60] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, I8I7. 



[July. 



ten o'clock, but was afterwards 

 seen on the premises as late as 

 eleven. After the fire, therefore, 

 he was apprehended on suspicion, 

 but for some days strongly denied 

 knowing any thing of the cause 

 of the conflagration. At length, 

 however, he confessed that he him- 

 self caused it, in the following 

 way: — At half-past 12 o'clock on 

 the night of the 2d instant, after 

 the family had retired to bed, he 

 contrived to open one of the 

 kitchen windows, and through it 

 got into the house. Bent on mis- 

 cliief, and finding that some fire 

 was left in the kitchen grate, he 

 put a quantity of it into the draw- 

 ers of the large table; and by 

 breaking a pane in the window 

 which looks from the kitchen into 

 the housekeeper's room, he also 

 contrived to throw several red hot 

 coals into that ajiartment, and 

 some of them went under a large 

 linen press or closet, and soon set 

 it on fire : he then escaped from 

 the house by the way in which he 

 entered. Such is the account which 

 the wretched man gives, and his 

 representation is confirmed by all 

 the particulars noted in connexion 

 with the fire. It turns out that 

 the man has been afflicted with 

 temporary insanity; that he was 

 lately under the care of Mr. Mer- 

 veilleux, surgeon of this place, 

 who decidedly considered him de- 

 ranged in mind ; and that it is an 

 hereditary aflliction. Under such 

 circumstances AVliitehead has not 

 been deemed a proper object for a 

 prosecution, but has been liberated, 

 on bond given by his friends for 

 his being taken care of in a way 

 to prevent his doing farther mis- 

 chief. 



1 i. The Scotch emigrant^ who 



lately arrived at Pillau, sailed fiora 

 Leith about five weeks ago in the 

 Helen, Charters. They consist 

 chiefly of small farmers and shep- 

 herds from the southern counties 

 of Scotland, who have been in- 

 duced, by the liberal arrangements 

 of Count Poe, a Polish nobleman, 

 to settle as a colony on his estate 

 of Dovsponda, for the purpose of 

 introducing the improved agri- 

 culture of Scotland into the fertile 

 but ill-cultivated plains of Poland. 

 The Count has allotted a tract of 

 his best land for the station of the 

 colony, to which he has given the 

 name of Scotia. They enter upon 

 regular leases of 20 years, at a 

 rent almost nominal ; and, besides 

 other peculiai' advantages, they are, 

 by an ukase of the Emperor Alex- 

 ander, freed from the operation of 

 the military conscription. Liberal 

 j)rovision has also been made by 

 the proprietor for a Presbyterian 

 clergyman, who will speedily join 

 them, and who will also act as a 

 schoolmaster to the settlement. 



16. Steam-Boats. — The regu- 

 lations recommended by the Com- 

 mittee of the House of Commons 

 appointed to consider of the means 

 of preventing the mischief arising 

 from explosion on board steam- 

 boats, are as follows: — 



That all steam- packets carrying 

 passengers for hire should be re- 

 gistered at the port nearest the 

 place from or to which they pro- 

 ceed. 



That all boilers belonging to 

 the engines by which such vessels 

 shall be worked should be com- 

 posed of wrought iron or copper. 



That every boiler on board such 

 steani-packet should, previous to 

 the packet being used for the con- 

 veyance of passengerSj be sul)- 



niiitcd 



