ORTUNATE ESCAPE.-The journals of Switzerland mention the following event:-On December the 20th, four men, belonging to the parish of Lenk, formed the rash project of penetrating into the Vallais, by the Ravylberg, to purchase brandy. They arrived there and made their purchases; but the snow which fell in the night rendered their return nearly impossible. Braving the danger, however, they set out, and reached the top of the mountain and the dangerous passage, called the Terrible Corner. Here they ventured on a small bridge which unites two points of rock; and one of them, a young man, aged 23, losing his self-command, slipped off, and fell down the precipice beneath. A small cask of brandy, which he had on his head, accelerated his fall, and his companions saw him tumble from rock to rock without being able to give him the least assistance. They hastened, however, to the neighbouring village (Poshen reid), and got assistance, and, guided by torches, returned up the mountain; but the snow and the darkness rendered their search of no avail. On the next day they again returned; twenty men accompanied them, and they had descended to the bottom of the precipice, when all at once an avalanche fell and covered four of them. By the aid, however, of their iron-pointed sticks, which they stuck into the soil, and by lying down on the VOL. LXVII.

ground, they kept themselves in their places, while the avalanche rolled over their heads. At length they found the corpse of their unfortunate comrade mutilated and covered with wounds.

AUSTRIAN CLERGY.In the year 1824 the number of bishopricks in the whole Austrian monarchy was 100; among the number were 5 prince archbishops, 10 archbishops, 5 prince bishops; and of these, 17 were privy councillors to the Emperor.

CLERGY OF FRANCE. The report of the state of the French clergy, of 1st Jan. 1825, gives the following enumeration : -- Archbishops and bishops, 75; vicarsgeneral, 287; titular prebendaries, 725; honorary prebendaries, 1,253; curates, 2,828; vicegerents, 22,225; vicars, 5,396; priests, resident in parishes or authorized to preach and confess, 1,850; priests being masters and professors in seminaries, 876; pupils, 4,044 ; monks and others, 19,271.

ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. The whole number of men enlisted to recruit the army of the United States, for the year ending the 30th of September, 1823, was 2,558. The aggregate strength of their army, by the latest return, was 5,779. The aggregate permitted by law, if the ranks were full, is but 6,183.

CRIME AT TOULOUSE IN FRANCE. Elie Francois Triboulet, aged 44, lived in a state of concubinage B

with a woman named Sangere, whose husband had been for some years undergoing a sentence of hard labour, to which he had been condemned. The fruit of this adulterous intercourse was a child aged 18 months; there was also in the house another child belonging to the woman, born seven years ago. Triboulet, dreading the return of the husband, whose term of punishment was nearly expired, sold his furniture, and determined to remove to another part of the country. He wished the woman Sangere to accompany him; but she, having lately suffered from his brutal treatment, refused. Rendered furious by her refusal, he strangled her with a handkerchief; he then struck senseless the two children, whom he placed with their mother upon the bed, under which he put fire; and then placing himself alongside his victims, all four soon fell a prey to the smoke and flames.

CATHOLIC CEREMONIES.-The ceremony of opening the Sacred Gate at Rome, was performed with great pomp and solemnity, at the 20th hour, on Christmas-eve. His holiness, with a numerous and splendid retinue, and accompanied by the Swiss guard, proceeded from the Vatican palace, and arrived in the vestibule of the Basilica, where, alighting from the seat on which he had been borne, under a splendid canopy, supported by the apostolic referendaries, he ascended the throne. Cardinals Caenoprotti and Vidone officiated as deacons: 18 other cardinals were present. All the attendants having taken their places, his holiness received the silver hammer from cardinal Carliglioni, and three times struck the wall of the sacred gate, on which

the holy cross is delineated, his holiness singing three verses, to which the pontifical chanters responded. His holiness having given back the hammer, returned to the throne, and giving the signal, the whole of the Sacred Gate fell. The holy father, after some prayers, placed himself before it, received from the cardinals (acting as deacons) the cross and the taper, and began the Te Deum laudamus; and immediately, amid the sound of the bells of all the churches in Rome, which had been ringing for two hours, the signal being given by the trumpets in the portico of the church, the Swiss guard, and the artillery of the castle of St. Angelo, fired a grand salute. The supreme pontiff then entered the Sacred Temple, followed by all the cardinals, two by two; the patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, prelates, and penitentiaries, all bearing lighted tapers, and by the princes and persons of distinction who were present, who kissed the Sacred Gate as they entered it. His holiness having seated himself by the altar of the chapel of Piety, the knights of St. Peter and St. Paul were introduced, whom he charged to guard the gates of the four Basilicas, and afterwards permitted them to kiss his foot. The sacred ceremony concluded with the triple benediction, which the supreme pontiff bestowed on the immense multitude who crowded that vast church.

6. MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE.-The first chamber of the Cour Royale has come to a decision relative to the Memoirs ascribed to Fouché The court has suppressed this publication, on the ground, that, though every one has a right to write and to publish the life of a man who has played a part like that of the