continued to burn throughout the day, were now more distinctly seen to be every where on fire, and vast clouds of smoke rising in the distance, accompanied by extraordinary noises, as of furious explosions of flame, and the fire reflected on the distant sky, portended other calamities which I have now the pain to report. On that very same day, and about the hour when this place suffered most, the town of Newcastle, one hundred and twenty miles distant, together with all the mercantile establishments on that bank of Miramichi river, and some on the opposite side, were consumed by a violent torrent of fire, which issued from the woods in the rear, at about nine o'clock p.m.

Thus the destructive element,

which was causing such devastations in other parts of the province, appears to have been driven thi her by the gale which was experienced here, but which the mighty action of such extensive and rapid conflagration dilated as it proceeded to the most impetuous hurricane ; and the very wide range it has taken leads me to fear that we have much yet to learn of its dreadful effects, when reports shall come in from the numerous gangs of woodsmen dispersed in the various parts of the wilderness. I wish I could report that life had been spared; but so violently driven were 'the flames and embers from the blazing woods, well prepared for the most active combustion by the longest season of heat and drought ever known, that men, women, and children, in great numbers, have perished in the houses and in the woods, in exertions to save property, or in attempts to save life; and when driven in terror to seek safety on another element, greater numbers still appear to have suffered in attempts to cross the river in boats or in canoes, or rafts, or on logs of timber, which were alike incapable of resisting the fury of the storm. Many vessels were at the same time cast on shore, several set on fire, and three entirely consumed by the drift of embers from the land. The total effects of the awful calamity cannot yet he estimated. Fredericton has lost about eighty habitations or stores, and property to the value of at least thirty-three thousand pounds. On the rivers Orounuctoo and Rondertonish, tributaries of the St. John, several lives and many habitations have been lost and destroyed, and some of these ravages accompanied by terrific circumstances. On the Mira

FOREIGN

THE most important article of Foreign intelligence, and without which indeed we should have little or nothing to record, is the death of Alexander, Autocrat of Russia. This event, which may be pregnant with important results to the peace of Europe, took place at Taganrok, on the sea of Azoph, on the 1st of December. Of the particulars of his decease, or the cause, nothing certain is yet known. The British Ambassador at Berlin communicated the fact of the Emperor's decease to his own court. Some say that he died of an attack of fever and inflammation, other accounts state of erysipelas, and some go so far as to assert that he was sent out of the world in the same way as his father.

michi river, the loss of life cannot, I fear, be estimated under three hundred souls. Great numbers of the destitute survivors had collected in the village of Chatham for relief; and as so many of the provision stores of the merchants had been consumed (the settlement depending almost entirely upon imported food), serious apprehensions were entertained of approaching famine. So soon as I learnt this, I assembled his Majesty's Council to consider what measures it would be expedient to adopt; and an agent has been sent to Quebec to purchase supplies, and to proceed with them to Miramichi.

I have done all in my power to afford and extend relief upon this melancholy occasion, and I have been most nobly supported by the liberality of the country. For the benefit of the sufferers in the fire which has taken place at Fre. dericton, a subscription has been raised which will be sufficient for the supply of its immediate wants. The subscription in Miramichi has been most liberal; the city of St. John has come forward with a great degree of liberality; and I have just learnt by a despatch from his Excellency Sir James Kempt, that our sister colony was about to send prompt and considerable succours from Halifax but effectual relief beyond averting the horrors of want in the approaching long winter of seven months' duration, is not within such means. In promoting subscriptions, I have on my own responsibility paid two hundred pounds from the King's funds, for the benefit of each of the two suffering places. I know well enough his Gracious Majesty's benevolent disposition, and your Lordship's, to doubt of receiving sanction for this appropriation.

The succours to which the people here naturally look are those which the abundant charity and benevolence of the mother countries usually contribute on such calamitous occasions; and should any funds be so raised at home, they would be effectually and properly applied by commit. tees here, to many cases of very great distress, which is brought upon those who will endure it silently, but severely, and to re-establish in business many persons who have entirely lost their little capitals invested in the beginnings of a productive trade, in the prosperity of which the mother countries participate, and to aid others who are reduced more partially to difficulty.

STATES.

