grown persons were in the church at the time, and of these the greater part escaped; but the children of the Moorfield charity school, who are regularly marched in procession from the school to the church somewhat earlier than the time of service, had partly entered. The boys, following last, all escaped; but of the girls, who were either entering the porch or proceeding up the aisle, we lament to state that a great number were instantly overwhelmed beneath the falling pile. The whole number of bodies taken out from the ruins is twentyseven. Of these, twenty-two were either dead or died almost immediately after their removal; five were taken to the infirmary, of whom one died very soon afterwards, and another died yesterday. The hideous crash of the steeple, and the piercing shriek which immediately issued from those who had escaped in the church, or were witnesses of the catastrophe in the church-yard, immediately brought a large concourse of people to the spot; and we notice with pleasure the prompt exertions which were immediately made for rescuing the unfortunate victims, by the immediate removal of the fallen masonry, which were continued with unabated attention until the whole of the bodies were extricated, notwithstanding the menacing appearance of the remaining part of the tower. Accidents of this kind usually give rise to many hair-breadth and surprising escapes. We have collected the following from authentic information: The ringers, though apparently exposed to the greatest danger, were all fortunate enough to escape, with the exception of one, who was caught in the ruins along with a boy of 14 years of age, who was in the steeple at the same time. They were, however, both immediately extricated by the exertions of the other ringers. The man was but slightly wounded; but the boy is since dead. The alarm, it appears, was given to the ringers by the falling of a stone upon the fifth bell, which prevented its swing, upon which they immediately ran out. A mo, ment did not elapse before the bells, beams, and the upper floors fell to the bottom of the tower, and their escape would have been impossible had not the belfry been upon the ground floor. The Rev. L. Pughe, the officiat. ing minister for the day, entered the church-yard at nineteen minutes past ten having himself noticed the clock upon his entrance. He proceeded immediately to the great south door, and was in the act of entering it when he was stopped for a few seconds by the children of the Moorfields school, who were pressing into the church at the same time. Upon his appearance, a young woman, a teacher in the school, and one of the unfortunate sufferers, began to separate the children on each side to afford him a passage, when he heard a person exclaim, "for God's sake, Mr, Pughe, turn back." Hestepped back, and looking up, perceived the spire sinking down towards the east. Immediately the the whole fell in. The Rev. R. Roughsedge, the rector, was at that timeturning the northwest corner of the tower, and proceeding to the vestry, which is also at the west end of the church. His lady was already in the vestry, as were also Mr Coventry the clerk, and the sexton. The worthy rector appears to have owed his safety to the circumstance of his taking the way on the outside of the church to the vestry, in preference to the more direct one through the south door and the west aisle. Mr. Knowles, one of the church. wardens, having placed his five children in the pew, went into the vestry to speak to the clergyman before the service commenced, and, as he was returning, he heard the tremendous crash. He soon found, with a degree of terror and alarm which can only be conceived by a parent, that the pew in which he had left his children was buried beneath the ruins! He soon after met Mrs Knowles, and after they had both endured this state of agonizing expectation for almost half an hour, they found that the children, contrary to their usual habits, and against all probability, had left the church without their father's permission, intending to return as soon as the service should commence, and were met by their overjoyed parents in perfect safety. A person of the name of Martin experienced an escape almost miraculous. The pews around him were broken to atoms, and heaped with stones, but that in which he sat sustained but little injury, and he himself got out of the church unhurt. He returned public thanks to Almighty God for his astonishing deliverance, at St Peter's church, in the afternoon of the same day; very properly acknowledging a superintending Providence, equally conspicuous in the most apparently contingent events, as in directing the smooth and regular current of human affairs. John Brandreth, one of the singers, was the only person in the organ gallery, which is placed in the southwest corner of the church, immediately joining the inside of the tower. The organ, and front of the gallery were brought down and dashed to pieces, and Brandreth was buried in the wreck. The incumbent weight was, however, sustained by the timber which surrounded him in cross directions, and he was dug out with no other hurt than a slight cut in his forehead. With respect to the injury which the church itself has sustained by this accident, it is evident that the whole of the remaining tower must be taken down. The roof is broken through in two places. The first opening extends to about one third of the whole length of the