Nothing further of import ance occurred in Parliament before its adjournment for the Christmas recess.

It should be recorded, that in

addition to the parliamentary aid granted to Russia, considerable private subscriptions were entered into for the relief of the sufferers in that country.

JANUARY.

EXTRACT from the Danish newspaper of the 31st of December, 1811 :

"We have received accounts that the English ship St. George, 98 guns, commanded by admiral Reynolds, and the Defence of 74, capt. David Atkins, were driven ashore on the morning of the 24th instant, near Cape Ryssenstein, in the lordship of Rinkiobing. The crew of the former is said to have consisted of 350 men, and of the latter, of 550 men, not including the officers. Half an hour after the Defence had touched the ground, the whole went to pieces, and all the crew (excepting five seamen and one marine, who saved themselves by holding pieces of timber) were drowned. Capt. Atkins reached the shore, dead. The day after, in the afternoon, there were seen from the land some part of the cabin and poop of the St. George, upon which were standing many men. Part of the mast was cut away, and some men endeavoured to escape on it; but it is conjectured, that few have been saved, since the waves and the current, with the wind coming from the N.NW. would sweep them off before they reached the land. Some, likewise, attempted to save themselves on a VOL. LIV.

raft, but are said to have perished; and when the accounts came away

from Lemvig, intelligence had reached that place, that the St. George had totally gone down, and that only twelve men of the crew had been saved. The ship was upwards of 300 fathoms from the land."

Lemvig, Jan. 6.-There were no more than eleven men saved of the crew of the St. George, as the twelfth died before he could be brought into a house. These seamen state, that the ship, previous to the loss of her masts, had likewise had her rudder broken by striking on the Redsand; and the one which was made on board to replace it, was too weak to steer and govern the ship, in a gale of wind in the North Sea, and which might, probably, cause the ship's stopping.

The Defence first took the ground; and on signal being given by her of the accident, the St. George immediately let go her anchor, but in bringing up with the anchor she took the ground abaft, so that her forepart, which had deeper water, and was confined down by the cable, was, in a short time, under water. To save them by boats and craft from the shore was impossible. Such as were hoisted out were immediately driven from the ship, with the exception of one single B

boat,

boat, in which about 20 men attempted to save themselves, but it upset alongside the ship, and they were all drowned. On the afternoon of Christmas-day, when the last of the eleven men left the ship, on a small piece of plank, admiral Reynolds and captain Guion, the commander of the ship, were lying dead aside each other, upon the quarter-deck, as were also about 508 men of the crew, who had died through fatigue and cold, and from the sea breaking over them; only about fifty men remaining still alive, whose cries were heard until it became dark, when, it is to be hoped, that an end was put to their misery. Two days afterwards, when the gale was abated, and the wind, being easterly, was off the shore, a Danish, boat, with two of the English sailors, went on board to bring away the corpses of the admiral, the captain, and several other persons; but they found the deck was washed away by the sea, with all the bodies lying on it. It is supposed the ship must now be broken right athwart, although both ends of her are still perceptible, and that it must be the ammunition lying in the bottom, which holds her together. Among the ship's crew, which is said to have been no more than 750, about 40 were reckoned in the class of officers; and of these, exclusive of the admiral and captain, ten were lieutenants, one secretary, one captain, and three lieutenants of marines. The secretary, who was a married man, was half dead when he came on shore, and expired immediately after. A quantity of gold coins found upon his person, such as whole and half gumeas, Dutch ducats, &c. and

likewise some English Bank-notes,` is, so far as yet known, all the money saved. According to the report given by the survivors, the admiral must have been a most gallant man. He would not quit his ship, but die on board her. He was a widower, and has left two daughters behind him, and a son, who is a captain.

A great number of dead bodies have driven on shore between Hausbye and Nessum, all of which were interred with military honours. Forty-seven barrels of gunpowder have been saved out of the Defence.

Narrative, by a Person on board the Grasshopper, of the circumstances attending the loss of that Vessel and the Hero.-On Wednesday the 18th of December, 1811, we sailed from Wingo Sound, in company with his majesty's ships Hero, Egeria, and Prince William armed ship, with a convoy of 120 sail or upwards. The Egeria and Prince William, with the greatest part of the convoy, separated from us in the tremendous weather we had shortly after leaving the Sleeve; and on the 23rd instant, we found ourselves in company with the Hero, and about eighteen sail, mostly government transports. At half-past eleven on that day, captain Newman made signal to come within hail; when he told us, as he conceived we were near about the Silver Pitts, he should steer S. W. after noon, which was accordingly done; and at the close of the day, we steering that course, running at the rate of nine knots per hour, at about ten o'clock, the night-signal was made to alter course to port two points, which was repeated by us. At this time

only

only four of the convey were in sight, and they were shortly lost sight of in the heavy squall of snow and sleet. At half past three the hands were turned up, the ship being in broken water: we found we were on a sand bank, the pilots imagining it to be Smith's Knoll. The captain instantly ordered the brig to be steered S. SE. thinking to get out to sea; but she continued striking so hard for a length of time, that we had almost given her up for lost, when suddenly, and very fortunately, we fell into three fathoms water, upon which the captain caused an anchor to be let go, when we perceived the Hero again (as we then thought) also at an anchor, though she fired several guns, and burnt blue lights: but, alas! when the day broke, we had the mortification of witnessing a most horrible scene,the Hero was totally dismasted, and on her larboard beam-ends, with her head to the N. E. about a mile from us, upon the Haeck's Sand, as we then found we were inside of it, off the Texel Island: the ship's company were all crowded together on the poop and forecastle. As soon as day-light had well appeared, she hoisted a flag of truce and fired a gun, which we repeated, and very shortly after saw a lugger, two brigs, and several small vessels, plying out of the Texel to our assistance; but owing to the floodtide having made, and the wind blowing a perfect gale at N. NW. the lugger was only able to come within two or three miles of us by two o'clock in the afternoon. In the mean time we hoisted out our boats, and made an attempt to get near the Hero, but the surf was so high, that it was all ineffectual,

and we were under the cruel necessity of seeing so many of our brave countrymen perishing, without being able to render them any assistance. The Grasshopper at the same time was constantly striking very hard, though every thing had been thrown overboard to lighten her, except the guns, upon which it was feared she would have bilged. The master was then sent to sound in every direction, for a passage to make our escape by, (though I have since found out that an escape was totally impossible); but quarter less three, and two fathoms and a half, were the only soundings he could meet with. The captain, therefore, with the opinion of the officers, agreed, that we had no chance of saving ourselves, but by surrendering to the enemy, who were at this time, as I have before mentioned, coming to our assistance, and that of the Hero, from whose wreck, I am sorry to say, not one soul has been saved. I observed, likewise, about five miles to the northward of us, a vessel on shore, with her foremast standing, and another some distance from her, both of which I took to be the transports that were under our convoy. The commading officer here has since informed us, that the telegraph has reported that eight or ten vessels were wrecked upon the coast to the northward, on the 23rd instant, and had shared the fate of the poor Hero. A transport, called the Archimedes, beat over the Haecks as well as ourselves, with the loss of her rudder; but has since been wrecked, though the crew are saved, and now prisoners of war, as well as we. At close of day, finding the weather threatening to