One of these accounts is just as probable as the other. If Alexander has been dealt with à la Paul, there is nothing extraordinary in the circumstance, in a country governed like Russia. Lord Clanwilliam could only communicate the account he received from authority, however the case may be; and this statement can only go to decide the fact of his death. On the other hand, Alexander was as liable to the attacks of disease as the meanest of his subjects; and when the mildness of his rule is considered, it seems full as likely that he died a natural as a violent death. Time alone can settle the question.-The Emperor was born in 1777, and succeeded his father Paul in 1801. His successor is

his brother Constantine, who has more the look of a Calmuck than a Russian, and is said to be violent and coarse in his manners though already, since his ascension to the throne of Russia, if we may believe the ultra newspapers, virtues for which no one gave him credit before, are springing forth under the touch of the diadem.

The Constitutionnel French newspaper having been prosecuted by the Procureur du Roi, Bellart, the supporter of the Jesuits, upon the ground that its articles had for a long time past, as our lawyers would word it," had a general tendency to make against the existing system of social order," has been acquitted by the tribunals, and afforded a triumph to all Frenchmen who wish well to their country. The ground of this prosecution was the newspaper's unceasing attacks upon the Jesuits. On the Courier Francaise, prosecuted on the same grounds, the court came to the following decision: "That, considering that the greater part of the articles objected to be inserted in the Courier, although very blameable in their form, do not possess at bottom a sufficient character to affect the respect due to the religion of the state; and that although in fact other articles do possess this character, yet they are by no means numerous, and have appeared under circumstances attended with mitigation, such as the establishment in France of religious orders not sanctioned by the laws,-Ultramontane doctrines, publicly preached by a part of the French clergy-doctrines which tend to compromise the rights of the throne, and the liberties guaranteed by our institutions :-declares, that there is no ground for suspension, but admonishes the Journal to be more circumspect in future."

The Pope has been excommunicating, imprisoning, and putting to death, certain of his obnoxious subjects, under the vague charge of being Carbonari, just as his pious son of Spain has been butchering freemasons. To their credit, the unhappy men met death bravely, and were insensible to the threats and entreaties of the monks, who disturbed their last moments in this world.

In Spain, throughout the country, every thing is in the usual most wretched state. The roads are covered with banditti, who now carry on their depredations in safety; the volunteers, by whom they were frequently routed, having been in most places deprived of their arms, which they were too prone to use against the defenceless Constitutionalists. The condition of the army is desperate; desertion and rebellion are very common.

We hear from Valencia, that the garrison of that place has revolted, from the want of food; and similar events are to be expected in many other places. The crops have been much injured by locusts.

The number of Colombian vessels off the coast of Spain, is very considerable. All ships, the cargoes of which are valuable, become their prey, and those which are not laden, they sink or buru. They land o the coasts the crews of ships taken, sunk, or burnt. On the 3d Dec. the Commissary of Marine of Almeira received advices from different maritime points on the coast of the kingdom of Grenada, in which it was announced, that on the 2d, and on the morning of the 3d, fifteen vessels had been captured. "These corsairs," says a letter from a Spain, having resolved to annihilate our mercantile navy, have taken their measures so well, that no ship can escape them. They have armed small boats, which pass along the coast touching the land, enter our ports, and carry off ships. This has just happened at las Roquetas close to Almeira, where they have seized in the port a large three-masted vessel, which had taken refuge there." This is just as it should be, a very proper retaliation on the imbecile Ferdinand.

A copy of a " Treaty of Commerce and Navigation," entered into between Great Britain and the Hanseatic Towns, the ratifications of which were exchanged in London on the 2d ult. has been published. This treaty is one of pure reciprocity, by which the vessels of Great Britain are admitted to the ports of the Hanseatic Towns on the same conditions as their own vessels, which possess a similar privilege in British ports.

The Emperor of Austria and the Diet of Hungary do not appear to have been on the best terms lately; but the latter having addressed a warm remonstrance to him, the Emperor has moderated his tone, assuring them that he intended no attack on their constitution, that he will certainly convoke a Diet every three years, and that, even if they wish a meeting before the expiring of the first triennial term, he will comply with their petition to that effect.

The contest in the Morea is still carried on; but no certain accounts of any impor. tant advantages having been gained on either side have reached this country. Missolonghi still holds out.

