CHRONICLE. 



131 



tbe uninhabited remains of a house 

 there, the bricks and tiles of which 

 were forced into the street, to the 

 terror of the passengers. 



28. The latter end of the month 

 of August last, at an early hour in 

 the morning, a bird was observed 

 on a tree at a gentleman's house 

 at Byrte ; a clown who lived about 

 the house, as servant, mistook it 

 for a hawk and shot it, when it 

 proved to be a beautiful green par- 

 rot, and had round its neck a gold 

 ring, on which was engraved, 

 " Captain Packenham of his Ma- 

 jesty's ship Saldanha." A person 

 in an adjoining field was listening 

 to the bird when it was shot, and 

 thought it was attempting to speak 

 either the Spanish or French lan- 

 guage. What seems extraordinar}' 

 is, that the bird had not been seen 

 in any part of the country before 

 that morning, though the vessel 

 from which it must have escaped 

 was lost on the ^th of December 

 last, off Lough Swilly. The place 

 where it was killed was about 

 twenty miles from the wreck. 

 Poor poll and a dog were the only 

 survivors from that ill-fated ship 

 and her gallant crevf.-^~( Belfast 

 News-letter. J 



One of the most extensive rob- 

 beries of the mail that have oc^ 

 curred since the establishment of 

 mail-coaches, happened on the 

 26th. When the fact of the rob- 

 bery reached the Exchange yester- 

 day, it got into general circulation, 

 and produced aconsiderabledegree 

 of alarm throughout the city. The 

 deposition of the guard was taken 

 at the Mansion-house. The exa- 

 mination was private ; of course 

 the particulars have not been suf- 

 fered to transpire ; but we under- 

 stand, that on Monday night, while 



the Leeds mail-coach was proceed- 

 ing, at a sharp pace, between Ket- 

 tering and Higham-Ferrars, the 

 coachman spoke to the guard ; and 

 not being able, or pretending not 

 to hear what he said in ansv/er, 

 requested that he would lean for- 

 wards over the coach. The guard 

 did so, and continued about five 

 minutes in conversation with him ; 

 when, on resuming his seat, he 

 found, to his astonishment, that 

 the lock of the lid of the hind part 

 of the coach, where the bags are 

 deposited, had been forced. He 

 instantly ordered the coach to be 

 stopped, and communicated to the 

 driver the extraordinary occur- 

 rence that had taken place, and 

 his suspicions that more serious 

 injury had been sustained. The 

 coach having pulled up, the guard 

 and the coachman proceeded to ex- 

 amine the repository of the mails, 

 and missed no less than sixteen 

 bags. The only bags which ar- 

 rived were the Higham-Ferrars, 

 Hitchin, and Bedford. 



The Lord Mayor sent off police- 

 officers in all directions, to apprise 

 the bankers in London and VVest- 

 minster of the robbery, and to 

 stop such persons as should present 

 bills and drafts of payment from 

 the towns whose mails had not 

 reached the post-office yesterday 

 morning ; printed circulars were 

 also forwarded by post to every 

 post town in the united kingdom 

 for the same purpose. It has been 

 since affirmed, that the guard tra- 

 velled by the side of the coachman, 

 on the box, between three and 

 four miles, and that on returning 

 to the dickey he discovered the 

 robbery, a story more consistent 

 with probability than the other. 

 Last week an old man aged 70, 

 K2 and 



