pearing. The prisoner pleaded guilty to the theft of the articles pledged with Matthew Howden, 118, High-Street. It was urged in mitigation of punishment, that the prisoner, from the easiness of her disposition, had been merely an instrument in the hands of her abandoned sisters, and the Bench concurred in the opinion that she should be banished for seven years. The Lord Justice Clerk, before passing the proposed sentence, informed the prisoner, that her's was a most aggravated case; and that having admitted her sisters into her mistress's house, and connived at their depredations, rendered her equally guilty as if she had stolen all the articles with her own hands. The prisoner having been removed, his Lord. ship said, he for one could not help expressing his astonishment at the conduct of pawnbrokers, who kept their shops open from day to day, and from hour to hour, for the reception of goods which they im. properly received. His Lordship strong, ly enforced the propriety of minutely examining how property of such a valuable nature came into the possession of one in the prisoner's station in society, as it could not for a moment be supposed that she was the owner of it; had she offered articles of dress, such as she was entitled to wear, the case would have been very different. His Lordship con. cluded his animadversions on the improper conduct of pawnbrokers in general, by hoping that the observations he had made would have due effect. Extraordinary Escape. Thursday fortnight, James Lestar, the youngest of three lads lately apprehended for robbing a merchant's shop in Sanquhar, effected his escape from the Bridewell attached to the jail at Dumfries, in a manner that rivals the exploits of the famous Baron Trenck. First, he burst open, by main force, the door of his night or sleepingcell, and having thus found access to one of the day-rooms, he squeezed his body through the iron bars of a grating scarcely four and a-half inches wide, and decended head or feet foremost-naked or covered into the chapel, or central part of the building-a height of about 12 or 13 feet. As silence was a necessary part of his plan, he took especial care to light on a blanket which he had dropped into the area, and then ascending the pulpit stair, he attached the blanket to a slender cord used for pulling down the window, lowered the sash, climbed to the top, tossed the cord and its appendage to the outside, and partly by trusting to the slender support thus afforded to him, and partly by pressing his knees against the wall, landed on a stair-case two goodly stories beneath. Still he was within “the four walls" of the prison, and his next exploit was to ascend the stair that leads to the street, and which is strongly secured by two doors-the one of iron and the other of wood, driven full of ponderous nails. The first is surmounted by a revolving chevaux de frise, and here again be made an excellent use of his blanket, by wrapping it round the said ugly-looking machine, in such a manner as to sheath its spikes and impede its motion. This done, he vaulted nimbly to the top, and by some means which we cannot comprehend, poised himself upon an axle of rusty spears, which seems liable to be put in motion by the weight of a feather. But still his task was incomplete. Above the lintel of the outer door, and at least four and a-half feet higher than the iron guard of the inner one, (even counting perpendicularly,) a row of spikes are inserted in the wall, in a slanting direction, and one of these it was necessary to seize before