floating down the river above Westminster-bridge, on Tuesday evening. It was decently dressed, and carefully wrapped up in flannel. A paper was found on the bosom of the infant, representing it as an unprotected orphan.

On Wednesday last, an elderly labouring man, whose name was John Tucker, put an end to his existence, by hanging himself in his cottage, where he lived, at Spittal, in the parish of Windsor. The reason assigned for his committing this rash act, and which was proved on the coroner's inquest, was, that he was in arrears for poor's rates, for his little cottage, about 30s., and for which he was summoned by the overseer to appear before the mayor. On the Tuesday evening, he took a pound note, which was all the money he could get, carried it to one of the overseers, and begged of him to take it in part, and he would pay the remainder as soon as he could earn it; the overseer refused to take it in part, but told the old man that unless he paid the whole, he would, the next day, make a distress on his premises. The poor man returned home to his wife and children, and told them what had passed, and gave his wife the one-pound note. He could not rest all night. It pressed so much on his mind and spirits, that when he got up in the morning to go to his daily labour, he committed this rash act.-Lunacy.

EXTRAORDINARY ROBBERY.On Tuesday night, about 11 o'clock, as an old gentleman, who resides in the neighbourhood of Manchesterstreet, was sitting in his front parlour, no other person being in his house, he was extremely alarmed by the sudden appearance of a man, with a black crape over his face. The

terror of the old gentleman was considerably increased by the man not speaking, but repeatedly making a noise like the barking of a mastiff dog. The robber opened the back parlour door, and beckoned to the old gentleman to follow him; which he refused. The robber then shook him by the shoulders, to induce him to go. The old gentleman still refusing, the robber forced him into the back parlour, pointed at an iron safe, and made signs for him to open it. The old gentleman not complying, the robber proceeded to take the keys from him ; and, in the scuffle, the old gentleman fell over a chair, and a table fell upon him, which cut open his nose, broke his shins, and bruised him in other parts of his body. The robber appeared to know the key of the cabinet, and proceeded to unlock it, and took out three gold watches, three gold snuff-boxes, several diamond and pearl rings, and other trinkets, to the amount of between four and five hundred pounds: then, after giving the old gentlemen several severe blows, he took the candle, left the room, and locked the owner in. After some time, the old gentleman recovered himself, opened the window, and gave an alarm to the neighbourhood, no other person being in the house. The neighbours were obliged to have recourse to a ladder, and got over the yard-wall, and then broke open the doors. It could not be ascertained by what means the robber gained admittance into the house, but it is supposed by the area; and it is strongly suspected, that the robber was a servant who had formerly lived in the family, and that to prevent his being known by the old gentleman, he wore the crape over his face, and avoided speaking a

word, but only expressed his approbation or disapprobation by making a noise like the barking of a dog. The following singular occurrence took place, a few days ago, at the Royal Navy Asylum at Greenwich: A female child, five years of age, was sent anonymously to that establishment, with an intimation that fifty pounds in bank notes were sewed up in the child's clothes, which were accordingly found. The following account of the birth, parentage, and education of the little foundling was also given: The father was described as a seamen on board a British man of war, and, however unusual, it appears, that his wife, from some cause or other, was permitted to go to sea with him. The tar was killed in action, and, the day after his death, his wife was delivered of a female infant under one of the guns, and almost immediately expired. The child was taken care of by the mess-mates of its deceased parents, and fed with biscuit and water, all of them acting the part of nurses by turns, and carefully removing it from hammock to hammock, when they were called upon duty. On the ship's arrival in port, the fifty pounds above mentioned was collected among the ship's company, and the object of their bounty transmitted to the asylum. The child, which is remarkably healthy, has been baptized Sally Trunnion.

25th.-THE CHEVALIER D'EON. -In the vast range of biographical history, from the earliest period down to the present time, there never, perhaps, has been found a combination of events so remarkable-an assumption of character so various, and, in many cases, directly opposite, as in the life of this most extraordinary

personage. After having sustained for the first fifty years, and in the most distinguished manner, the characters of a scholar, a soldier, and a statesman, we suddenly and unexpectedly find M. D'Eon assuming the dress, and, apparently with great reluctance, submitting to be taken for a woman; and it is not till upwards of thirty years afterwards, that, on his death-bed, are verified, beyond the possibility of doubt, his claims to the personal as well as mental distinctions of a man. As some account of the principal events which have marked the life of this mysterious being may not be unacceptable to the public, the following brief sketch is submitted, and its authenticity may be relied upon :

