from the country in want of a situation," who was desired to call in Francis-street, Fitzroy-square, where, if he answered the description of the advertisement, he might hear of a situation likely to suit him. The young man accordingly presented himself; and being interrogated as to what he could do, &c. he was asked for his town references, which he gave, and was de. sired to call on the following day, at twelve, for his answer. He did so, and was informed that the inquiries respecting his character and connexions were satisfactory; and his salary being settled, he was to enter on his employment the next morning. However, as he was taking his leave, his intended master asked what way he was going, or if he was particularly engaged that afternoon? if not, he would get him to do a little business in the city for him. The youth eagerly expressed his wish to go any where; when his master, taking out a small red pocket-book, and from it a check for 20907. desired him to get cash for it at the banking-house, observing at the time, that as bankers' clerks were not over-accommodating, he was to take two notes of 10001. each, and the other 904. any way; and then to go to the Bank of England to get notes of 501. and 307. for the two 1000% notes, and to meet him at the Moorgate coffee-house, Fore-street. The check was paid by the banker without suspicion; and the large notes having been changed at the Bank in the manner desired, the young man went to the coffee. house, but no master had come to meet him. After waiting for two hours in great anxiety, he set off for Francis-street, and was there informed that his master. nad gone out soon after him, and had not re

turned. The young man went a second time to the Moorgate coffeehouse; still no master: but he found a note had been kit for him during his absence. On opening it, it was from his employer, dated the White Hart tavern, Holborn, corner of Warwick-court, whither he was desired immediately to repair, where his master was waiting for him. On his way to Holborn he was joined by a man who forced his conversation on him, and to whom he related where he was going, and what he had been about. They parted at the door of the tavern, and the clerk went in to ask for his master; still no master was or had been there. The young man having been permitted to remain long enough in the tavern for those outside to ascertain that he was not followed by any person from the banking-house, or Bank of England, the person whom he had the conversation with in the street came into the house, and told him that his master was crossing the way. The young man looking out, saw his master, to whom he went up, and was most graciously received, and relieved from any further anxiety respecting his charge; the master, to save trouble, taking the youth's pocket-book, in which were the 20907. promising to return it in the morning when he came to bu siness: but this trouble was spared him, by a note which he received the same evening, inclosed in a parcel, in which were his pocketbook and two 17. notes. The note expressed that unexpected business had called the master suddenly from town for Liverpool; that the two pounds were for the trouble he had had; but that his further services would for the present be dispensed with. This strange proceeding awakened suspicion in the

young

young man's mind; and the following day, by the advice of some friends, he went to the bankinghouse; when they first discovered that the check was a forgery. It is hardly necessary to state, that the parties never returned to their lodgings in Francis-street.

Another case of forgery has occurred within this day or two, in the city, which, in point of art and dexterity, we presume, has no parallel in the annals of swindling. The party having succeeded in procuring cash at a banking-house to the amount of 1000l. for a forged check, in the course of the same day sent a person to the banking house in question, in the name of the gentleman forged upon, for his banker's book; requesting at the same time that it might be made up to the latest moment, and contain all the checks which had been paid, as the gentleman (mentioning the name of the proprietor of the book) was about to leave town, and was desirous of seeing the state of his account. The request was complied with, and the swindler got possession of the forged draft, which, no doubt, he would destroy, as the surest means of preserving his own life in the event of detec tion and apprehension. Incredible as it may appear, we have heard that both these successful deceptions were practised on the same banking-house, and within a very few days of each other.

Richard Armitage. This celebrated character, of whom so much has been heard respecting his transactions with Roberts in forgeries upon the Bank of England, in which establishment he was a clerk, was taken on Tuesday morning at an inn about three miles from Ips. wich, in a cross country road, by John Foy accompanied by two gen

tlemen from the Bank, a reward of 300 guineas having been offered for his apprehension as long since as the 11th of August. The prisoner went by the name of Barclay at the inn, and represented himself as a private gentleman, who wished to reside secluded from the gaieties and pleasures of the metropolis. He spent his time in the association of the gentlemen yeomen in the country, with whom he used to take the sports of the field; and his wife, who had just gone through an accouchement, was the only person who knew his situation. The pri soner was surprised in bed, first by the hostess of the inn, who informed him three gentlemen wished to see him; and after one of the gentlemen had been introduced, Foy fol lowed and took him, and conveyed him to London in a chaise-and-four. He was carried to Marlboroughstreet office; and after having been identified, and some other necessary forms gone through, he was com mitted to New Prison, Clerkenwell, for examination on a future day, where he was doubly ironed. The prisoner appeared in good spirits. He had resided at the place where he was taken, from the day he had escaped from London.

