After the usual loyal and constitutional toasts were given, the Chairman, in a long and eloquent speech, addressed to the company, extolled the many great services rendered by Mr Hume to the public, particularly in promoting economy in the expenditure of the public money; and concluded by proposing Mr Hume's health, which was drank with enthusiasm.

Mr Hume returned thanks in a speech of considerable length.

Many other toasts were given, and speeches delivered; and the company retired at a late hour, highly gratified.

DREADFUL SHIPWRECK.-TWENTYTWO PERSONS DROWNED.-During the dreadful gale on Thursday, the 10th instant, Le Curieux, Captain Videll, was entirely lost, off Renneville, and every soul perished. She had about 22 persons on board, 15 of whom were passengers; and amongst these was an English family of the name of Pousset, residents of Jersey, who had been a few months in France. The family consisted of Mr Pousset, his wife, three daughters, and a female servant. The wife of Mr Auley, one of the Jurats of Jersey, was also on board. Le Curieux, in company with several other vessels, was proceeding from Granville to Jersey, and was the only one which attempted to proceed while the hurricane was raging. The others put back, and reached Granville in safety. They made on the following day for Jersey, where they arrived on Sunday, and communicated the above dreadful intelligence. Captain Bazin, to whom we are indebted for the particulars, informs us that the Ariadne arrived at Jersey at four o'clock in the afternoon of Thursday, and just escaped the destructive gale which soon after followed.

DECEMBER.

5.-A most barbarous murder hu been committed in the town of Hillborough. On Monday night last, Mrs Stott, a most respectable Quaker lady, and her servant, were murdered by some persons unknown. The neighbours knew nothing of the hor rible transaction until Wednesday, when, it is said, the plaintive lowings of a cow attracted the attention of some people, who got into the house, and there found Mrs Stott lying dead at the parlour door, mangled in a most merciless manner, and the ser vant maid lying dead in the kitchen, with all the marks of the most bar. barous treatment. It would seem as if the poor maid had made a great strug gle with the murderer. Her hair was torn and strewed over the kitchen. The dwelling-house was considerably in the rear of the shop, which ac counts for the silence with which the horrid enormity was perpetrated. We understand there are three per sons apprehended on suspicion. A coroner's inquest was held on the bodies, and a verdict returned of wilful murder against some person or per sons unknown.

8.-GLASGOW.-BARBAROUS MUR. DER.-On Monday night, a young woman, Sally M Vicar, who lived about Barrowfield Road, was stabbed in the neck in a public company, and expired in about half an hour after wards. There was a raffle and a dance in a public house in her neighbourhood, and she was induced to join the company. On coming into the room, she was recognized by Charles Campbell, a cotton-spinner, to whom she was married, but seldom lived with him. They both joined in a dance. Campbell patted her on the cheek in a familiar man ner, and without any appearance of

animosity, After the dance had finished, Campbell observed the deceased sitting on the knee of her partner, for which he reproved her, and desired her to leave her partner's company, observing it would be more becoming if she had been with himself. This she refused to do, and remarked, he ought to be with his wife at Johnston-alluding to a connexion he is said to have formed there whereupon he took up a small breakfast knife, and attempted to strike her about the face, but was prevented by the persons present from doing any injury. He made a second attempt, however, and succeeded in inflicting a deep wound in her neck. She then ran out of the room, but fell down after getting through the kitchen, in an attempt, it is supposed, to leave the house. She bled profusely, and fifteen minutes having elapsed before a surgeon could be got, his endeavours to save her were unavailing. Campbell, the culprit, was, we hear, clerk or secretary to the committee of cotton-spinners; and as such, exceed ingly active in collecting materials to furnish correspondence to London upon the repeal of the combination laws, and discussions arising out of their repeal. He was much intoxicated when he committed the fatal deed.

RIOT AT THE PARK THEATRE. From the New York Gazette of November 15.

