Turks and Mamelukes. One-fourth of BELGIUM. Prize for Poetry, won by a Lady. The Royal Society of the Arts at Ghent having offered a gold medal to the author of the best Cantata on the Battle of Waterloo ; 14 have been presented in the French, and 15 in the Flemish language. | A lady, Mrs. Catherine Wilhelmina Bil derdick, of Amsterdam, obtained the Prize for the Flemish Cantata. FRANCE.. Queen of France's Last Letter. Few papers made greater impression on the public mind, than the last Will of Louis XVI. published and circulated throughout Europe, after his death. It is, therefore, easily explained why the wretches then in power suppressed this melancholy document from the world. It has already produced a considerable sensation in France. In a late sitting of the Chamber of Deputies at Paris, the minister for foreign affairs communicated by the king's command, the following letter from the late Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, to her sister, Madame Elizabeth, written before the execution of the former in the hand writing of the Queen. It was found among the papers of M. Courtois, an exconventionalist, lat ely deceased: good and tender sister, you know I lived "I hope one day, when they will be ol- "Let my son never forget the last word of his father, which I repeat expresslyLet him never seek to revenge our death! "I have to speak to you of something I know how very painful to my heart. much pain this child has given you. Forgive him, my dear sister; think of his age, how easy it is to make a child say what one pleases, and even what he does not understand. A day will come, I hope, when he will feel more deeply the value of your goodness and tenderness for both. "It remains for me to confide to you my last thoughts. I would have written them at the commencement of the process; but, besides that they would not let me write, the march of events has been so rapid, that I have not in reality had time. "Oct. 16, Half past Four, 1793. "I die in the Catholic, Apostolic, and "I write to you, sister, for the last time: Roman religion-in that of my fathers in I have just been condemned, not to a which I was brought up, and which I have shameful death, it is only so to the guilty, always professed, having no spiritual conbut to go and rejoin your brother, inno-solation to expect-not knowing if there cent as he was. I hope to shew the same fortitude as he did in these last moments. "I am calm as one is when one's conscience does not reproach us. I feel deep sorrow at abandoning my poor children still exists any priests of our religion; and even the place where I am, would expose them too much if they once entered it. "I sincerely ask pardon of God for all the faults I may have committed since I was born. I hope that in his goodness he | sterling; and the Royal Family near will receive my last wishes, as well as those 140,000l. General National Education. The Moniteur of the 6th, contains a I have long put up, that he will receive my soul in his mercy and goodness-I ask pardon of all I know, and of you, sister, in particular, for all the pain I may, with-long ordonnance of the King on the subject out meaning it, have caused you. "I forgive all my enemies the ill they have done me; I bid adieu here to my aunts, and all my brothers and sisters. "I had friends; the idea of being separated from them and their troubles, are one of the greatest griefs I have in dying. Let them know, at least, that, to my last moments I thought of them. "Good and tender sister, farewell! May this letter reach you! Always think on me! I embrace you with all my heart, as well as my poor, dear children. Oh my God! what agony it is to quit them for ever. Adieu! Adieu! "And now I will resign myself wholly to my spiritual duties. As I am not free in my actions, they will bring me perhaps a priest; but I protest here that I will not say a word to him, and that I will treat bim as a perfect stranger." FINANCES. Chamber of Deputies. Sitting of March the 9th. The Commission of Finances presented its report in three parts, which it has recommended should be discussed separately. The Budget presents a total expenditure, ordinary and extraordinary, of nearly 826 millions of francs, about 34 millions and'a half sterling, for the current year, and total receipt of nearly 827, rather more than 34 millious and a half sterling. The receipts, or ways and means, consist of the ordinary direct taxes upon land, personal and moveable property, doors, and windows, and patents, to the amount of nearly 9 millions sterling: duties on registers, woods, salt, tobacco, customs, and indirect contributions to the amount of 13 millious and a half sterling; the extraordinary taxes are 50 per cent. additional upon the tax on landed property, about 3,600,000/. | sterling; 75 per cent. addition to the tax on moveable and personal property, about 900,000l. sterling; 60 per cent. addition to the tax on windows and doors; 125 per cent. addition to the duty on patents, amounting to about 800,0001. The ordinary expenses are the Funded Debt, Annuities and Pensions, between five and six millions sterling; Foreign Affairs, 300,000l. sterling; Minister of the Interior, 600,000l.; War, nearly nine millions sterling; Marine, two millions; Negotiations, 600,000.; the King's Civil List, 1,040,000l. of general education. With a view to this object, cantonal schools are to be established under the