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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 372, 9 October 1868, Page 3

A Pbench Colonel Convicted op Swindling. Colonel. Negroni, the French officer who a few years since exhibited in London and other capitals a large quantity of spoils of the summer Palace at Pekin, has been sentenced to one month's imprisonment, and a fine of 3,000 francs, for fraud. He represented hid collection "to be of immense "value, in his prospectuses (at one time at the sum of 180,000,000f.),and by this means he contrived to pledge : some of the articles at prices far beyond 'their real value. One of these was a diamond, on which he raised £IO,OOO, which was found to be not worth half :as many pence. The parties who in-' stituted the prosecution were paid

their money and withdrew, but the public prosecutor thought it his duty to go on with it.

The Secbets op the Tomb.—The Sicilian Railway Company not long since : bought in Caritania, for the purpose of its business, a house two storeys high, formerly belonging to the Jesuits, and the demolition of part of the old building was ordered. The workmen soon discovered a double wall at the point where the arch of the vault commences, having a cavity of nearly two metres in length by threequarters of a metre in breadth. Within this space lay three human skeletons, still covered with some fragments of cloth too much decayed to show whether they had formed part of a priest's cassock or some other garment. " A fact just come to light," says the Lloyd, of Pesth, " will not fail to produce a certain sensation in Austria. For two years the bi hop of Brunn has kept a young priest incarcerated in a monastery, no one being ever admitted to see him. After numerous attempts, the family has obtained from the public prosecutor permission to commence an action against the prelate for illegal imprisonment. We can guarantee the authenticity of the news."

A very interesting volume has just been issued from the American press, which contains the autobiography of Benjamin Pranklin, restored from the the original manuscript, found in Paris by the late American minister there. Attenuated and emasculated, the work was long since published, but its true value as a picture of the inner life of this most remarkable man has never before been presented to the public.