Charles Genevien Louise Auguste Andrée Timothee D'Eon de Beaumont, was born at Tonnere, in Burgundy, on the 27th October, 1727, or 8,* descended from an ancient and respectable, though not (at least in this branch of it) an opulent family. The young D'Eon passed the years of infancy and childhood under his parents' roof. At the age of 13, he was removed, for the completion of his education, to the College Mazarin, at Paris, and had scarcely finished his studies there, when the sudden death of his father and an uncle, from whom he had great expectations, left him doubly an orphan, and threw him on the world, dependant on his own exertions for advancement. He was, however, fortunate enough to obtain at this period the patronage of the Prince de Conti, who had long known and esteemed his father; and by the prince's means was introduced to Louis XV., who presented our young orphan with a

cornetcy of dragoons. Soon after this M. D'Eon was placed in the office of M. Bertier de Savigny, intendant of the generalité of Paris, where he not only gave great satisfaction to his superiors, by, the talents and industry he displayed in his official occupations, but gained considerable credit by one or two small publications on the Finances of France. In the year 1755, however, a more important career was commenced by M. D'Eon, who was employed under the Chevalier Douglas, in transacting a negociation of the most delicate and important nature at the Court of Petersburgh, which, by their means, was reconciled to France, after many years suspension of all intercourse whatever between the two crowns. This event, which forms not only a very important era in the life of D'Eon, but by the change it produced at the time in the political arrangements of almost all Europe, is well worthy of more complete elucidation than it has yet received in history, places M. D'Eon in the first rank of diplomatic skill, and justifies the intimate and confidential intercourse which from this period he had the honour to hold with his sovereign, Louis XV., on political affairs. After some years residence at Petersburgh, D'Eon joined his regiment, then serving under Marshal Broglio, on the Rhine, and, during the campaign of 1762, acted as aid-de-camp to that distinguished officer. On the mission of the Duc de Nivernois to England, M. D'Eon became his secretary of embassy, and conducted himself so much to the satisfaction of both courts, that he was intrusted, on the part of England as well as France, to convey the ratification of peace, and received from Louis XV. the Croix de St Louis. On the re

turn of M. De Nivernois, D'Eon was appointed first charge d'affaires, and afterwards minister plenipotentiary to the British court. He had not, however, long enjoyed his new dignity, when the arrival of the Comte de Guerchy suspended his ministerial functions, and was accompanied by the well-known and unfortunate dispute between the two parties. Without entering at this moment on any discussion of the merits of this case, it may yet be observed, that the repeated testimony both of Louis XV. and his ministers, nay, even the subsequent acknowledgment of some of his most inveterate enemies on this occasion, completely relieve M.D'Eon from any impeachment of his honour or integrity, however his prudence may justly be questionable in opposing so powerful adversaries. From this period till the death of Louis XV., M. D'Eon continued to reside in England, destitute, it is true, of any offi. cial character, but honoured with the notice and friendship of the most distinguished persons in this country. And here we enter upon circumstances of D'Eon's life, now rendered as mysterious in its origin, as wonderful in its successful concealment for so many years. Some faint rumours had spread at various preceding periods, that M. D'Eon was a woman, and, in addition to certain feminine appearances in his voice and person, still stronger surmise was indulged, especially at Petersburgh, on account of the total indifference, and even aversion to all affairs of gallantry constantly exhibited by D'Eon towards the females of that voluptuous court, where amorous intrigue is well known to have mixed itself on most occasions with political events. Not that the manners or deportment of D'Eon were either harsh or forbidding towards women,

but the extreme caution with which he always avoided any private or particular intercourse with them, gave strength to the doubts excited as to his sex and other circumstances concurring (the detail of which our present limits forbid) at this time to place the sexual claim of D'Eon as a woman, on the most absolute footing of proof both in France and England, he assumed the female dress, and from the year 1777 down to his death, was universally regarded as a woman. The first few years after this metamorphosis were passed by M. D'Eon in France, where, if the merits of the newly established demoiselle are to be estimated by the reception she met at the court of Louis XVI., and the expressions of esteem and respect made to her by almost every person of consideration in the kingdom, she was deserving of the highest praise. About the year 1785, M. D'Eon returned to England, where he has resided ever since. The French revolution, fatal to so many other establishments, deprived him also of a pension granted by Louis XV., and confirmed by his successor. For a few subsequent years, the sale of part of his effects, and the profits of a public fencing exhibition in various parts of the united kingdom, enabled M. D'Eon to subsist with decency; but the increasing weight of age and infirmities gradually rendered him incapable of these exertions, and for many years past he has been struggling with poverty and distress. At the close of the year 1804, an arrangement was made with a highly respectable bookseller for the publication of M. D'Eon's life, (several other negociations with different booksellers had previously failed) which, from that time down to a very short interval preceding his death, he was engaged in preparing

the materials for, and as the whole of these materials will now come into the possession of the gentleman who had originally undertaken to edite the work, it is intended that the public shall in due time be gratified with a complete and authentic history of this most extraordinary and mysterious being.

