the building. They soon communicated to the gold-room, from thence to the counting-houses, and eventually to the silver or rolling-room, on the eastern side; and in a short time the eastern and southern wings of the building were completely unroofed, and the interior totally destroyed. In these were contained the great machinery of the works, including the ten, fifteen, and thirty horse power engines. During the fire, several ingots were taken from the ruins red-hot and there was also discovered in one of the rooms, where the fire had been got under, nearly a ton and a half of copper in stivers, half-stivers, &c. which had not been much damaged. The loss sustained by this calamity, including all the implements, machinery, &c. is estimated to amount to from sixty to eighty thousand pounds. The magnificent pile in front of the manufactory has escaped.

:

AGRICULTURAL REPORT. A most abundant crop of all kinds of corn has been secured in the best condition. Never have we heard few er complaints of mildew, smut, and other distempers, or of loss either on the field or in the stack-yard. Turnips and potatoes are, upon the whole, rather deficient. Wheat has been sown under very favourable circumstances, and the plant is generally regular and healthy.

Prices of all sorts of produce have fallen considerably since the date of our last Report. The average price of wheat throughout England, for the week ending the 21st of October, is 57s. 5d. per quarter; and in Scotland, for the four weeks ending the 15th of October, is 50s. 7d.-Cattle and sheep are from ten to twenty per cent. lower than last year.

Our Reports do not enable us to speak decisively of the effect of clay ashes as a manure. It is probable that many experiments, with different sorts of clay

and subsoil, must be made, before the merits of this practice can be fairly estimated; and some improvement introduced in the method of burning before it can become general.

NOVEMBER.

28.—Arrest and Execution of Murat, the Ex-King of Naples.-It appears that the ex-king, hoping by some bold and fortunate enterprise to recover his lost dominions, landed with a few followers at a place called Pizzo, on the coast of Calabria. He there issued proclamations, inviting his former subjects to join his standard, and promising them the assistance of Austria. From the coast he marched quietly to the village. When he arrived there, he attempted to excite the stir of a civil war, by crying out to the people," I am your King, Joachim Murat: you ought to acknowledge me." These words were the signal of a general commotion: they ran to arms. Murat, and his suite, who were proceeding towards Monte Leone, seeing themselves pursued by the populace, threw themselves precipitately among the mountains, whence they attempted to open for themselves a way to the coast, in order to find the vessel which awaited them; but, overcome by the number and courage of their pursuers, they were made prisoners, and conducted, in spite of every resistance on their part, to the fort of Pizzo. In the heat of the encounter, Captain Pernice was killed, and General Franceschetti wounded, as well as seven other persons in the suite of Murat; whose own death followed af. ter the short interval of one week. He landed on the 8th, and was shot on the 15th of October.

Murat was born at an inn near Cahors; where, even when a child, he

was remarkable for his courage and address in riding the most spirited horses. The same traits were afterwards eminent in his character when he entered the army as a soldier of for tune, and his early habits induced him particularly to cultivate the science of cavalry manœuvres, for which he became highly distinguished. His marriage with Buonaparte's favourite sis. ter gave him a crown; and, as if for tune resolved that he should wear it, his cause, by the most unforeseen and prosperous events, was severed from that of Napoleon; so that he appeared even to triumph in the downfall of his master. But the restlessness of his ambition, and the contemptible chicanery of his politics, worked his ruin. Not satisfied with what the Austrian minister, in his remonstrance to him, justly called "one of the most ancient, compact, and beautiful kingdoms in Europe," impelled by the principles he learned in the school of Napoleon, this groom-king sighed after the patrimony of the Papal See, and attempted to seize on the three legations. Success had rendered Murat an enthusiast; he fancied that Italy panted for liberty-that she would hail him as her regenerator, and reward him with her diadem. With these hopes he encountered the power of Austria, with about 30,000 men, after having severally deceived every court in Europe, and forfeited the bribe for which he sold his patron, by joining him again before the bargain was completed. The loss of his throne was the just punishment of his perfidy; and the loss of his life can be regarded in no other light than as the sacrifice of an incendiary, offered to the safety of his intended victims.

Murat suffered by the very law that he himself caused to be enacted two years back; which law ordered, that any person landing in the country, with an intent of disturbing the public tranquillity, was to be tried and

shot-he had a confessor, but would neither sit down, nor have his eyes blinded.

3d.--PARIS.--The greatest vigilance and activity prevail among the British troops, since their occupation of the capital and its environs. From the general orders of the Duke of Wellington, it would appear that the French are not expected to remain quiet. The military precautions which his grace has ordered to be observed, are much more strict than whilst the troops were in camp; the officers can. not absent themselves, under any pretence, from their quarters during the night; but the most marked circumstance is that alarm-posts are assigned to every regiment, to which they are to repair instantly in case of attack. Measures have been taken to oblige the French officers to leave Paris; a considerable number of them are arrested for appearing in public without permission to reside in the capital.