he could reach the top of a para. pet, still several feet overhead. But he, who had done so much, was both willing and able to essay more; another spring, and the pike was seized-another pull, and exertion of the muscles, and he was fairly on the summit of the prison wall, from which the descent, though eleven or twelve feet, is, by means of a lamppost, comparatively easy. And all this he accomplished. The spike he hung by is strongly bent, while the wall at the side bears strong marks of the pressure of his feet and knees; and, indeed, the wonder is, that he was not impaled on the chevaux de frise, or dashed to pieces on the granite stair below. We have ourselves examined the whole scene of these exploits, and we must say, that every step of the lad's progress seems miraculous in the extreme. To all appearance, the bars of the Bridewell grating would do little more than admit a cat; a squirrel could scarcely scale the window above the pulpit, while the tiny cord suspended from the top hardly seems fitted to sustain the weight of an ordinary infant. Again, the scaling of the iron door, the muffling of the iron pikes, with the power of arm necessary to lift a lad of fifteen up a perpendicular height of five feet, imply so much danger and difficulty, that we would have really laughed in any man's face that would have told us a priori that such things were possible. As yet no trace of the culprit has been found, though a reward is offered for his apprehension.Dumfries Courier. APPOINTMENTS, PROMOTIONS, &c. 1. CIVIL. Jan. 20. The King has been pleased to direct letters patent to be passed under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, granting the dignity of a Baron of the said United Kingdom to the Right Hon. Percy Clinton Sydney, Viscount Strangford, his Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at the Sublime Ottoman Porte, and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, by the name, style, and title of Baron Penshurst, of Penshurst, in the county of Kent, instead of Baron Strangford, of Clontarf, in the county of Dublin. II. JUDICIAL. Jan. 4. The King has been graciously pleased to constitute and appoint John Hay Forbes, Esq. to be one of the Lords of Session in Scotland, in the room of Sir Archibald Campbell, Bart. resigned. III. ECCLESIASTICAL. Dec. 29. The Associate Presbytery of Stirling and Falkirk met at Stirling, and ordained the Rev. William Machray to the pastoral inspection of the Original Burgher Congregation, Cowan's Yard there. Jan. 1. The King has been pleased to nominate and appoint Mr James Morison, Preacher of the Gospel, Assistant and Successor to the Rev. Roderick Morison, in the Parish of Kintail and Presbytery of Lochcarron. 8. The Right Hon. the Earl of Hopetoun has presented the Rev. Charles Dickson to the Church and Parish of Wamphray, vacant by the death of the Rev. Joseph Kirkpatrick. The Marquis of Queensberry has been pleased to appoint the Rev. John Sandford, A.B., of Baliol College, Oxford, one of his Lordship's domestic chaplains. 13. Mr Alexander Marshall, Preacher of the Gospel, in connexion with the United Secession Church, was elected Minister of the Scotch Presbyterian Congregation, Kendal. 