Jones, a builder, of Newcastle-street, was standing with his two sons, and six or seven workmen, at the rear of his house, a ball of fire fell in the midst of them; but it burst upon an iron grate, and sunk into the vault, leaving a sulphureous smell. The storm commenced at 8 A. M. at Stanmore, from the S. W. and continued to rage, with unabated violence, for two hours. On the North-east side of Harrow Weald Common, a thatched hovel, where thirteen persons, of both sexes, had taken shelter, was set on fire by the lightning, and a woman, having a child at the breast, was killed, whilst the infant miraculously escaped. A boy was also so much scorched as to be without hopes of recovery.At Portsmouth, about half past ten, the brig William, captain Denning, from London, bound to Jamaica, coming into St. Helens, was destroyed by the lightning, which struck the head of the maintop-gallant-mast, passed through that, down the topmast, main-mast, and pierced the decks into the hold, where it set the cargo on fire. The captain and crew were obliged to abandon her, and landed at Portsmouth. At Deal, in the afternoon, there was a tremendous thunder-storm, with hail and rain; the lightning was very vivid and quick; it struck the maintop gallant-mast of his majesty's bomb Prospero, shivered to pieces the top-mast, and damaged the main mast; one man was killed, named Joseph Perkins, and several other of the people were knocked down, but recovered. A corn mill, beJonging to Mr. John Croft, of Caistor, co. Lincoln, was much damaged. and a boy in the mill killed, by the lightning. Nine sheep, be longing to Mr. Sibsey, of Bassing ham, near Carlton le Moorland, were also killed. At Gainsborough, there was a very uncommon fall of rain, accompanied with loud claps of thunder, and vivid flashes of lightning. Three pigs were struck dead at Morton, and two fine horses, in a close near Lea, were killed — At Peterborough it was extremely violent, and the inhabitants were much alarmed by a fire ball burst.. ing in the market-place. In Rut land, at Ashwell, a hay-stack, be longing to Mr Chamberlain, was burnt. At Langham, Mr. Sherrard had a sheep killed, and a cow bez longing to Mr. Ellicot was also killed, by the lightning. The hail came so violent at Teigh, as to break many windows. This morning, a boat belonging to the Sheerness tender, lying in Hull Roads, was sent to Sunk Island, with seven hands, to bring on board lieutenant and Mrs. Fox. Between nine and ten they had proceeded but a short distance from the shore, when W. Mazarello, the cockswain, aged about nineteen, standing erect, was struck dead by the lightning, and fell overboard Mr. and Mrs. Fox were much stunned, and the rest, except one man, were all struck down, but soon recovered. The body of Mazarello was soon afterwards picked up: his clothes were burned to rags, and the case of his watch was melted. The old blockhouse-mill, at Hull, was struck by the lightning, and one of the main timbers split. William Curtis, labourer, of Patrington, was next day found dead in a field near that town, having, it is supposed, experienced the fatal effects of the lightning: the hoe with which he was at work is supposed to have operated as a conductor. Near Exeter the effects were were extraordinary in Moreton to the South, about six inches from church yard, the earth was torn from the wall, and opposite to the feet of several graves, and human skulls it was the chimney; at the wall bethrown to a considerable distance; hind the bed's head were two pulls and, near Bow, about 50 trees were for a bell which hung in the room cut in two, as if done with a saw. below, from the middle of which pulls The report of the thunder was like a wire went down the wainscot and that of artillery fired in regular suc- through the floor. In the room becession. About two, the inhabi- low there was a window (under that tants of Ipswich were much alarmed, in the bed chamber) secured by up as the crashes of thunder shook ma- right iron bars. The lightning enny houses; and at the hill barracks tered at the S. W. corner of the bedit was still more awful; as the elec- room, tore off the paper and plaster tric fluid communicated with a range from the wall, took the wire of one of stables, and struck down n ne of the pulls of the bell, which it horses, two of which were killed. melted into small globules, some The stables were set on fire, but round like shot, some long, and run it was soon extinguished. Near down the wire in the centre into the twenty persons were struck down by room below, where it seems to have the lightning, but none killed. A been conducted upwards by the iron barn, at Framlingham, belonging to window bars, and to have entered S. Kilderbee, esq. of Ipswich, was the bed-room again by the window burnt down by the lightning. The above, where nearly every pane of storm was truly awful in Birming glass was broken, and where the ham and its neighbourhood. The skirting-board was forced into the lightning split the crane at the canal room; from thence it went up the office in that town. Its effects in chimney, displac.ng a small iron back, the country adjoining have been forcing out the bricks on the east dreadful.