superintendance of gra tuitous committees, consisting of the local magistrate and clergyman; and the principal of the district college, if any, to be subject to the visitation of the superior clergy and magistrates, The children of the poor are to be taught gratuitously. The system of education is simple, and graduated from the first elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic, to those attainments that may be useful in the avocations of ordinary life, such as mensuration, surveying, &c. Masters qualified to give instructions according to this system are to be employed, at salaries proportioned to their abilities in three distinct classes. Moral and religious principles are particularly attended to in the details, and distinct provision is made for the independent instruction of the young people of the protestant faith, under the superintendance of their own clergy, or mixed with others in the general schools, where there are no separate establishments for them. Besides the public funds applied to the maintenance of this system, private bequests, and donations are encouraged. CONJUGAL FIDELITY.-At the beginning of the Revolution, a French emigrant family of distinction resided at Frankfort. The lady of the house had just lain in, when news arrived that the French had crossed the Rhine, and were rapidly approaching. The family was forced to fly. The infant, a girl, could not be taken with them. It was, therefore, put to nurse in a poor family, in the village of where there is a French colony; and 200 florins were paid for two years board, in which time the family hoped to be able to take away the child. Fate willed otherwise. Nothing further was heard of the family. A rich miller in the neighbourhood offered, when she was ten years old, to take her, and educate her with his children. She remained in the miller's house till she was grown up, when she married a young carpenter, who was poor indeed, but of an excellent character. At the end of last year a commercial house in Frankfort received from France the commission to look after the young woman, and learned what we have stated. In a short time a bill of exchange for 100 louis d'ors, and af terwards another for 40,000 francs, were received. An estate was purchased near vessel called Paul's Bowl, a kind of silver the village of B-1, and the happy pair goblet inlaid with gold coins, and ornarejoiced in the prospect of future comfort. mented with a map of the territory of MunBut now the wife was called upon by her ster. This having been detected among parents to leave her husband and return the stolen goods in the Paris Museum, has to France, as she was of a great family. been recovered, and all the rest of this vaBut the noble-minded woman, who had luable plate is supposed to have been melted learned in Germany German fidelity and by Buonaparte, as it is no where to be probity, answered, that her husband had found. Among other articles thus lost, taken her when she was poor-that she there was a ship of solid silver, weighing The whole had led with him a happy and industrious | above one hundred pounds. life, and now, that some worldly goods quantity of silver taken by the French from were fallen to her share, she would not de- Hanover, amounted to 1762 pounds weight, sert him, and would joyfully give them worth in all 40,000 dollars. up again, rather than live without her faithful German husband. French pay: Swiss Troops. The French say, that within these 30 years, they have paid 96,000,000 of florins for Swiss military services. The Swiss say, they have furnished them, in the same period, far above 600,000 men, who have often sacrificed their blood and their lives. A dog stealer, of a rather novel description, has been lately condemmed at Paris to four months imprisonment. His mode of thieving was to set the dogs asleep by giving them prepared soporific meal, and then carrying them off quietly. Parisian Fashions. So many flowers are worn upon hats, that in the milliners shops, where they are placed on stages, at a distance you see nothing but flowers. Sometimes upon the same hat, alongside tufts of lilac, are yellow narcissus. The blonde is still in general use for trimming and bordering hats. Sometimes we see green capotes with two green branches, one on the leaf and the other on the top of the crown. Crape hats of citron colour are commonly ornamented with tufts of lilac. We have seen upon some hats of Gros de Nuples, of pale yellow, lilac plaits and tufts of lilav. Death.-Paris papers of 2d inst. mention the death of Barthelemy, the celebrated engineer and mechanist, who, in visiting the Garden of Plants, approached too near the living animals.-About fifteen days ago, M. Barthelemy went to see the stupendous elephant in that menagerie, and, as many persons do, offered something for him to eat; when the elephant struck him such a severo blow with his trunk, that he forced his arm upon the pallisade which surrounded the lodge. All the exertious made to save him proved ineffectual. GERMANY. Plate Lost, by the French. Fossil Rhinoceros. A letter from Epelsheim, near Alzey, dated Feb. 24, says “ Yesterday, in digging for sand, there was found here the skeleton of a rhinoceros, above 15 feet under ground, on a bed of stone, and covered in sand; a large tooth was found, the form of which shewed it belonged to some foreign animal. The place was examined, and they found, as was expected, the Hitherto bones of an immense animal. only pieces could be got out, because they easily broke, but when brought into At last the air turned as hard as stone. they found the point of the horn broken lengthways, rounded at the top, as every naturalist will perceive, by frequent whetting while the animal was living. Perhaps a whole foot may be got out, and kept as a remarkable monument of immense inunda tions.