I! 





Aus. 3,] 



THE NEWSPAPER. 



f!844. 



accounts as to the state,of the Grand Duchess Alex- 

 andra's health, and left no doubt that her imperial 

 Highness's sufferings would soon close. On the 23d 

 Count Nesselrod e was to leave Kissingen for Frankfort, 

 from which place he was to proceed to London. — Letters 

 from Georgia an d the Crimea state the Russian army 

 has sustained ano ther most severe defeat in Dagghistan. 

 Shamil Bey, afte r collecting forces from all the Cau- 

 casian tribes, between the Sea of Asophand the Caspian, 

 assumed the offens ive, and attacked the Russian lines : 

 he is said to have b een victorious on almost every point, 

 and the loss of the Russians is said to amount to more 

 than 15,000 men. 



Turkey and Egypt.— Letters from Constantinople 

 of the 10th inst. state that our respected Consul-General, 

 Mr. Cartwright, after more than 25 years' services, has 

 been permitted to retire. His departure will be greatly 

 regretted by the inhabitants of Pera, and by none more 

 than by the numerous travellers who were so much 

 indebted to his hospitality. The Porte has ordered that 

 the streets of Pera and Galata shall be named and num- 

 bered, and lit with lamps at night, and guarded by police, 

 similar to those of London. On the 8th ult. an event 

 took place at Constantinople which produced the greatest 

 interest in the city and environs for miles round. Some 

 time since an Italian arrived with a balloon, in which he 

 offered to ascend, if the Government would pay the 

 expenses and give him a present. On the 8th, all the 

 preparations, which are said to have cost 18,000 piastres, 

 were completed, and in the presence of the Court, the 

 foreign ambassadors, and thousands of spectators, the 

 balloon and its adventurous proprietor ascended. Its 

 course was across the Marmora, and the news arrived at 

 Pera on the next day that it had alighted safely in a vil- 

 lage near Brousa. The excitement caused by the appear- 

 ance of the balloon as it neared this place, where it fell, 

 is said to have been extraordinary: many of the people 

 were so terrified that they took to flight. — Accounts from 

 Alexandria of the 6th ult. state that Sir H. Hardinge, after 

 visiting Cairo, where he was received with the same 

 honours and distinctions by Ibrahim Pacha as had been 

 previously conferred on him at Cairo by Mehemet, pro- 

 ceeded to Suez, where he embarked on the 29th of June 

 On board the Hindostan, and proceeded forthwith to 

 Calcutta. The other news from Alexandria is important ; 

 Ibrahim Pacha had arrived at Alexandria for the benefit 

 of his health. The Pacha was busy laying down fortifica- 

 tions, at the suggestion of French engineers, " against 

 any attempt that may be made by the English to land in 

 Egypt." Egypt is full of French military men. The 

 plague is still very destructive in Alexandria. 



India and China. — The overland mail has arrived 

 with news from Bombay to the 19th June, and Hong- 

 Kong to the 24th April. The event of the month is the 

 sensation created in India by the recall of Lord Ellen- 

 borough, and by the independent conduct of the Court 

 of Directors. The political intelligence is not of great 

 moment, if we except the case of the Punjaub. The 

 engagement formerly referred to as having occurred 

 near Ferozepore, between the troops under Ittur Sing, 

 Bhaee Beer Sing, and the two Princes, Kashmeera and 

 Peshora Sing on the one part, and those of the State 

 troops on the other, is still the leading event of the 

 papers. The numbers of the followers of Ittur Sing 

 and his colleagues are said to have amounted to only 

 7000, while about twenty-seven regiments of infantry, 

 and great numbers of irregular cavalry, with about 

 120 guns, are said to have been engaged of the 

 State troops. Heera Sing himself was not present, as 

 was formerly rumoured, being at the time in Lahore. 