Accounts from the United States make mention, among other improvements, of the project for making a sloop canal around the falls of Niagara :-a measure of great utility, and a speculation calculated to realize a large profit.

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.

Miss Kelly, in the plenitude of good nature, has consented to relieve the dull routine of old performances exhibited to thin houses, by appearing as Lady Teazle; though not without apprehension that, "by putting on feathers and white satin," she should "make a fool of herself." That she did not “make a fool of herself" will be readily believed, for she can never put off her shrewdness and sense; but the feathers and white satin did not become her honest face, nor the repartees of Lady Teazle her lips. Whether she is right or wrong in supposing that Sheridan intended the rusticity of his heroine's education to peep through her newly acquired elegances, is not of much consequence; because she is as unfit to play the hoyden as the fine lady. Within the limits of unsophisticated nature, there is, perhaps, no other variety of character which she cannot embody; but for the jocund lasses whom Mrs. Jordan so delightfully pourtrayed, she is too conscious and pointed, and wants breadth and richness of humour. She is ill too at all affectations; her acting is essentially" a true thing;" and without an equal for pathos and intelligence, she stops where nature ends, and belies herself when she attempts to pourtray assumed manners and ceases to be in earnest. There were excellent points abundantly made throughout the part-readings of the author bespeaking the discrimination and shrewdness of the actress, and single speeches admirably given; but as a whole the character was not made out upon either theory. In the famous library scene, the confession to Sir Peter was far more touchingly given than we ever heard it before; but this speech does not characterize Lady Teazle, and comes entirely within the sphere over which Miss Kelly's dominion is absolute. The play, in other respects, was very inadequately performed, with the exception of Knight in Moses, and Miss Smithson, who was a beautiful Maria. Dowton looked more like Sir Peter's Butler than Sir Peter, and played entirely beside the mark; Williams, though forcible as Sir Oliver, wanted the heartiness and humour which Dowton would have thrown into the part; Wallack was elegant but tame in Charles; and Archer was inefficient in Joseph. Mrs. Davison condescended to the part of Mrs. Candour for the first time, with good sense and feeling, which excite the wish she had played it better; but in truth she was more intent on laughing immoderately herself than provoking laughter in

others. At Covent-Garden, the play was better cast;-Farren's Sir Peter being immeasurably superior to Dowton's, Fawcett's Sir Oliver beating Williams's hollow, Charles Kemble looking and moving the very Charles of Sheridan, and Miss Chester's luxuriant figure telling for more than Miss Kelly's intellect in the part of the Lady. Both companies united would hardly do justice to this comedy; but the managers of each might at least reform the gross incongruities of costume, and redeem Charles Surface from the misery of having undisguised scene-shifters for companions.

Mr. Priest, who, like Macklin of old, keeps a tavern in Maiden-lane, has attempted to carry the resemblance farther by performing Shylock; and accomplished his task amidst the rapturous applause of his friends and the silent censure of the judicious few. His performance was not destitute of occasional force; but it was entirely without refinement, and sadly vulgarized the conception of Shakspeare. For the Hebraism finely scattered through the part, we had the dialect of Rosemary-lane; for the agony of a spirit long subdued and awakened at last by the sense of intolerable wrong, loud declamation; and for fervid and solemn revenge, idle scolding. It was a Shylock to frighten a child; a mere inhuman bugbear; not the injured and insulted Jew, whose vengeance, strange and revolting as it is, has in it a wild and fearful justice. Mrs. West was a feeble Portia ; Browne a spiritless Gratiano; and Wallack, though graceful as Bassanio, wanted animation, especially in the casket-scene, where his fate hangs on the chance of an instant. Miss Povey's sweet warbling as Jessica was the best thing in the play, which, on the whole, was but indifferently acted.

Times are sadly changed at Drury Lane since Kean played Shylock, and Liston Launcelot; since Young and Kean performed together; and Macready followed them with his earnestness and domestic pathos. Of Tragedy the company is incapable; in Comedy it is stronger, yet unattractive; and in Opera, Mr. Horn and Miss Graddon are the chief performers. There has been no lack of zeal in the management; but little could be effected without greater strength in all the departments; and now that Liston is returning, and the names of Sinclair and Miss Stephens gleam in the distant promise of the bills, we hope better things. Elliston's absence casts a cloud over the theatre, which we trust will shortly be removed by the liberality of his creditors, who may

remember the profits which they have derived from his energy and enterprise in better days, and the spirit with which he has improved and gladdened Old Drury.

COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE.

A new tragedian has appeared at this house, whose style of acting, taste, and accomplishments, are of a very different order from those of any debutant who has for several years aspired to the first honours of the profession. Mr. Serle, who has twice performed the part of Hamlet, has evidently considered the art of acting as one deserving anxious study; has declined the boldness of relying on immediate impulses; and has sought by care and application to give a correct and graceful view of the characters which he seeks to embody. In person he is about the middle size; with a fine and expressive face; spontaneous and elegant action; and a voice remarkably round and sweet in level dialogue, though requiring skilful management in the expression of passion, from a deficiency in volume. His enunciation has singular clearness and beauty; he does not run over a passage with indistinct rapidity to produce a striking effect, nor introduce sudden jerks or changes; but "uses all gently," and enables the audience to perceive and feel every shade of meaning, though at the risk of allowing himself to be forgotten in his author. He speaks as a man who has a due reverence for Shakspeare; who does not regard the divinest passages ever written as things to play tricks with; and who would rather exhibit to the studious admirers of the poet, a reflection of the image which they have formed in their closet, than obtain the most vehement applause of the galleries. Acting so sensible, so quiet, so unobtrusive, has been rarely seen of late on the stage, and though it may not strike at first sight, cannot fail ultimately to win its way to the understandings and hearts of the thoughtful. Hamlet, the gentlest of philosophers, whose strength lies in his weaknesses; who walks about discoursing most eloquent music and wisdom, to cast off for a short time the weight of personal sufferings; the princely moralizer who gracefully dallies with fate, and holds fearful parley with mortal instruments and unearthly counsellors; has rarely found a representative who did so little injustice to the plaintive beauty and delicacy of the poet's conception. The negative merit of freedom from all violence; the absence of contrast so ill befitting a part where the shades are so nicely and so harmoniously blended, are much; but the performance has also rare beau ties of a more absolute kind. In the

expression of filial love and sorrow, which breathe through almost the whole part, Mr. Serle is singularly happy. The mirth too, in which Hamlet occasionally indulges, is finely represented as breaking out of bis melancholy, and partaking of its shade. Those who heard the accents of affection with which he swore to remember the "poor ghost" of his father; who saw the relapses into sad thoughtfulness, after his repartees with Polonius; who listened to his tremulous declaration of love for Ophelia at the grave; and who were touched, in the soliloquy after his scene with the player, at his breaking into tears on the recollection of the "kindless" disposition of the king, have felt that no common actor stood before them. In several parts of the performance he displayed considerable energy, especially in the play-scene, and the scene where Hamlet rebukes the officious inquiries of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; but the most original and most daring part of his performance-most daring on account of its abstinence, yet most truewas the scene with Ophelia, where the audience are accustomed to expect so much violence and noise. Mr. Kean, indeed, after playing this scene almost with as much force as his predecessors, by the beautiful touch of returning and kissing the hand of the fair being whom he had insulted, cast a redeeming light on the whole; but the trait, though in itself irresistibly affecting, was inconsistent with his previous demeanour. Mr. Serle plays the entire scene upon this hint, conveying the idea of a lover who desires to persuade the object of his regard to retreat from approaching evil, and who vainly attempts, by assumed strangeness, to wean her from himself as a wretch devoted to an awful purpose, at which his inmost nature tren.bles; and this idea is executed with singular steadiness and grace. The closet scene is the least effective part of the performance; and though the idea of hanging the pictures of the dead and living king on the wall is not amiss, yet their position, at the extremities of the back scene, distressed both the actor and the audience. On the first night there was a formality in the earlier scenes, and a failure of voice in some of the more passionate dialogues, which injured the effect of the representation, but were entirely reformed when it was repeated; and the impression conveyed on this last occasion was singularly harmonious and pleasing. For ourselves, we freely confess that we take a peculiar interest in this young man's success, from a personal knowledge of the qualities by which he merits, and the efforts which he has made to ensure it.