North Wales Gazette

Lord Althorp has abandoned his inten tion of giving the trial of all actions for debts under lOt. to assessors, to be ap- pointed by the Crown. 1 he jurisdiction; Will now be given to the Commissioneis, of the Insolvent Debtors' Court, who think; they shall be fully able to discharge this itdditional daty. This measure will great. lyinctease the business of the Insolvent! I)ebtors" Court, and be a considerable saving of expense to the country, and dis- pense with much patronage of the Crown.; lIis Lordship is desirous of bringing in a Bill to this effect immediately after the recess, in order that the experiment may have a fair trial for one year, at the end of which period the Act under which the Present Insolveot Debtors' Court is con- stituted (whiih is also his Lordship's) ex- pires. If the measure-shall then be found to have succeeded, the two Acts will be consolidated into one. The number of persons considered entitled to compensa. tion in case the Bill should yas., we un- derstand is but small; the sum required .8 cotnpensation.-inoney will be about 5000/. WUNDSOR.-OnWedtiesd theCaoadlan Chiefs sent a letter to the King, to know If his Majesty would be pleased to grant them an interview, in order that they might pay personally that homage to his Majesty, which they so much desired when his Majesty was pleased to grant their request, and appointed yesterday for the interview. At one o'clock they left the Castle Ion in an open carriage and proceeded through the Long Walk to the Royal Lodge, where they were introduced to his Majesty, who received them with t gracious condescension, and, after along audience, his Majesty was pleased to pre- sent each of them with a gold medal; »fter which they took leave of his Majesty and returned to Windsor, highly gratified Jth the honour conferred on them. In the evening they left Windsor for London.

DREADFUL EARTHQUAKE AT ALGIERS Extract of a Lettet-ji-oin Algiers, Dated March 7. OM Wednesday the 2d Inst, this city and neighbourhood was visited with a tremendous earthquake, which continued at intervals far the five following days. It has thrown down several houses and injured many others, and has totally destroyed the town of Blida, one day's journey from this, burying in its ruins nearly all the inha- bitants. Out of a population of 15,000 souls, chiefly Moors, Jews, and Arabs, about 300 only have been saved, and those in a sadly mu- tilated state. M The first two shocks that occurred were at 2 min. and 42 min. after 10 a.m. were extremely vio- lent, and the motion both circular and perpendi- cular. On the same evening two more shocks occurred on Thursday evening three, on Friday two, bn Saturday two, and on Sunday, between the hours of fine and three a. m. two more, which, it is hoped, may prove the last. To-morrow I purpose going to visit the ruin. of that ill-fated town, where, I am told, a horrible scene of devastation presents itself; 7,000 dead bodies have been already dug out. In one spot, supposed to be a Jewish seminarv, the bodies of 980 children were found, and a vast number of persons in the rui of the mosques, where the people had congregated, the earthquake having occurred at the hour of prayer (10 o'clock). In the immediate neighbourhood ofthe town, the earth has opened in large interstices of from eight to ten feet wide, and as many deep; and it is worthy. of remark, that the same phenomenon which generally precedes the eruption of Etna and Vesuvius occurred at Blida-namely, all the wells and fountains in the neighbourhood became perfectly dry. The troops which the Government sent out to prevent plunder have been attacked by vast hordes of the Cobails, and have thus added to the work of death. The Cobails are ofa raee totally distinct from the Turks, Moors, or Arabs they are the descendants of the ancient Numidians, and Inhabit-the mountains of this part of Africa, are perfectly independent, and have never been sub- dued by the Turks. As an act of grace, the Dey has manumitted all the slaves, and has ordered a public thanksgiving for the salvation of this city. God knows whether we are to experience any more of these horrible visitations. There Is every appearance to the contrary, if the weather be any indication. Your mother and all of us have, as you will easily believe, been most dreadfully. alarmed. Wewere afraid even of going to our beds, and spent the greatest part of our time on the roof of the house, which is a perfect flat, and there we were safe so far as regarded any thing from above, and, had the house given way, we should have stood a chance of being uppermost on the ruins. There is one circumstance which I haveomit- ted to mention-that an excellent bàrometer I have kept gradually falling for some days before the earthquake," whilst the weather indicated no change whatever, otherwise than that on the day it happened lny thermometer rose sudflenly from 58 to 62i degrees, which is a very extraordinary occurrence."

