ASSAULT ON THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.--A gross assault war committed

on his Grace on Friday last, at Newark. A party of nearly two hundred persons lay in wait for his carriage at Markham Bridge they were furnished with torches, and, as appeared by their threats on. stopping several carriages when passing over the bridge, they were des termined, if not to murder the Duke outright, to leave him but a small chance of escape with his life. Happily he was informed of their despe- rate ■stentions, and did not pass that way. About eleven o'clock the same night, while walking from his carriage to the door of the Town Hall, where a ball was held, a number of the same party hurled their torches at the Duke, one of which lodged in the collar of his cloak. Had it not been for the constables who were in attendance, it is impossible to say to what acts of violence the mob might have proceeded. This is a most disgraceful and cowardly mode of avenging wrongs, if any have been sustained. Of the Duke of Newcastle's politics we do not approve ; but it is due to his Grace's character to say, that in acting on them be has . shown the open, straightforward spirit of an English gentleman. h, we believe; in private life, a kindly-disposed n au, of simple man- tra. and an indulgent temper. Let him he met —it is just that he houldbe—but let him be met fairly. Such a man, if any one does, de- aerves a clear stage—we dare say he asks not, nor do we ask for him,

any other favour.

THREATENING LETTERS.—Mr. Chandler, of Church Farm, Pusey, in Wiltshire, lately received a letter demanding 10t, and signed

" Swing." The alternative offered was the destruction of her house. The answer was to be sent to " X.Y.Z., Nag's Head, James Street, Co- , Tent Garden." Mrs. Chandler immediately sent the letter to Bow 'Street. Sir Richard Birnie had a 30/. note enclosed in an envelope, eauble postage marked on the back, and desired it to be1eft at the Nag's lead, one of the officers being appointed to watch for the person who came to demand the letter. It was claimed on Thursday, by a recruit of st..)e 14th -Dragoons ; who was immediately secured. He denied all know- ledge of the letter to Mrs. Chandler. He was remanded, until the wit- nesses from Wiltshire can reach town.

LIKE FATIIER LIKE Seta-A young fellow, named Briggs, a weaver by trade, was detected, on Sunday evening, attempting to quit a house

sn Cross Street, Bethnal Green, with a bundle of property which he had stolen. The officers who arrested Briggs found on him several skeleton keys, and they were naturally anxious to discover whether he might not have some goods similarly acquired at home. They proceeded, in con- sequence, to search his lodgings ; where they discovered, not indeed what they went in search of, but, in the possession of the father of the burglar, a quantity of base money, in crowns, half-crowns, shillings, and sixpences, to the nominal amount of about 601. The father was irnme- -diately marched to the police-office, to keep company with the son. The family, as is commonly thecase with such offenders, had the appearance of being miserably poor.

DANGER OF OAIITTING Fit.scvierais.—.A wine-merchant named Jordan, in Gloucester Street, Queen Square, was fined, on Monday, in the sum of forty shillings, for neglecting to add to the number of his shop.

Mr. Jordan, it happened, lived between 24 and 25 and his shop was numbered 24—to the great annoyance of his left-hand neighbour : he

had at one time added the A., but a malicious rogue, (an old bachelor no doubt, who looked on all halves with suspicion) had obliterated it. The Magistrate said Mr. Jordan was leniently dealt with ; he might have been sued for 50!. So much for odds and evens.

WITHCRAFT.—A man named Clarke, residing in Tothill Street, Westminster, knocked at the door of a neighbour, a female, last Satur- day night ; and no sooner had it been opened, ;Ilan he fired a loaded pistol in the face of the owner. The ball was found in the inner lock next morning. When called to account, Clarke said, that "for the last four years be had been very much troubled and annoyed in his mind. Be felt as if people were telling his thoughts ; and then he had twitches, and felt as if he had a scalding of his flesh all over ; the sensation was most horrible to imagine, and when he felt so, he did not know what he was about." The lady so violently attacked was named Gulliver. Had the affair happened at Redriff, we should have concluded that she was a relation of the famous captain her namesake. Luckily she was only frightened. Clarke was committed, to give him an opportunity of telling a Jury all about his twitches.

A FITTING HELPMATE.—TWO drunken Irishmen quarrelled, the other day, in a public-house at Manchester: after several rounds of what is called the "41.10-and-down fashion," the head of one of them came in violent contact with a form that stood in the room. The wife of the vanquished bruiser at that moment entered the room, and seeing her husband seated on the knee of one of the party, exclaimed, "Damn your *oyes, get up and fall to work again." The man's head was raised, and he was found to be a corpse. The Inquest Jury returned a most appro- priate verdict," that the deceased lost his life in a drunken squabble." INGENIOUS Tnier-Taae.—The cellar of Mr. Spencer, wine-mer- chant, Longacre, having been repeatedly plundered, and no marks of violence being perceptible on the door, he at length bethought him of putting a detonating ball in the lock, with a view to the detection of the thief. On Tuesday night, the faniily were roused by the explosion of the ball ; and immediately rushing to the cellar, they found a servant of the establishment, as pale as Banquo's ghost, trembling at the door of it. The rogue thought he had been killed without knowing it. He was committed by the Bow Street Magistrates, on the charge, corroborated by his own confession.