-Frankfort German Gaz. Feb. 29.) HUNGARY. Distresses of the Season. The damages done in Hungary by the immense quantity of snow and violent storms of wind, is much greater than bas yet been mentioned in the papers, or than the public has yet had an opportunity to learn. A whole squadron of Velites, that is, above 100 men, was necessary when the last accounts came away, which is not to be wondered at, since the inhabitants of adjoining houses could not get at each other, for days together, without running In the the risk of sinking in the snow. county of Beregh 20,000 sheep were lost, and a farmer in that county, whose loss was perhaps not the greatest bad 1,200 fat oxen frozen to death.-(Brussels Paper,) INDIES: WEST. Porto Rico: a free port. The Court of Madrid has decreed that the Island of Porto Rico shall be the resort for free commerce for 15 years to all uations, if there be a Spanish Consul in the ports of the countries from whence the vessels take their departure to the island.(Charleston Puper. IONIAN ISLANDS. of that edifice, and of the contiguous palace of the King. But if the national love could not be gratified by the preservation of the first theatre of the world, that loyalBritish Governor appointed. ty which is so lively in the heart of every The Hon. Gen. Maitland, Governor of Neapolitan received a grateful recompense Malta, is to have the chief command over in stopping the course of the flames, and the Ionian Islands, with the title of Gover- | putting the King's palace in security. The nor General of the British Islands and pos troops of his Imperial Majesty of Austria sessions in the Mediterranean seas-he is have acquired a fresh title to the gratitude also to have two Lieut.-Governors under of the Neapolitans. General Nugent has him-it is supposed General Campbell at covered himself with glory, and all the Malta, and Sir Lowry Cole at Corfu. other Austrian generals, officers, and 'soldiers, have shared in the zeal of their chief. The troops of his Neapolitan Majesty also have given the strongest proofs of courage, of devotion to the King, and of patriotism. In the midst of the danger, his Majesty and the ministers attended to afford their assistance in extinguishing the conflagration; and his royal highness Prince Leopold was in the midst of the flames, giving the most brilliant example of courage. At four in the morning all was safe, and the ruins glowing in the centre of the theatre presented a lively image of the crater of a volcano during the explosion. ITALY. Suggested remedy for Hydrophobia. Every process or medicine that has been found useful in this dreadful disorder, deserves to be recorded; but if our memory does not deceive us, vinegar has been formerly tried to little real purpose. We give this article as it has appeared in the public prints. Theatre of San Carlos burnt. Naples, Feb. 14-The royal theatre of 8. Carlo is no more. That glorious monument of the arts, and of the magnificence of Charles III-that immense edifice, which exhibited to this nation and to strangers the taste of Athens united to the power of Rome, has been in a short time entirely destroyed by the flames. There was last night a general concert, of which the representation was to follow in a few days. The workmen employed in the ilJumination having prepared in a magazine the lamps necessary for the spectacle of this day, had left there a lamp lighted, by which the grand saloon was in general illuminated: the windows were open, and the wind blew strong from the north-east: hence it happened that a spark carried by the current of the air fell into a prodigious quantity of combustible matter. lu an instant the whole saloon was in a flame: the beams from which the lamps of the stage were suspended, serving as conductors to the flame, had already conveyed it to the roof, whence, from the smoke which burst out in a torrent from every part, the danger of those was discovered who were present at the concert. The utmost consternation was created; every one took to flight; but all were not yet safe when the flames reached the ample architrave of that vast theatre. Vesuvius, in its grandest eruption, never presented a more terrible spectacle; and, in spite of the splen-potion. dour of the moon, the flames diffused themselves in the most lively manner over the whole horizon, as is the case in the most splendid Aurora Borealis. The roof fell the royal palace, the neighbouring edifices, and the piazzas, were in a moment covered with burning ashes. So great a calamity was the work of a few minutes. Had the progress been a little slower, the theatre might have been saved, such was the enthusiasm, the anxiety, the intelligence, the activity, with which people Rocked from all parts for the preservation Hydrophobia cured by Vinegar, communicated in a letter from a gentleman at Venice to his friend in London :-“ If you were here, you would be very much pleased with a discovery made at Udina, the capital of Friuli, a small province belonging to this