The Mariner, Douglas, from New South Wales, was totally lost 1st July, on the Island of Chiloe, and three of the crew drowned.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
William and James Nisbet, and William Kerr, prisoners in the jail here, accused of housebreaking and theft, have been indicted and are to be tried before the High Court of Justiciary, on the 26th instant. The two Nisbets are brothers.

By the arrival of the brig Minerva, from Sydney, New South Wales, which place she left in February last, we learn, that the Morley  had arrived there on the 7th of that month, with a detachment of the Buffs regiment, under the command of Lieutenant and Adjutant Mackay. She had previously touched at Hobart Town, Van Dieman's Land, where she landed 170 male convicts, two having died on the passage.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hunt.--It is understood that Hunt  will be taken, in a short time, from Hertford gaol, and put on board one of the hulks lying off Woolwich, preparatory to his being transported for his natural life, by the first convict-ship, which will sail from this country to New South Wales.

The augmentation of the army consists in the formation of two regiments, the 94th and 95th infantry, and in the intended raising of four others, but which will not be embodied for some time. If we look at the previous strength of the army of this extended Empire, the small increase in question will not only excite no alarm, but it will be considered absolutely necessary for ordinary purposes. The total number of regulars voted for the last year (exclusive of the East Indies) was only 71,000, including officers. These may be said to be distributed in the following manner :--

Great Britain, 18,000 Ireland, 24,000 West Indies, 7,000 North America and Africa, 6,500 Gibraltar, Mediterranean, &c. 8,000 Cape of Good Hope, } Ceylon, } Mauritius, } New South Wales, }7,500 71,000


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Prison Discipline.

The Fifth Report  of the Committee of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline, &c.--1823. With an Appendix, &c.

