A SURPASSING CRIMINAL.—At the Chester . Assizes, last Saturday, Joseph Woodhouse,

a blacksmith, was convicted of a rape upon his own daughter, a deli-

cate child scarcely eleven years of age. Mr. Justice Jarvis, who doomed the monster to death, mentioned that his guilt was even more atrocious in its circum- :anus than had appeared on the trial. Whilst we refuse to contaminate our pages with the details of such a case, it is yet fitting that it should be remarked, 'bat moral England, in the year 1829, contained so great a criminal.

MALICIOUS CUTTING AND MAImiNc.—At the Chester Assizes, on Monday, H. Wyatt, T. Wyatt, W. Wyatt, and W. Pollitt, were charged, the first-named with

cuiting and stabbing James Burgess, and the others with aiding and abetting. The prosecutor lives at Bredbury, and on the 24th of August went with his brother into the employ.of Mr. Jesse Howard, a cotton.spinner at Stockport, from which the prisoners had turned out for an increase of wages. On the evening of that day, they left work half an hour earlier than the regular time, at the re- quest of the manager of the works, who told them lie feared an attack upon them by

the refractory spinners. The prosecutor saw a. man, who appeared to be watching them, run into a public house. After they had got a short distance, they looked back and saw a numberf men following them from the public-house. The pri- soners were amongst the number, and one of them came up and asked why he worked for Jesse Howard, and what he gave him ? The prosecutor told him, and then they all fell on him and his brother. The prosecutor ran into a house op- posite, and H. and W. Wyatt followed him. W. Wyatt called out to the owner

tithe house, " D—n your eyes, will you harbour Jesse Howard's knubsticks ?" The prosecutor said he would go out if they would let him go quietly. They consented; and just as he got to the door, H. Wyatt struck him over the right eye with a sharp knife. The blood sprouted out from his eye, and the others - fell on him, saying, " D—n his eyes, kill him; he is nothing but a knobstick." The blows he received nearly closed his left eye.—The Jury found the whole of the prisoners guilty ; and the Judge immediately passed sentence of death upon H. Wyatt, telling him that the circumstances of the part of the country from which lie came rendered it imperative that he should be executed as a warning to others, and bidding him not to entertain the slightest hope of mercy. The other prisoners were sentenced to he transported for life.

POACHING.—At he Chester Assizes, three men, named Royle, Taylor, and Bushell, were tried for shooting at Thomas Foster, one of the gamekeepers of the

Eel of Stamford and Warrington, on the 23d of December last, with intent to kill and murder. The prisoners are part of a large gang of poachers who were tried for the same offence at the last Assizes. They had then absconded, and contrived to keep out of the way until the 29th of August last, when they were apprehended just in time to be tried at these Assizes. The evidence was precisely the same as that given formerly, and clearly proved that Taylor and Hanshall were concerned in the outrage. Boyle, it appea ed, was not present when the shot was fired, or, at least, not so near the man v no fired as to be deemed to concur in the act. He was therefore acquitted ; but the other prisoners were condemned.

Early on Tuesday morning, the Branch Bank of the British Linen Company, at Hamilton, was broken into, and nutes to the amount of 2000/. carried away.

The money had been sent from the bank in Glasgow that afternoon by one of the coaches, and had been carefully deposited in the safe. A person slept in the same room; and, although the money was missing in the morning, the premises were 'Mind in the usual state of security.—Glasgow Chronicle.

This singular theft has been discovered ; and one of the clerks of the bank, of the name of Taylor, has been apprehended and lodged in gaol. We understand that by the exertions of Captain Brown, the 2000/. abstracted from the safe has been reco'vered, and restored to the agent, Mr. James Henderson.—Caledonian Mercury.

PIRACY AND Mum:ma—Mr. Charles Fayle, who came passenger in the Ann from St. Thomas's, reports that he was a passenger in the brig Irlam, Captain Campbell, from Liverpool, bound to St. Vincent's ; and that on the dult. about ;ire hundred miles south-west of Madeira, the Irlani was boarded by a brigantine under French colours, which sent four boats alongside with nearly twenty risen in each. The captain's sister about sixteen years of age was stabbed to the heart, and, with her servant, a negro, tossed overboard. Five of the crew were mur- dered, and the cook and carpenter were taken out of the vessel and put on board the pirate. He cut the main and fore shrouds, scuttled the vessel, took out the provisions, live stock, and water. The captain was stabbed in four or five places, and only escaped a mortal wound by turning himself about. He lay upon the deck for some time, and the surviving crew thought he was dead. Next morning falling in with the brig Agenora, bound to St. Lucia, they found that the pirate had boarded her and plundered her of provisions and water, but had not touched any of the crew. The pirate had a man on board who had belonged to the Mary of Bristol, whose crew he stated they had murdered off the Cape de Verd Islands, and who reported to the captain that he was among them contrary to his consent,

