the loans made by the self-styled Cortes during the period of the revolution."

I have the honour to be, &c., LOUIS GUEBHARD. 14. In the night, a terrible storm of thunder and lightning, and a very heavy rain, burst over Messina. The water, which poured in torrents from the surrounding hills, entered the villages, overthrowing and laying waste whatever opposed its progress, destroying churches, mills, magazines, cottages, and flocks, and covering the fields and gardens with steril clay and stones. Many of the inhabitants, being taken by surprise, fell victims to this sudden calamity. The waters did not spare even the city itself. The damage was estimated at two millions of ounces. The number of dead bodies found was 331. Among the persons who perished were, the Cavaliere Bandiere, his wife, and their five young children. The villages of the Camere Inferiori, of Gazzi, Santo Bordonaro, Santa Lucia, San Filippo, suffered great injury; as also that of Annunziata, the church of which was destroyed.

15. COURT OF SESSION OF SCOTLAND.-Law of MarriageA case of considerable importance to the law of marriage was decided by the second division of the court. The following were the facts of the case, as they came out in the pleadings of counsel and speeches of the judges. A was a maiden lady, who some years ago succeeded to a very considerable property. She had long been unfortunately in the habit of drinking to excess. In 1818, and in the 51st year of her age, she resided at N-, an estate distant three miles from a certain burgh, with

her nephew, to whom B, then aged only 23, was gardener. On the evening of the 30th of March, 1818, the parties disappeared from the house, and proceeded on foot to the house of Mr. M., one of the baillies of the burgh, in whose house B's sister resided, in the capacity of a servant. The master of the house was from home; but, in his absence, another baillie, who was ex officio a justice of the peace, and the procurator-fiscal of the justice of peace court, were brought to baillie M.'s house, and there, upon the request of the parties to be married, the procurator-fiscal preferred an indictment against them, charging them with having been irregularly married, contrary to the act 1661, cap. 34; to which indictment they pleaded guilty, by a written acknowledgment, subscribed by themselves and the justice of peace.

After the conclusion of the ceremony, B. hurried A. away to the house of his brother-in-law, a tailor in a village at some distance. Here she was visited next morning by her nephew, who had come in pursuit of her; but, according to his account, she was so much intoxicated, that he could have removed her only by force, which was not safe, or even practicable. In the tailor's house she was also visited by two persons, in the confidence of the nephew, who were convinced from what they observed, that both her senses and her feelings had been practised upon. An attempt was now made by B. to have himself and A. rebuked by the minister of the parish, in which the village is situated, for an irregular marriage; but the clergyman refused to rebuke them, on the score that they were not his parishioners. However, in

consequence of some manœuvre, he addressed a letter to the then minister of an adjoining parish, who came out of the bounds of his own parish to the village, and there not only rebuked them, but made them go through the formal ceremony of marriage. After passing about a week in the village (during all which time it did not appear that the marriage was consummated), the parties returned to the burgh, with the design that A. should receive some monies in the bank. When in the burgh, the lady escaped from B., and fled to the house of a relation, from whence she effected her escape to her own home, at N.,-where she obstinately persisted in refusing to return to B's society.

In consequence of certain proceedings adopted by B, the lady thought proper to raise an action against him, before the commissaries, of declarator of freedom and putting to silence. He, on the other hand, raised an action of declarator of marriage. In these actions (which were conjoined), A. pleaded, generally, that she was in a state of intoxication and imbecility, at the time when those proceedings took place, which were held by the other party to constitute marriage. B. maintained the validity of the alleged marriage, and applied to the court of session by bill of advocation, which, having been advised with answers by lord Cringletie, ordinary, upon the 9th of May last, his lordship pronounced against the marriage, and refused the bill.

The case came now to be advised, upon petition and answers, by the inner house, when the judges severally delivered their opinions.

Lord Craigie briefly expressed

his conviction, that A. was in a state of inebriety, when the pretended marriage before the justice was solemnized.