The number of French officers in Paris, who are irritated by disappointed ambition, or by distress, cannot fall far short of 20,000. They are to be seen in uniform, and in coloured clothes, the few who can afford it, in all the places of public resort. These men express their discontent with little qualification. The French are not at all disposed to afford comfortable accommodation to the British officers billeted in their houses; the Duke of Wellington has, in consequence, issued a very strong order, that if an apartment is not opened, at the request of an officer, provided it be necessary for his accommodation, in a suitable manner, the door is to be forced open: in general they have been found very reluctant.

The following bulletin was exhibited on Sunday at St James's :—

KING'S HEALth.

"Windsor Castle, Nov. 4. "His Majesty has continued to enjoy good bodily health, and has been generally

tranquil, though less uniformly so than during the preceding month. The general state of his Majesty's health is unaltered." (Signed as usual.)

6th.-EDINBURGH.-MUSICAL FESTIVAL. The commencement of this

splendid entertainment, for which such extensive preparations have been so long arranging, and towards which the general attention has been so eagerly directed, was presented to the public, on the morning of Tuesday last, in the outer hall of the Parlia ment-house. As it had been announced several days before, that nearly as many tickets were subscribed for as this spacious saloon could contain individuals, the dread of being disappointed in places thronged the streets with chairs, carriages, and visitors on foot, at the early hour of eight in the morning. Every precaution had been previously taken to render the access to the public as safe and commodious as possible. Every thing like tumult and confusion, on the first day, was completely avoided; and the same attention and care having been equally exhibited within doors, the numerous visitors were accommodated in the hall with little bustle, and without any danger.

Yaniewicz was the leader, and Mather undertook the important responsibility of the organ. The violoncellos were headed by Lindley, and the double basses by Dragonetti. All the other departments were upon the same scale of excellence. The arrange ments of the first day consisted of a Grand Miscellaneous Act from the works of Handel, together with_the celebrated Creation of Haydn. The whole opened with the Overture to Esther, of which we may say, that although it produced a very powerful effect, yet perhaps a production of greater magnificence might have been selected, as the opening piece, from the works of its illustrious author.

This was followed by the exquisitely beautiful song, from the Redemption, of Lord remember David, which was sung by Braham, with equal chastity, pathos, and effect. Mrs Salmon's silver tone and beautiful execution were

exhibited to great advantage in the recitative and song, from Judas Maccabeus, of O let eternal Honours, and From mighty Kings. Mr Smith, a chaste and pleasing, though not powerful or brilliant, bass singer, delivered, My Cup is full, and Shall I on Mamre's fertile Plain, with good approbation. Madame Marconi, a professor of great, though recent celebrity, advanced her claims to our notice, in the song of Return, O God of Hosts; in which she displayed a degree of science, feeling, and energy, which merited infinitely greater applause than at first it obtained, or was in truth calculated to obtain on a first hearing. It was not until Madame Marconi had been heard repeatedly, that her eminent powers were acknowledged even by those whose ears revolt from the tasteless trickery which is sometimes resorted to in order to obtain an undeserved popularity. But in the course of her quiet and unexaggerated exertions, it was discovered, that, to a voice of singular power, and exquisite though peculiar tone, this lady added the finest taste, profound science, ardent feeling, and, in short, every characteristic of the highest and purest school of music.

Those who have only heard Mr Braham in modern English opera can form no idea of the splendid effects he produced by the style, not more powerful and impassioned, than free from every extrinsic ornament, in which he gave the sublime recitation and song, from Joshua, 'Tis well! Six times the Lord hath obeyed, and Glory to God! The strong cemented Walls. In sacred music, where his taste generally (though not always) preserves him

from the only vice of his style, his tendency to redundant ornament, this great singer, we think, has no competitor. His power of voice is almost without limits, his tenderness altoge ther subduing, his energy resistless, and the devotional feeling, which is the soul of sacred song, appears to come deep from his inmost heart. The chorusses, throughout the whole performances, were in the first style of excellence.