Mr Kean made his first appear ance, since his return from England, last evening, in the character of Richard. Great crowds had collected in front of the theatre previous to the hour of admission; on the opening of the doors they poured in in streams, and in a very few minutes the house was filled throughout. On the ring

ing of the bell for the commencement of the performance, the clamour and shouting among the friends and foes of this individual began. The curtain rose, and two of the minor characters of the play appeared, and commenced reciting their parts, but the confusion was too great to allow them to be heard. Kean, who was loudly called for, speedily appeared, bowed, and prepared to address the audience. The noise, however, did not abate, and after standing on the stage full a quarter of an hour, finding that the audience were unwilling to listen to him, he retired, when Mr Simpson, the manager, presented himself, and claimed to be heard. He respectfully requested that the audience would grant Mr Kean the liberty of addressing them: he was sure that it was not the practice of Americans to condemn without a hearing; and he trusted what Mr Kean had to say was such, as would prove perfectly satisfactory. On his leaving the stage, Mr Kean re-entered, and intimated by gesture, his wish to be heard, but the uproar was renewed, and he was refused the liberty. After waiting upon the stage about ten minutes, he again retired and the play was resumed, the first three acts of which were entirely pantomimic-not a word could be heard. In the fourth and fifth acts, in some of the scenes where Kean was not on the stage, some passages were audible, but the part of Richard was, throughout, conducted in dumb show. During the wooing scene, in the second act, one of the many missiles that were thrown upon the stage passed directly over the heads of Mrs Hilson (who represented Lady Anne) and Mr Kean, nearly striking the latter. Mr Hilson, who was in one of the boxes in front of the pit, being alarmed for the safety of his wife,

immediately leapt upon the stage, and conducted her off. Mr Simpson then appeared, and with an expression of countenance indicative of sorrow and indignation, seemed to implore that the audience would act with more decorum, and display a little more respect for themselves. After some delay, Mrs Hilson again appeared, and the piece proceeded; but, as before, the din of mingled applause and hisses rendered the dialogue inaudible. In the following act, an orange, thrown from the gallery, struck Mr Kean on the breast. He immediately picked it up, displayed it to the audience a few minutes, with looks of indignation, and finally threw it behind the scenes. After this, there were few intermissions of the uproar; and the falling of the curtain was attended with the same tumult that accompanied its rising. After the termination of the play, Mr Kean was announced to perform Othello to-morrow evening, which annunciation had the effect of renewing the confusion. On the conclusion of the afterpiece, Kean was loudly called for, when Mr Simpson appeared, and stated, that he had left the house. On the receipt of this in formation, a part of the audience displayed a disposition to commit violence, and we understand some damage was done to the benches, fixtures, &c. The street in front of the theatre, during the whole of the evening, was thronged with a number of turbulent individuals, who betrayed much anxiety to make a forcible entrance into the building, and at one time had nearly effected their object, but were prevented by the active exertions of a strong police.

LONDON.-BANK FAILURES.-The

following stoppages have occurred in London within the last four days:Sir Claude Scott and Co; Messrs Sikes, Snaith, and Co. ; and Sir Walter Stirling and Hodsoll, of the Strand Though the accounts from the coun try respecting the renewal of confi dence in the local banks are favoura ble, yet the list of failures of such establishments is numerous. Among the catalogue the following firms have been mentioned:-The Hinckley bank of Sansom and Co.; the bank of Jervis and Co. of the same place, being the only establishments in that town; the Southampton bank of Kel low and Co.; the Peterborough bank of Sampson and White; the Wisbeach bank of James Hill and Son; the Kingston (Surrey) bank, the only one in the town; at Cambridge, it is said, that four out of the six banks in that town have stopped, viz. that of T. Fisher and Son, that of J. Mort lock, Esq. and Sons, that of Hollick and Co., and that of R. and E. K. Foster. The letters from Cambridge state that the graduates and heads of colleges, so far from adding to the alarm on the occasion, as is said to have been recently the case as regards the members of another learned body, interfered in the most prompt manner, and tendered their assistance in a very large sum, provided that by such means the evil could be averted; but the assistance was declined, because there was no prospect of its proving effectual. At Saffron Walden, two banks carried on under the firms of Searle, Son, and Co., and of Searle and Co., have suspended payments, but there is said to be a union of interests in the two concerns. At Romford, in Essex, both the banks have failed.

OR,

MRS BARBAULD.