T his Report  only reached us yesterday ; but the Society brings so much benevolence into activity, under the guidance of practical wisdom, aided by very enlightened views of the best interests of society, that we consider any delay improper in calling the attention of the public to their valuable proceedings. The present Report abounds with evidence that they have not relaxed in their exertions. At home, not only are the laws improving, but the magistracy are carrying improvements into all the practical departments. A great many jails, designed on much better principlpes, are in progress in different parts of the country ; and in those which are used, it may be said, generally, that much more attentions is paid to health, cleanliness, diet, employment, and classification. It must not be thought, however, that nothing remains to be done. There are still jails in which prisoners are double ironed, and chained to the floor of their cels from night to morning ; others in which persons committed for trial  are fettered with irons of the weight of from seven to nine pounds ; and others in which debtors are exposed to the contaminating society of criminals, in which neither the various classes of prisoners, nor the two sexes, are kept separate from each other, and in which all are allowed to be idle. The Magistrates of Surrey have provided a covered  vehicle for conveying prisoners to the Sessions'house ; but in the metropolis, it would appear, the practise still continues of inflicting public degradation on parties arraigned or merely suspected of crime, by marching them handcuffed  through the streets of London ; and, very recently, a party of one hun- dred prisoners  were marched for a mile handcuffed through the open streets, in order to be formally set at liber- ty by proclamation !  So much for metropolitan decorum ! These shameful exhibitions and practises cannot, however, long maintain their ground ; the publicity given to them, through the proceedings of the Society should, of itself, be enough to do them away ; but while they are continued England should be somewhat chary of her boasts. The views and principles of the Prison Society are attracting notice and gaining ground in France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Hanover, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. At Christiana the Magistrates have already resolved on the erection of a new city gaol. In St Petersburgh the prisoners are now furnished with food, clothing, baths, and medical assistance. A Ladies' Association, under the patronage of the Princess Mesthersky, is also in full activity at St Petersburgh ; and there is an auxiliary prison society at Orel, on the very frontiers of Siberia. Seven thousand prisoners passed through Orel last year ; but their chains have been lightened, and their condition meliorated generally, through the exertions of the Russian Society. For details, however, we must refer to the Report itself ; but we cannot take leave of it without making special notice of the benefits conferred on society by the Female Associations  and Temporary Refuge. The almost miraculous power of kindness, when accompanied, as genuine kindness often is, with quiet feeling and unobtrusive goodness, continues to be exemplified in the Ladies' Committee, of which Mrs Fry, we believe, is still at the head. In Newgate, idleness, dissipation, and licentiousness, have been succeeded by industry, order, and restraint ; and the same committee accomplish much good by visiting the ships in which convicts are embarked for New South Wales. Arrangements are thus made for the formation of schools for moral and religious instruction during the voyage, and the convicts are furnished not only with suitable clothing and other necessaries, but the means of employment in the manufacture of such articles as may be readily sold for their relief on arriving at the colony. These are truly good works ; and too much praise cannot be bestowed on the Ladies by whom they are performed. It is gratifying to observe that Female Associations for visiting prisons have been established in Bedford, Bristol, Carlisle, Colchester, Derby, Dumfries, Durham, Exeter, Lancaster, Nottingham, Plymouth, York, and Glasgow. We had once thought that, by this time, we might have added Edinburgh  ; and we are inclined to hope that the present Lord Provost will yet employ his influence in establishing a Lady's Society for the prisons of our Metropolis.--There, too, we had cherished, and still cherish, the hope, of seeing a House of Refuge. The temporary refuge of the Prison Society is chiefly for affording relief to distressed boys, who, on their discharge from the prisons of the metropolis, have expressed a desire to abandon their criminal courses. Many of these are in circumstances of urgent want ; and " the Committee can now look round wtih pleasure on many who are variously settled, and conducting them- selves  exemplarily. In the temporary refuge they are trained up to habits of industry, instructed in moral and religious duty, and after a time are provided with suitable situations." There is a great similarity in the histories of the individuals admitted into this asylum ; but the greater number, obviously, consists of boys, who had been almost driven to commit petty thefts from want of employment or destitution, or who, from neglect or loss of parents, had fallen into the company of professed thieves. The Committee mention that on one recent occasion, no less than eight boys were released from Newgate in one day, and immediately after they had undergone the sentence of flogging, which, upon some insane rule, is usually carried into effect on the day of their discharge. Their persons are thus marked with the stigma of guilt, and, from soreness and want of strength, they are disabled from working, at the very time they ought to go in search of employment. No more effectual plan could have been devised to irritate these boys against society, to prevent them from obtaining employment, though desirous of it, or to impel them to recommence their career of crime. We entreat those who are inclined to look upon what they call a smart whipping  as the only corrective for juvenile offences, to reflect a little on the consequences to which their system inevitably tends. We  are decidedly, and in all cases, against the deliberate infliction of pain, merely to be felt as such. In the case of children, if not necessary  for that purpose, it will certainly give them the idea of power superior to their own, and may thus be the means of constraining more readily than otherwise ; but the law, when it inflicts pain, has always other means of evincing its power, and constraining those who are within its grasp. Its most important function is to prevent crime ; its next is o convince those who comit offences that the means of detection are, on the whole, so sure that nothing is to be gained by the commission ; and its next, to make restitution onerous and complete. There may also be some classes of criminals who ought to be considered and treated as mad--some are curable ; and some as incurably furious, who must either be cut off altogether, or confined for life. We are not opposed to the infliction of punishments, because in our opinion the most effectual of those will be found to consist in the best means of preventing or remedying the evils produced by crime. All exposures, restraints, constraints, and compulsory reparations are punishments. We are only hostile to the infliction of pain for no other purpose but because pain is produced. If it can be made obvious  to the sufferers that the pain inflicted protects others, or affords true reparation  for the wrongs done to them or society, we shall then grant that such punishments may be both just and expedient. The Prison Society, while they vindicate themselves, temperately but firmly, from the charge of having yielded to a sort of blind and irrational benevolence, and advocated measures which went to raise the condition of prisoners above that of common labourers, do still seem to us to have been too much moved by the coarse jokes and reckless speculations of a clever essayist. If they err at all, they seem now to be somewhat too indulgent to the advocates of hard labour and severe punishments. We are rather inclined to think them too decidely in favour of the tread mill, which they allow has been so worked or constructed at different places as to form very unequal measures of punishment, and they very properly insist that every tread-mill should be provided with " a regulator," by which its rate of revolution may at all times be restrained within safe limits, and a dial-register, (lately invented by Mr Bate, instrumentmaker to the Board of Excise) by which the rate of labour may be, at any time, accurately ascertained, and which ( they think ) should in no case exceed 12,000 feet in ascent for one day. There is an able argument in the report against compelling persons to labour who are merely imrpisoned for trial  : and there is a great mass of curious and useful information in the Appendix.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total Charge, t7,856 0 11

In January, 1823, there were 3,031 in the hulks ; 2,138 have been received since ; 1,402 have been sent to New South Wales ; and 300 to Bermuda  ; 468 have been discharge by pardon or transferred to other establishments ; 3 have escaped ; 43 have died ; and 2,953 remained in the different hulks on 1st Janury last. The health of these prisoners has been good, their conduct orderly.