-A man was killed by the side of the chimney above the roof, lightning at Teffont. At Dumfries and splitting a chimney-pot, on the the peals were loud, and the flashes top, which fell in all directions. When uncommonly vivid. The lightning Mr. and Mrs. Weston awoke, the struck the house of James Kirk, room was full of fire and rubbish; but at Mains Riddell, Colvend, shattered no farther mischief was done. · At the chimney-head, and, descending East Horsley, a few miles off, two oxthe chimney, broke the hearth-stone en belonging to W. Currie esq. were to pieces. Two cows were killed, killed.-An oak in the grounds of by the lightning, while grazing in a Loseley, near Guildford, was stripfield near Ecclefechan. ped of its bark,and the body, though not torn into pieces, was split and shivered so as to have scarce a sound timber in it. ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS OF THE LATE VIOLENT STORMS. -- -Sutton Place, near Guilford, in Surrey, the seat of John Webbe Weston, esq. was struck by lightning, when he and his lady had a most wonderful escape. They were in bed, in a room in which was a sash-window facing the West; the head of their bed stood 12th. A meeting of the principal gentlemen of the county of Essex was held at the Angel inn, Ilford, agreeable to advertisement, for the purpose of considering the propriety of applying to parliament for an act happened, as the clerk of the peace narrowly escaped a fatal blow from the fall of part of it. In a very few minutes after came one of the strongest flashes, and a violent ex plosion, at the distance of two seconds, equal to 2200 feet nearly; or little more than one third of a mile. There were three other explosions, the most distant of which from the flash did not exceed eight seconds. act to make a road from London to however, mischief had very nearly Tilbury; when several resolutions for the above purpose were proposed by sir Thomas H. Lennard, and carried by a large majority. A subscription was immediately opened, and several thousand pounds subscribed. Should the above patriotic proposal be carried into execution, it will reduce the distance from London to Tilbury, on the Essex side, eight miles, and thereby afford a very great accommodation to all persons travelling, or connected with the shipping interest of this country, particularly benefit the towns through which it will pass, and facilitate the conveyance of fish to the London markets. This day the West India dock company opened a new dock at Blackwall, appropriated for ships outward-bound, and the Phoenix West Indiaman, captain Douglas, belonging to Messrs. Hibberts and Co. was warped into the bason from the import dock, amidst the applauses of many thousand spectators. The vessel was decorated from stem to stern with the colours of every nation, surmounted with the British standard. 14th. The storm which happened this day seems to have been one of the most extraordinary ever remembered in the eastern part of this island. From a quarter past one, for three hours, the sky was uniformly and deeply clouded, and the rain and hail, with few and short intervals, came down in torrents. Soon after the storm began, it was thought advisable by the magistrates attending to the business of the quarter sessions in Bury St. Edmonds, to take down the great chandelier in the Shire-hall, it being deemed a powerful conductor; in doing this, The lightning was exceedingly red and dense. On this day, a mare, in a pasture belonging to Mr. Beeton, of Hardwicke, was struck dead under a tree, which was also shivered to pieces. A poplar tree, in the meadows, near Stamford-bridge, which stands between two stacks of hay and clover, was stripped of its bark, and nearly splitin halves, but not thrown down, and most probably, by its attraction, preserved the stacks from fire.—In some parts of Middlesex this storm was very violent, and particularly at Sunbury, where the lightning struck the church, and has done some damage to the tower.-At three, a hurricane took place near Hyde Park, when a cloud burst over Chesterfield-street, Curzonstreet, and Queen-street. The body of water fell with such rapidity, as to fill the cellars of the inhabitants, and formed a complete current in Shepherd's Market, and it was with difficulty that the gratings of the drains were dragged up, so as to admit the water, and thereby prevent great damage. COURT OF KING'S BENCH.-The King v. Dorant.-This was a prosecution for perjury, instituted by Rouvellet, the man who prosecuted Elizabeth Barnett, at the Old Bailey, on Saturday, for an alledged robbery. robbery. The prosecutor appeared in fetters. His evidence was SO vague and contradictory, that lord Ellenborough stopped the trial, and the defendant was acquitted. It appeared in the course of the proceedings, in this wicked prosecution, that it was instituted for the vile purpose of invalidating the evidence of Mr. Dorant, who is to be an evidence against Rouvellet, at his approaching trial for forgery. After the trial the prosecutor was conducted back to ilchester gaol, from whence he had been removed by kabeas corpus, to give evidence on this iniquitous prosecution, and against the woman, Barnett, abovementioned. 