Several Frenchmen, who had purchased houses and other national domains in the Electorate of Hesse, having been deprived of their property by the Elector, the Court of France interfered, and instructed their minister at Frankfort to protest against any Frenchman being deprived of his property acquired by bona fide purchase.
An article from Vienna, published in the French papers, gives the following account of a sect lately formed in Upper Austria, called Petzelians, from the name of the founder Petzel, or Peschel, a priest of Branau. Of this sect dreadful atrocities are related: they preach the equality and community of property; they sacrifice men to purify others from their sins; and, it is added, that several were thus sacrificed during Passion Week, who died in the most horrible torments. A girl of thirteen years of age was put to death in the village of Afflewang on Good Friday. Seven men have been victims of this abominable faith. The author of the sect, Peschel, with eighty-six followers, have been arrested. Order is now restored. Peschel is the clergyman who attended the unfortunate bookseller Palm to the place of execution, when he was shot by order of Bonaparte. He is now at Vienna, where he has been frequently examined by the ecclesiastical authorities, but shows such signs of mental derangement, that it has been resolved, by the advice of the said authorities, and on consulting several judicious physicians, to place him in some pious institution to be taken care of.
The marriage of Madame Murat with General Macdonald has been celebrated at Vienna. The ci-devant queen has just purchased the lordship of Lottingbrom, tour leagues from Vienna, in the neighbourhood of Baden.
Some disputes had arisen between the king of Wirtemberg and the States of his kingdom, respecting the consolidation, desired by the king, of the representatives of the ancient and new territories into one constituent assembly. This measure had met with much opposition, but has at length been acceded to by a majority of the diet.
SWITZERLAND.
The intelligence from the Grisons is distressing in the extreme. A frightful avalanche destroyed, on the 6th, the village of Nueros; in this valley eleven houses and mills, with all their inhabitants and cattle, were overwhelmed. On the 8th, the curate and ninety-four persons, all wounded, were dug out;—many dead bodies were also found, but the fate of twenty-eight persons is still unknown. From the Tyrol the news is equally afflicting. At Nouders the snow is as high as a church steeple. At Ichsgel, in the Pinzgau, twenty-one houses wjre destroyed. Six leagues from Inspruck ten persons were killed. The course of the Inn is interrupted. Many hundred persons of the cantons of Basle, Soleure, &c. have embarked for America, and have been accompanied by many inhabitants from Alsace, and others are still to follow. These poor creatures cannot even pay their passage without selling their persons for a term of years. The situation of the inhabitants of the canton of the Glaciers is not less distressing. Five hundred and eighty of the peasants of Argovia have taken their passage from Amsterdam for America in a single ship, finding no resource from famine but in desertion of their native country.
SWEDEN.
Stockholm, Mar. 7.—Yesterday was celebrated the solemn removal of the different military trophies taken by the Swedes in the last 200 years, amounting to near 5000, from the Saloon in the Royal Garden to the Retterholme Church. The deputies of the army gave a grand entertainment on the occasion, which the king and the Crown. Prince honoured by their presence, and their healths were drunk amidst the discharge of 286 pieces of cannon.
Letters from Stockholm announce, that several regiments have received orders to put themselves in march to approach the capital. This is in consequence of an attempt meditated against the life of the Crown Prince, Bernadotte. It appears that the projected assassination was to have taken place at a masqued ball, a scene of the same description as that which proved fatal to Gustavus III. The fete was held, but the Crown Prince and his son chose to be absent, having received a timely warning of their danger.
The marshal of the Court, Gyllerstrom, has been banished; and the Scandinavian Journal, and other publications of a tendency dangerous to the new dynasty, suppressed. The son of Gustavus, who was set aside to make room for Bernadotte, is living at the court of Wirtemberg, the king being his cousin. He is also a nephew of the Emperor Alexander.
A conscription is now making throughout the kingdom, including all the youths from twenty to twenty-five years of age inclusive, to form a well disciplined and uniform militia of about 300,000 men, from which, only in time of war, the regular regiments, raised partly by recruiting, partly furnished and equipped by all the land owners, are to be reinforced and filled up.
The king has issued an ordinance, in which the importation of wine, rum, and cotton goods, are strictly prohibited, in order, as it is stated, to assist in bringing down the rate of exchange.
RUSSIA.
The seaport of Odessa seems in a fair way to become one of the most considerable towns in the Russian empire. Its extraordinary trade in corn has, latterly, doubled
