8 



ANNTFAL REGISTER, 1817. [Feb. 



abettors as aforesaid, shall be ap- 

 prehended and brought to justice, 

 shall, upon conviction of such 

 offender or offenders, receive his 

 Majesty's most gracious pardon. 



Given at the court at Carlton- 

 house, the twenty-ninth day of 

 January, IS 17, in the .'i/th year 

 of his Majesty's reign. 



FEBRUARY. 



1. A dispatch has been received 

 from Governor Farqiihar, contain- 

 ing a detailed account of the lute 

 destructive fire at the Mauritius, 

 from which it appears that 19 

 streets of Port Louis were entirely 

 consuviied, and that the sections 

 of that town, numbered 1, 2, 3, 

 13, 14, 15, IG, 17, 28, 29, 30, 

 31, 32, 33, 35, 8G, 87, 88, 89, 

 90, 91, 92, 93, 94!, 95, were 

 either totally or partially destroy- 

 ed. The fire was purely accidental, 

 and its destructive ravage is to be 

 attributed to iti having occurred 

 at the dry season of the year, and 

 to the prevalence of a strong- 

 breeze, veering with violent gusts 

 fi-om time to time during the con- 

 flagration. Fortunately, from its 

 breaking out early in the evening, 

 few lives were lost ; but a jiopula •• 

 tion of 20,000 persons have been 

 reduced to want and beggary bv 

 the loss of every thing belonging 

 to them. Among tlie public build- 

 ings destroyed are, the Catholic 

 church, the barracks for the 

 blacks, hospital for the blacks, 

 jirisop.s for the blacks, large grain- 

 m.agazine, tlie colonial marine 

 store-house, the public bazaar, 

 the commercial exchange, and 

 building called the Bourse, the 

 government printing-ofSce, the 

 former pogt^pfUce, the police pri- 



sons, the military prisons and 

 guard-houses, the quartermaster- 

 general's-otfice and store-houses, 

 the out-houses of the government- 

 house, the great cooperage, the 

 timber and mast-yard, the weigh- 

 ing-yard, the guard-house in front 

 of the military hospital, and tlie 

 guard-house of the marine. A 

 detailed account of the names of 

 proprietors wliose houses have 

 been destroyed may, it is an- 

 nounced, be inspected at the Co- 

 lonial Deparlment. 



6. A murder was committed 

 near Saltley, near Bii'mingham, 

 on the body ot Mr. Pennington, 

 of the firm of Pennington 

 and Bellchambers, wine- merch- 

 ants, of London. JMr. Penning- 

 ton was on his way to Coventry, 

 via Castle-Eromwich, in his gig, 

 and was waylaid on the road about 

 a mile beyond Birmingham. He 

 was found with a pistol-shot 

 through his temple, and quite 

 dead. The assassinating villains 

 had taken his gold watch and the 

 contents of his pocket of silver, 

 &c. but fortunately abandoned the 

 object of their fury without dis- 

 covering his pocket-book, which 

 contained bank-notes of several 

 Imndred pounds' value. The horse 

 and gig went several miles before 

 it stopped, and then it was by over- 

 turning. The doleful tidings were 

 communicated to ^Mrs. Penning- 

 ton by a friend in London, who 

 bnre it with as much fortitude as 

 could po.->sibIy be expected, under 

 the afflicting circumstances. She 

 is left a widow with six children, 

 (the eldest is only 13) and is far 

 advanced in her pregnancy of 

 another. 



A murder '^^as committed at 

 Leiibury, arqy,mpanied by circum- 



gtances 