MONAGHAN ASSIZES. Silw. AIEtroy (a coarse country lad, aged about 20) was capitally indicted for setting tire to a ear-house belonging to Mr. David Woods Cardufflkelly, near Carrickmacross, in February last. Mr Woods, the first witness, deposed to the t circamstance^attending the burning of his car- house which took place about 12 o'clock at night when the family -were all in bed. He stated that being awakes he heard a noise outside his house as of some person stumbling in consequence of whfcb be .was induced to rise owt of bed; and" ollgoirfg down stairs and opening" the hall-door which he did quietly, be beheld his car-house on fire, and distinctly saw the prisoner (M'Elroy) urging the flames towards the dwelling-house. Thomas Woods, son ofthe prosecutor, stated, Thomas Woods, son of the prosecutor, stated, that on hearing his father call out that the car- house was on fire, he ran out naked, and saw the figure of a man at a distance running from the flames. -He could not say who that person was. This was the case for the prosecution. In defence, Charlotte Woods, aged, 18, the daughter of the prosecutor, appeared. She first denied that any attachment subsisted between her and thoprisoner, and then gavethe following amazing account of the burning, in coming for- ward to declare which, she said, she was actuated solely by a regard for truth, and a desire to save an innocent life She related, that on the even- ing in question, all the family, excepting herself and a servant girl, whom the called Ellen, went to bed between 9 and 10 o'clock. She usually slept in a small bed-room on the ground floor, off the kitchen; the cervant girl, who slept in the same room having some articles of wearing apparel to mend, sat up for that purpose, unknown to her master and family, and she (the witness) remained in the kitchen assisting her, until about half-past 11, when, hearing her father cough and make a noise as if rising, she and the servant hurried into their bed-room, extinguished the candle, and began to undress. She explained that she was afraid of her father knowing that they had been sitting up, as he had expressly pro- hibited any of the family from doing so. Miss Woods went on to state, that she and the girl had knelt down to say their prayers, when she heard a stool fall, and her face being turned towards the kitchen, into which a small window looked, she observed her father approach the fire, from which ho took a lighted truf; that she then beckoned the servant to watch her father, and the two follow- ed him to the door, where they remained concealed and actually saw him with his own hand set fire to the car-house, he having first earefully loosed the calf and pig and set them at liberty. She further deposed, that on witnesssing such extra- ordinary conduct on the part of her father, she and the servant hastily returned to the the room; they were frightened, and, although uudfcWtedv crept into bed, fearing that her father might come into the room. She then heard him deliberately close the kitchen door and go up stairs, where he remained about a quarter of an hour, and then came down and gave the alarm of fiie. In addition, she related the particulars of a conversation between her two elder brothers, which she overheard a night or two after the burning) was a good plan to put M'Elroy out of the way on which he replied. "Yes, but I doubt my father will go too far-he must per- jure himself." She also said, that some days previous to the burning her father accused her of being intimate with M'Eiroy, and told her that he would not suffer any person of such condition to come near his house, or have any acquaintance with his daughter The servant-girl, who was next examined, cor- roborated, in every particular, the statement given by Miss Woods. A tailor, whose name has escaped us, was ex- amined to prove an alibi for the prisoner. He swore, -1-hat on the night on which the burning was said to have taken place, the prisoner came to his house to get a pair of small clothes mended; and doing some other work, that the prisoner sat with him, and remained in his house from sunset to sunrise. After the examination of these witnesses, counsel for the prosecution requested and obtain- ed leave to produce further testimony on behalf of the Crown. He then called: George Woods, son to the prosecutor, who said he had heard what was stated by his sister relative to a conversation between him and his brother Thomas; he swore positively that no such conversation, nor any such words, ever pas- sed between them. Witness stated that an in- timacy had subsisted between his sister and the prisoner, whom he discovered together one day in a back room of a house in Carrickmacross, in such a situation as left no doubt on bis mind of their improper intimacy. Thomas Woods was then examined, relative to a conversation sworn by his sister to have taken place between him and his brotlier George. He swore positively that no such conversation had ever taken place. A'girt, named Collins, also in the service of the prosecutor, was next examined. She stated that she was in the kitchen on the night in ques- tion, in company with Miss Woods and the ser- vant Ellen, and swore positively that they did not remain there more than half an hour after the family went to bed that they merely washed their feet, and did not sew or mend any part of their clothes. She said that Miss Woods, Ellen and herself, then went into the bed-room off the kitchen that they had ail three undressed, and were in the act of praying when the alarm of fire was given by her master. She denied all that the two others had sworn respecting the con- duct of her master; nothng of the kind took place that she saw, nor could it have taken place with- out her seeing it. Charlotte Woods and the girl Ellen were con- fronted with the last witness, and both adhered firmly to what they had previously sworn. The learned Judge now proceeded to sum up the evidence. He set out by observing that a more extraordinary case, or one supported and de- fended by suchconflicting testimony had never come before him. Jury remained closeted the night, and remained until the afternoon of Thursday, when, not having agreed on any verdict, they were conveyed to the verge of the county, and there discharged in the usual way.