The Office-bearers of the Refuge for the Destitute  have, during the last year, given relief to 424 persons. They have apprenticed to trades, recommended to service or employment, or restored to parents and friends, 214 individuals :--under their charge at present 154. Most of the male culprits require to be kept two years at least. The expenditure has been very considerable. Mr Peel has recommended a grant from Parliament.

As we feared, the bill introduced for the purpose of qualifying persons possessed of personal property to serve as juries contains no regulations for the more impartial striking of juries, or returning or making up of those who are to serve on each jury. There does seem to be an improvement on the form  of the returns to be made by the Constables to the Sheriffs.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Scottish Intelligence.

Repeated instances have lately occurred, in whcih dwellinghouses have suffered damage by fire, owing to the carelessnes of servants and others, who, by way of economy, take off fires at night and put the burning coals under the grate, not recollecting that, in the construction of almost every house, the stone placed under the grate is supported by timber, separated from the hearth stone by some lime only. The wood underneath being once ignited, the fire will rapidly spread, and may in a few hours involve the whole tenement in flames.

Emigration to Australia.--We understand that the establishment of an Australian Company has suggested to a number of public spirited individuals the idea of forming a society to aid deserving persons in their endeavours to emigrate and settle in New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land, and that matters are actually in progress for carrying this benevolent project into effect. On Wednesday a meeting was held in the Freemasons' Hall, Niddry Street, which was respectably attended, the Rev. Mr Lothian in the Chair, when a series of resolutions were moved by William Ellis, Esq. S. S. C., and seocnd by Robert Paul, Esq. of the Commercial Bank. The principal object comprehended in those were the security of the persons and property of emigrants on the voyage--the maintenance of a regular communication with friends left behind, and the insuring a friendly welcome, temporary accommodation, and facilities for permanent settlement in the country of their adoption. It was also proposed to give assistance in money to deserving emigrants, for the purpose of defraying the expenses of freight and passage out--every applicant being first well recommended, and his character subjected to strict scrutiny. Masons, wrights, smiths, and other artisans, schoolmasters, farm servants, and labourers, are the classes to which the principles of the society specially apply.

According to the opinion of persons largely engaged in the silktrade, the amount of drawback to be allowed on silk that has paid the duty will be between t300,000 and t400,000.

On Sunday evening a disturbance took place in a house in Tobago Street, and the Police were called, who, to make sure of the rioter, secured the door ; at which a young woman, a servant, became so much alarmed, that she leaped out of a window, situated on the third floor, whereby her back was broken. She now lies very ill in the Royal Infirmary.

The Army--The several Recruiting Parties throughout Great Britain and Ireland having received their instructions, are now actively employed in raising men for the three new Regiments of the Line, whose establishments, it is expected, will be in a very short time completed. The Head-quarters of the 97th Regiment are changedfrom Gosport to Winchester.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
House of Commons

Thursday, May 6.

Mr J. Smith  presented a petition from the Australian Company which was founded for the purpose of cultivating lands in New South Wales, praying that they might be incorporated.

The petition was ordered to be referred to a Committee.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mr Secretary Peel, in moving the commitment of the Transportation Bill, stated, that the objects of the bill were, first, to continue the laws on transportation, that would expire before the next session ; and next, to cimplify the law. In the last session a bill had been passed to enable the Crown to make an experiment of the union of the hulk and transportation system, by sending convicts to Bermuda. There had been as yet hardly time to decide fully on the experiment, but, as far as it could be judged of, it was satisfactory. It had been hithero complained that transportation was a very esqual punishment, and certainly there was a great different in the effect of the punishment upon a man of settled habits, and with a family, and upon a man of no fixed habits, to whom, as hitherto managed, it had scarcely been a punishment. He wished it to be known, that arrangements had been made in New South Wales, to send some of the convicts to a distant part of the settlement, where the punishment would be more severe. A selection would be made from the convicts, so as to make the punishment efficient against those to whom it had hitherto had no terror.--He gave this statement because it was right the public should know that transportation would be henceforward a real punishment.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Press at Cape of Good Hope