republic. The discovery is this: a poor man, lying under the frightful tortures of the hydrophobia, was cured with some draughts of vinegar, given him by mistake, instead of another A physician of Padua, called Count Leonissa, gut intelligence of this eveut at Udina, and tried the same remedy upon a patient that was bronght to the Padua hospital, administering him a pound of vinegar in the morning, another at noon, and a third at sun-set, and the man was speedily and perfectly cured. I have diffused through Italy this discovery, by means of a periodical paper that I am writing; and I hope you will make it known in England, in the most public manner; and as I am sure that this astonishing remedy will have as happy an effect there as it had here, so I should be glad to be apprized of it, that I may relate it in my said paper. As you have more rambling dogs in London than we have here, it is probable that the experiment will soon be tried, please God, with success." PORTUGAL AND BRAZIL. Conjunction of Royal Titles. STATE PAPER. The Prince Regent of Portugal has is sued the following Decree : Don John, by the Grace of God, Prince Regent of Portugal, and of the two Algarves, &c. I make known to all who shall see these presents, that having constantly in my royal mind the most lively wish to cause the prosperity of the States which Divine Providence has intrusted to my sovereign administration; giving, at the same time, due importance to the vast extent and locality of my dominions in America; to the abundance and variety of the precious elements of riches which they contain within themselves; and besides, perceiving how advantageous to my faithful subjects in general, must be a perfect union and identity of interests between my Kingdoms of Portugal and the two Algarves, and my dominions of Brazil, by raising the latter to that political rank and scale to which, for the above mentioned reasons, they are entitled; and in which my said dominions have already been considered by the Plenipotentiaries of the Powers who formed the Congress of Vienna, both in the Treaty of Alliance concluded on the 8th of April of this year, and in the final Treaty of the said Congress: I have therefore determined, and it is my pleasure to ordain as follows: 1. That from and after the publication of these presents, the state of Brazil shall be raised to the dignity, pre-eminence and denomination of the Kingdom of Brazil. 2. That my Kingdoms of Portugal, the two Algarves, and Brazil, shall, in future, form one sole kingdom, under the title of United Kingdom of Portugal, and of Brazil, and the two Algarves. 3. That, for the titles inherent in the Crown of Portugal, and which it has hitherto used, shall be substituted in all public acts, the new title of "Prince Regent of the United Kingdom of Portugal Brazil, and the two Algarves, &c." Given at the Palace of Rio de Janeire, this 16th Dec. 1815. Earthquake: alarming. Lisbon, Feb. 2, 1816.-"I should not have so soon dispatched this had it not been for the dreadful shock we felt last night, or rather this morning.-At about five minutes before oue, I felt my bed, move, as it were, up and down, for about a minute, or a minute and a half: the shaking increased after this, and changed its direction from side to side, and very severe; when, on a sudden, it ceased. I cannot describe the horror I felt, when the thought of the real cause of this distur bauce came across my mind. The very word earthquake (in Portugeuse, Tremor de Terra, or Terra Mota) put me in a perfect fever.-Every one in the house, as by instinct, met me on the stairs, calling for light; and the scene of confusion that ensued is past description. I opened my window, which, by the bye, is the safest place: the atmosphere was dense; a thick fog covered the whole city; yet I could see the lamps of the further end. On a sudden, every thing became light; and a meteor was seen, which approached the earth, and of itself dissipated-and all was again in darkness. My thermometer in the room was at 60 or 62 degrees: every thing then became quiet, until seven in the morning, when another (the more trifling) shock was felt. For two days past we have all been noticing the oddity of the weather; all the morning dull, close, and very cloudy -no sun (wind N.) nor rain; at about 1 o'clock wind changed to South, blowing a hurricane, and dreadful rains Last night the rain cleared off; and although the wind did not change, a thorough calm followed. The ships in the Tagus all seemed to point different ways, and every one supposed that the weather was about to alter for the better. Not being certain as to the length of time it lasted, I spoke to the police sentinel who parades in front of our houses, and his answer was, "about three minutes:" the general opinion is two minutes and a half. The oldest men in Lisbon say it is the longest shock that has been felt in their memory in this city; and that the very great earthquake of 1755 was only for about eight seconds. No damage has been received that I have as yet heard of, except that some of the high houses have received several severe cracks: no falls. all the streets were full of the inhabitants, "The Portuguese were so terrified, that who dreaded the fall of the houses, and of being buried in the ruins. The rain. since the morning shock of 7 o'clock, has been incessant, and particularly heavy. Another extraordinary circumstance that |