Lord Robertson went over the evidence at great length, and expressed a decided opinion, that A, the female party, neither was, nor could have been sober, when the sham ceremony took place in —, having been drunk nine days previously, having drank a choppin of spirits that day, besides smaller quantities, in her progress to the house of the magistrate. She was seen drunk in the streets immediately before the ceremony took place, by two witnesses; and, after the ceremony, she was seen by another witness put into the chaise like a bundle of old rags. Nor was there any doubt in his mind, that, during her stay at she had been kept in a state of stupefaction.

Lord Glenlee signified his as sent to the opinion delivered by lord Robertson.

The Lord Justice Clerk observed, that he never knew of a more hideous and disgusting case than the present, and it was the more so, from the manner in which some of the evidence had been given. It was clearly established, that, before the sham ceremony and after it, the pursuer A. was in a state of beastly intoxication; and, from the quantity of spirits she had drunk, she could not well have been otherwise. As to her condition during the ceremony, there was direct proof that she was drunk at that time. With respect to the offer of new proofs, to listen to it for a moment would only be consenting to open the door for a flood of frightful perjury. Who were the persons wanted to be examined? The very persons

whom B. did not venture to examine at the proper stage, and by whom A. had been kept in durance while in the village. The offer was altogether inadmissible at this stage of the process. The proceedings, which were said to constitute the pretended marriage, were a scandal to the administra tion of the law of the country. Petition for B, the male party, refused.

It was stated at the bar, by the counsel for A, that she had already actually expended 1,2001. upon this suit.

20. When the Court of Session met, John Clerk, of Elden, esq., advocate, attended in the first division, and presented to the lord President his majesty's letter, appointing him one of the Judges of the Supreme court, in room of lord Bannatyne, resigned. The letter was read by sir Walter Scott, in presence of their lordships, and a great number of leading counsel and agents. Mr. Clerk then retired with lord Pitmilly, and sat as lord Probationer, and afterwards reported a case to the first division. He took his seat as one of the lords ordinary, under the title of lord Eldin.

29. MR. CANNING'S VISIT TO PLYMOUTH.-A special meeting of the corporation of Plymouth was held on Wednesday, to present the freedom of the borough to Mr. Canning.

About twelve o'clock Mr. Canning entered the hall, amidst the loudest acclamations, accompanied by the recorder, sir W. Elford, bart., who had been waiting to receive him. Mr. Canning having taken his seat next the mayor, the recorder, with an appropriate address, presented the right honourable gentleman with the patent,

enclosed in a handsome box, cut out of a very fine block of the Breakwater marble, richly set in silver, when

Mr. Canning rose and delivered the following speech:

"Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen,I accept with thankfulness, and with greater satisfaction than I can express, this flattering testimony of your good opinion and good will. I must add, that the value of the gift itself has been greatly enhanced by the manner in which your worthy and honourable recorder has developed the motives which suggested it, and the sentiments which it is intended to convey.

"Gentlemen, your Recorder has said very truly, that whoever in this free and enlightened state aims at political eminence, and discharges political duties, must expect to have his conduct scrutinized, and every action of his public life sifted with no ordinary jealousy, and with no sparing criticism; and such may have been my lot as much as that of other public men. But, gentlemen, unmerited obloquy seldom fails of an adequate, though perhaps tardy compensation. I must think myself, as my honourable friend has said, eminently fortunate, if such compensation as he describes has fallen to me at an earlier period than to many others; if I dare flatter myself (as his partiality has flattered me), that the sentiments, that you are kind enough to entertain for me, are in unison with those of the country-if, in addition to the justice done me by my friends, I may, as he has assured me, rely upon a candid construction, even from political opponents.

But, gentlemen, the secret of such a result does not lie deep. It

consists only in an honest and undeviating pursuit of what one conscientiously believes to be one's public dutya pursuit which steadily continued, will, however detached and separate parts of a man's conduct may be viewed under the influence of partialities or prejudices, obtain for it, when considered as a whole, the approbation of all honest and honourable minds. Any man may occasionally be mistaken as to the means most conducive to the end which he has in view; but if the end be just and praiseworthy, it is by that that he will be ultimately judged, either by his contemporaries or by posterity.

