128 Provincial Occurrences ; Staffordshire, Wales, S^c. ^July. 



few years since, is now being scraped off. Tlie 

 screen in tlic ctioir is put bacl< about five feet, and 

 whicli, by judicious management was removed, 

 whole. 



During the gale on Thursday list, a vessel was 

 driven on tlie heath at Lydd. No boats could get 

 off to the assistance of the crew, who were, liow- 

 ever, all saved and brought ashure through the 

 activity of a fine Newfoundland dog. The surf 

 was rolling furiously, andeightpoor fellows were 

 crying for aid, which the spectators could not 

 afford them, when one man directed the attention 

 of his dog to the vessel, and the crew joyfully 

 made fast a rope to a piece of wood, which the 

 dog seized and swam with to his master on shore. 

 A line of communication was thus formed, and 

 tlie eight mariners rescued from a watery grave.— 

 Sussex AdverHscr. 



STAFFORDSHIRE.— The new rail-road from 

 Kingswinford to join the Staffordshire and Wor- 

 cestershire Canal was opened lately, and a loco- 

 motive steam engine was staited, amidst an im- 

 mense concourse of persons from the surrounding 

 country. The railway is upwards of 3 miles iiv 

 length. That part of tlie road along which the 

 engine travels is 1 J mile in length, at an inclina- 

 tion of 16 feet in a mile. With 8 carriages and 

 360 passengers, weighing 41 tons IScwt. the en- 

 gine proceeded at the rate of 7i miles per hour. 

 With 20 carriages, 920 passengers, and 42cwt. of 

 coal, weighing altogether 131 tons 12 cwt. it tra- 

 velled at the rate of 3J miles per hour. With a 

 light load it travelled 11 miles per hour, though 

 iiot half the engine power was laid on. 



WALES. — The extensive collieries of Llanolly, 

 Carmarthenshire are all at a stand. There is a 

 general strike among the colliers, owing to the 

 proprietors proposing to lower their wages; the 

 workmen refuse to work, alleging that they can- 

 not support their families at the proposed r.V.e 

 without assistance from the parish. Much distress 

 prevails among the working classes in the neigh 

 bourhood of Wrexham, Ru.ibon, and other parts 

 of Denbighshire, in ccmscquence of the decline of 

 the iron and coal businesses. Some of the men 

 have been hitherto partiallyemployed on the turn- 

 pike road. 



Junel5,LordCawdor said, in the House of Lords, 



" as the Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry 

 into the Courts of Cummon Law had been laid on 

 the table, he was desirous of asking the noble and 

 learned lord on the woolsack, whether it was the 

 intention of His JIajesty's Government to bring 

 before the House in the present session any mea- 

 sure which might carry into effect the recommen- 

 dations of those Commissioners? It was desir- 

 able the gentlemen of Wales should know what 

 was to be done on the subject."— In reply, the 

 Lord Chancellor said, " That he gave, some time 

 since, instructions to the Commissioners to pre- 

 iKire their reports, and it was soon after made 

 known, by the gentleman who superintended those 

 reports, that some difference had arisen among 

 the gentlemen of Wales respecting the division of 

 Wales into circuits, but there was no difference of 

 opinion upon the principle of altering the present 

 system of Welsh Judicature. A gentleman was 

 then empleyed to ascertain the true divisions of 

 the proposed circuit, and when that was done a 

 report would be made. Every particle of infor- 



mation the Commissioners could furnish should 

 be prepared for the inspection of their lordships, 

 in order that they might legisl.ite upon the subject 

 next session." 



At a meeting of manufacturers, in Montgomery- 

 shire, it was lately resolved that it would be bene- 

 ficial to their trade if the flannel markets were 

 held in Shrewsbury. 



SCOTLAND.— The fishermen at Nairn caught 

 in 2 days, with 10 boats, nearly 45,00u haddocks, 

 besides a considerable quantity of skate and cod 

 fish. This take is quite unexampled in the annals 

 of fishing in the north of Scotland. The had- 

 docks, in consequence, were selling throughout the 

 country for several days afterwards at the reason- 

 able rate of 20 for a shilling. A few days since, 

 4 boats belonging to Portnockie, look a quantity 

 of cod fish, which, when their size is taken into 

 account, is perhaps more wonderful than the fore- 

 going. The number is almost incredible — it was 

 no less than four thousand odds. 



Every tiling is changed. In the place of Scot- 

 tish squires rilling to London on horseback, with 

 servants behind to guar-d them from harm, they 

 are now whirled to the capital in the fhort space 

 of 36 hours. In place of cluinsy coasters creeping 

 into creeks at every ominous appearance of thq 

 sky, and scarcel^' venturing to lose sight of land, 

 we have steam-boats that serve all the purposes 

 of bridges, and enable beggars as well as lords to 

 set out on their tr.avcls to foreign parts. In Lon- 

 don, Dublin, Liverpool, Greenock, the tourist may 

 step into a floating palace, draw on his night-cap, 

 go to bed, and after a sound night's repose, awakca 

 next morning in a different kingdom— thus rival- 

 ling the exploits of the haps, who whilom clomb 

 the welkin, mounted on a broom-stick, or the in- 

 nocent victims they wickedly bewitched, and drop- 

 ped from the clouds in a far country. The great 

 modern wizard James Watt, has reduced to prac- 

 tice what was merely fabled of Sir Michael Scott. 

 By applying the principle which lifts the lid of 

 the spinster's tea-kettle, machines have been con- 

 structed which can pick up a pin and rend an oak 

 — which combine the power of a community of 

 giants with the plasticity that belongs to a lady's 

 fair fingers — which spin cotton and then weave it 

 into cloth— which by pumping sea w,iter and ex- 

 tracting its steam, send vessels across the Atlantic 

 in fifteen days — and amidst a long list of other 

 marvels, " engrave seals, forge anchors, and lift 

 a ship of war like a baubb in the air." Nor has 

 the moral world remained, st.-itionary, while the 

 physical was undergoing such wonderful revolu- 

 tions. Of a truth the schoolmaster has been 

 abroad, and, in our day, almost every district has 

 its local journal — almost every village its library 

 of useful and entertaining knowledge. The sim- 

 plest hind has changed bis character, and become 

 a unit in the great sura of national sentiment.* — 

 Dumfries Courier. 



• Every thing is changed, indeed! The follow- 

 ing short extract is frnm a speech delivered in the 

 House of Commons, about half a century ago, in 

 March 1/7'. !•>' H'e Right Hon. Charles Fox, 

 ycleped "the Man of the People!" — "I suspect 

 the capacity of the people to judge of their true 

 happiness; iknow they are equally credulous and 

 uninformed What acquaintance have the peo- 

 ple at large wHh the arcana of political rectitude 

 — with the connexion of kingdoms — the abilities 

 of ministers, or even with their own dispositions?'' 