29. His Majesty has been pleased to present the Rev. Norman M'Leod, Minister of Campbelton, to the Parish of Campsie, in the Presbytery of Glasgow. -The Right Hon. the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine has presented the Rev. Alexander M'Arthur, Minister of Row, Dumbartonshire, to the Church and Parish of Dairsie, in the Presbytery of Cupar, vacant by the death of the Rev. Dr Macculloch. G. Lord Ramsay, Ensign vice Carruthers, 2 F. 25 Jan. 1825. Hon. R. Howard, Ensign by purch. vice Johnstone, prom. 16 Dec. 1824. Lieut. Col. Cassidy, from h. p. 6 W.I.R. Lieut. Col. 24 Jan. 1825. Lieut. Hutton, Capt. do. Ensign and Quart. Mast. Astier, Lieut. Ensign Hayman, Lieut. Ruxton, Lieut. Lieut. Harding, from 89 F. Lieut. do. do. do. 25.do. do Cornet Gilpin, Lieut. do. sign 24 Jan. 1825. do. 2d Lieut. O'Gorman, from 60 F. Lieut. do. Ensign Campbell, from 74 F. Lieut. do. Shaw, from 2 R. Vet. Bn. En24 do. Primrose, from 73 F. Ensign 25 do. do. Gent. Cadet Evans, from R. Mil. Coll. do. do. G. F. White, Ensign 27 do. Quart. Mast. Serj. Waters, Quart. Mast, 25 do. vice Astier, Lieut. 24 do. 24 do. 35 Hosp. Assist. M'Gibbon, Assist. Surg. King, Lieut. do. vice Barclay, 21 F. 23 Dec. 1824. Lieut. Robertson, from h. p. 28 F. Lieut. 37 25 Jan. VOL. XVI. Cornet Grant, from h. p. 19 Dr. Ensign 25 Jan. 1825. vice Gardiner, 48 F. I i Bt. Capt. Mitchell, from 97 F. Capt. Ensign Robinson, Lieut. Gent. Cadet Hon. W. S. Clements, from R. Mil. Coll. Ensign vice Estcourt, prom. 9 Dec. 1824. E. W. Lascelles, Ensign vice Hope, 81 F. 25 do. Lieut. Siborn, from h. p. 9 F. Lieut. vice Mair, 62 F. 14 Nov. Ensign Gardiner, from 37 F. Lieut. vice Lillie, 31 F. 25 Jan. 1825. R. T. Sparks, Ensign vice Stokes, 20 F. do. Ensign Fothergill, from 64 F. Lieut. vice Campbell, 31 F. do. J. P. Hunt, Ensign vice Leighton, 2 F. do. Lieut. Chichester, Capt. by purch. vice Barrington, ret. 23 Dec. 1824. do. 2d Lieut. Dickson, 1st Lieut. 6 Jan. 1825. Gibbons, from 99 F. Lieut. vice O'Gorman, 31 F. 25 do. J. B. Blake, Ensign vice Fothergill, 54 F. do. Lieut. Young, from 20 F. Lieut. vice Booth, 31 F. Hosp. Assist. Cumming, Assist. Surg. vice French, 49 F. 23 Dec. 1824. Gent. Cadet A. A. Shuttleworth, 2d Lieut. 9 Dec. 10 do. do. do. Bt. Maj. Henderson, Lieut. Col. vice Landmann, 30 Dee. 1824. res. Capt. Calder, from h. p. Capt. Medical Department. do. Brevet Insp. of Hosp. Burke, from h. p. Dep. Insp. 23 Dec. 1821. do. Dep. Insp. Brown, from h. p. Dep. Insp. do. Strachan, from h. p. Dep. Insp. do. Assist. Surg. Milne, h. p. 1 F. Assist. Surg. vice do. Hosp. Assist. Brown, 85 F. Magrath. from h. p, York Chass. As25 do. J. Hawkey, Hosp. Assist. vice M'Gibbons, 21 F. 23 do. E. W. Whyte, Ensign by purch. vice Visc. Falkland, 7 F. 6 Jan. 1825. A. L. Widdrington, Ensign vice Primrose, 31 F. Ensign Elliott, Lieut. vice dead A. H. Irvine, Ensign 25 do. Hamilton, 6 do. do. 25 do. J. West, Ensign vice Thomas, 89 F. 2d Lieut. Brockman, from 60 F. Ensign vice Stephens, h. p. 14 F. 6 do. Lieut. Phibbs, from 2 Vet. Bn. Lieut. vice Keith, 2 F. 25 do. Ensign Thomas, from 80 F. Lieut. vice Harding, 31 F. do. F. Eld, Ensign by purch. vice Eyles, 23 Dec. 1824. prom. Ensign Deans, Adj. vice Macdonald, res. Adj. only 6 Jan. 1825. Serj. Maj. Spiller, from 43 F. Adj. and Ensign vice Coward, removed from the Service 25 Nov. 1824. Gent. Cadet J. W. Randolph, from R. Mil. Coll. Ensign vice Belford, 2 F. 25 Jan. 1825. Ensign Prior, Lieut. vice Mitchell, 2 F. J. M'Caskill, Ensign 99 do. do. J. Murray, Ensign vice Gibbons, 60 F. do. 2W.I.R. Ensign Kettlewell, Lieut. vice M'Ghee, 31 F. do. Gent. Cadet Grier, from R. Mil. Coll. Ensign do. Ceyl. Reg. Lieut. Col. Muller, from h. p. 1 F. Lieut. Col. vice Sullivan, 6 F. 26 do. 1 Vet. Bn. Lieut. Cochrane, from h. p. 3 W. I. R. Lieut. vice Walsh, 5 F. 2 ret. ret. do. Ensign Kearnes, from h. p. 71 F. En. Bt. Lieut. Col. Taylor, from 10 Dr. Lieut. Col. of