for the purpose of saving his own life. On the Sunday after this, the Irlam fell in with the Ferret sloop of war, which, after supplying them with water and pro- visions, as well as surgical assistance, with men to navigate the vessel, they took her into Barbadoes.—Jamaice Cornwall Chronicle.

A melancholy murder was perpetrated in July, at Aslifield, in Massachusetts, by airier named Alfred Elmer. He fancied himself commissioned from Heaven to kill three persons, and derived his warrant, as he says, from the llth chapter of Revelations. His victims were a child about two years old, which was killed on the spot, and an old gentleman, grandfather of the culprit, who was so severely wounded that there is no hope of his simviving. The child he killed because it was innocent.

MYSTERIOUS DEATII.—AU inquest was held on Monday, at Finchley, on the body of Charlotte, wife of Mr. H. Phillips, surveyor. They had been married mily five months; and Mr. Phillips, in giving his evidence, betrayed the most in- tense feeling, frequently being unable to proceed for several minutes. It ap- peared that Mrs. Phillips, having been unwell for sonic days, sent for Mr. Snow, surgeon of Highgate; but that gentleman being in Hertfordshire, attending a patient, Dr. Twecdie, of Ely-place, Holborn, who happened to be at Mr. Snow's When the latter was sent for, proceeded to Finchley and prescribed for the de- ceased. On Thursday lost, he again visited his patient, and altered the prescrip- tion, which was dispensed by Mr. Snow's assistant. On Friday morning, Mr. Phillips left home on business, leaving his wife apparently well, and did not re- turn till eleven o'clock at night; ashen lie was informed she was in bed, having been unwell, and completely overpowered by drowsiness. He also retired, and finding her in a sound sleep, did Dot disturb her. On awaking in the morning, he laid hold of her hand, and said, " Charlotte, how do you find yourself ?" She made no reply—she was a corpse !—Mr. Hammond, surgeon of Whetstone, examined the last mixture sent, and pronounced it to be chiefly composed of laudanum! Dr. Tweedie had prescribed no laudanum ; and the assistant said there was no laudanum in what he mixed—nay, there was no bottle of that in- gredient on the shelves in the shop ; adding, that he made up no other prescrip- tions on the Thursday but Dr. Tweedie's. The medicine on the Tuesday, when Dr. Tweedie was first called in, was sent by the postman, but, as since Appeared, was not delivered by him, hut by some women. The mixture on the Thursday was fetched by Mr. Phillips's servant-boy. Dr. Tweedie examined this mixture, and pronounced it to be chiefly laudanum, but it was not made according to his prescription ; and on a post nwrtem examination, he pronounced that the death of the deceased was occasioned by taking an overdose of laudanum. [On being called in alter the death, Dr.Tweedie had exclaimed, "So,Mrs. Phillips has poisoned herself : 1 observed her flighty way when I saw her on Wednesday." But the hus- band repelled this supposition in the most peremptory manner.] The answers of the Doctor to various questions put by the Jury were quite satisfactory, so far as he was concerned ; but both the Coroner and Jury observed, that it was evident the medicines were sent in a careless slovenly manner. The Coroner said it WaS a most mysterious affair. HOW such a deadly mixture as that contained in the last bottle sent to Mrs. Phillips, could have left the shop of Mr. Snow, he was at a loss to conjecture. The young' man Hill, the assistant, seemed well initiated in the situa- tion he filled, and it was not to be inferred that he had made so gross a mistake in compounding the medicine. On the other hand, the bottle had never gone out of the possession of the boy who fetched it from the shop until it reached the hands of Mrs. Phillips. There was one thing beyond all doubt—that the unfortunate lady had been deprived of existence by taking the contents of the bottle 'which was sent from the shop of Mr. Snow on Thursday. At the desire of Mr. Phillips, several of the friends of Mrs. Phillips were examined ; who proved, beyond a doubt, her sanity ; and also that she lived on the happiest terms with her hus- band, and was most careful of her health. The Jury having heard the whole of the evidence, consulted a short time, amid then returned a verdict, " That the de- ceased's death was occasioned by an overdose of laudanum taken medicinally. The inquest terminated at two o'clock on Tuesday morning, having lasted ten hours. Mrs. Phillips was an accomplished woman, and was thirty-one years of age.