Two marines were executed on board his majesty's ship Zealous, at Lisbon, on the 8th ult. for the murder of a sergeant of marines. Their trial disclosed the following wicked and in other respects singular circumstances:-the deceased sergeant had been sent with the two prisoners to do duty on board one of the prison-ships in the Tagus. In the course of the night, they planned to call the sergeant from his cot, under pretence of his being wanted. On his proceeding to the part of the ship requested, they way-laid him, and shoved him overboard.

It

must

must be supposed that he had made himself obnoxious to them; but this did not appear. On the deceased's being missed, it obtained general belief on board the prison-ship that he had jumped over-board; but it was not warranted by the man's general character, for he was a sober discreet man, and a good soldier. The first intimation of his death to his shipmates on board the Zealous, was by the sentinel upon deck seeing his hat pass by the ship, in the Tagus. The sentinel instantly knew it belonged to him, and inquiry en sued. No suspicion, however, fell upon the prisoners; nor was it necessary for the ends of justice,-for their consciences so lacerated them, after the first hour they had committed the crime, that, as they confessed to their comrades, they had no rest day or night. Their voluntary confession led to their trial: they told the court they had not slept since, but were constantly visited by a distempered imagination of being in the presence of the deceased's ghost! Both of them, it afterwards appeared, were notorious characters; one of their names was Brown. They died very penitent.

19. A rise of ten per cent. in the current value of the stamped dollars in circulation took place this day. The increase in the price of silver has become so great, that the dollars or tokens issued by the Bank sell for more as bullion than they are current at as coin. The directors of the bank of England therefore gave notice, that they would in future receive in payment all Bank dollar tokens at the rate of five shillings and six-pence each; and that all such tokens would henceforth be issued at the same increas ed rate.

21. This night, about ten o'clock, the inhabitants of Bristol, but more 1811.

particularly the inhabitants of St. Philip, were alarmed by the appearance of one of the most apparently destructive fires almost ev ever remembered. The distillery of Messrs. Castle & Co. in Cheese. lane was discovered to be in flames. The fire was first seen to issue from the sheds and corn-lofts in the premises; and the distillery being con nected with them by wooden beams and sheds, the whole of their extensive buildings, stores, &c. &c. seemed for more than half an hour to be inevitably devoted to the fury of the devouring element. It was not long before the neighbourhood and many friends of the parties were upon the alert, and several engines soon arrived, together with detachments of the militia regiments and volunteers; and their exertions were so speedy, judicious, and efficacious, that we are happy to add, though several times the skirts and roofing of the distillery were on fire, the flames were at length subdued with the loss of only the outhouses, count ing-house, piggery, &c. Owing to the firmness of some gentlemen who were present, not a single gal lon of the immense quantity of spirits that were in the store-houses was, we believe, broke into; and the damage sustained is really trivial, in comparison of what seemed inevitable when the fire first broke out. Two of the firemen received much injury, and were conveyed to the infirmary.-The premises were insured.

Isla de Leon, March 6. My lord,-Captain Hope, my first aide de-camp, will have the honour of delivering this dispatch, to inform your lordship of the glorious issue of an action fought yesterday, by the division under my command, against the army commanded by marshal Victor, composed of the two divisions Rufin and Laval. The circumstances were such as compelled me to attack this very superior force. In order as well to explain to your lordship the circumstances of peculiar disadvantage under which the action was begun, as to justify myself from the iniputation of rashness in the attempt, I must state to your lordship, that the allied army, after a night-march of sixteen hours from the camp near Veger, arrived on the morning of the fifth, on the low ridge of Barrosa, about four miles to the southward of the mouth of the Santi Petri river. This height extends inland about a mile and a half, containing on the north the extensive heathy plain of Chiclana. A great pine forest skirts the plain, and circles round the height at some distance, terminating down to Santi Petri; the intermediate space between the north side of the height and the forest being uneven and broken. A well-conducted and successful attack on the rear of the enemy's lines near Santi Petri, by the van-guard of the Spanish army under brig..gen. Ladiizabel, having opened the communication with the Isla de Leon, I received gen. la Pena's directions to move down from the position of Barrosa to that of the Torre de Bermesa, about half-way to the Santi Petri river, in order to secure the communication across the river, over which a bridge had been lately established. This latter position occupies a narrow

