The celebrated Baron Humboldt, the scientific traveller, and one of
the Prussian Ministers of State, died at Berlin on the 7th of April, in his sixty-eighth year.
King Louis Philip intends to visit the South of France in the -course of next summer. He has already sent an architect to Pau to prepare the château of that town for his reception.
The Austrian Archduke Anthony died at Vienna on the 2d instant : the nature of his disorder is not distinctly stated.
The late Prince Augustus of Portugal was probably one of the richest individuals in Europe ; his clear yearly income from his landed property in the Roman States arid in Bavaria was above 618,000 guilders, or 60,000/. sterling. A still larger sum he was said to com- mand as interest from the immense capital he possessed (in different countries) left him by his father, the late Eugene de Beauharnois, which had accumulated during his minority.
A letter from Naples, of the 2d instant, says—"Vesuvius, which had for the last fortnight given indications of an approaching eruption, burst forth last evening in all its fury. During the afternoon, a storm of hail and rain had detained the crowd of visiters at Resina, who would otherwise have been inevitably sacrificed, as the very ground round the crater, where hundreds had been walking only the evening before, was carried up into the air at the first explosion. The Pope's girandola of a thousand rockets is a joke to it. At half-past nine (within less than three hours), the detonations ceased, and the fire gradually subsided. This morning there is not even the least smoke."
Galicia, of all the provinces of Poland, is now the most persecuted. The dungeons of all the towns are filled with prisoners, who are con- fined in the most unwholesome places, without the prospect of a trial, and treated in the most barbarous manner. Every day the Austrians make domiciliary visits in the houses of the landed proprietors; they are afraid that Galicia will rise against them. The Polish refugees, as well as the most distinguished inhabitants of the province, are per- secuted alike. Count George Tyszkiewicz, a man already advanced in years and of the first respectability, has been confined in a subterra- nean cell for upwards of a year, without being yet brought to trial. Met- ternich bad not even the humanity to receive his wife, who had come to Vienna for the purpose of imploring his mercyor justice in behalf of 'her husband. The late Emperor, however, a few days previous to his death granted her an audience, and promised her his protec- tion. Colonel Lariski is attached to a wall by an iron bar in another dungeon. The director of the library of the Ossolinski, in Leopol, has been imprisoned for some months, because the plan of a .constitution for Galicia was discovered among the manuscripts of the library. It is thought he will be sentenced to death. It was feared that the Emperor of Austria would follow the example of Nicholas, by removing from Leopol that splendid library the gift of the family of the Ossolinskis to Galicia. The bookseller Mitkowki, of Leopol, was confised during six months for having gone abroarron business of Ins profession. Count Drohojowski only obtained his liberty after eighteen months' sufferings in a subterranean cell, without being tried, German Paper. Energetic measures are now put in force against the various gangs of banditti who have heretofore excited so much terror amongst travellers in the Roman States. The high-roads are to be guarded by a military division stationed at different points. Several of these robbers have already been captured, and it is asserted that the rest are composed of -dilettanti.
It results from the researches of Dr. Chevalier, a member of the Academy of Medicine in Paris, and of M. Boys de Loury—lst, That within seven years 273 individuals have been tried for administering poison ; of whom 171. have been acquitted, and 102 condemned. 2dly, That the poisons employed were in .54 cases arsenic, in 7 verdigris, in .5 cantharides, in perchlorure of mercury, in 4 nux vomica, in 3 powder for the destruction of flies, in 2 nitric acid, in 1 sulphur of arsenic, in I emetic tartar, in 1 opium, in 1 acetate of lead, in 1 white lead, in I sulphuric acid, in 1 sulphate of zinc, in 1 mercurial ointment, in .5 poisons not .named. 3dly, That the assigned motives for the crimes have been—in 28 cases interest, in 24 libertinism, in 15 vengeance, in 10 jealousy, and in 6 madness. 4thly, In 28 out of 81 cases the poison was administered in broth, in 8 cases in milk, 7 in flour, 4 in medicine; twice it was introduced immediately into the mouth, twice in coffee, once in cider, and once in a fowl.
Previous page
