Amsterdam, Dec. 25. "To His Excellency the Minister

of Marine and Colonies. "Sir; In the absence of ViceAdmiral De Winter, Count of Huessen, I have the honour to inform your Excellency, that the English ship, the Minotaur, of 74 guns, with a crew of 590 men, and commanded by Captain John Barrett, was wrecked on the Haaks bank, on the night of the 22nd instant. }

"Captain Musquetie, Commander in the Texel Roads, sent at day-break on the 23rd the aviso and pilot-boat the Duinker, to reconnoitre the vessel that had been wrecked, but the wind and heavy sea prevented her from approaching the vessel. She had lost her masts, and was under water from about half-way up the bowsprit to behind the mainmast. The waves broke over the remainder of her.

“One hundred and ten of the crew, notwithstanding, succeeded in saving themselves in the boats. They landed behind the Texel Island, near the village of Koog, where they were made prisoners of war by the troops stationed in VOL. LIII.

that quarter. Among the prisoners was a lieutenant, the surgeon, and eight midshipmen."

The chief Magistrate of Chester (General Grosvenor) gave a most sumptuous entertainment in the Exchange, to his cousin Earl Grosvenor, several gentlemen of the county, the corporation, and his friends in the city. The townhall was most tastefully decorated with variegated lamps. The tables were laid out in the following manner: two long ones down each side of the room, joined at the top in a semi-circular form; and in the intermediate area, smaller tables were laid across; in the center was placed a fine baron of beef, ornamented with appropriate devices, encircled by the motto"O! the roast beef of Old England, O the Old English roast beef." On its right was a Christmas pie, weighing upwards of 200 lbs. containing four geese, four turkeys, six hares, a leg of veal, a leg of pork, sausages, &c.; on its sides were the heraldic bearings of the house of Eaton, supported by those of the General, with the family motto; on the left of the baron of beef, was a salad, tastefully displayed, with the motto "Prosperity to the trade of Chester." This table was surmounted with two elegant transparencies, representing the east and the north gates of the city. About five

B

The

o'clock dinner was served up, to which above 200 sat down. following is a copy of the Bill of fare-Sixteen tureens of turtle:8 boiled turkeys; 3,hams; 4 dishes of à-la-mode beef; 5 pigeon pies; 3 saddles of mutton; 13 plum puddings; 6 dishes of muranade pork; 8 French pies; 4 roasted turkeys; 8 dishes of rabbits; 3 legs of mutton; 4 geese; 2 fillets of veal; 10 dishes of chickens; 4 dishes of veal sur prise; 3 beef-steak pies; 3 dishes of sweetbreads; 6 hares; 6 venison pasties; 8 dishes of ducks; 6 oyster patties; 6 dishes of mutton caserole; 6 dishes of pig; 6 lemon puddings; 8 dishes of haricoed mutton; 4 neats' tongues; 3 dishes of collard veal; a round of beef.

Removes.-Ten haunches of venison; 10 necks of venison.

Sweets. Thirty salvers of whips and jelly, 20 moulds of jelly, 40 moulds of blancmange, tarts, cheese-cakes, mince-pies, puffs, &c. &c.

3. During the dreadful gale of this night from the north-east, not less than twenty small fishing and .other vessels have been lost at Gravesend, and in other parts of the river.

Among the casualties of the late blustering weather, the principal part of the quay, erected for the preservation of the houses on the Stade, at Folkestone, has been washed away, and several houses are consequently alarmingly exposed to the fury of the sea.

Madame Lucien Buonaparte, with her family, and a numerous train of servants, occupying in all four carriages, arrived at Ludlow on Wednesday, the 3rd, having

performed the journey from Plymouth in a week. Lucien removed on the preceding day from the inn, to Lord Powis's residence in that town, called Dinham-house; his Lordship's seat in the neighbourhood (Stone-house) being found too small for the reception of so numerous a suite. It is believed they will remain at Ludlow during several months.

5. A melancholy accident occurred in Lough-Swilly. A boat, with a midshipman and eleven seamen, returning to one of the frigatęs lying near Buncrana, was upset, and the midshipman and seven of the seamen were drowned; the remaining four swam to the shore with great difficulty.