Reaurav.—On Sunday, while the family were at church, the house of Captain Errington, Jubilee Place, Commercial Road, was broken into, from an empty house contiguous to it ; and property and money to the amount of 500/. carried off: We shall have to line our walls with iron, as well as our window-shutters.

MORE BEAUTIES OF THIS Game-Laws.--Three poachers were des. perately wounded,—and two gamekeepers also severely hurt, —in a mu- tual affray on Thursday morning last week, in a wood belonging to Godfrey Wentworth, Esq. of Woolsy Park. One of the poachers is since dead, and one of the gamekeepers has his skull fractured.

SUPPOSED MURDER.—The body of an elderly female was found, some time ago, lying in a retired spot near Hollinwood. It was interred with- out notice; but circumstances have since occurred to justify a suspicion that she came by her death by unfair means. Three men, apprehended on suspicion of having murdered and robbed the deceased, were examined on Thursday last week, and two others have since been apprehended on the same charge. A clue to their apprehension was procured from a young lad, who is partly implicated in the crime, but not, as he alleges, so deeply as the others. ASSASSINATION.—One of the members of the Manchester Political Vnion was murdered on Tuesday night, by two men,not of the club, with whom he had had a dispute. They followed him out of the house where the dispute occurred, and stabbed him to the heart with a knife. The murderers were almost immediately apprehended, with the weapon, still reeking, in the possession of one of them. Assraoses MURDER.—NO clue has been yet obtained, although the rewards offered for the apprehension of the murderers now amount 10 2000!.

COAST BLOCKADE AND SMUGGLERS..—III a rencontre last week, near Hastings, two smugglers were shot dead, and one of the Preventive men was so severely beaten that his life is despaired of. The Inquest Jury on the smugglers returned a verdict of "justifiable homicide." SUICIDE.—Mr. Francis Rokers, of Lower Broughton, Manchester, shot himself on Thursday morning last week. The approaching loss of a valuable situation is the cause assigned for this act of insanity. SUDDEN D EAT Saturday evening, a Policeman, named Pratt, died of the rupture of a blood-vessel, while pursuing four suspicious characters in the Old Kent Road. The four men, on seeing the Police.. man stagger and fall, turned back, and assisted in carrying him to a public-house; where the whole of them were seized by the Policeman's companion, and subsequently committed for a month as reputed thieves.

SCAFFOLDING.—By the breaking, on Wednesday, of one of the poles employed in .a scaffold erected at St. Martin's Workhouse, Hemming's Row, three poor men were precipinned fr:nn a height of two stories. One of them was injured, it is feared, mortally—it is supposed his back is broken ; another had his thigh broken ; and a third was severely lacerated.

PENNY A-LIN IS M.—An unfortunate female fell from a second-floor window in Charles Street, Westminster, on Friday, and fractured her skull ; she died in a few hours. The penny-a-line man, who gives an account of the inquest, tells us of the dead woman, that "her head and Lust were remarkably fine." Is there no way of binding over the fingers of these dirty scrap-collectors to their decent behaviour? DROWNING.—On Sunday, the Honourable Mrs. Massey, a man-ser. vant named Mar, and two young men named Hewitt, were unfortu. !lately hurried down the falls of Deenas' in attempting to pass the Shannon, in a thick fog, and were drowned. An anxious but ineffectual search was made for the bodies. Mrs. Massey has left three infant children.

Firres.—A letter from Blandford, in the Times of this morning, stateS that no fewer than eight fires had occurred in that neighbourhood since Saturday last. Speaking of the efforts making to procure a commuta- tion of punishment in the case of the men 'condemned at Winchester, the writer of the letter concludes—" In their great sympathy for these convicts, they (the petitioners) seem to be wholly unmindful of the anxiety and terror into which hundreds of industrious and respectable persons are thrown here, by the nightly apprehension of a renewal of the outrages in this neighbourhood." The plain English of this seems to be, that six men are to be banged for breaking thrashing-machines because certain other persons, not known' have set fire to stacks. GREENWICH THEATRE.—This little building was found to be on fire on Monday at midnight. It was completely gutted ; and the whole of the theatrical properties were destroyed. The fire also caught the next house, which was considerably damaged.

BLACKBURN CHURCH.—This edifice took fire on Thursday last week, in consequence of some misarrangement in the chimney commu.

nicating with the flues by which the church is heated. The flames were not wholly subdued until the evening. The damage is very considerable, but not so great as was at first supposed. The repairs, it is said, will cost 4000/.

EARL Frrzwn.r.ram's CoLunitY.--,--AsWe conjectured last week, there is not the slightest ground for suspecting that the fire at the colliery at ITI-

sicar was other than accidental. It has been prevented from spreading.

HIBERNIAN CausaTiox.—Five poor persons perished lately, in the parish of Kilnemanagh, from the fall of the cabin in which they dwelt.

The Jury, says the Comet Advertiser, found "That the deceased came by their deaths in consequence of an accumulation of snow on the house, ogether with a mountain torrent which levelled the same, by which they were all suffocated." Did the torrent level the snow, or the house ! And were the people suffocated by the accumulation, or by the water, or by the levelling, or by all three?

BURSTING OF A BOG IN SLIGO.---OH SHRday evening, a high bog, belonging to Abraham Martin, Esq., overflowed, from the melting of the snows, and overwhelmed, in its course of nearly two miles, a large tract of arable and reclaimed meadow land.