CASE OF OSSIFICATION OF THE PE- RICARDIUM, AND OF THE HEART, WITH ENLARGEMENT OF THE LAT- TER. (From the London Medical Repository.) Marsh, aged 43, was admitted (Kent Hos- pital) July 30,1824, with general dropsy. He had laboured under palpitation of the heart for upwards of twenty years, and had, in the course of the few last years, been frequently under me. dical care. What seemed to have afforded him the most marked relief was bleeding. Upon his admission into the hospital, his countenance be- trayed the utmost anxiety his complexion was M a yellow dusky hue; his lips purple. He breathed with extreme difficulty in every position, and the. recumbent posture could not be borne.— There was strong and irregular throbbing at the heart; and the pulse at the wrist was weak and unequal, often almostimpeicepuble fora moment. His abdomen and lower extremities were consi- derably swollen. His tongue was white. Under the use of digitalis and colchicum, aided by two bleedings, he became so much better that, on the 25th of august, he requested to be made an out- patient. Scarcely, however, had he reached home, when all the symptoms became worse; and on the 23d of September he was again admitted in a most deplorable state. The extreme distress he experienced in breathing had, during his absence, been relieved for the moment by bleed- ing, but it quickly returned; and whenhearrived in Canterbury, he was forced to kneel with his elbows on a chair, and even in that posture he could scarcely respire. Medicines, similar to those formerly prescribed, were resorted to in vain. It was found absolutely necessary to bleed him agam; but the relief was very trifling, and in a day or two the arm assumed a gangrenous aspect. The patient died October the 8th; and the following were the appearances, upon dis- section, thirteen hours after death:- The face and neck were of a livid hue. Upon opening the chest, we found a considerable quantity of fluid effused in it. The lungs 011 both sides adhered firmly to the pleura costalis they were of much paler hue than usual, but other- wise healthy. The great disease, as was to be expected, was of the heart, and the membrane investing it. The latter was much thickened, and it every where adhered firmly to the heart.— Upon dissecting it away, various portions of it were found converted into bone. The heart it- self was more than double the natural size, and its surface presented many points of ossification there was bony matter also in the left velltricle; but the substances of the organ were in general, exceedingly tender, and the left auricle was so thin that, in all probability, had the patient sur- vived a little longer, it would have given way. Neither the semilunar valves, nor the auriculo- ventricular valves, were in the least degree os- sified. The abdominal viscera were, in general healthy, only the liver was paler, and perhaps somewhat harder thannatural. The gall-bladder contained several black polished gall stones. In this case it required no extraordinary acu- men to recognise the existence of organic disease of the heart. The patient himself was satisfied that he laboured under such disease, and stated that nearly twenty years ago he experienced ex- actly the same sensations, and seemed to have precisely the same symptoms with a yonng man who was in the same ward, and who appeared evidently to be labouring under enlargement of the heart. The case just recorded is an interesting one, both on account of the very long period during which the patient struggled with the di- sease, and tho rarity of examples of ossified pe- ricardium.

