24 OCTOBER 1835, Page 10

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An accident happened at the Duke of Wellington's seat at Strathfield- saye, during her Majesty's visit. About three o'clock on Thursday mornin!, it was discovered that a part of the premises were on fire ; which is stated to have originated in the flues that convey warm air to the house. The rafters of the kitchen, and a portion of building in its vicinity, were in a blaze. The fire was soon extinguished by the servants.

The Duke of Cumberland arrived at Berlin on the 11th from Toiplitz.

From a letter of Mr. Stonor, the late Member for Oxford, pub- lished in the newspapers, we learn that the story of the Tetsworth Postmastership is little better than a lie from beginning to end. We even begin to doubt whether any Postmaster has been recently ap- pointed to that village. Mr. Stonor writes to the editor of the Morn- ing Chronicle- " A statement has been lately circulated in the Conservative journals, origi- nating from a correspondent in the Times, that I solicited Mr. O'Connell's interest in favour of Pa protigé of mine, for the situation of Postmaster at Tetsworth. There is not one syllable of truth in this statement. Not only did I not solicit Mr. O'Connell's interference, but I never solicited any body for the situation. Mr. O'Connell can know nothing of the matter unless he has lately beard of it from the public papers. I have taken the liberty of for- warding this communication to you, to enable you to deal as you think fit with the folly thus raised upon so false a foundation. I have requested a contradic- tion in those Conservative journals where I have seen the statement."

Lord and Lady Aylmer had a narrow escape from shipwreck on their voyage to England from Quebec; which city they left on the 17th of September, in the Pique frigate, commanded by the Honour- able Captain Rous. The Hampshire Telegraph gives the following particulars of her voyage, which was a very extraordinary one.

" Five days after the Pique left Quebec, she reached the entrance of the Straits of Belle Isle, having taken that passage from the force of the southerly winds ; and it is not a little singular, that she entered the St. Lawrence through that unusual passage on her way out with Lord Gosford, having been driven to the northward from the same cause. On the evening of the 22d, the wind was on her quarter, and she was making rapid progress ; bat the wind fresh- ening about nine o'clock, the studding-sails were taken in, and the courses hauled up. At half-past ten o'clock the fore-topsail was on the cap, and the men were lying out to reef the sail, when Captain Rous (who was on the lee gangway) saw breakers close to the ship and ahead. The helm was instantly put down, and the ship readily answered it; but in doing so she struck with great violence i n the rocks ; and, excepting being lifted by the sea us the was came in, she was immoveable. She was going about seven knots at the time • and the weather was thick and fuggy, and though the ship was not fifty yards from the rocky beach, the land was not discernible till day break. It was about half-ebb when she struck ; but as the tides do not rise or fall much, she continued to lift and strike, with the exception of perhaps an hour, until she

was hove off on the following morning, at nine. Here the beauty of Captain Symonds's system was eminent ; for had she been a common flat-floored ship.

she would have bilged; but as she is constructed, all the mischief was spent on her false keel and kelson. On her first striking, the boats were got out, and the master sounded round her, and two or three anchors were got out astern; twenty guns were thrown overboard, as was the most considerable part of her shot, and about 100 tons of fresh water were started and pumped up. The crew was very active ; but such was the order observed, that they piped to breakfast as usual the next morning, and they had not been down snore than a

quarter of an hour when Captain Rims found the ship move a little; the cables

astern bad been hauled taught, the men were turned up, the capstan quirky manned, and she was hove off with apparent ease, and subsequently was got

into Ance au Loup, or Wolf's Cove, and by the next morning was put to rights, and went to sea. On the following Sunday the wind blowing fresh, a violent sea struck the rudder, some of the pintles and gudgeons of which must have

been broken while thumping on the rocks, and tore it from the stern-post. In a short time, however, a temporary one on Captain Symonds's plan was got ready ; but it was found to strike so violently against the stern-post and coun- ter, that it was cut away, and the carpenter soon made a second, on Pakenhanis plan ; which was fixed, and the ship was steered by it for some days ; when that was obliged to be cut away, from the ragged state of the bottom, the cop- per having chafed, and cut the guys, which were led forwards. The ship was -now steered without a rudder for 1400 miles, and when she rolled much, she made more than three feet water an hour ; and from the time of her getting off the rocks until her arrival in this harbour, never less than twenty inches. On Sunday evening last (week) ) a north-north-west wind had driven her over to the coast of France ; but as an excellent reckoning had been kept of her longi- tude, they made the Casket's lights (within a mile of where they were ex- pected to be seen), ten miles distant. At nine o'clock that night she came to an anchor in forty fathoms, with a good range of cable out ; and on Monday morning, sent a vessel, which offered her assistance, into Guernsey, fur any steamer that could be found. Soon after noon, however, the wind being southerly, she weighed, and providentially reached St. Helen's anchorage early on Tuesday morning, steered only by a cable astern, with a gun-carriage attached to the end of it. Her signals for assistance were quickly answered from the dockyard ; and Mr. E. M. Hepburn, with three dock lighters, and the Admiral's tender, went immediately to her help. An attempt was made to tow her into harbour that morning; but the halsers breaking, she brought up again before she reached Spithead ; and on Wednesday week she was towed into harbour by the Brunswick, Plymouth steamer, there being no a,vernment steamer here. The Pique saw only four French brigs during her distress: two of them passed her unheeded : the third, having hove too near her at a time when the Pique leaked freely, and without a rudder, it was determined to hset Lord and lady Aylmer, and the sick, with some soldier's wives, on board of er, she being hound to Bourdeaux ; but on the carpenter going on board to ex- amine her, and finding her in as leaky and helpless a state as the Pique, they separated. The fourth vessel promptly rendered assistance and towed round the Pique's head, so as to put her before the wind ; she had then been lying some hours in the trough of the sea, and attempts had in vain been made to get her in the position desired; but no sooner had the brig put her in that po- sition, than the Pique shot ahead and thereby frustrated any further assistance front the brig, %silk& could not keep way with her. To be ready for the worst, the boats were made as seaworthy as possible; a quantity of pork was cooked and cuopered up in small casks, as were also bread, water, and spirits ; and to ease the labouring of the ship, four additional guns were thrown overboard in the Atlantic. No words can describe the admirable conduct of the crew during all this difficulty and danger : they worked hard and willingly; they saw that promptitude only could preserve the ship and their lives; and they had confi- dence in their officers."

Extreme interest has been created amongst the Navy, visiters, and others at Portsmouth, by the appearance of the Pique. She has been placed in dock for the purpose of undergoing the necessary repairs. Her whole bottom, from stem to stern, is a vast mass of jagged splinters; the keel is entirely gone ; and in some parts no less than three feet in depth of solid timber has been pounded away by the force with which she struck upon the rock, leaving not more than an inch and a half of wood-work between the water and her hold. Her safety has been entirely owing to the strength of her construction. Captain Rous was tried by a Court-martial on Tuesday, for the damage done to his ship ; but, of course, has been honourably acquitted.