Gentlemen, the end which I confess I have always had in view, and which appears to me the legitimate object of pursuit to a British statesman, I can describe in one word. The language of modern philosophy is widely and diffusely benevolent; it professes the perfection of our species, and the amelioration of the lot of all mankind. Gentlemen, I hope that my heart beats as high for the general interest of humanity-I hope that I have as friendly a disposition towards other nations of the earth, as any one who vaunts his philanthropy most highly; but I am contented to confess, that, in the conduct of political affairs, the grand object of my contemplation is the interest of England.

"Not, gentlemen, that the interest of England is an interest which stands isolated and alone. The situation, which she holds, forbids an exclusive selfishness; her prosperity must contribute to the prosperity of other nations, and her stability to the safety of the world. But, intimately connected as we are with the system of Europe, it does

not follow that we are therefore called upon to mix ourselves on every occasion with a restless and meddling activity, in the concerns of the nations which surround us. It is upon a just balance of conflicting duties, and of rival but sometimes incompatible advantages, that a government must judge when to put forth its strength, and when to husband it for occasions yet to

come.

"Our ultimate object must be the peace of the world. That object may sometimes be best attained by prompt exertions-sometimes by abstinence from interposition in contests which we cannot prevent. It is upon these principles that, as has been most truly observed by my worthy friend, it did not appear to the government of this country to be necessary, that Great Britain should mingle in the recent contest between France and Spain.

"Your worthy Recorder has accurately classed the persons, who would have driven us into that contest. There were undoubtedly among them those who desired to plunge this country into the difficulties of war, partly from the hope that those difficulties would overwhelm the administration; but it would be most unjust not to admit that there were others who were actuated by nobler principles and more generous feelings, who would have rushed forward at once from the sense of indignation at aggression, and who deemed that no act of injustice could be perpetrated from one end of the universe to the other, but that the sword of Great Britain should leap from its scabbard to avenge it. But as it is the province of law to control the excess even of laudable passions and propensi

ties in individuals, so it is the duty of government to restrain within due bounds the ebullition of national sentiment, and to regulate the course and direction of impulses which it cannot blame. Is there any one among the latter class of persons described by my hon. friend (for to the former I have nothing to say), who continues to doubt whether the government did wisely in declining to obey the precipitate enthusiasm which prevailed at the commencement of the contest in Spain? Is there any body who does not now think, that it was the office of the government to examine more closely all the various bearings of so complicated a question, to consider whether they were called upon to assist united nation, or to plunge themselves into the internal feuds by which that nation was divided to aid in repelling a foreign invader, or to take part in a civil war? Is there any man that does not now see, what would have been the extent of burthens that would have been cast upon this country? Is there any one who does not acknowledge, that under such circumstances the enterprise would have been one to be characterized only by a term borrowed from that part of the Spanish literature with which we are most familiar-Quixotic-an enterprise romantic in its origin, and thankless in the end?

a

"But while we thus control even our feelings by our duty, let it not be said, that we cultivate peace, either because we fear, or because we are unprepared for war; on the contrary, if eight months ago the government did not hesitate to proclaim that the

we

country was prepared for war, if war should unfortunately be necessary, every month of peace that has since passed has but made us so much the more capable of exertion. The resources created by peace are means of war. In cherishing those resources, but accumulate those means. Our present repose is no more a proof of inability to act, than the state of inertness and inactivity in which I have seen those mighty masses that float in the waters above your town, is a proof they are devoid of strength, and incapable of being fitted for action. You well know, gentlemen, how soon one of those stupendous masses now reposing on their shadows in perfect stillness-how soon upon any call of patriotism, or of necessity, it would assume the likeness of an animated thing-instinct with life and motion-how soon it would ruffle, as it were, its swelling plumage-how quickly it would put forth all its beauty and its bravery-collect its scattered elements of strength, and awaken its dormant thunder. Such as is one of these magnificent machines when springing from inaction into a display of its might such is England herself, while apparently passive and motionless she silently concentrates the power to be put forth on an adequate occasion. But God forbid that that occasion should arise. After a war sustained for nearly a quarter of a century-sometimes single-handed, and with all Europe arranged at times against her or at her side, England needs a period of tranquillity, and may enjoy it without fear of misconstruction. Long may we be enabled, gentlemen, to improve the blessings of our