Mr Greig, after stating the correspondence which took place between him and the Fiscal, which led to the suppression of his journal, gives the following account of his interview with that functionary. "On Monday evening, the Fiscal sent a messenger to me, requesting I would call at his house, in Strand-street; I did so ; he then opened a conversation upon the subject of my paper, The South African Commercial Advertiser, and said he was instructed to inform me that I had departed from the Prospectus --that it was become obnoxious to the Government, and referred more particularly to the last three or four Numbers. I asked him to point out such parts as were immediately objectionable. He then mentioned some leading remarks, which (he said) bore upon the Administration of the Colony. He further pointed out as " ob- noxious, " all quotations which had been made from " De Lolne[?], "Blackstone," and " Civil Servant's"work " Lacon," and, generally all extracts relative to the Liberty of the Press, observing --" Nobody can doubt the obvious tendency of these ; and, as we are not men in this Colony, but merely infants," it was, in his opinion, dangerous to insert such matter. He added, also, that it was expected I should, in future, publish no parts of trials, but wait until the whole were finished ; and, even then, all scurrilous parts (such as the Memorial of Mr L. Cooke to the Treasury), were to be omitted. That I was further to bound down with two sureties, in the penalty of ten thousand rix-dollars, that nothing of the offensive nature pointed out, should appear in any future number ; and, lastly, that I was to take particular care, that the next number (18) contained no matter of the description alluded to, nor any notice of Mr Edward's trial. To all this, I replied, that I would give no promise as to what would appear in the next or any future number. That I required time to consider what was fitting to be done with regard to the security demanded."

The Morning Chronicle  makes the following remarks on this case :-- We cannot say that we are surprised that acts of this description should take place in our Colonies. Uncontrouled power produces every day in Europe the worst effects on men of the best dispositions, and the best talents, and the Governors of our conquered Colonies, and New South Wales, are unfortunately quite absolute. In Europe the people under absolute Governments have this advantage over the people in our colonies, that men in office are generally selected with some reference to abilities and acquirements. But with the exception of the East Indies, the Gonernment of which, with all its faults, generally, we believe, avails itself of talents, our colonies are unfortunately considered as mere places of refuge for the relatives of our Aristocracy, of whom nothing can be made in this country. This is what constitutes fitness for a Colonial Office ; and so far from being astonished at the disgraceful scenes which are constantly taking place in the colonies, every person capable of reflecting at all upon the matter would be astonished were he to find common abilities the holder of a colonial appointment of any value. Of Lord Charles Somerset, the less that is said the better. In fact nothing is more wanted than the perusal of a Cape of Good Hope Almanack, to satisfy the British public what sort of personage he is. Would it be believe, that in a country of boundless extent, with only a settlement here and there, where the greatest enemies the Colonists have to contend with, are the wild animals, it could possible enter in to the head of any rarional being to introduce laws for the preservation of game. One would as soon expect to hear laws in Turkey for the preservation of the plague. Yet it so happens, that a code which would do credit to Sir John Shelley himself, guarding against the possible disinction of the game of Africa, occupies a goodly space in the Cape Almanack. After such a specimen of wisdom, all criticism on this personage would be thrown away.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
London. Saturday, February 7

Hunt.--Since the arrival of Hunt, on board the Justitia  hulk, at Woolwich, he has been sent to work, along with the rest of the convicts, in Woolwich Warren. He will be conveyed on board the Countess of Harcourt, convict-ship, from Woolwich, about three weeks hence, to New South Wales, his future destination.

Petersburgh.--On the 6th of January the anniversary of the deliverance of Russia, from the invasion of the French, and twenty nations in alliance with them, was commenced with the usual religious solemnity. The city was illuminated in the evening.--German paper.

Prosperity of the Iron Trade.--At a quarterly meeting of the iron masters of Yorkshire, and Derbyshire, held on Wednesday the 21st ultimo, atthe Tontine Inn, in this town, we are happy to learn that the important branch of trade fully keeps pace with the increasing prosperity of the country. The general orders for metal are represented to be equal to some of those brisk periods of demand which so frequently occurred during the late war, when a much heavier price was readily realized han it now bears.--Sheffield Iris.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Skelton, Captain Dixon, arrived in Leith Roads, on Saturday, the 21st inst, from Van Dieman's Land and New South Wales, with a general cargo.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
