n THE Herald reported: ''Last Tuesday, three foreign officers, of the rank of lieutenants, prisoners on parole, were lodged in Dumfries gaol, having been detected in an attempt to escape. It appears that these young men had been betrayed to this breach of honour by the delusive promises of an unprincipled Italian, resident in Carlisle, who, with the view of sharing in the reward offered for the apprehension of fugitive prisoners of war, inveigled them by an artfully concerted plot to set out for Leith, where, he persuaded them, he would introduce them on board a vessel whose captain had consented to convey them to their native country. After having plundered them of what money they could afford, he secretly revealed their intention to the sergeant of police of this town, who apprehended them at Moffat as soon as they alighted at the inn. They had provided themselves with an old passport which

it is not known how they procured. We are happy to find that their infamous seducer, who had returned to Carlisle, has also been seized and committed to prison in this town. The repeated instances of breach of honour in foreigners pretending to the character of gentlemen must scandalise their more respectable countrymen and call for the active exertions of every faithful citizen to suppress them.''

n THE Herald also reported: ''Sailed, HMS Leonidas, Captain Griffiths, as convoy to the Archduke Charles, Botany Bay ship. She sees her as far as Madeira, and then cruises for two months. The Archduke Charles carries 217 male and 64 female convicts.''