INUNDATION AT VIENNA--The Winter in Austria has been ,very severe
; and at the breaking of the ice, the Danube rose at Vienna and did
incalculable mischief. The suburbs under water were so extensive as to
contain 50,000 inhabitants, in addition to %vhich, the level country on the north side of the titer Was overflowed, and presented the appearance of a vast lake, the villages king recognized only by their churches, their spires, and the roofs of the houses. The rise of the water was so sudden that many families were surprised by it in their beds, and escaped only by paint g hastily to the upper part of the houses: In the cottages this resource was not always attainable ; and the loss of lives, computetr at first at two hmidred, is, We fear; far greater. Assistance was rendered by high and low, with great activity ; boats were rowed backwards and forwards
• through the streets ; and provisions were distributed gratis to the indigent • part of the inhabitants. F/RE-DABIp.—An explosion took place on Monday week, in the coal- mines of Messrs. Haynes and Wood, neat Dudley. It was caused, like
almost every explosion since the invention of thd " Davy," by gross care- lessness on the part of one of the workmen, who did not guard his light, al- though specially cautioned to do so. Two mess who were descending the shaft were hurled to the bottom, and dashed to pieces. Of those who were below, six or seven were so severely burned that they are not expected to recover. A second explosion; supposed to arise from an accidental tire in the pit, took place next day, by which the machinery at the mouth of the pit was destroyed, but no more lives were lost. NETHERLANDS PREsS.—In 1815' the number of sheets printed by all the BrusSels Newspapers was only 4,050,000 ; in 1820 it had risen to 12,600,000. This immense increase is to be attributed, no doubt; to the increasing freedom and intelligence of the people, but it is directly attri- butable us the cheapness of the journals. In England, instead of an in- crease since the peace, there has been a large decrease ; and, indeed, corn- Pared with the pre-eminent efficiency of our press, and the intelligence of our people, there is no set of journal's in the world of which the circulation is an contemptible. There is hardly a town of eight or ten thousand per- sons in the United States that does not support its daily newspaper. With the exception of the Metropolis, there is not one daily newspaper in Great Britain ! In the metropolis there are. but twelve, to a population, not reckoning the country readers at all, of fifteen hundred thousand souls ; and seven out of the twelve do not, taken one with another, average a sale of eleven hundred per day ! To what is this marked depression of the " best public instructors" to be attributed ? The duty is 266 per cent. We speak of beer taxes and leather taxes, of taxes on the stomach and taxes on the feet ; but we pass by in silence a duty more grievous and more indefensible than-either—,the taxes on the head. While the Chancellor of the Exchequer is busied with plans of cheapening the physical aliment, he would do well at the same time to turn his attention to the cheapening of the intellectual alhnent of the people.
MARCH OF IsvrtnLEc.r.The worshipful the Common Council of the Choctows have determined, by their decree of the 18th September last, that they will not in future burn witches withOut trying them. According to the Alabama Intelligencer, it had been the custom of their worships—a cus- tom sanctioned by the wisdom of their ancestors, and inwoven, as was alleged by many, with the venerable Pagan constitation of the Choctows- to burn Such transgressors first, and to try them afterwards. It is said that the proposal to invert this ancient and excellent method of procedure was keenly opposed by an old chief named Sly Jack, who is deeply read in the mysteries of Choctow law. He declared that the letting in of the Christian custom of trying before burning, would be tantamount to the destruction of their Pagan constitution, and infallibly lead to the ruin of Choctowan inde- Pendence. Thd motion was notwithstanding carried by a large majority. The way, it seems, in which a wizard among the Choctaws works his wicked will; is by taking the bowels Out of his body, and hanging them on a bush until he has an:rind to resume the feelings of an Indian. On the motion of
Jack, a clauSe was inserted, declaring that if any wizard were found jfayrarete delicto, whether his bowels of mercy were going from or returning to his .body, he Might be instantly slain, anything in the statute to the contrary notwithstanding. Where, however, the said bowels have wholly left the wizard, or have wholly returned, then and in that case he is to be tried by the chiefs and committees.
Previous page