16th. During the storm this day, a remarkable strong flash of lightning, followed by a tremendous crash of thunder, attracted particular attention at Salisbury, about two in the afternoon; and at this moment a poor man, named Whitlock, servant to farmer Maton, of Pitton, was struck dead by the lightning. 17th. This evening, the lightning and thunder were very sharp, and twelve lambs, grazing in a field belonging to Mr. Thomas Parsons, of Great Barton, Suffolk, were struck dead. The meteor described was observed very clearly over the Hyde, at Edmonton, by persons passing between 8 and 9 o'clock. A gentleman who was angling in the Mersey, near the Cheshire shore, killed two fine congers, one weighed 24lbs. the other 12lbs. 18th. Acow, the Chinese sailor, convicted at the last admiralty ses.. sion, for the murder of Anguin, another Chinese, was hanged at Execution Dock. He was conveyed from the Old Bailey in a cart, and appeared dreadfully dejected. MALTA. "I now come to relate to you an event of the most melancholy description, and almost unparalleled in regard to the dreadful and miserable consequences. It happened this morning. A magazine took fire, and blew up with an explosion scarcely ever known to be equalled; by it 370 barrels of gunpowder, and above 1600 shells and grenades, were blown up. Such an immense quantity as 40,000lbs. of guupowder must occasion the most dreadful havock and destruction. The houses adjacent in every direction were thrown immediately into ruins ;-and how shocking it was to the inhabitants you may easily conceive, as there was no chance of escaping. The buildings are all of stone, of immense thickness. It is calculated that one thousand persons have either perished, or are dreadfully maimed. The principal sufferers are the Maltese, who chiefly lived near the place. One man has lost his wife aud six children; others pearly the same; and whole families are buried together. Those who escaped momentary death, perhaps, are shockingly disfigured and maimed, and crawling about in a miserable condition condition. Fourteen artillery-men, a spark arose. The merchants have who were in the magazine, were of course blown to atoms. The band of a regiment (the 39th) were just playing God save the King," near the place; two were killed on the spot; the whole remainder were much wounded. The guards on duty were killed. The magazine was situated on the side of the water opposite to the city of Valetta; it is called Barmola. Stones were thrown over to us, some to the distance of two miles. It was situated close to the water-side, and the bed of the sea was so shook by it, that it rose up The and overflowed the banks. Two vessels (small ones) were sunk. Immense stones were thrown up, which fell into the water; others on the ships and rigging: one I saw, which fell on a vessel just arrived, weighed an hundred weight. guard-ship, the Madras man of war, is moored some distance from the disastrous place; but a stone fell upon the quarter-deck, and broke the thigh of the gunner, who had lately arrived. A Mr. Woodhouse here, who, with his brother, has a great wine-making concern in Sicily, has lost 250 pipes of it, worth nearly 70001. They were at some little distance from the place; but the shock was so great that the casks burst. The churches are filled with the dead. A friend of mine, just come from the ruins, says, that he was walking over them, when he lighted on the head of a woman. Her whole body was crushed flat ; and, although it is only a few hours since the generalcalamity took place, her body, owing to the intense heat, was entirely putrified. It is supposed that the men were employed in cutting away the fuses from the shells, or doing something like that, when begun a subscription of 2001. a piece for the relief of the poor sufferers. A whole town I may say is destroyed. The accident happened this morning about a quarter past 6. They say there are now buried in the ruins 1000 barrels of gunpowder that are in danger; but I trust in God it is untrue, for, were that to blow up, it would bring all Malta in ruins.” 23rd. This day, during the storm of thunder and lightning, about two o'clock, a labouring man named Tytheman, ploughing in a field belonging to John Potter, esq. at South Weald, Essex, for shelter against the violence of the rain, repaired with his horses under a tree in the field; when he and both horses were struck dead by a flash of lightning. There were no marks of violence upon the man, except a small perforation in the crown of his hat, apparently as if the electric stroke took an upward direction through it; the horses were lying back to back, and appeared as if they had died without a struggle. Buonaparte lately ordered an assembly of the principal French Jews in the empire, who were summoned accordingly by M. Mole, one of their elders. He stated that his majesty had appointed commissioners to treat with them respecting the bad conduct of many of their members with respect to their religion "The laws," says he, "which have been imposed upon persons of your religion have been different all over the world; they have been too often dictated by the exigency of the moment. But, as there is no example in the Christian annals of any assembly like this, so you, for the first time, are to be impartially judged, |