church. The massy stone pillars which support the roof have preserved the centre entire; but towards the east end another considerable opening is made, through which the upper part of the spire forced its way, and striking against the carved wood partition, which divides the chancel from the body of the church, has driven the splinters as far as the altar itself. Almost the whole of the pews in the centre of the church are either entirely demolished, or much injured. The activity and humanity of the mayor and magistrates, the gentlemen of the faculty, who gave their assistance, and the subordinate officers of the police, are deserving of the highest applause. No less than nineteen of these unfortunate sufferers, consisting of the girls belonging to the Moorfields school, were buried at St John's church on Tuesday last. They were attended to the grave by a great number of girls of their own age, friends and acquaintances, decently habited in white, and walking in procession. The spectacle was solemn and deeply affecting. The tower of St Nicholas' church is the oldest erection in town, and in consequence of the fall of the spire is likely to be taken down, but the spire and upper part of the tower were modern. The old tower, on which these were erected, is supposed to have been built at least as early as 1360, 450 years ago. The new erection was projected in the year 1745, as appears from the following extract from the vestry book : 11th September, 1745. "It is ordered by this vestry that a spire shall be built on the tower of the parochial chapel of St Nicholas, and that a plan thereof be in the mean time drawn by Mr Thomas See, and proposals for building it be delivered in to the present church wardens. Messrs Hugh Ball and Samuel Seel, who are to lay them before the next meeting of the vestry." In the said vestry book it is stated, on first April, 1746, that a contract be made with Messrs Sephton and Smith, to complete a spire on the plan drawn by Mr Thomas See, and voted 11th September, 1745. The spire was accordingly completed in the year 1750, by Messrs Sephton and Smith, on the said plan, the payment of which is entered in the church disbursements 3101., in addition to which they were paid 221. 1s. for chipping the old tower, amount ing in the whole to 3321. 1s. The following is a list of the unfortunate persons killed by the falling in of the spire of St Nicholas' church : 11 years old. 9 ditto. 8 ditto. 10 ditto. 10 ditto. 9 ditto. 9 ditto. 7 ditto. 10 ditto. 10 ditto. 9 ditto. 8 ditto. 8 ditto. 8 ditto. 9 ditto. 14 ditto. Sarah Elsby, teacher, Phoebe Parry, Ann Parry, { Sisters 12 years old. 3 ditto. 65 ditto. 26 ditto. 69 ditto. Mr James Molyneux cooper. Richard Lloyd, aged 14 years-died at the Monday morning, the powder-mills at Hounslow-heath blew up with a tremendous explosion, by which four men at work lost their lives. SWINDLING.- -A person of the name of Chamberlain was brought from the arms of his chere amie, in Suffolk-street, to Bow-street office, on Friday, on various charges of fraud. The prisoner is a young man, whose appearance and address were well calculated to impose on the public.Mr Davis, a jeweller in Jermyn-street, proved that the prisoner had obtained of him articles of jewellery to the amount of 401. by giving a false representation of himself. Mr Wigham, and other silversmiths in the neighbourhood of St James's-street, had received the prisoner's orders, and most of them were duped. Mr Wigham was lucky enough to save a service of plate, which was not delivered when the prisoner was secured. Chamberlain was notorious on the town two years ago; but, to avoid the danger of detection, he took a tour to the north, and was soon after committed to Carlisle gaol on a charge of forgery. He returned to the metropolis about three weeks ago, and has been indefatigable in fraudulent pursuits ever since. A gentleman in the office produced a fictitious bill for 151., which the prisoner paid at an inn at Bagshot for a loan of that sum. The prisoner called there in a chaise and four, and represented himself as the bearer of dispatches from Spain to government. He was fully committed for trial on Mr Davis's charge. A new-born infant was lately found on the road, three miles from Kilkeel, with one of its arms torn off, supposed to have been done by swine. The unnatural mother, who thus exposed her child, has been searched for, but to no purpose. Within the course of ten days, a coach from London to Dover was stopped, and a seizure made of three thousand guineas. A curious well, of Roman masonry, has lately been discovered by the workmen employed in digging the mound, on which the half-moon battery lately stood at Newcastle, in order to procure a firm foundation for the new court-houses for the county of Northumberland. It is situated thirty feet below the surface, and is formed of fine hewn stone. Within a few yards of the well, two very large horns, resembling those of a stag, and the jaw bones of the animal, were found. On digging further, a great number of large beams of solid oak, some perfectly sound, others as rotten as dust, lying in a variety of directions, have been met with. The above circumstances have given rise to a variety of speculations as to the probability of the whole of that immense mound being the production of art. Last week, the inhabitants in the neighbourhood of Leed-hills were alarmed about midnight with the appearance of