LONDON, SATURDAY APRIL. WE are able this day to present the revenue accounts for the -q«rter ending on Tuesday- This document will be found to support fully, indeed to go beyond, the favourable sketch which we gave IQ our last. Notwithstanding the considerable re- duction in duties of various kinds that has -taken place within the last twelv« raojitht the net return of taxes for the year .,end- ing on Tuesday, exceeds the product of taxes In the preceding rear,bymofe than 800,0001. The apparent superiority of the year ending on the 5th of April, 1824 arises from the payments of the Austrian composition in that year. The excess of the regular revenue for the quarter just concluded, above that of the correspond- ing quarter of last year, amounts to 3Q9,3fJ31. We have at length received the official account of the final overthrow of the Spanish power in South America, The news which we had previously obtained through indirect channels, does not appear to have been in the least exaggerattild In deed, it was not possible to heighten the display of preseverence, skill, and valour really made by the Patriots, or to over- state either the decisive character of their victory, or the importance of the conse- quences that must flow from it. On Easter Monday the Bishop of Gloucester preached atChrist Church.— After the sermon was over the Bishop of Chester, and Mr. Bloomfield, thirteen Alderman, the Recorder, the Common Sergeant, eight City Officers,, the Under- Sheriffs, Charles Calvert, Esq. M. P. Cornelius Buller, Governor of the Bank j of England, and a number of gentlemen -in all forty-seven, dined with the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House. After the Bishop of Gloucester had, io a neat speech* prooosedjM health of the Lord Mayor, fhe Bishop of Chester rose, and begged to add to what his Right Reverend Brother had paid, that he could not re- frain from expressing his great pleasure at the plan which had been adopted, of bring- ing the clergy in "collision" with their; flocks at the festive board, a practice which he sincerely hoped would be adopted by his Lordship's successors, as highly con- ducive to that harmony and feeling so very desirable between that Reverend Body, and those under their spiritua I charge.

DR. SPURZHEIM'S LECTURES. 1 The Tenth Lecture, delivered by the Doctor last night, related to the intellectual faculties, and the external senses, as they are connected with phrenology. As we have not noticed the preceding lectures, it will be necessary to the understanding of those that follow to make a few observations, by way of introduction. Phrenology depends on the principle of induc- tion. The phrenologist declares that, by com- paring cerebral development with the manifesta- tions of mental power, in an extensive variety of instances, he has arrived at the conclusion that the brain is the material instrument by means of of which the mind acts and is acted upon. He tells us that each mental faculty has a material organ in its exclusive service, as it were, and is by this organ that the hidden faculty acts and is acted upon. According to the principles of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, the brain consists of two hemispheres; eaeh hemisphere is endowed with corresponding organs, functions, dimensions, &c.; so that, in every individual's head, there are two organs for each faculty. The size of the organ js manifested exteriorly on the surface of the head, and the power of each faculty is in proportion to the size of the material organ which answers to it. It has been objected to this science, that it leads to what is called ma- terialism, or the belief tiiite the composition of the thinking principle is matter, and not spirit.— This has been a great school question. Dr. Spurzhcim's defence against this charge is. in the first place, that if it be true that the thinking principle is matter, then it is a duty to establish thfr truth. Next he says that the accusers are wrong in their logic; for he says, though it appears that the whole thinking power is made up of matter—in short, that the mind is the brain, and the brain is the mind-yet it does not follow by any means that the mind of man may not live hereafter if the CREATOR intended that it should. To those, then, who object on religious grounds to his system, he says, it is you that are in- juring the cause of Gon, for you strive to limit his power—you say that if mind is matter, it is mortal--it dies with the individual, and that GOD cannot give it imperishable preser- vation. It is clearly an error in reasoning to state as an axiom, that th.e end for which any thing is fitted is, invariably declared by the nature of its substace. Nature, conti- nues Dr. Spurzheim, has endowed man with faculties fitted to observe phenomena as they at present exist, and the relation subsisting between them, but has denied to him powers fitted to dis- cover, as a matter of direct perception, either the beginning or the end, or the essence of any thing. x The greater part of the Lectnre last night, was occupied in the description of the intellectual or- gans generally The Lecturer showed that the animal senses were but the instruments of com- munication between the inward intellect of man and the external world; and that knowledge was acquired only by the operation of the intellect over the impression acquired by the means of the senses. He endeavoured to show that the extent of the forehead was the criterion of t'. > comprehensiveness ofthsinind. The negroes and those remarkable for the narrowness of their in- tellect had small foreheads. Those who were eminent for their intellectual powers had large foreheads. Socrates, Plutarch, Franklin, and all those who had distinguished themselves by their superior intelligence, were remarkable for the largeness of their foreheads. The lecturer produced masks of several of these individuals.

