A smart shock of an earthquake was felt at Portsmouth
on Wednes- day night last week, about ten o'clock. Several houses were much shaken, and some slight damage was sustained. In other houses, articles placed against the walls, or upon shelves, were shaken violently. Two mineral springs have been recently discovered at Harrowgate, which possess medicinal properties very different from all the rest.
We have already stated, that the Roman Catholics had purchased about six acres of land between Hastings and St. Leonard's. It ap-
pears since, from some boundaries that have been set up for the ex-
tension of the south wall which they are building to the cast and west, together with what is understood to be the northern boundary,
that the ground which they have taken will comprise nearly or quite twenty acres. They have already collected a large quantity of stones, which are being squared for the building, and are still very busily employed in collecting more. It seems, therefore, likely to be a very large establishment —Brighton Gazette.
A Roman Catholic chapel, capable of containing nearly .500 persons, has been ended at Sutton Coldfield, and is rapidly approaching com- pletion. There are not, we are informed, at present, six persons in the town who are professors of this religion.—Birmingham Advertiser.
The new dock at Liverpool is divided into three long and compara- tively narrow basins, instead of being, like the Prince's and other docks, in one large basin ; by which arrangement there will be less room lost in the centre, and a greater quantity of wharfage at the sides. When it is opened, there will be an uninterrupted line of docks from the Fort to Toxteth Park ; and the sea-wall, by which they are protected, will extend two miles and eight hundred and twenty yards in length, ex- clusive of the openings; forming, we believe, the finest assemblage of docks and one of the finest sea-walls in existence. So rapidly, however, is the commerce of the port increasing, that in a few years a still greater quantity of dock-room will be required. The cholera has again visited the North of England. In Liverpool and Manchester, many fatal cases have occurred, and in Stockport there have been several ; but in none of the three towns has there been any thing like so much cause for alarm as existed two years ago. There is now residing at the Hotwells, Clifton, an astonishing child, named W. Manuel, from Holywell, in North Wales, who, though he
only attained his fourth year in March last, reads Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Welsh, and English fluently, and with equal facility if the book is reversed! He is a most interesting,. intelligent-looking child, and as playful as children generally are at his age.—Bristol Journal.
On Thursday evening, during Settle Races, the town-crier, mounted on the topmost step of the Market-cross, made solemn proclamation to the lieges then and there assembled as follows. " At four o'clock, the
• members and friends of the Temperance Society will take coffee together; immediately after which, there will be horse and foot races, wheelbarrow races and a sack race, for five shillings or half a crown, I cannot tell whether, but it will be either pan or fother1" This announcement was received with roars of laughter by the bystanders.—Leeds Intelligenter. The following additional particulars respecting the loss of the Came- leon cutter, which was run down last week off Dover by the Castor frigate, are taken from the Kentish Gazette.
" The Cameleon lies about the same spot where she went down, almost immediately opposite the yard where she was built, in about eleven or twelve fathoms water, at the distance of two miles from the shore, where a buoy has been put down with a small Dutch flag floating above high-water mark, to denote that there is danger to vessels going near the spot. Boats are continually going round her, but nut a body out of the number drowned has yet floated up ; and the weather has been too rough to attempt to weigh her, even if the lighters were here. On the morning the accident occurred, the frigate's people were washing the decks, and coming along at a good spanking pace ; the cutter's people had been reefing the mainsail, after coming from Dungeness, and had all gone to rest except four or five. The Chief Mate of the cutter having caught sight of the frigate, and seeing that the sails would not fill, ran below to ask the Commander what he should do, when, before he could obtain an answer, the frigate struck her on her starboard side; and after making one lurch, she went down like a atone. It is not true, as some of the papers have stated, that the cutter was cut in two, or that the Lieutenant iu command of the frigate was arrested and taken to the Admiral in the Downs, as in fact there does not happen to be al.y Admiral. The people saved were sent to the Inspecting Commander of the Customhouse service, to be examined on the affair ; and there is little doubt that when the bodies are found, a strict investigation will take place before the Coroner."
A child, between five and six years of age, while at play, at Hamp- stead Norris, fell into a well, fifty-two feet deep to the water. As soon as the little sufferer was discovered, the bucket was lowered, and it had presence of mind enough to cling to it ; but on being raised two-thirds of the distance, it lost its hold, and was again precipitated into the writer ; again the bucket was lowered, and the child had still sufficient power to renew its grasp, and was brought in safety to the surface.-- Reading Mercury.
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