a tall figure, armed with a huge pole, stalking about the country; and imagining that it might be a robber, two men armed, the one with a musket, the other with a sword, sallied out to attack him; but the moment the person with the musket made his appearance, the unknown dropt down and expired. Every medical assistance was immediately procured, but in vain. He afterwards proved to be a poor maniac, who had escaped from a place of confinement. Four persons have been released from the gaol of Derry, and one from Colerain, whose debts amounted to 1081., by the active benevolence of Mr Pole, who spread the light and solace of the jubilee festival even farther than the particular funds provided out of that occasion could extend. The Rev. Mr Grattan, inspector of the Derry prison, has been the immediate instrument of those good works. The jubilee fund being destined only for the liberation of debtors confined for sums under 501., must have left those persons to linger still in those mansions of misery, had it not been for this humane and compassionate intervention. Under the pious and christian auspices of the Bishop of Derry, nine persons were delivered out of prison by means of the jubilee fund, who had been a long time debarred from the blessing and comfort of liberty. 21st.-COURT OF KING'S BENCH. Munyard v. Gilbee.-This was a trial on an issue from the Court of Chancery, to try the validity of a marriage. Mr Park stated the case. The defendant already named was a nominal one, and named only as connected with the deed on which this cause was originally moved in Chancery. The real defendant was Mr Daniels, lately a stock-broker, and now residing at Hampstead. The plaintiff was also a stock-broker. Some months before the 8th of April, 1809, the plaintiff, going to the defendant's house on business of his father's, a wholesale ironmonger in Castle-street, saw the defendant's daughter. His connexion with the Exchange enabled him to serve Mr Daniels on some occasions in his busi ness. This produced an intimacy, in the course of which the plaintiff paid his addresses to Miss Daniels, and was desired to wait till she was a few months older. One evening, at supper, Mr Daniels suddenly announced to his daughter his consent that she should be married to the object of her declared regard. She was a delicate girl; and the intelligence produced such an immediate nervous agitation, that medical aid was necessary. She recovered soon after, and from her strong attachment, and her habitual irritability of frame, her friends advised that the marriage should not be delayed. If it were possible that a verdict should go against him this day, he could not conceive a man more hardly treated than his client; his addresses sanctioned, his marriage solemnized by consent of both families, and this without any hope of emolument, excepting the distant one of a very moderate fortune from the precarious and capricious bounty, or rather from the inveterate and unaccountable enmity of his father-in-law. On the 27th of March, Daniels, his daughter, and a Mrs Newman, her aunt, came to town from Hampstead, to buy clothes and trinkets for the wedding. On her return, Miss Daniels went on a visit to the plaintiff's father, who lives at Camden Town. She remained there from the 1st to the 7th of March, without any appearance of the insanity which was now alleged as the cause of breaking off a marriage contracted in the face of the church, according to the forms of law. On the third of April, a dinner was given at Mr Daniel's house; to which the entire of the Munyard family were invited. Mr Daniels was laid up in bed with the gout; but the females of the party were admitted to his apartment, and he expressed himself in terms of the warmest affection for his intended sonin-law; said that nothing should now delay the match, and that he might have taken a horse, and rode from one end of London to the other before he could have met a man in every way so eligible. He afterwards went with his daughter to Doctors Commons, to execute the necessary papers for the marriage; in short, went every where with her but to the altar. If he saw her insane before that, why not forbid the marriage? if at the altar, why not stop her there? He attests the marriage, he signs the register, and yet now comes forward to invalidate the ceremony, to which he had given his full sanction. I can believe nothing low or insulting of the church; there was a clergyman officiating-would he not have refu. sed to go through the rite if he had seen insanity in either of the parties? The exhortation of the form of marriage was among the most solemn in the entire Rubric. The clergyman read it so that it was heard by the parties; it was heard by the aunt, who was now to be brought forward full of testimony to the insanity of her niece, and acknowledging, with a base and bold defiance of the feelings of a relative, and the faith of a virtuous woman, that she allowed her niece to go a sacrifice to the altar, to swear to the performance of duties, of which she could not know the nature; to vow obedience to a husband, while her brain was distorted with madness; to contract amarriage, which that aunt knew must be a nullity; and to load an unhappy and doating husband with the shame, the burden, the misery of a lunatic wife, and propagate a race of unfortunates, cursed with the dreadful visitation of that malady, which had made their mother an object of |