THE following is almost literally excerpted from a memoir of this excellent and justly-celebrated woman, prefixed to the exceedingly interesting edition of her works (in two volumes, octavo), recently published by her amiable and accomplished niece, Miss Luey Aikin; so well qualified, not less by congeniality of feeling and talent, than by consanguinity and intimate knowledge of the subject, to be the biographer of her venerable and beloved relation.

Anna Lætitia Barbauld, a name long dear to the admirers of genius and the lovers of virtue, was born at the village of Kibworth Harcourt, in Leicestershire, on June 28th, 1743, the eldest child and only daughter of John Aikin, D.D., and Jane his wife, daughter of the Rev. John Jennings of Kibworth, and descended by her mother from the ancient family of Wingate, of Harlington, in Bedfordshire.

That quickness of apprehension by which she was eminently distinguished, manifested itself from her earliest infancy. Her education was entirely domestic, and principally conducted by her excellent mother; whilst her mind had been cultivated and her principles formed, partly by the instructions of religious and enlightened parents, partly by the society of the celebrated Dr Doddridge, who was for some years domesticated under her parental roof.

With her father's assistance she enabled herself to read the Latin authors with pleasure and advantage; nor did she rest satisfied without gaining some acquaintance with the Greek.

The obscure village of Kibworth was unable to afford her a single suitable companion of her own sex: her brother, the late Dr Aikin, was more than three years her junior; and as her father was at this period the master of a school for boys, it might have been apprehended that conformity of pursuits, as well as age, would tend too nearly

to assimilate her with the youth of the ruder sex, by whom she found herself encompassed. But maternal vigilance effectually obviated this danger, by instilling into her a double portion of bashfulness and maidenly reserve; and she was accustomed to ascribe an uneasy sense of constraint in mixed society, which she could never entirely shake off, to the strictness and seclusion in which it had thus become her fate to be educated. The love of rural nature sunk deep into her heart; her vivid fancy exerted itself to colour, to animate, and to diversify all the objects which surrounded her: the few but choice authors of her father's library, which she read and re-read, had leisure to make their full impressionto mould her sentiments, and to form her taste; the spirit of devotion, early inculcated upon her as a duty, opened to her by degrees an exhaustless source of tender and sublime delight; and while yet a child, she was surprised to find herself a poet.

Just at this period, an invitation given to her father to undertake the of fice of classical tutor in a highly respectable dissenting academy at Warrington, in Lancashire, was the fortunate means of transplanting her to a more varied and animating scene. This removal took place in 1758, when Miss Aikin had just attained the age of fifteen; and the fifteen succeeding years passed by her at Warrington comprehended probably the happiest, as well as the most brilliant portion of her existence. She was at this time possess ed of great beauty, distinct traces of which she retained to the latest period of life.

Her person was slender, her complexion exquisitely fair, with the. bloom of perfect health; her features were regular and elegant, and her dark blue eyes beamed with the light of wit and fancy.

Warrington academy included among its tutors names eminent both in science

and in literature: with several of these, and especially with Dr Priestley and Dr Enfield and their families, she form ed sincere and lasting friendships. The elder and more accomplished among the students composed an agreeable part of the same society; and its animation was increased by a mixture of young ladies, either resident in the town or occasional visitors, several of whom were equally distinguished for personal charms, for amiable manners, and cultivated minds. The rising institution, which flourished for several years in high reputation, diffused a classic air over all connected with it. Miss Aikin, as was natural, took a warm interest in its success; and no academic has ever celebrated his alma mater in nobler strains, or with a more filial affection, than she has manifested in that portion of her early and beautiful poem, The Invitation, where her theme is this nursery of men for future years.'

About the close of the year 1771, her brother, after several years of absence, returned to establish himself in his profession at Warrington: an event equally welcome to her feelings, and propitious to her literary progress. By his persuasion and assistance her poems were selected, revised, and arranged for publication: and when all these preparations were completed, finding that she still hesitated and lingeredlike the parent bird who pushes off its young to their first flight, he procured the paper, and set the press to work on his own authority. The result more than justified his confidence of her success: four editions of the work (the first in 4to, the succeeding ones in 8vo) were called for within the year of publication, 1773; compliments and congratulations poured in from all quar ters; and even the periodical critics greeted her Muse with nearly unmixed applause.

She was not permitted to repose upon her laurels: her brother, who