This morning a large Dutch vessel, performing quarantine off Margate, drove from her anchors, and after making several attempts to gain the harbour, came shore in Westgate Bay, when, it not being possible to afford them any assistance, all the crew perished. In the course of Friday night another vessel was also wrecked on the Margate Sand. The bodies of the unfortunate men above-mentioned have since been picked up on the shore.

7. An inquest was held on Friday se'nnight, in Gosberton fen, Lincolnshire, on the body of Matthew Slator, a labouring man, whose death was occasioned by partaking of some cake on the preceding Wednesday, at the house of a shepherd named Vellum, in which a quantity of sublimate of mercury had been accidentally mixed. The circumstances connected with this event are particularly distressing. It appeared in evidence before the coroner, that

some sublimate was brought to the shepherd's house at Michaelmas to mix with seed wheat, and that a considerable part of the poison remained which Vellum was desired to destroy. This caution was unfortunately not attended to; and, about a month since, the shepherd's wife, in order to destroy vermin, put a handful of sublimate, and the like portion of flour, on a plate in the dairy, without mentioning the circumstance to any one. On Sunday, her mother and sister, who were engaged in cleaning the dairy, supposing that the plate contain ed flour only, emptied its contents into a puncheon of flour. On Wednesday, some neighbours, about eight in number, were invited by Vellum and his wife to spend a Christmas evening with them; and several cakes were made for the occasion, of which the party present partook. Shortly after, they were all seized with violent pains and sickness, and on inquiry into the probable cause, the circumstances above related were explained. Fortunately, one of the party had strength enough left to inform a neighbour of their situation, who went to procure medical aid; but as the distance was four miles, the night extremely dark, and the roads bad, it was midnight before an apothecary from Gosberton arrived. He found the poor people in a situation the most forlorn and miserable; neither fire nor candle at hand, and at least half a mile from any house. Slator had expired an hour before the apothecary arrived, and the others were stretched on the floor nearly in a lifeless state. In the course of a

few hours, however, he had the satisfaction so far to bring them about as to entertain hopes of their recovery; and they all, except the mother of the shepherd, are now considered to be out of danger. Vellum had before been a sufferer by his negligence; as, a short time previous, two of his pigs died, in consequence of some of the sublimate having been accidently mixed with their food.

An inquest was held on Monday the 7th instant, in the Marshalsea prison, on the body of Mr. Thomas Culver, a debtor in the said prison. The jury was convened at twelve o'clock, and proceeded to the examination of witnesses, which occupied their time till half-past five p. m. when they adjourned till the following day at twelve o'clock, and after three hours' investigation and due deliberation, returned a verdictDied for want, &c.

Extract of a letter from Armagh. "I take the liberty of offering for your consideration an account of a most singular phenomenon which appeared in this country, on the nights of Monday and Tuesday, 7th and 8th instant. On the night of Monday, between six and seven o'clock, it was first perceived. The city of Armagh appeared to the beholders, about six miles in a southerly direction, to be most brilliantly illuminated. From the neighbourhood of Armagh it appeared as if a number of bonfires were lighted in a N. E. direction. From the hills around, it appeared as if the gentlemen's seats were illuminated; and so impressive was the appearance in the town of Charlemont, that a number of persons applied

for the fire-engine, in order to extinguish a fire, supposed to be in a neighbouring house; but upon approaching the same, they were agreeably surprised to find the house perfectly safe. From the hills on the borders of Lough Neagh, in the county of Armagh, it appeared as if the county of Antrim, on the opposite side, was entirely illuminated; and on Thursday night there appeared several lights in the same direction, but on approaching where the supposed fire was, it would seem as if it had filed further off." 8. The Thames is now nearly frozen, there being only a narrow channel in the centre of the river free from ice. Two men walked on the ice yesterday from Battersea-bridge to Hungerford-stairs.

A most daring attempt was made by a party of country people at Clonderlaw bay, to take possession of the American ship Romulus, on the night of the 8th inst. They assembled at about ten in the evening, to the amount of between two and three hundred, and commenced a firing of musketry, which they kept up at intervals for three hours; when finding a steady resistance from the crew, and a guard of yeomanry, which had been put on the vessel on her first going on shore, they retired. The shot they fired appeared to be cut from square bars of lead, about half an inch in diameter. One of these miscreants dropped, and was carried away by his companions.