Inf. by purch. vice M. Gen. Sir E. G. Butler, 9 Dec. 1824. Bt. Lieut. Col. Wylly, from 7 F. Lieut. Col, of Inf. by purch. vice Lieut. Col. Landman, R. Eng. 30 do. Major Williams, from 2 F. Lieut. Col. of Inf. by purch. vice M. Gen. Gifford, ret. do. Capt. Sir T. Ormsby, Bt. from 14 Dr. Maj. by purch. vice Maj. Gen. W. Armstrong, ret. do. Lieut. Cornwall, from Coldst. Gds. Capt. of a Company, by purch. vice Maj. Dalzell, R. Maines ret. sist. Surg. vice Palmer Exchanges. Capt. Serjeantson, from Coldst. Gds. rec. diff. with Capt. Cornwall, h. p. Unatt. Correvont, from 55 F. rec. diff. with Capt. Schaw. h. p. 37 F. Sherer, from 34 F. rec. diff. with Capt. Nicolls, h. p. Unatt. Steele, from 89 F. rec. diff. with Capt. Smith, h. p. 34 F. Lieut. Green, from 22 F. with Lieut. Munro, h. p. 78 F. Griffiths, from 2 W. I. R. with Lieut. Jessop. h. p. York Chass. Cornet Stephens, from 5 Dr. G. with Ensign R.B. Assist. Surg. Martin, from 5 F. with Assist. Surg Johnstone, h. p. 9 F. Resignations and Retirements. W. Armstrong, from 2 Gar. Bn. Lieut. Montgomery, 9 Dr. Assist. Surg. Cleland, h. p. 32 F. Appointments Cancelled. Capt. Hon. W. T. Graves, h. p. Unatt. Briscoe, h. p. 65 F. Ensor, Armagh Mil. Major Fawcett, h. p. 99 F. Rathmines, Ireland 26 Dec. 1824. 10 Dec. Capt. Blake, h. p. R. Irish Art. Dublin 29 Nov. 29 Oct. 1823. METEOROLOGICAL TABLE, Kept at Edinburgh, in the Observatory, Caltonhill. N.B. The Observations are made twice every day, at nine o'clock forenoon and four o'clock afternoon. The second Observation, in the afternoon, in the first column, is taken by the Register Thermometer. The fall of rain since our last does not exceed an inch and a half. From the middle till the end of January, the temperature was mild; a few slight frosts gave but little interruption to farm labour: the mean temperature for that period was 40° Fahrenheit. February commenced with loud wind, which was succeeded, on the 3d, by snow, and keen frost. The snow was but slight, and the frost, which continued till the 7th, did more injury to wheat on high grounds than all the preceding short winter-storms. On some carse-lands, too, we observe the young wheat to assume a withered appearance; but, in general, on such soils the plants are still safe, Ploughs were at work by the 11th, and spring-plowing is in a state of forwardness. If the weather continue open and dry, sowing of beans may commence with safety by this day week. Vegetation is about five days later than last year. The mean temperature is about 1° lower for the three past months, than for the corresponding quarters last year. Turnips begin to run, and their nutritive qualities are consequently much deteriorated. A greater proportion of the crop appears to have been threshed out than at the same period last year. Barley is for the most part out of the farmer's hands, and as the last week's average was low, an anticipation that the ports would remain shut against that article produced a rise in price, which may yet end in advancing the remaining averages so far as to admit foreign barley by the 15th. Wheat maintains its price, and is easily sold. Oats are sought after, and prices rather on the rise. Beans and pease continue almost stationary. Potatoes are scarce, and are much in request. Hay is valuable, in proportion to its nearness to large towns; the general price is from 9d. to 10d. per stone, of 22 lbs. Labourers are pretty generally employed at about 1s. 3d. to 1s. 4d. per short day of seven hours. Price of oatmeal, 1s. 3d. per peck. Perthshire, 14th Feb. 1825, |