Surrey, Middlesex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Durham, Lincoln, and Norfolk. He had been confined in sixteen different prisons, besides undergoing several examinations at the principal Police Offices; and had gone by the following names,-Robert Stainton, Alexander Rombolton, George Grimes, Robert Wood, William Smith, George Croggington, and Robert Hartley-Hartley's father formerly kept an Inn (Sir John Falstaff), at Hull, in Yorkshire. He was put to school in that neighbourhood, but his conduct at school was so marked with depravity, and so continually did he play the truant, that he was dismissed as unmanageable. He then, although only nine years of age, began with pilfering and robbing gardens and orchards, till at length his friends were obliged to send him to sea. He soon contrived to run away from the vessel in which he had been placed, and having regained the land, pursued his old habits, and got connected with many of the principal thieves in London, with whom he commenced business regularly as a housebreaker, which was almost always his line of robbery.-Hartley acknowledged that from his earliest days he was of a most vindictive aud revengeful spirit. He had been punished when at school, and, in revenge, contrived to get from his bed in the night, and destroy the whole of the fruit trees and every plant and shrub in his master's garden. At another time, having robbed a neighbour's garden, he was detected and punished; when, in order to wreak his vengeance, he set fire to the house in the night, which was nearly destroyed, together with its inmates. He had adopted a plan to escape from his father's house in the night time, without detection, which was done by means of a rope ladder, that let him down from his bed-room window, and after effecting his robberies, he used to return to his room in the same way.-Hartley had once before received sentence of death, and was not respited till within a few hours of the usual time of execution; he was sent to Botany Bay, from which he contrived to escape, and afterwards entered on board one of his Majesty's ships, in the East Indies. Whilst on this station, he was removed to the hospital on shore, at Bombay, on account of his sickness; but even in this state he could not refrain from thieving. His practice was to scale the walls of the hospital in the evening, and way-lay the natives, whom he contrived to rob by knocking them down with a short ebony stick, and then seizing their turbans, in which their wealth was usually deposited, he stole off unperceived, while his victims were left weltering in their blood. on this station, a gentleman on board ship missed a valuable box of pearls, and suspicion falling upon a native Indian, he was put on shore and dreadfully tortured (his finger and toe-nails being torn out) to make him confess. A few days before Hartley's execution, he confessed that He had been the thief, having stolen the pearls, and secreted them in a crevice in the ship's side, where

While

rushed into the house

struck

they had slipped down to the bottom, and he never could get at them again. Hartley wrote an account of this circumstance to the commander of the ship, who came to Maidstone immediately, and recognised Hartley as having been engaged as an officer's servant on board, and Hartley assured him that the pearls still remained in the place where he had secreted them.-Hartley acknowledged that he was an accomplice in the murder of Mr. Bird and his housekeeper, at Greenwich, for which Hussey was executed in 1818, but that neither himself nor Hussey were the actual murderers. Hartley obtained admission into the house by presenting a note at the door, when himself, with Hussey and another person, whom he named and shut the door. Hartley instantly ran up stairs to plunder the drawers, and whilst there he heard a loud cry for mercy. He then went to the top of the stairs and saw Hussey pull Mr. Bird's housekeeper to the floor, whilst her repeatedly with a hammer. Hartley ran down stairs, and saw Mr. Bird lying dead on his back. The sight so affected him that he immediately threw on the table two watches which he had secured, ran out of the house, and never saw Hussey afterwards, nor had any share in the plunder. Happy would it have been had is hands always been as free from blood, as he confessed he afterwards met a Gentleman on the highway and shot him dead; after which he took ftom his person a watch and £75. Hartley was also witness to another dreadful scene of murder which occurred in one of his midnight robberies. Himself and a companion had entered the dwelling house of a Gentleman, who, being alarmed, seized a poker and made towards Hartley, who instantly snapped a pistol, which missed fire. The Gentleman seized him by the collar and dragged him to the floor, when Hartley's companion plunged a knife into his heart, and he fell dead upon Hartley. Two Ladies had followed the Gentleman into the room, and at the horrid sight they instantly fainted, whilst Hartley and his companions made their escape. He also frequently confessed that the murderer of Mrs. Donatty was the above mentioned , who he represented to be a most blood-thirsty villian-.In one of his midnight excursions with two of his companions, he had a narrow escape of his life. They had packed up the principal part of the plate in the lower rooms; when one of his companions, with horrid oaths, declared that he would proceed up stairs, in attempting which he was shot dead at the side of Hartley, who, with his other companion, made a hasty retreat. This circumstance only served to harden him in iniquity, as he acknowledged that he was totally devoid of fear or natural affection. Feelings of remorse were, however, a little awakened a few days before his trial, by an affectionate letter from a sister imprisoned for debt, whom he had robbed of £200. by forging a power of attorney, by which he obtained possession

of a legacy of £200. which had been bequeathed to her by a relation. He looked forward to the time of his execution with astonishing coolness; and, in order that he might have the day continually before him, he had drawn a circle on paper, to form a kind of dial, with an index pointing to the number of days yet remaining, and this index he moved daily as the days of his life decreased. This monitor he fastened against the wall of his cell, where it was constantly in view. He was but twenty-five years of age, and about five feet six inches high.

