At the. SURREY SESSIONS, on Tuesday, there was only one

case for trial— that of John Edwards, a married man, with a large family, who had com- mitted a petty theft from extreme distress. He persisted in pleading guilty, against the advice of the Recorder ; who wished him to retract his plea, and take the chances of escape which a trial might present. The prosecutor ex- pressed -ed himself satisfied that it was distress alone which had led the prisoner

ess to commit the crime ; and he therefore earnestly recommended }inn to mercy. As the prisoner had suffered nearly a month's imprisonment, the Recorder ordered hint to be discharged on paying a fine of one shilling.

SHIPWRECK.—The Montmorenci, from Qiiebec for London, was wrecked in a gale on the 23d ultimo, twelve miles below Little Metis. The crew were saved; but the carpenter and a boy were afterwards frozen to death.

His Majesty's ship Kangaroo was lost, on the 18th December, on the Ilog- sties. A boat arrived at Crooked Island on the 20th, with the intelligence ; and the Monkey schooner was despatched to assist in:saving the crew and stores.

THE WEATHER.—Considerable alarm and some damage were produced upon the Thames by the late frost. The ships in the Lower Pool were,-,in great many instances, driven from their moorings, by the immense floati bodies of ice which have continually upon the return of the tide been forced between the tiers of shipping. Since Wednesday until Monday not a single vessel departed from the river. The wind first set in heavily from the and but slightly veered until about four o'clock on Monday morning., when a heavy fall of rain commenced, and the vane changed to S. by S.W. A brisk thaw ensued ; and the ice on the shores broke up, and swept away to. wards the mouth of the Channel, and during the entire of the day floated down the river in great masses. A large collier brig, the Arabella, was drive II by the force of the current front her mooring-chain and lines, and sunk in Limehous:e-reach. A tier of about fifty sail of colliers drifted front Limehouse, arid one or two lost their masts, and others were much damaged. Several lighters were carried away with resistless impetuosity; and three laden with corn capsized and swamped at Woolwich. One only was recovered at Erith, where she had been driven on shore. The small craft early in the danger were removed ashore. Time sailors and masters of the vessels in the centre tiers in the river, in many instances were unable to quit their ships, and only hi sumac places could assistance be rendered them from the shore. The tide on Monday afternoon was much lower than at any former period. Five arches on the Surrey side of Waterloo-bridge were dry, and persons were walking into the middle of the bed of the river without scarcely wetting their shoes.

A great number of those fragments of ice, which several of the daily papers of last week were pleased to aggrandize into icebergs, were, so late as yesterday, observed floating on the Thames.

On Monday afternoon, a young man was drowned in the Serpentine River,. while skating. Ile had imprudently gone upon a part where great quanti- ties of ice had been carried away for the confectioners, and where the ice subsequently formed was very thin. Two gentlemen last week entered a wherry at Rotherhithe, to he ferried over to Execution Dock: they got half-way over, when the force of the cur-

rent brought them between a Sunderland trader and a Dutch vessel ; as the latter was making a tack; it drove against them an immense piece of ices which stove in the wherry : it sunk to the bottom, and every individual on board perished.:

It appears from the provincial papers, that the weather has ilsobeen severe in the country, though not to impede travelling ; and in -sonic places acci-

dents accompanied with the loss of life have occurred. • At Stockport, on Monday week, two brothers were drowned in a reservoir which supplies a. factory with water. The ice gave way under one of them, while he was skat. ing ; his brother rushed to his assistance; but the ice broke under hitnalsos and both were taken out dead..

The plains about Romney, and the coast in that neighbourhood, were last week literally lined with wild fowl ; and the snow and frost made larks, lin- nets, sparrows, and other small birds an easy prey to those who chose to catch them. Immense numbers were taken, their wings having been frozen, and their flight cut off'. The frost was intense at Liverpool on Monday and Tuesday week ; and skates were in general requisition. The Wear at Durham was strongly frozen over.

Some persons who were enjoying the pleasures of the ice on Duddingstone Loch, near Edinburgh, fell in, and were rescued with difficulty. A girl, while walking along a street in Leith, on Saturday, was struck on the stomach with a snow-ball; she uttered a loud shriek, ran into a shop, and died in a few minutes. It was the opinion of a surgeon that the death was occasioned as much by fright as by the direct injury. On Wednesday week, the Forth was frozen over above the Bridge of Stir- ling ; and below the bridge the ice was in such masses as to prevent the steam-bdats from proceeding further upwards than Alloa. The 'fay was frozen over about four miles below Perth.

On Saturday week, a mother and her infant child were outside passengers on the coach from Glasgow to Stirling. At the end of the first stage, she descended and went into the house, When she found that her child had died from the extreme cold. The woman and tier dead child were then driven forward to her mother's house in Stirling.

A few days since Mr. Jenkins, grocer, found nine pigs, out of a farrow of fourteen, frozen to death in the stye.—Maidstone Journal.

STARVATION.-011 Monday evening, a man died suddenly in a coffee-shop in Long-acre. On the Coroner's inquest, it was proved that his death was occasioned by the want of food.

Fangs.—Mr. Saunderson, the poet of Kirklintnn near Carlisle, lost his life last week by fire. He lived by himself in a cottage consisting of only one room and on Thursday night after he had retired to rest, a burning stick fell from the fire-place, and communicated with some combustible materials which were lying on the floor. The cottage was soon in a blaze, and when the neighbours Caine to give their assistance, Mr. Saunderson was found lying near the door, with his shirt burned off, and his body dreadfully scorched— so much so, that when one of them tried to draw him out, the flesh of his arm gave way. Supposing him dead, the people left the body on the green, and directed their attention to the fires, which had communicated to another cottage, and were likely to extend to a farm-yard. When they returned to the green, two hours after, they found the body of Mr. Saunderson gone. Ani- mation had returned, and the unfortunate sufferer had dragged himself some distance from the spot, and was found leaning against a tree. Having been petite bed, he inquired after the fate of his manuscripts, gave directions about his funeral, and died next evening.

A spinning-mill at Little Bolton, was destroyed by fire, on the evening of Wednesday week, causing a loss of about 70001.

On Monday week, the owner of one of the regular passage-boats from Appledore to Barnstaple, left Appledore with three passengers, and his son, a lad who assisted in managing the boat ; and having passed Heanton Court and arrived at Basset's Sands, in the midst of a strong gale, a sudden gust of wind caught the sails; capsized the boat, and all on board perished. North Devon Journal.

On Friday evening, as Holland, the driver of a stage-coach between Man- chester and Liverpool, was about to mount the box, the horses set off at full ipeed ; the driver was thrown beneath the wheels, both of which passed over tds body, and he died in an hour. The coach was overturned at Hollins- Green ; but none of the passengers sustained any material injury. A serious accident occurred to the Duke de Luxembourg on Monday whilst on a shooting excursion with the King and the Dauphin in the Forst, of St. Germain. The Duke's gun burst, and occasioned so much injury to his hand, that it was found necessary to cut off the thumb.—Galignani's „Messenger.