woody ridge, the right on the seacliff, the left falling down to the Almanza creek, on the edge of the marsh. A hard saniy beach gives an easy communication between the western points of these two positions. My division being halted on the castern slope of the Barrosa height, was marched, about twelve o'clock, through the wood towards the Bermesa, (cavalry patroles having previously been sent towards Chiclana, without meeting with the enemy). On the march I received notice that the enemy had appeared in force on the plain, and was advancing towards the heights of Barrosa. As I considered that position as the key of that of Santi Petri, I immediately countermarched, in order to support the troops left for its defence; and the alacrity with which this manoeuvre was executed served as a favourable omen. It was, however, impossible, in such intricate and difficult ground, to preserve order in the columns, and there never was time to restore it entirely. But, before we could get ourselves quite disentangled from the wood, the troops on the Barrosa hill were seen returning from it, while the enemy's left wing was rapidly ascending. At the same time his right wing stood on the plain, on the edge of the wood, within cannon-shot. A retreat in the face of such an enemy, already within reach of the easy communication by the sea-beach, must have involved the whole allied army in all the danger of being attacked during the unavoidable confusion of the different corps arriving on the narrow ridge of Bermesa nearly at the same time. Trusting to the known heroism of British troops, regardless of the numbers and position of their enemy, an immediate attack was determined

termined on. Major Duncan soon opened a powerful battery of ten guns in the centre. Brig.-gen. Dilkes, with the brigade of guards, leut.-col. Browne's (of the 28th) flank battalion, lieut.-col. Norcott's two companies of the 2d rifle corps, and major Acheson, with a part of the 67th foot (separated from the regiment in the wood), formed on the right. Col. Wheatly's brigade, with three companies of the Coldstream guards under lieut.-col. Jackson (separated likewise from his battalion in the wood), and lieut.-col. Barnard's flank battalion, formed on the left. As soon as the infantry was thus hastily got together, the guns advanced to a more favourable position, and kept up a most destructive fire. The right wing proceeded to the attack of gen. Rufin's division on the hill, while lieut.-col. Barnard's battalion and lieut.-col. Bushe's detachment of the 20th Portuguese were warmly engaged with the enemy's tirailleurs on our left. Gen. Laval's di'vision, notwithstanding the havoc made by major Duncan's battery, continued to advance in very imposing masses, opening his fire of musquetry, and was only checked by that of the left wing. The left wing now advanced, firing; a most determined charge by the three companies of guards, and the 87th regiment, supported by all the remainder of the wing, decided the defeat of Gen. Laval's division. The eagle of the 8th regiment of light infantry, which suffered immensely, and a howitzer, rewarded this charge, and remained in possession of major Gough, of the 87th regiment. These attacks were zealously supported by col. Belson with the 28th regiment, and licut. col. Prevost with a part of the 67th. A reserve formed beyond the nar

row valley, across which the enemy was closely pursued, next shared the same fate, and was routed by the same means. Meanwhile the right wing was not less successful: the enemy, confident of success, met gen. Dilkes on the ascent of the hill, and the contest was sanguinary; but the undaunted perseverance of the brigade of guards, of lieut.-col. Browne's battalion, and of lieut.-col. Norcott's and major Acheson's detachment, overcame every obstacle; and gen. Rufin's division was driven from the heights in confusion, leaving two pieces of cannon. No expressions of mine could do justice to the conduct of the troops throughout. Nothing less than the almost unparalleled exertions of every officer, the invincible bravery of every soldier, and the most determined devotion to the honour of his majesty's arms in all, could have achieved this brilliant success against such a formidable enemy so posted. In less than an hour and a half from the commencement of the action, the enemy was in full retreat. The retiring divisions met, halted, and seemed inclined to form: a new and more advanced position of our ar tillery quickly dispersed them. The exhausted state of the troops made pursuit impossible. A position was taken on the castern side of the hill; and we were strengthened on our right by the return of the two Spanish battalions that had been attached before to my division, but which I had left on the hill, and which had been ordered to retire. These battalions (Walloon guards and Ciudad Real) made every effort to come back in time, when it was known that we were engaged. I understand, too, from gen. Whittingham, that with three squadrons of cavalry he kept in check a corps (C2)

of