9. On the 26th ult. as Mr. Hutton, contractor for supplying Dartmoor prison with butcher's meat, was returning from Tavistock market in the evening, hav

ing dismounted to refresh his horse at a rivulet, it being dark, the animal escaped from him, and in endeavouring to recover it, Mr. H. missed his way, and was precipitated into an old lead shaft, upwards of sixty-eight feet deep; but there being several feet of water in the bottom, his fall was in some measure broken. On rising to the surface, Mr. H. laid hold of one of the cross-pieces, on which he supported himself; and he plainly heard the passengers conversing on the turnpikeroad; but his efforts to make known his situation proving ineffectual, he endeavoured, by means of a pair of scissars, to dig holes in the side of the pit, to facilitate his ascension, and had got within a few yards of the surface, but the earth giving way, he was again plunged into the dark abyss. He remained in this dreadful situation until the Friday following, when he was discovered by a labourer, who was passing by: ropes were immediately procured, by which means he was soon released from his perilous situation, and is now perfectly recovered.

In the storm of Saturday se'nnight, the Hoylake life-boat, in attempting to succour and relieve the people on board the ship Traveller, driven on shore in the Mersey, was overwhelmed by a dreadful sea, and eight out of ten of her crew were unfortunately drowned. The bodies were all found the same day, and carried to their respective homes. The deceased were all near neighbours, and lived in a small village called the Hoose, near Hoylake, in the most brotherly kindness. They had alway's displayed the greatest prompti

tude and alacrity in assisting vessels in distress. They have left large families totally unprovided for.

11. The fall of snow on Friday night the 4th, was so very great as to render the northern roads almost impassable. The mail coach from Boston could not be dragged more than four miles on Saturday through the snow, but the guard proceeded on horseback with the mail. The mail from London was conveyed in the same manner into Boston about six o'clock on Saturday evening.

Saturday was one of the most piercing cold days ever felt at Stamford. The wind blew boisterously from the east, and occasioned such heavy drifts of snow as to make the great north road in many places impassable. The Leicester coach, on the way to Stamford, was upset in the snow at Burton-Lazarus, and several passengers were much hurt in consequence. The Carlisle mail was dug out of the snow near Tickencote, and with difficulty got to Stamford with eight horses, three hours later than usual; but it could proceed no further than Thornhaugh, whence the guard was obliged to take the letter-bags on horseback. Three coaches from the north lay all night in the snow, about a mile from Stamford, and as many near Wansford. With the assistance of fifty men, the road became passable for carriages at twelve o'clock on Sunday. In some places the snow had drifted six feet deep.

Two persons perished in the neighbourhood of Lincoln last week, owing to the inclemency of the weather: one of them was

Mr. R. Lambe, of Haddington he had spent Christmas-day con vivially with some friends at Swin derby, and attempted to walk home about ten o'clock. The other was a labouring man, named Arnold. Both were found to have fallen into ditches, and to have perished from cold or suffocation

On Tuesday morning, the 15th instant, when the men employed at the lime-kiln near St. Catherine's, Waterford, went to their work, they found a man and a woman lying dead on the edge of its eye. The parties were soon recognized; the young man having lived in the immediate neighbourhood of the kiln, and the unhappy woman, who, we understand, was the widow of an industrious carpenter, at no great distance from it. The wretched youth was known to have been drinking at a late hour in the neighbourhood the pre, ceding evening, and it is thought the parties must have found their way into the yard at low water, through the sluice at John's Hill. Incapable of reflection, they had suffered themselves to be so much attracted by the heat of the kiln, as to seek repose on its very crown, where, rendered senseless by the mephitic vapour, they were retained till death closed their mortal career. When found, one side of the man was literally roasted.

15. The following general order was issued from the Adjutant-general's office, Dublin, Jan. 1811."Reports having been circulated, that Catholic soldiers have been prevented from attending divine worship according to the tenets of their religion, and obliged, in certain instances, to be present at that