On the 13th of October England declared war against America, all hopes of peace having been abandoned. The Americans, by every means in their power, endeavoured to seduce our Colonists from their allegiance, but without success. They suffered severely at the hands of the Canadians, and, generally speaking, they got the worst of it on land; but, at sea, the balance was in favour of the Americans, until, on the 26th of Dec., the ports and harbours of the rivers Chesapeake and Delaware were declared to be blockaded. The King's health did not improve, and all hopes of his restoration to reason were abandoned; after the Meeting of the Queen's Council on the 29th of Feb., it was decided that only one bulletin should be issued monthly--which, certainly, was very regularly done, but they were so bald, as to give little or no indication of the real condition of the King. Before closing the chronicle of this year, I will mention some miscellaneous facts, which throw light on the times. The wife of a respectable farmer, near Liverpool, died under the following melancholy circumstances. About two years previously she discharged a maidservant, who, in revenge, spread a report that her mistress was behaving improperly with a man in the neighbourhood. This rumour came to her husband's ears, and he took it so much to heart, that he quitted his home, and did not return to it until a few weeks before his wife's death. She assured him on the word of a dying woman, that she was innocent. He believed her, and they were reconciled a few days before her death. The maidservant, being threatened with a prosecution for slander, confessed her guilt, and attested the innocence of her Mistress; the result being that she was not prosecuted, but was _excommunicated in the neighbouring Churches_. In 1802, Trevethick and Vivian obtained a patent for a high-pressure locomotive. It seems to have been very similar to this:--"July 1. On Wednesday last, an experiment was made with a machine at Leeds, under the direction of Mr. John Blenkinsop the patentee, for the purpose of substituting the agency of steam for the use of horses, in the conveyance of Coals on the iron railway from the mines at Middleton, to Leeds. This machine is, in fact, a steam engine of four-horses power, which, with the assistance of Cranks turning a Cogwheel, and iron Cogs placed at one side of the railway, is capable of moving at the rate of ten miles an hour." In 1813, William Hedley, of Wylam Colliery made "_Puffing Billy_," which was the first locomotive which ran on smooth rails.