas. At the last meeting of the Society, a bar, composed of a metallic alloy, was exhibited, to prevent the fatal effects from the explosion of gunpowder by the use of iron rammers; the new composition being incapable of producing sparks by collision with siliceous fragments.

Deacon's Lodge, near Pickworth, Rut land, has been entirely destroyed. Owing to the ruinous state of the oven, it carved in whilst a fire made for heating it was burning furiously, and the flames communicating to some wood-work of the house, the whole was in a short time burnt down, as well as a stack of corn, which stood within reach of the conflagration.

A Welsh Church is intended to be established at Liverpool, where it is ascer tamed that there are at least 20,000 persons of the Principality, most of whom are unable to understand the service in the English tongue.

Mr. B. Hall, M. P. for the County of Glamorgan, has purchased Hensol-House and estate, formerly the magnificent seat and favourite residence of the late Wm. Earl of Talbot, who, it is said, expended 60,000%. in improving and beautifying this much admired place.

The immense rocking-stone on the hill of Clindrie, in Scotland, so justly celebrated for its vibrating when touched, has now become immovable: it is supposed that the craggy base upon which it was so astonishingly balanced has sunk, and thus rendered it firm.

The Archbishop of York is liberally encouraging the erection of Chapels within his diocese. Last week his Lordship cousecrated a new one at Boston, and towards the expense of the building subscribed 50% and the same sum to the subription for another at Halifax.

The doors of York gaol, for three weeks previous to the 26th of Nov. were daily thrown open; there not being a prisoner, either debtor or felon, confined therein.

An elegant silver cup, of the value of 20 guineas, has been presented by the inhabitants of Whitehaven, to Andrew Carr, a seaman, who greatly distinguished himself in rescuing a female passenger from a vessel wrecked off that port during the late storm. (See our last vol. p. 671.)

DOMESTIC OCCURRENCES. "Windsor-Castle, Jan. 7.-The King's disorder continues unabated, but His Majesty has passed the last month in a very tranquil state."

This day a Chapter of the Order of the Bath was held at the Prince's Chamber, Westminster-hall, at which were present, the Duke of York as Grand Master, the Rev. Dr. Vincent, Dean of Westminster, Dean of the Order, Sir David Dundas, Sir G. H. Barlow, and Sir R. Strachan. The... Genealogist, Sir George Nayler; Deputy Bath King of Arms, F. Townsend, esq.; the Gentleman Usher of the Scarlet Rod, &c. &c. The object of the meeting was, a communication to the Chapter of the.. measures which had been adopted for the a degradation of Lord Cochrane, and the expulsion of his banner and achievements from King Henry the Seventh's Chapel.

This morning, about three o'clock, an alarming fire broke out in the premises of Mr. Smith, leather-seller, in the back part of Cock-lane, Smithfield, which burnt. in a most furious manner, and soon com monicated to the adjoining houses, five of which were entirely destroyed, with nearly the whole of their contents.

Wednesday, Jan. 18.

This morning, about six o'clock, a fire broke out in the premises of Mrs. Biggs, straw-bonnet warehouse, on the North side of St. Paul's Church-yard. The flames: were discovered by some foot-passengers, who attempted to rouse the family by. ringing the bells and exclaiming "fire!" This not immediately proving successful, the door was forced open, when the flames burst out with such increased force, that no one could go up stairs to awaken the family. At length Mrs. Biggs was aroused, and with an infant in her arms, and a servant maid, got first out of the house. But so rapid were the flames, that no other person except a servant, with another of Mrs. Biggs's children, succeeded in getting out by the door; the rest took to the roof of the house, and got away unhurt. Mrs. Biggs had six children, the eldest of whom, a son, was only nine years of age.. This youth and his sister, between three and four years, slept in a room above their brothers, to which those who first entered the house could not reach, and to which the servants who escaped by the roof durst not venture; so that they fell victims to the flames! The fire was not discovered until a quarter past six, and the

the house was burnt to the ground before seven o'clock. The premises of Mr. Gaimes, pocket-book maker, were also destroyed, with part of the stock. The bouses of Mr. Hall and Mr. Case have suffered in the upper stories; and the workshop of Mr. Dollond, mathematical instrument, maker, was slightly damaged. Mr. and Mrs. Biggs had recently entered business; their stock was uninsured, and Mr. B. was in the country at the time. A liberal subscriptiou has been entered into by the neighbours and other benevolent persons, to alleviate (as far as possible) the heavy calamity of Mr. Biggs's family.