 The arrangements for the assemblage of the grand army 

 on the Sutlej appear to have been suspended. The 

 meeting of the Beloochee chiefs at Hyderabad, on the 

 24th May, passed off peaceably ; the number present 

 did not exceed 20,000. Scinde generally is quiet. The 

 troops once more are threatened with sickness to an 

 extent, it is hoped, less formidable than that from which 

 they suffered last year.— News from China extends to 

 the 1st of May, but is of little interest. Another riot 

 had occurred at Canton, similar in its origin, though for- 

 tunately different in result, to those which occurred in 

 December, 1842. The disturbance. arose between some 

 Manilla seamen and Chinese. The Manilla seamen hav- 

 ing succeeded in driving back the mob, were pelted with 

 stones, &c. The Chinese however soon collected to a 

 fearful extent, and the most urgent measures were deemed 

 requisite for the safety of the factories. The presence 

 of 200 men from the ships in harbour, with Chinese 

 soldiers and police, fortunately induced the mob to dis- 

 perse, and nothing further was done to break the peace, 

 though the utmost fears were apprehended. — Accounts 

 have been received at Macao of the total failure of the 

 expedition fitted out by the Hon. James Erskine Murray, 

 with a view of opening a commercial communication with 

 the island of Borneo. The expedition, consisting of the 

 Fairy Queen and Diana schooners, had been entrapped 

 and set upon by the Sultan Cote ; but after 36 hours' 

 continuous fighting, they made their escape with the 

 utmost difficulty. Mr. Murray himself, with two sea- 

 men, were killed, and three were severely wounded. 



United States.— The steam-ship Britannia has ar- 

 rived at Liverpool with advices from Boston to the lGtb, 

 and from Halifax to the 18th ult. The riots in Phila- 

 oeipma had been renewed, but the accounts of their 

 origin and progreisjare, though voluminous, so rambling 

 and contradictory, that it is difficult to get at a real his- 

 tory of the transactions. It appears that on the 5th inst. 

 a report prevailed that a number of muskets had been 

 conveyed by the Irish Catholics to the church of St, 



Philippo Neri, in Queen-street. The report caused much | alarm of a fresh outbreak. Several of the rioters had 



excitement ; the street was soon crowded with citizens, 

 the sheriff and two aldermen were sent for, the building 

 was entered, and ten or a dozen muskets were found. A 

 committee of the citizens was subsequently appointed, 

 and, after much consultation, the church was again en- 

 tered to search for more arms. It is solemnly averred, 

 in a document signed by the committee and an alderman, 

 that they were met at the church-door by two Irishmen 

 with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets. These were 

 immediately disarmed. The party entered a room, and 



found 27 muskets. The priest was found officiating at 

 the altar. He was seized, and asked if he had any arms 



or ammunition. He replied in the negative. They sub- 

 sequently found a quantity of arms, bullets, cartridges, 



gunpowder, and percussion caps. The excitement in- 

 creased greatly after this. Crowds poured in from all 



the surrounding districts, and matters appeared to be so 



threatening that troops filled the streets, and threatenings 



were heard in every quarter against the Irish party, re- 

 specting whose intentions the most absurd rumours pre- 

 vailed. On Saturday the state of affairs before the church 



was so threatening that the military were marched to the 



spot. The crowd made a rush upon them, and forced 



them back. At length the soldiers were assailed by 



missiles of all descriptions, which having been borne 



patiently some time, the word was given to fire. The 



soldiers were, however, unable to obey because of the 



position of the sheriff's posse- of police, who would have 



been exposed to danger. Mr. Naylor, an ex-member of 



the Congress, stepped forward, and exclaimed, if they 



would fire on their fellow-citizens, they had better 



commence with him. He was instantly arrested, and 



locked in a part of the church placed under guard. 



This exasperated the mob ' greatly, and they would 



have demolished the church had not some of the 



more prudent of them restrained their fellows. After 



twelve o'clock the crowd gradually and slowly di- 

 minished in numbers, until about nine o'clock on 



Sunday morning, when they began to increase, and 



threats, loud and deep, were proclaimed, that unless Mr. 



