ping the strings with the left, were but imperfect, yet his performance excited considerable interest; and when, more than six months ago, he visited the Scottish metropolis, he drew the attention and secured the patronage of many persons of eminence, both in the fashionable and in the philosophical world. Notices of Mr. Watson's performances at that time appeared in several journals, but he has since been labouring most assiduously, and has made very considerable improvements, both in the mechanism, and in the management of his instruments. The stops by which he shortens the strings of his violoncello have been fitted with more elegance and precision; additional springs have been added to assist and relieve his leg in the operation of bowing; and the bow has been fastened to his foot by new machinery, which insures more powerful and steady execution. Indeed, the whole of this machinery is now so constructed, that he can play both instruments for a very great length of time, without more fatigue than if he played only upon one. Nor is this all: for by a very nice and accurate application of mechanism wholly invented by himself, he can perform upon two violoncellos at the same time; and the one upon which he plays the principal strain, is so contrived as to have the power and tone of two played by different performers; so that he may be said to play three violoncellos,-the principal strain upon two, and the base upon a third. Nor is the compass limited; for the instrument upon which he plays the principal, has a range of sixty-four semi-tones, and more could be added if necessary.

At the same time, he has made an improvement in the setting, and consequently, in the reading of music; which must prove a great advantage to musicians, who, like himself, are deprived of the sense of vision. In the common mode of setting music for the blind, there are in a stave, five lines and four spaces, with two ledger lines both above and below, the lines being marked on the board by raised fillets, the spaces by channels between, and the ledger lines by fillets rounded off at the edges. The notes are marked by pegs put into holes in these; the pegs have no distinction, unless when they express different semi-tones. By this means, the stave occupies a considerable breadth; and hence the use of it is fatiguing to the hand, and it becomes next to impossible to set a long piece of music. In Mr. Watson's method, the whole stave consists of only two fillets, with three spaces,-four whole notes with the semi-tones being marked on each; and this is accomplished by having a notch on the side of each peg, and placing the notch in a different position, according to the different notes to be indicated. Thus, turning to the right hand,

to the top, to the left hand, and to the bottom, gives four whole notes; and the intermediate semi-tone may be expressed by making it to stand half way between the whole notes. From the comparatively smaller space which the stave occupies, the largest piece of music can be set upon this board with the greatest ease; and we should suppose that it requires only to be known, in order to be brought into general use.

ROBBERIES, MURDERS, SWINDLING, &c.

SINGULAR ROBBERY IN THE YEAR 1776.

The Earl of S

one of the richest Peers of Great Britain, had been in London, and on his return, intended to call on one of his tenants. He had no other attendants than a coachman and one servant. He had not travelled six miles from the metropolis, when he was obliged to pass through a wood, where his carriage was surrounded by six highwaymen. Two bound the coachman, two the servant, and two applied a pistol to the breast of the nobleman.

"Your pocket-book !" said one of the robbers, with a horrid countenance. Instead of which, the Earl pulled out a heavy purse, which he presented to him.

"Have the goodness, my Lord, to produce your pocketbook," said the robber, who, with his left hand, weighed the purse, and with the right continued to present the pistol.

The Earl drew out his pocket-book, and delivered it up, which the robber examined. Whilst he was thus engaged, his countenance excited the attention of the former. His full eyes, curved nose, distorted cheeks, wide mouth, and projecting chin, presented an object more disgusting than he had ever before witnessed. The robber, after taking some papers out of the book, returned it to the gentleman.

"A prosperous journey, my Lord," he cried, and rode off with his companions towards London.

The Earl, upon his return home, examined his book, which had contained two thousand five hundred pounds in notes, and to his great astonishment, found five hundred pounds remaining. He rejoiced at the discovery, and related the adventure to his friends, at the same time adding, that the countenance of the man was so extraordinary, that it would never be absent from his recollection. Two years had already elapsed since the affair had happened, and the particulars of it had passed from his mind, when one morning he received a penny post letter, while in London, the contents of which were as follow:

"My Lord, I am a poor German Jew. The Prince whose

subject I was, oppressed my sect in so cruel a manner, as to oblige me, with five others, to seek an asylum in Great Britain. I fell ill during the voyage, and the bark which was to have conveyed us from the vessel to the shore, was overturned by the storm. A man, whose face I had never before seen, sprang into the sea, and saved me, at the risk of his own life.

"He carried me into his house, procured me a nurse and a physician. He was a clothier, and had twelve children alive. I recovered, and offered my host some recompense for his hospitality, but he rejected every offer, and only requested me to visit him sometimes. I went soon after, and found him extremely dejected. The disturbances had broken out in America, and he had sent to Boston, goods to the amount of eight thousand pounds, which the merchants refused to pay. He confessed to me, that a bill would become due upon him in the course of a month, which he could not honour; that, conseIquently, his credit would be destroyed, and his ruin completed. I would have willingly given him assistance, had it been in my power. I considered myself indebted to him for my life, which I ought not to regard as too great a sacrifice in serving my benefactor. I went to my companions, and represented to them the state of the case. They were all bound to me by the tenderest ties of friendship, and willing to aid me in the execution of any plan I should suggest. We agreed, therefore, to take the desperate and unwarrantable measures of highway robbery, to procure the necessary sum. Accident made us ac

