38 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. [Mar. 



misfortunes have afflicted Poland; 

 dreadful reverses have desolated 

 your country: but your union 

 with a nation of brethren, a union 

 which is the guarantee of your 

 future existence, had destroyed 

 the tissue of this adverse fate, 

 and a constitution wholly natio- 

 nal, beneficent laws, and a happy 

 and well regulated liberty, will at 

 length efface the traces of these 

 long calamities. The constitu- 

 tion confides to the wisdom of 

 your deliberations this patriotic 

 work — deposits in your hands the 

 power that is to create it. May 

 your love of the public good 

 direct the employment of it. 

 May this love animate your deli- 

 berations. May you banish from 

 among you the demon of discord, 

 which is equally fatal to nations 

 and to sovereigns. This wish 

 tends to your happiness. Your 

 sacrifices for the country have 

 inspired it, and you will certainly 

 not fail to realise it. 



Organs of the law, constitu- 

 tional guardians of the national 

 liberties, by your respect for the 

 constitution committed to your 

 care, by your zeal for its conso- 

 lidation, you will fulfil the impor- 

 tant duties which this solemn 

 appeal imposes on you. Inter- 

 preters of the public opinion, do 

 you, who are distinguished by 

 the confidence of your fellow- 

 citizens, be penetrated with the 

 wants of the country, animated 

 by zeal for its real happiness, and 

 thus fulfil its expectations. 



We assure, by these presents, 

 our royal favour ; and we com- 

 mend you to the protection of 

 the Almighty. 



Alexander. 



Moscow, 5th (17) Feb. 1818. 



5. Between half past ten and 

 eleven o'clock, the following oc- 

 currence took place at the house 

 of Lady Hayes, No. 18, Somerset- 

 street : — The servants had just 

 sat down to supper, when the 

 door bell rang. The footman 

 rose for the purpose of open- 

 ing it, but had proceeded 

 only a short distance along the 

 passage, when he was alarmed by 

 a loud crash, resembling that of 

 the falling of a house. He in- 

 stantly ran back, but was unable 

 to proceed farther than the end 

 of the passage ; for where the 

 kitchen stood but a moment be- 

 fore, was now one mass of ruins. 

 Three of the female servants 

 could not be found. After some 

 time the body of Mary Mauntie, 

 the cook, was taken out, the 

 head dashed to atoms, and the 

 body greatly disfigured : she was 

 quite dead. The bodies of the 

 house-maid and laundry-maid 

 were also dug out, but some 

 signs of life were apparent in 

 both, although they were most 

 dangerously bruised. One had 

 her thigh broken, and was burnt 

 about the shoulder ; the other 

 was much worse burnt, but had 

 no limb fractured. To develope 

 to the reader the circumstances 

 that led to this shocking catas- 

 ti'ophe, it will be necessary to 

 observe, that the kitchen of Lady 

 Hayes was in the yard, at the 

 back of the dwelling-house, and 

 in the rear of this again stood 

 Calomel-buildings. A wall had 

 been raised to the height of about 

 60 feet, for the purpose of pre- 

 venting theft, and blocking the 

 communication between Calomel- 

 buildings and the houses in So- 

 merset-street. In the course of 



the 



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