BONY-STREET.-In consequeticeofthee:tpegiire in the newspapers, a few days since, of the sys- tem of fraud which has been so extensively car- ried on throughout the country, by means of forg- ed passes, purporting to he the regularly authoris- ed documents soinetimes given to soldiers' wives and widows at the War-office, letters have been received at this Office from overseers and church- wardens of parishes in almost nil liart3 of Eng- land, detailing frauds that had hern practised on them In this way. In most of these letters the ad- vice of the magistrates wai asked as to the surest mode of guarding against such frauds in future. and in answer, a genuine copy of the authorised War-office pass has been transmitted, together with instructions for the future guidance of parish officers with respect to such matters. The pub- licity given to the former investigation at this office has also been productive of another good- several gangs of dealers in forged passes having' in consequence been apprehended in the country. At Maidstone six parsons have been committed to prison who had obtained -101. in a day or two at Tewkesbury, another gang has been apprehended consisting of eight or nine and at two parishes In Norfolk captions have been made. Evidence has also been obtained, through the same channel against three of the persons who were apprehend- ed in St. Giles's by the nfficrrs of this establish- ment, on last Thursday se'nnight. They were on Monday brought up for final examination before Mr. Halls. Their names are—John Henry Meyer, Sarah Meyer, Mary Dowlir.g, and Mary Wade, alias Fitzgerald. I y Mr. Win. Overall, a farmer at Morton, in Essex and at present overseer in that parih. stated that on or about the 11th of February last the prisoners Dowling and Fitzgerald came to him while he was at plough, and presented a bundle of passes, and demauded relief for themselves and seven other women, together with 70 children, who were all on their way to Wales. He very natu- rally inquired where the other women and the children were, and the prisoners said they were gone on, ascribing as a reason for their not stop- ping in the village, that several of them were affiloled with auinfecti(iiii; fever, brought on by sudden change of climate, they having all just come from abroad. The prisoner Fitzgerald said that the overseer of Billericay had pald them aU for 15 miles on, an 1 that they were entitled to the same payment from the parish of Morton. The witness took them to the Rev. Mr. Earle, curate of the parish, who made a calculation of the amount at 14, per mile each person, and wit- ness paid the prisoners 51. lis. Sd. for themselves and their supposed companions. The Rev. Edward Robert Earle, curate of Morton, corroborated Mr. Overall's account, and said that the prisoner Fitzgerald (who is a well- looking girl of about IS) told him she was the daughter of a soldier then on a foreign station, and that she and her mother were travelling homel Her mother, she said, and the other women were ill ofa fever, and had gone on. The prisoners produced certificates, purporting to be signed by the commanding officers of the respective regi- ments to which the husbands or fathers of those claiming relief were said to belong; and they also produced printed forms of receipts for money paid by overseers, and signed them when the wit- ness had filled up the blanks. He calculated the amount to Ware, in Hertfordshire, at lid mile each for 79 personers, and ga va directions to Mr. Overall to pay the prisoners 51. lids. Sd. The passes, certificates, &c. given to the last witnesses, were put into the hands of a man named Wright, who swore that he was well acquainted with the hand-writing of the male prisoner, John Henry Meyer. and that the documents in ques- tion were In his writing. He once saw IVJever" writing on a document similar to the,passes now produced. Meyer denied that the passes were filled up by him. Fitzgerald & Dowling declared they were nivcr in Essex in their lives. As against Sarah Meyer there was no evidence she was discharged. The other three were fully committed for trial, for conspiiing to defraud the parish of Morton.— They will be tried at the £ ssex Sessions.

-u.t}>}-t- A communication Nyiti, the Brazils, by means of steaiii-ve,,iseli, the first used for regularly cros- sing the Atlantic, will take place immediateW, The Hibernian steam-boat is about to sail from Falmouth to Para, Maranham, Pernambuco Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro.. KEAN.—The audience of our Theatre are not re- markable for approving of public indecencies and the announcement of Mr. Kean's engagement was received, the other night, in the manner that might have been expected. Between the play and farce, Mr. Murray, the manager presented himself to in- timate the advent of his hero, but had no sooner delivered the message than it excited a pretty general expression of disgust and indignation, mingled, to be sure, with some applasues from one part of the houso. When silence could be obtained, a gentleman from the boxes addressed the manager, and aid, that he should withdraw his patronage from the theatre, that 1)0 part of his family should over again be see. within its walls, and that he should be able to exert some influence in dissuading a large circle of friends from sup- porting a place of amusement in which there was so little regard for morality. Mr. Murray said. Mr. Kean was engaged before the notoriety of a certain event. We think that the public ought to be favoured with a more satisfactory explanation than this stale excuse of the engagement. Ifthere is an agreement, we suppose that Mr. Murray, who knows his way to the law courts, is preliy well aware that he can be relieved from the con- tract, if, since it mas formed, the other party has become incompetent and unfit to discharge the obligations which he had undei-taken.Editi. htrgh Star.