George Aitcheson, who had formerly been an extensive builder and carpenter in Essex, died this week in the Fleet Prison to which he had been committed on the 9th of May, for contempt of the Court of Chancery, in not being able to pay the costs of a suit amounting to 29/. He was seventy-six years of age; and the Coroner's Jury, who viewed the body of the unfortunate deceased as it lay in a shell in the prison depository, were shocked at its emaciated appearance. One of the Jurymen observed, that it was shameful to send a man at such an age and in such a state to prison.

Captain Coomber, of Lewes, threw himself from the third arch of Westmin- ster bridge, into the Thames' last Saturday afternoon. In a few seconds after, he was seen by those on the bridge and the Surrey shore, struggling in the water. Fortunately, the son of Mr. Cary, proprietor of the floating bath at the bridge, was at the time rowing across, and instantly pulling towards the drowning man, arrived in time to save him.

Six houses were destroyed, on Tuesday night, by a fire which broke out in a miserable receptacle for poor people, called the Rookery, at Crown-court, Chan- cere-lane.

The weather ware very tempestuous in the Channel on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday evening a transport arrived at Spithead from the island of Ascension, whose captain said, that so far from having these „late storms in the Bay of Bis- cay, he was nearly becalmed there for eight days ; but that on entering the Chan- nel, off the Lizard, the transport was beset by a shoal of whales and grampuses, and one of the largest sharks he had ever seen; from which he inferred that these fishes must have been driven from the north by some very unusual weather. The whales were of the spermaceti kind.

On Monday afternoon, about three o'clock, a severe thunder storm passed over Leeds, and did considerable damage in several places. As Mr. Robert White- head, mason and builder, of Woodlesford, about five miles from Leeds, on the Pontefract road, was surveying some buildings which he had recently erected there, the electric fluid struck the chimney of one of the houses, and threw it down, carrying along with it a considerable part of the roof. Mr. Whitehead, as well as three other individuals, who were in different rooms of that and the ad- joining house, was knocked down by the force of the shock. The other indivi- duals miraculously escaped unhurt, but Mr. Whitehead was taken up for dead, having received a stroke on his right side which rendered him insensible for some time. He recovered his faculties in about half an hour; and though now con- fined to his house, we believe there is every reason to hope he will speedily re- cover. His right shoe was shattered to pieces, and thrown from his foot; his stocking, and the right side of his small clothes, were entirely consumed together with the laps of his coat; even his shirt had several holes burned in it, and his side was much scorched—Leeds Intelligeneer.

James Goodall, a labouring man, who was repairing the top of a house near Clare-market yesterday, fell from the roof of the house into the court, his head was smashed to pieces, and nearly every limb was broken, and he died instantly. The deceased was a very obstinate man, and of a very daring. disposition; he was told only the day before of his danger in placing the ladder m the position which occasioned his fall, but he would persist in it.

Mr. J. S. Best and Mr. J. Fletcher, of Hemel Hempsted, with several friends, met at Lovett's End Farm, for the purpose of enjoying a day's shooting; when unfortunately, as Mr. Fletcher was trampling his way backwards through a hedge with his gun in his hand, Mr. Best following him, the piece accidentally went ofl; and the whole of its contents entered Mr. Fletcher's face, just below the right eye, and he instantly fell dead. The deceased and Mr. Best were on very intimate terms.

Three young men, who left Bellerive on Tuesday evening, at a quarter past eight, in a boat under the direction of a boy fourteen years old, were upset near Cologne. One of them, M. Galignani was drowned. The two others, as well as the boy, stuck to the boat, and called out for help. M. Chassalay hastened to help them, and, seconded by some persons who had accompanied him, succeeded in rescuing the three wrecked men. M. Galignani's body could only be found at dawn of day. We cannot too much lament the imprudence that caused this mis- fortune.—This must be a warning not to venture at night on the lake.—Journal de Geneve. Galignani was the youngest brother of the highly respected and extensive booksellers in Paris. He was a young man of great promise and ami- able conduct, and an ardent admirer of the customs and institutions of England, in which he received part of his education.—Globe.] A melancholy circumstance has taken place in the neighbourhood of Rochdale, causing the death of one of the sons of the late Mr. Taylor, of Whitworth, better