quainted with your intended route, and the money which you had in your possession. We laid our plan accordingly, and succeeded in a manner already known to you. I enclosed the two thousand pounds which I took from your pocket-book, in a letter to my benefactor, saying, that I would suit the payment of it to his circumstances. The money was of tempora ry service to him, but as he lost all his American property, he died soon after, insolvent. Fortune, however, was more favourable to me; I obtained a prize of five thousand pounds in the lottery. I have, therefore, sent you the enclosed, which is the sum, with the interest, that I took from you. You will find another thousand pounds, which I should be obliged to you to send to the F. family in F- - Upon the receipt of this letter, my companions and myself will be on our way Germany, where we wish, if possible, to take up our residence. I protest to you, that none of our pistols were loaded when we assaulted you, and none of our hangers were unsheathed. What I have done and said, will shield me, I hope, from being considered so obnoxious a member of society as my conduct at first might lead you to suppose. Accept the

to

good wishes of an individual whose intentions were pure, though his conduct might be criminal."

The Earl had no sooner read the letter than he made inquiries for the clothier's family, and gave them the two thousand pounds which the Jew had sent.

A REMARKABLE FEMALE SWINDLER.

In autumn 1803, a lady calling herself the Baroness Von Fiton, arrived at Vienna in a brilliant equipage, attended by four men servants and two maids. She took very elegant apartments, which she furnished in style. All her expenses were paid in ready money and in gold. She was presented at court and in the first circles, as the widow of a Prussian Colonel immensely rich. In November, she received a credit from a banking house at Hamburgh, upon one of the first bankers at Vienna, for 50,000 florins. Her expenses and insinuating manners, with a tolerably good person, and the character of a widow in affluence, procured her numerous admirers and a number of suitors; amongst others, several of the young nobility. She declined, however, all offers of marriage, having determined on an eternal widowhood, in gratitude for the large fortune left her by her ever regretted husband. She went regularly to church and to confession, and was irreproachable in her conduct. She was looked upon as a model of virtue and religion, and soon became the envy of her own sex, in becoming the admiration of the other. She was very charitable to the poor, visited often the hospitals, and subscribed largely to philanthropic institutions. The house opposite to her apartments belonged to a young man, son of a grocer, who had a very high opinion of his own person and merit, because his father had left him 300,000 florins. He addressed himself to one of her servants, to have a letter delivered to the Baroness with an offer of his hand and fortune, but was repulsed with indignity. For a large present the same servant undertook again, though at the risk of losing his service, to carry another letter, which met with a less severe reception. The baroness being smitten with the person of the young man, whom at last she admitted privately into her presence, agreed, after many prayers, sighs, tears, and presents, to give her hand next Easter; but having refused so many great people, the young man was laid under strict secrecy, and their marriage was to be celebrated at Berlin.

In December last, she received a letter importing that her younger sister was promised to a Silesian nobleman. She consulted her secret lover, whom she persuaded to believe that

she had a fortune of 200,000 florins in the year, about the presents she should make her sister on her wedding day, and it was agreed that they could not be of less value than sixty thousand florins laid out in diamonds; and as she wanted to choose, the young man was desired to bring 200,000 worth from his uncle, a jeweller, whom she said she would pay in ready money for what she determined to keep.

The diamonds were brought in the evening and left for her inspection until the next day. But when the young man called at the appointed time, the servants said their mistress was ill, and could see no company before the day after, and when the duped lover then returned, he was informed that the Baroness, with one of the female servants, had forty-eight hours before left the house; but previously left orders to declare her ill if inquired after, as she was going to the Ursuline Convent to make her devotions. She had indeed been there, but swindled the superior of a brilliant cross of the greatest value, which the late empress Maria Theresa had given to the statue of a miraculous virgin, and the baroness had borrowed it as a pattern to one she intended to give her sister.

She had the same day been at her banker's, and upon pretence of buying jewels for her sister's marriage, obtained in gold and in bank notes, for bills on Hamburgh, 100,000 florins more than she had credit for. It has since been found out that she had played the same tricks at Berlin, Dresden, and at Naples. Couriers have been sent every where after her, but in vain; the only information obtained is, that a lady nearly answering the description, had embarked last month at Embden, either for England or for America. It is said, that her desolate and deserted lover is now on his way to England; and if he can find her out, intends to forgive, and marry her. She is about 25 years of age, speaks fluently most European languages, has a fine taste for drawing, and plays the piano forte in exquisite style.

A MURDER DETECTED.

A Gentleman in good circumstances was so desperately wicked as to murder his friend, a man in business near BowChurch in Cheapside; and with such aggravated circumstances of malice, revenge, and cruelty, as made it impossible for him to expect any mercy, if his crime should ever be found out. He, therefore, made his escape into France, where he lived for some years, and began to fancy that he was quite safe; but God's thoughts are not as our thoughts, and the voice of blood will be heard by Almighty vengeance sooner or later. But from the horrors of his guilty conscience, which almost