Naylor were released, the walls of the church should 



be battered down. The demand was resisted for some 



time, until at length two pieces of cannon were brought 



up near the church, one of which had been taken from 



the ship Venice, moored near the navy-yard, and the 



other from a wharf in the vicinity of the vessel. A 



second demand was made for his release, accompanied 



with a threat that if they did not give him up by 12 



o'clock, the church would be fired upon. During all 



this time the military had possession of the church. The 



demand being still resisted, the pieces were drawn up in 



the rear of the church, in an alley running from Christian- 

 street, and an attempt was made to discharge them, 



but it seemed that, owing to some water having been 



poured into the touch-holes, they were fired with diffi- 

 culty. The infuriated mob then got a large log, which 



they used as a battering-ram, and with it they broke in a 



part of one of the doors in Queen-street. A parley 



then took place between the crowd and the military 



within the building, the former demanding that the 



Hibernia Greens should be dismissed. At length the 



request was complied with, it being understood that 



they should leave the church with their pieces un- 

 primed and the pan open. From this time the vicinity 

 of the church was a scene of wild uproar. Several 

 attempts were made to break open the church-doors, 

 and they at last succeeded. The windows were smashed, 

 and the crowd immediately filled the church ; but it 

 does not appear that they did much mischief to the 

 interior of the building. On the church being thus 

 taken possession of, an alarm was given by the tolling of 

 bells, and a large body of military was marched to the 

 spot, when, some formidable demonstrations having been 

 made by planting pieces of artillery against the doors, &c, 

 the mob were induced to evacuate the building. The 

 military were shortly afterwards assailed by a body 

 of men, upon whom they fired, when several per- 

 sons were killed and wounded. There were now 

 numerous threats of vengeance against the military. 

 The mob soon rallied in various places in the vici- 

 nity, and the news of the collision spread in all 

 directions, of course much magnified. The mob soon 

 obtained possession of three cannon, taken from on 

 board two vessels lying in the river. They also had 

 procured a considerable number of muskets and other 

 fire-arms. The cannon were loaded with various sub- 

 stances ; one of them with a 30-feet chain, which killed 

 or wounded a number of the military, particularly the 

 members of the National Artillery, a company of Native 

 Americans. The firing with musketry was kept up 

 briskly, and the mob took shelter in, and fired from, the 

 houses and alleys in the vicinity upon the military, who 

 changed their position, and were drawn up in front of 

 St. Philip's Church, which recedes a short distance from 

 the street. A squadron of cavalry arrived on the ground 

 about half-past 10, and succeeded in capturing one 

 of the guns in possession of the mob at the corner of 

 Second and Queen streets, and one at the corner of 

 Third and Catharine streets, which were taken to 

 head-quarters. They were fired upon by a number 

 of the mob, and some of them wounded. As soon as the 

 cavalry made their appearance the rioters generally dis- 

 persed before they were charged. But few pieces were 

 discharged after 12 o'clock. By 1 o'clock the military j 



had entire possession of the ground. The city was placed ; blood is spilt, every drop shall re ^ gociet 



under military rule, the soldiers daily and nightly parading D'Aubigny, Commandant^ l " rt,c "" marme r in which 

 the streets. By dint of the most vigorous measures Islands, Papeete, March J. * or Government, we 

 tranquillity was restored ; but the Authorities continued this outrage is regarded by our dQe , day> 



to exercise the utmost vigilance, and were in perpetual refer to our Parliamentary nepors 



been arrested, and examined on charges of riot, high 

 treason, and murder. — In the midst of the Philadelphian 

 troubles, a dreadful tragedy has been enacted by an 

 armed mob, near Nauvoo, in Illinois. Joe Smith, the 

 Mormon prophet, had given himself up, together with hit 

 brother and several Mormon leaders, to the law, and they 

 were all in prison at Carthage, with Governor Ford 

 pledged in word for their safety. Notwithstanding this, 

 a sanguinary mob, with blackened faces, broke into the 

 gaol and murdered, in the most cowardly manner, Joe 

 Smith, the prophet, and his brother. The other Mor- 

 mons were spared, but one who was in the cell received 

 five gunshot wounds. The latest accounts from Nauvoo 

 state that Governor Ford cannot restrain the armed 

 multitude, who insist that the Mormons shall leave 

 Illinois ! The Mormons have given up their arms, and 

 the very worst is feared.— On the 10th inst. Montevideo 

 and its vicinity was visited by a violent tempest, called a 

 pampero. The wind blew with terrible power, and the 

 waters of the river were lashed with a fury fearful to 

 behold. H.M.'s steamer Gorgon was driven on shore, 

 and other vessels were much damaged. 



Tahiti. — Accounts from Papeete to March 6th, have 

 been received by H.M.S. Vindictive, 50, Captain Toup 

 Nicolas, which arrived at Portsmouth on Friday from 

 South America and the Pacific, having on board Mr. 