known by the name of Whitworth Doctor. The report is, that the unfortunate deceased, who had just returned from finishing his studies as a surgeon in London, was shooting on the moors in company with his elder brother, who is now carry- ing on business at Whitworth, as successor to his late father. The elder had mounted a dike, and by way of assisting his brother's ascent, presented him the muzzle of his gun, which he took hold off; when, by the suddenness of the jerk in raising him up, or by the trigger catching something, the piece went off, and lodged the contents in the unfortunate man's body. He died almost instantly.— Manchester Mercury. Mr. Pringle, a clerk in the Excise-office at Sheffield, had a brace of pistols, which he was about to clean at the request of his wife, when one of them slipped out of his hand, which, to save from falling, he caught by the trigger, and, it being loaded, discharged its contents, which passed through the heart of the unfortunate woman.—Sheilield Mercury.

HYDROPHOBIA.—The week before last, a very remarkable case of this sort oc- curred at Camblesforth, in the neighbourhood of Snaith and Selby. Two horses, worth at least 60/. were seized when at their work, without any previous symp- toms, and, in all the agonies of the disease, died in a few days. The dog, which was supposed to have bitten them, had been killed about five weeks before on account of his being unwell, but was not known to have been mad ; and an ass had also been killed under a strong impression, from the symptoms, of having been bitten.—Hull Packet.

A man was killed at Woolpit last week, by the noxious vapour in a well which he was digging. The depth was about fifty feet ; and it being a new well, the deceased had not taken any precautions before he entered it in the morning; but as soon as he descended, he was overpowered by the foul air, and died before he could be drawn up. As Colonel Becher, of Tonbridge Wells, was in the act of putting a percussion cap on his gun, at Mayfield, a few days since, it unfortunately exploded at the instant his marker was passing the muzzle. The poor fellow received the whole contents of the charge through his body ; exclaiming, "I am shot ! pray for me !" and almost instantly expired, leaving a wife and large family to lament this dis- tressing occurrence.

A young woman lately lost her life at Aberdeen, by remaining too long in the water while bathing. When taken out, she was seized with universal cramp, and continued benumbed and in a state of insensibility for several hours, after which she expired.—Aberdeen Chronicle.

Four workmen in the employment of Messrs. Horri dge and Hulme, near Bolton, in digging for marl, have been killed by the falling in of a bank of loose gravel and sand, which completely buried them. Au unfortunate accident, attended by a fatal consequence, happened on Friday evening to the Greyhound stage-coach, as it was proceeding from Wolverhampton to Birmingham. The axle broke, the off forewheel separated from it, the body gave way, and the horses set off at full gallop. There were no inside passengers, but five outside ; four of them contrived to get from the top of the coach without any injury of moment, and the fifth, who sat on the roof in front, endeavoured to do the same, but the attempt cost him his life. He jumped down, and alighting upon his feet, instantly fell with such violence upon his head as to fracture his skull. On Tuesday last, a blacksmith, while in the act of shoeing an ox at Flushing, near Falmouth, suddenly fell backwards and immediately expired. A young man fell down dead in Long Ashton church on Sunday morning, to- wards the conclusion of the service. He had walked there from Bristol in good health.

While some men were in the act of slinging a fine young horse on board of one of the Hamburg steam-boats, lying off the Tower, on Thursday, it made a sudden spring into the water. Boats were immediately put out, but from the plunging of the horse in the water, no one dared approach it. The tide carried it clear through the old London bridge ; on arriving at the new bridge, the horse struck against the works ; and at length, when it was on the point of sinking, two watermen, by getting a rope round its neck, succeeded in towing it into Puddle-dock, Thames-street, alive; • but it died shortly afterwards, exceedingly swelled by the quantity of water it had imbibed.

The Lady of the Lake steam-packet, in approaching the quay at Greenockk last week, stove a boat to pieces. There were two men in it ; one of whom was picked up, but the other, having been struck on the head by the paddles, sun, immediately.

Lady Beckwith, sister of the Marquis of Queensberry, with her daughter and a maid, were in some danger of being drowned in crossing the river Annan, on Saturday evening. The river was a great deal swollen from the previous rain; the rope across, by which the boat is towed from one side to the other, either broke or slipped, and the ferryman lost all control of his vessel. Fortunately the accident was observed by a young gentleman, who procured another boat, and rescued the party.—Dumfries Journal.