After the selection from the works of Handel, the remainder of the enter tainment was devoted to the Creation by Haydn. This noble work strikes us to possess more general and sustained beauty than any of Handel's compositions; but not to exhibit, par ticularly in the chorusses, either such force or grandeur as the latter some times soar to. The genius displayed in the chorusses of Handel can hardly be said to have been equalled by any of his successors, particularly if we keep in view the immense aid which they have derived from the improve. ments that have been made upon some instruments since his æra, and the discovery of others, wholly unknown to that great composer. Even the sublime chorus, And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters, does not appear to us to raise its author to the transcendent eminence of the author of the Hallelujah-a combination of sounds and sentiments reaching from earth to heaven. This opinion, however, we deliver with deference; and admitting, at the same time, that it is hardly possible to conceive a more ennobling effect than was produced by the burst of harmony at the words, "And there was light!" In the air and chorus of Now vanish before the holy Beams, the alternate sensations of horror and delight, the most soothing emotions of the latter succeeding to the most terrific agitations of the former, were excited with

marvellous power. The Heavens are telling, concluded the second part in a strain of excellence which could not be surpassed. The whole of what remained was executed with equal beauty and perfection.

Having attempted, in this account of the first day's performance, to give a general idea of the effect produced upon the auditors by an embodying of excellence so perfectly new to Scutland, and at the same time to exhibit a faint idea of the merit of the principal singers, it is neither to be expected, nor desired, that we should be equally particular in describing those which followed. The second morning's performance, on Thursday, was the Messiah; and the extreme popularity of that celebrated work led to a press of candidates for admission, which, in spite of every possible precaution and attention on the part of the Directors, occasioned an enormous degree of crowding and inconvenience. No fewer than Two THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED and odds, contrived to make their way into the house, and no fewer than six HUNDRED unlucky aspirants were forced to leave the doors in disappointment! Perhaps we might almost say certainly--this sublime effort of genius never received greater justice. With a very few exceptions, which it would be cruel to particularise, there was not a line nor a note which could have gained by any conceivable change.

The chorusses of this day were all supported with unexceptionable fire, spirit, and correctness. The Hallelujah was transcendent. The whole assembly rose by an involuntary movement at its commencement; and when it closed it appeared to leave the exhausted mind struggling, but vainly struggling, to retain those feelings of devotion, reverence, and love, which music, without that highest and most ennobling source of feeling which is

furnished by religion, could never have excited.

There was a selection from Handel and Haydn, on Friday, to give an opportunity of gratification to those who had not found admission on the former days. With this view, it of course presented no peculiar features of novelty.

The last, and perhaps the finest, of the whole performances took place on Saturday; being a selection from the works of Handel, Beethoven, and

Mozart.

The Overture and Dead March in Saul afforded to Mr Mather an adequate means of displaying his great powers as an organist; and we may here avail ourselves of the opportunity of paying to this ingenious and excellent musician the tribute of our thanks and our applause.

The evening concerts were conduct ed and executed with equal skill as those of the morning; but, excepting the means which they afforded to some of the instrumental performers of shewing more prominently their individual excellence, they exhibited no features of novelty which call for particular remark. The concertos of Lindley and Yaniewicz were the most applauded, and certainly the most worthy of applause. Dragonetti was limited by one of Corelli's duets, which shewed the brilliancy of his execution only, without at all calling into play the higher powers of his art. Holmes, Nicholson, and the Petrides, attracted also a great deal of applause.

On Friday evening, a new overture was produced by Mr G. F. Graham, a gentleman, whose science, genius, and feeling, are rapidly raising him to musical eminence. These qualities were all exhibited in the composition of Friday, which was received by a splendid audience with every mark of distinction and favour.

On looking back upon the whole

of this fine exhibition, it impresses us as being honourable, and equally honourable, to those who first gave it activity, to the directors who so judiciously and liberally arranged its details, to the performers who were engaged in it, and to the country by which it was supported. We have already termed it an æra in the musical annals of Scotland; and we have little doubt that it will prove one, from which may be dated her rapid improvement in the true principles of harmony.

10th. The splendid and valuable carriage taken at the battle of Waterloo, which was fitted up in the most magnificent style for Buonaparte, and captured while waiting for the ex-emperor, by a Prussian general, who sent it as a present to the Prince Regent, with the four horses which were attached to it, and a French driver, arrived a few days since at the Mews of Carlton House. On Friday it was exhibited to the Regent in its complete state, accompanied by the officer who took it, and a number of English and foreigners of distinction. The driver, in his full dress, sitting on the near pole horse, drives the four horses with a whip, the thong of which is about three yards long, but he manages the horses principally by talking to them. The two leading horses are at such a distance from the other two that there is nearly room for

two more.

About eight o'clock this morning, one of the sons of Mr Bassett, of St Enodar, a fine young man, but who has for a considerable time been subject to temporary derangement, and was formerly an inmate of the Devon Lunatic Asylum, at Exeter, fromwhich place he came out apparently restored to sanity, having been reproved by his mother for some impropriety of conduct, flew into a violent passion, and threatened to beat her with a stick