 Pritchard, the British Consul for Tahiti, who had been 

 forcibly expelled from that island, after having first been 

 arrested and thrown into prison by the French Authori- 

 ties there. The British Consul had not in any way 

 committed the slightest offence against the usurpers of 

 Queen Pomarc's authority, except affording shelter to 

 the deposed Queen in the hour of her affliction previous 

 to her seeking it on board one of her Majesty's ships. 

 He was released from prison, after several days' im- 

 prisonment, at the intervention of Commander Gordon, 

 of her Majesty's 6teamer, Cormorant, on the condition 

 that he was not to be landed again on either of the 

 Society Islands. He was not permitted to proceed 

 to his home, but put on board the steamer at once, after 

 she had got outside the harbour, leaving his wife and 

 property behind him. The Cormorant sailed from 

 Tahiti to Valparaiso, where she arrived on the 28th, 

 April. At Valparaiso Mr. Pritchard embarked on board 

 the Vindictive, which sailed thence on the 1st May for 

 England. It appears that, subsequently to February 5, 

 the Protectorate grew more and more persecuting and 

 oppressive ; many of the chiefs and others of the best 

 people favourable to the Queen were imprisoned. Queen 

 Pomare was herself proscribed, and compelled to take 

 refuge in a British vessel of war of small size, and the 

 English missionaries were marked out as the objects of 

 peculiar hatred and vindictive annoyance. The acting 

 governor issued a proclamation declaring the place in a 

 state of siege. All English officers were obliged to be 

 on board at 8 p.m. The French, after their embarka- 

 tion, destroyed all English boats hauled up on the 

 beach ; and the owner of a vessel, who had just sold it 

 to the French Government, not being able to procure 

 any English house, was forced to reside, with his wife 

 and her young children, in a native one ; he wrote, men- 

 tioning that his wife was ill, daily expecting her confine- 

 ment, and requesting he might be permitted to keep a 

 light, but was refused. He called on the acting governor, 

 informed him of the dangerous state of his wife, the same 

 apathetic reply was given — that no exception could be 

 made in his favour. A French officer, high in employ, 

 no less a person than the Commissary-General, publicly 

 stated, in presence of some Englishmen, that if the 

 natives rose, and were joined by any Englishmen, he 

 would go and with a pistol be the first man to shoot Mr. 

 Pritchard. " A few nights afterwards," says an English 

 officer, in a letter to the Times, " Mr. Pritchard left his 

 house to go on board her Majesty's ship Cormorant, to 

 see some of the officers ; he had only a few yards to walk 

 from his gate to the jetty. The commandant of police, 

 who had been observed all day prowling about, ran out of 

 the guard-house (it is the one from which the Queen's 

 attendants had been expelled, and only a few yards off), 

 without his hat, seized Mr. Pritchard, and hurried him 

 off, followed by some soldiers. Immediately on hearing 

 it, the commander of the Basilisk and myself went off to 

 the Acting Governor, M. D'Aubigny : he refused to tell 

 where Mr. Pritchard was confined. After some demur, 

 he gave a paper to Lieutenant Hunt, which he also read 

 aloud. It was of such an atrocious nature that we 

 agreed not to mention the contents, fearing the extra 

 alarm it would throw Mr. Pritchard's family into, 

 and the excitement it would cause amongst the popuo 

 lation in general. Judge of my surpise to hear this 

 morning that it was placarded in French, English, and 

 Tahitian on the different public places. A British sub- 

 ject, and he our consul and the representative of the Ma- 

 jesty of England, treated as a common convict, seized in 

 the open day, in the presence of his family, hurried like 

 a vile malefactor along the streets, jeered at by French 

 soldiers as he was dragged in front of the barracks." The 

 paper alluded to is as follows : — " French Establishment 

 in Oceania. A French sentinel was attacked "J ™ 

 night of the 2d to the 3d of March. U reprisal I have 

 caused to be seized one Pritchard, the only daily mover 

 and instigator of the disturbance of the natives, ns 

 property shall be answerable for all damage J*^"** 

 to our establishments by the insurgents ; anu i r 



hall recoil on bis bead. 