SUBTERRANEOUS FESTIVITIES.

(From a Manchester Paper.)

A short time since Mrs. Astley, of Dunkenfield-Lodge, gave an elegant dejeuné at the bottom of Messrs. Bateman and Sheratt's engine-pitt, upon the Black Mine, in Newington, The object of this subterraneous visit was to view the wonderful machinery erected four hundred and fifty feet below the surface of the earth, for the purpose of winding up coal from a still deeper level, of more than five hundred feet. A number of ladies were invited, but when the muster was made at the top of the pit, only one (Miss Taylor, of Moston) could be found sufficiently adventurous to accompany the fair hostess to her appointed breakfast-room. Mr. James Wilde, who, as agent to Messrs. Bateman and Sheratt, has superintended the excavations below for the reception of an engine of twenty-eight-horse power and the inclined plane into the lower levels, and whose skill and perseverance cannot be too highly apreciated, received the party, consisting of twelve, and had so disposed of a number of torches, as to render the high vaults and deep recesses of the works clearly discernible. The party returned after an excellent collation of cold viands and wine, having drank "To the memory of the late Mr. Sheratt, whose great mechanical abilities first brought the mine into consideration,"

followed by the song of Should auld acquaintance be forgot ?" highly gratified with the boldness which had planned the undertaking, and with the success which appears to attend it.

FREDERICK II. KING OF PRUSSIA.

M. Feydel (in his pamphlet on the History of Literature, published at Paris) relates the following anecdote of Frederick II.-A prisoner, bound with cords, was one day brought by his order from Berlin to Potsdam, and conducted directly into his cabinet. "Do you know these three letters?" said the King to him with a stern look." Yes, your Majesty."- "Who wrote them ?”—“ I.”-"To whom were they addressed?"—"To the Doge of Venice, my august master."-" You then acknowledge yourself to be a spy! you shall be hanged." - Your Majesty, I am no spy, and I cannot acknowledge myself any thing which I am not.' "You must either die, or tell which of my ministers acquainted you with the secrets of my cabinet. Take your choice !? I am acquainted with no person whatever, either in Berlin or Potsdam; nobody in all your Majesty's dominions, except the landlord with whom I live. As your Majesty has had me arrested and brought before you, you are, doubtless, too well informed respecting me not to know that I never speak of politics, either at my inn or any where else." Notwithstanding this, the angry King continued for some time to address the prisoner with vehemence, till, at last, his curiosity gained the ascendency." Well," cried he, "name nobody; you shall be liberated as soon as you tell me by what means you have succeeded in knowing the most hidden of my secrets." "I know them all, your Majesty, from yourself alone. On such and such a day you made such and such news known at Berlin; not long after this, such and such articles were in the Nuremberg papers, and a little before, or after that, I read in the Frankfort and Vienna Journals this and that article; now as your Majesty is not accustomed to do any thing in vain, and always reasons very justly, I have attempted to follow the course of your ideas, and the result

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was, that your Majesty must necessarily have formed the plan which I had sketched out." "Good heaven!" cried the astonished monarch; " and you, poor sufferer, how is it possible that your wise nobles do not know how to make more use of you?" (To the guard, in German, "Unbind him, and go your way.") "Of what country are you?"-" Of the country of poor Homer, of Cephalonia." "I immediately take you into my service, and create you a Count, and as soon as you have received your discharge from the Doge, you shall go to St. Petersburg as my Ambassador. Till that time we shall speak on literary subjects."Who does not know that Frederick the Great never did any thing in vain ? Count Lusi lived from this time as an Ambassador twenty years at St. Petersburg.

HATS AND BONNETS.

1

On the 7th of November, 1615, (Michaelmas term, 13 Jac. 1,) when Ann Turrer, a physician's widow, was indicted at the bar of the King's Bench, before Sir Edward Coke, (as an accessary before the fact,) for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury; the learned judge observing she had a hat on, told her “to put it off; that a woman might be covered in church, but not when arraigned in a court of justice." Whereupon she said, she thought it singular that she might be covered in the house of God, and not in the judicature of man.-Sir Edward told her "that from God no secrets were hid; but that it was not so with man, whose intellects were weak: therefore, in the investigation of truth, and especially when the life of a fellow-creature is put in jeopardy, on the charge of having deprived another of life, the court should see all obstacles removed; and because the countenance is often an index to the mind, all covering should be taken away from the face." Thereupon the chief justice ordered her hat to be taken off, and she covered her hair with her handkerchief.