The writer of this article (who is the editor referred to, has long known M. D'Eon, and was induced to accept the office in the first instance out of sincere respect for his character) can truly say, that, with the exception of the last and most singular discovery of the sex of the chevalier, he has never had the smallest reason to impeach M. D'Eon's integrity or veracity; and on this point, also, he is inclined to hope that he may find among the papers of the deceased some strong excuse, if not a complete justification of the measure. In the interim, he would take the liberty of recommending to others that charity he is disposed to exercise himself.

For these two years past M. D'Eon scarcely ever quitted his bed, though it was only within these few months that he has laid aside the pen. His health gradually grew weaker, and at length an extreme state of debility ensued, which terminated in his death on Monday se'nnight about ten o'clock. It was not till after his decease that Madame Cole, the old and respected friend of the chevalier, whose fortunes, or rather misfortunes, she had shared for many years, on performing the last sad office to her friend, of laying out the corpse, found it was that of a man. After the first surprise had subsided, the discovery was the next morning communicated to some of the chevalier's intimate friends, who judged that it would be proper to ascertain all points relative

to so singular an occurrence; and accordingly, on Wednesday last, in the presence of the Pere Elizie, who had attended the chevalier in his last illness, Mr Wilson, the Professor of Anatomy, Mr Ring and Mr Burton, two respectable surgeons, Sir Sidney Smith, the Honourable Mr Lyttleton, the Honourable Mr Douglas, Mr Hoskins, a respectable solicitor, Mr Richardson, bookseller, of Cornhill, and some others, a complete inspection and dissection of the sexual parts took place, and it was decidedly ascertained that the conformation of the organs was that of a male. And that all doubt as to the identity of the person might be removed, some persons of the first respectability were called upon, who gave their positive testimony that the person then before them was the same who had always passed for the Chevalier D'Eon. M. D'Eon has left two, if not three nephews, of the name of O'Gorman, related also, we believe, to the noble family of Thomond, in Ireland. None of those gentlemen are however in England at this time.

The chevalier was yesterday buried at St Pancras.

The following account probably contains the most authentic particulars respecting the extraordinary sus. picion that principally contributed to bring publicity on this singular cha

racter.

"This gentleman, at the time of his first coming over to England, was captain of dragoons in the French service, and secretary to the Duke de Nivernois, in which character he behaved so much to the duke's satisfaction, that that nobleman upon his departure for France got M. D'Eon appointed minister plenipotentiary in

his room.

"In alittle time after, however, the

Count de Guerchy being appointed ambassador from the court of Versailles, the Chevalier D'Eon received orders, or rather was requested, to act as secretary or assistant to the new ambassador. This, it seems, mortified the chevalier to such a degree, that, pretending the letter of recal which accompanied it was a forgery, (as a correspondent and intimate friend likewise, and neighbour of the French prime minister, gave him no notice of it), he absolutely refused to deliver it, and thereby drew on himself the censure of his own court.

"Upon this, the chevalier, with a view of exculpating himself, or from a motive of revenge, or perhaps both, published a succinct account of all the negociations in which he had been engaged, exposed some secrets of the French court, and, rather than spare his enemies, revealed some things to the prejudice of his best friends. Among other persons very freely treated in this publication, was the Count de Guerchy; and it was this treatment that drew on him a prosecution for a libel on his excellency. It was but natural that this behaviour should draw on M, D'Eon the resentment of the court of France, or at least, that the chevalier should apprehendit. Whether or not, therefore, that court solicited his being given up, which is very probable, reports were spread, not only that it had done so, but even had, on being refused, sent over persons to kidnap the chevalier, and carry him off by force or fraud, since it could not come at him by fair means.

"If the chevalier himself was not the author of these reports, he at least credited them so far, that he wrote four letters to complain of these designs against him, as known to him by undoubted authority; one to Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, another to