The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, by command of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, have published the scale of rewards designed as a remuneration to Petty Officers, Seamen, and Royal Marines, for long and faithful services in the Navy. The antient system of smart-money is continued; and the pensions hitherto granted from the Chest of Greenwich are also continued, with some trifling variations beneficial to the general interests of Seamen and Marines. The pensions granted from the same source to worn-out seamen upon uncertain principles, are now reduced to a fixed and more equitable system, in which the nature of the injuries received, and the meritorious services of different classes of men respectively, are carefully considered and adequately recompensed, and a new and most important benefit has been extended to the service, viz. that every man who may be discharged after 14 years faithful service, even though he should not be disabled, has a right to claim a pension proportioned to the number of years he may have served; and, after 21 years' service, every man, in addition to at least 1s. per day, may demand his discharge from the Navy. The following are the principal of the new regulations We have already observed, that smartmoney will be paid for wounds as before. Every Seaman, Landman, Boy, or Royal Marine, discharged from the service on account of wounds, will be entitled to a pension of not less than 6d. per day, and not more than 18. 6d. Persons discharged from sickness or debility, contracted in the service, will receive from 5d. to 18d. per day, regulated by circumstances of ailment and length of service. Privates of Royal Marines are to be reckoned as Landmen, and they will also be entitled to discharge after 21 years services The services of boys to be accounted as Landmen, and they acquire man's allowance at the age of 18 years. A certain class of Petty and Non-commissioned Officers, in addition to any pension they may be entitled to as Seamen, Marines, &c. are to

have one farthing per day for each year of their service. Another class of the same Officers will be entitled to double that sum. Pensions and length of service are forfeited by misconduct. All the pensions are to be paid quarterly; and it is not intended to make any alterations in pensions already granted, except tha Petty and Non-commissioned Officers, discharged since the 30th of April, 1814, may receive the additional allowance to which they are, under this new regulation, entitled.

As some compensation for the gallant exertions of our Soldiers, Government are proceeding to collect together the spoils of the different campaigns; or, in other words, the plunder taken from the Enemy during the War: 1140 pieces of ordnance are to be melted down, and sold. It is calculated that the whole produce will be about 600,0002.

Notice has been issued from the Mint, that old halfpence will be received in bags of half a hundred weight each, which, if found to be free from counterfeits, and that 55 weigh one pound, a bill will be given, shewing the value by tale, and entitling the holder to payment, one month after date; but no fewer than five bags, or 2 cwt. will at present be taken.

The Corporation of the City of London, it is said, have at length determined to enlarge the water-way, by widening the arches of London Bridge, or entirely to remove that nuisance to the navigation of the river Thames, as soon as the intended Southwark Bridge shall be completed. The latter, according to the terms of the contract, is to be finished in two years, from February next; and, from the extraordinary exertions made since the commencement of the work, it is likely that it will be opened for public use within that time.

Several noblemen and gentlemen have subscribed to present the Duke of Wellington with a grand shield, blazoned with his achievements. It is to be of massy silver, three feet in diameter. The cir cumference is to be divided into eleven compartments, descriptive of his various battles. In the centre the Duke of Wellington appears on horseback, attended by the Generals Lord Hill, Lord Beresford, and other distinguished officers. The figures are in basso relievo, and they leave the Duke prominent. The drawing of this grand design was made by Stothard, Royal Academician, under the direction of a Committee. The model by Tollmack.

The small service of Plate subscribed for by the Officers of the Hospital and Regimental Medical Staff lately serving in the Peninsula, as a mark of respect and esteem for Sir James M'Grigor, M. D. InspectorGeneral of Hospitals, is completed. The

centre