240 Provincial Occurrences : Devonshire, Gloucestershire, S^c. [^Aug. 



ledge, whicli issue tlioir thousand streams to fer- 

 tilize, onricli, and bless tlie world." 



The Mecljanics' Institution, at Portsmouth, Is 

 progressing in a very satisfactory manner ; its 

 library is increasing, and, to render the esta- 

 blisliment still more useful, a school has been 

 opened for gratuitously teaching the members and 

 their sons, mathematics and English grammar. 



DEVONSHIRE.— The queiition between the 

 commissioners of Devonport, elected by the Act 

 of Parliament passed in ISH.and the parishioners 

 of Stoke-Damerel, which has kept that town so 

 long in agitation, is at Icngtli settled by the judg- 

 ment of the Court of King's Bench, which has de- 

 creed that the commissioners have no discretionary 

 power, in the case of vacancies occurring among 

 their body, but are bound by the letter of the act 

 to proceed to an immediate election for the lilling 

 up of such vacancies as tliey occur. The receipt 

 of the intelligence caused great rejoicings in the 

 town. 



Plymouth, in the year 1/14, contained but 1,139 

 houses ; in the year 1820, 3,018 ; and in the pre- 

 sent year there are 3,697 ; shewing an increase of 

 661 houses within the last nine years, to which 

 may be added from 50 to 100 now building. 



Trade in the counties of Devon, Dorset, and 

 Cornwall, is at the lowest possible ebb; tlie 

 efforts of the most experienced tradesmen are 

 almost paralysed, and to get orders of tliose that 

 are responsible is neaily impossible, except it be 

 for the necessaries of life, and even for them in 

 the most limited manner. Many persons now 

 draw bills and promissory notes, who never did so 

 until this year ; and hardly a traveller goes on a 

 journey but has an immense number of dishonour- 

 ed drafts, many of which come back from errors 

 in advice, or by the late arrival of the Welch post, 

 by which means bills are often returned by the 

 bankers, but taken up the next iriy.— Farley's 

 Bristol Journal. 



GLOUCESTERSHIRE.— The celebrated ches- 

 iiut tree, the property of Lord Dacre, at Tam- 

 worth, is the oldest, if not the largest tree in Eng- 

 land, having this year attained the age of 1,029 

 years, and being fifty-two feet round ; and yet 

 such vigour remains in it, that it bore nuts two 

 years ago, from which young trees are now being 

 raised.* 



KENT. — A meeting of the churchwardens of 

 the several parishes in Canterbury has been held 

 at the Guildhall, the IMayor presiding, for '* taking 

 into consideration the best mode of raising and 

 securing to the clergy of Canterbury and suburbs, 

 a just, rcasonalde, and certain provision, in return 

 for their ministerial services," when a committee 

 was formed for that purpose.f 



• This must be the same tree mentioned in 

 H'ithering's Botany, vol. ii. p. 435. His de- 

 scripiion atjrees pretty well witli that in the pre- 

 ceding paragraph, as will be seen by the annexed 

 copy:- " A chesnut tree at Tamworlh, in Glou- 

 cestershire, is tifty two feet round, and atleast one 

 thousand years old ; nothing will thrive under its 

 shade." 



f The state of the established chm'ch, as regards 

 the unequal distribution both of its labours and 

 emoluments, has long been a subject of anxiety 

 and apprehensioo to every disinterested well- 

 wisher to its permanence and prosperity. Facts, 

 upon this and upon every other subject, are stub- 

 born things ; and we should like the most satisfied 



SCOTLAND.— Wednesday the opening of the 

 New High School on the Calton Hill, took place, 

 and a more splendid display has seldom been wit- 

 nessed in Edinburgh. The fineness of the day, 

 and the novelty of the thing, as well as the general 

 interest which the public have taken in this 

 thriving and popular institution, attracted a vast 

 number of spectators. Nothing similar to it, in 

 the way of procession, has taken place since the 

 King's visit, which turned all our apprentices 

 into yentlemen, and the whole city into a carnival. 

 Every window where a peep could be obtained 

 had found a tenant, and displayed a profusion of 

 female charms. Parasols were even perched 

 among the chimneys, and seemed to cover the 

 roofs, especially of the register-house, the post- 

 office, the Waterloo hotel, and the gaol, with a 

 pavement of green silk. The front of the register- 

 office had a beautiful appearance when seen from 

 the High-street ; and fri>m the North-bridge the 

 Calton appeared to be one vast mass of living 

 beings, displaying all the party colours of the 

 rainbow, faces rising above faces " in amphi- 

 theatrical pride." The immense procession began 

 to move from the Old High School-yards at nearly 

 half-past two o'clock, when the bells began to 

 ring ; and the streets were cleared of carriages 

 and all other obstructions. The boys, and all who 

 joined the procession, were decorated with sprigs 

 of laurel. After the pageant and ceremonies were 

 over, a splendid dinner was given, at which pre- 

 sided the Lord Provost. Afier the usual loyal 

 toasts were drank, the chairman said it was ex- 

 traordinary that the Dux of the Old High School, 

 when its foundation was laid, was yet alive, Lord 

 President Hope, whose health was drank amid 

 tremendous cheers. The Solicitor-General said 

 that his f.ather was, indeed. Dux of the Old High 

 School, at its foundation, which he entered with 

 no higher prospect than any of the 700'hoys who 

 marched in procer.sion this day. It was to the 

 friendships he had formed at that period that he 

 now owed the possession of the highest judicial 

 seat in Scotland ; and every boy in the High 

 School to-day was entitled to say, " I may aspire 

 to equal dignity." The building is allowed on all 

 hands to be the most elegant monument of archi- 

 tecture which even this " city of palaces" can 

 boast of. Its internal arrangements, are, we un- 

 derstand, equal to its external splendour ; afford- 

 ing every convenience which the business of 

 teaching may require, and supplying facilities for 

 the introduction of any improvements vihich 

 knowledge may devise. The first stone was laid 

 July 28, 1825, and the expense of building it 

 amounts to nearly .^^30,000. — Edinburgh Even- 

 ing Post. 



At a public meeting held at the Court House, 

 Aberdeen, June 25, the Aberdeen Infant School 

 Society was instituted for establishing schools for 

 training the dispositions and minds of little chil- 

 dren with the important view of preventing crime, 

 and advancing the character and the happiness of 

 their country. 



encomiast of things as they are, to tell us coolly 

 and dispassionately hoiv he thinks the important 

 ofiice of cure of souls must be performed in a 

 church in which 34/ of its dignitaiies enjoyno less 

 than 1,155 benefices ; and this while no small part 

 of the curates — the really labouring part of the 

 clergy — have not emoluments equal to the wages 

 which some of these same dignitaries pay to their 

 butlers, cooks, and coachmen ? 



